Massachusetts lawmakers override Romney veto of stem cell bill News
Massachusetts lawmakers override Romney veto of stem cell bill

[JURIST] The Massachusetts legislature Tuesday overrode a Friday veto by Gov. Mitt Romney [official website] on a bill [Senate bill text] allowing scientists seeking to do stem cell research in Massachusetts to bypass approval from the local district attorney. The new law does, however, give the state Department of Public Health [official website] some regulatory controls and prohibits human cloning. Both the state House and Senate defeated the veto by the two-thirds vote necessary to override a gubernatorial veto but the vote in the House was close at 112-42. The Senate vote was 35-2. Critics claim the new law is a slippery slope to human cloning, a claim supporters see as unfounded. AP has more.