HOLLYWOOD - Christopher Reeve is "angry and disappointed" at President Bush.In an interview with Britain's newspaper Guardian, Reeve, who was paralyzed from the neck down when he was thrown from a horse seven years ago, blames Bush and the Catholic church for hampering research that could help free him from his wheelchair.
The Bush Administration is currently not supporting embryonic stem cell research, which could be instrumental in rebuilding the nervous systems of quadriplegics. Reeve believes the president caved into pressures from the Catholic Church, which is opposed to the research because of cloning issues.
"If we'd had full government support, full government funding for aggressive research using embryonic stem cells from the moment they were first isolated, at the University of Wisconsin in the winter of 1998 -- I don't think it unreasonable to speculate that we might be in human trials by now," the actor told the newspaper.
"There are religious groups...who think it's a sin to have a blood transfusion. Well, what if the president for some reason decided to listen to them, instead of to the Catholics, which is the group he really listens to in making his decisions about embryonic stem cell research?"
Reeve is in support of a bill that would encourage therapeutic cloning while, at the same time, admonish those who conduct reproductive cloning.