The Senate passed a controversial measure 63-37 Tuesday that would lift Bush's August 2001 executive order banning any further federally funded research of embryonic stem cells that weren't existing at the time, but Bush vows his first veto ever for the legislation he sees as morally wrong.

Hatch, a co-sponsor of the bill and a leading proponent of the research, said at a news conference after the Senate vote that his idea could still save the drawn-out effort to pass the stem cell legislation and swore to keep marshaling forces for expanded research even if Bush vetoes the measure.

"Don't kill this bill," Hatch said, pleading with the president to not let his first veto against "highly sought-after, highly praised, highly hopeful" medical research.

Hatch's sudden proposal calls for Bush to allow federally funded research on stem cells created by private industry. He argues that would mean federal money would not be used to destroy embryos.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Hatch's proposal is "very good middle ground" that "could be acceptable to the president."

The proposal, though, probably won't halt Bush's first use of the veto pen after 141 previous threats on various measures in six years.

"The president believes strongly that for the purpose of research it's inappropriate for the federal government to finance something that many people consider murder," White House spokesman Tony Snow said Tuesday, addressing the legislation before the Senate.

Hatch said after the news conference where he proposed the compromise that he hadn't spoke to the White House about his idea and figures the president has "made up his mind."

"I don't know why I did that," Hatch said to reporters as he left the room. "My colleagues are mad at me."

Bush and many conservatives view the embryonic stem cell research to be immoral since it destroys the human embryo to harvest the cells.

Supporters of the research - now allowed as long as taxpayer money isn't used - say the study of stem cells holds promise for cures for a variety of diseases and cancers. Withholding federal funds for the research hinders the ability to find cures, they argue.

Some 95 percent of scientific research is federally funded, according to Mario Capecchi, professor and co-chairman of the University of Utah's Department of Human Genetics and a one-time Nobel Prize contender.

If Bush vetoes the measure, "We're going to see that we're going to be the only country in the world that is not pursuing this with vigor," said Capecchi, who has researched mouse stem cells for some two decades. "It's extremely shortsighted. It's detrimental to every aspect of our lives that we can think of, not only our health but the economy."

The House passed the legislation last year, with Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, voting for the measure and Utah Republicans Rob Bishop and Chris Cannon voting against it.

Sen. Bob Bennett, a Utah Republican who also is anti-abortion, voted Tuesday for the legislation to expand federal research, saying it was essential for "both scientific and ethical reasons" that the National Institutes of Health maintain its investment in the research.

"If the NIH were cut out altogether, as it would be without this bill, the federal government would be left without any say in the ethical guidelines framing this science," Bennett said.

The Senate also passed two other measures that are supported by the White House. The House passed one bill that would ban growing and aborting a fetus for research and today is expected to take up the second one urging the Institutes of Health to fund research to find methods of obtaining stem cells that would not destroy an embryo.

tburr@sltrib.com