When President Bush vetoed the DeGette-Castle bill on embryonic stem-cell research Wednesday, he surrounded himself with children. The real point was who wasn't there.

There was no one suffering from Alzheimer's. Parkinson's sufferers? Nowhere. Also absent was anyone with myasthenia gravis, leukemia, liver disease, or dozens of ailments that someday may be treatable, thanks to research employing embryonic stem cells.

The veto leaves in place the silly 2001 Bush restrictions on federal funds for research using embryonic stem cells. So ESC-derived treatments may be hamstrung further. The people they could help? Tough.

The beautiful children surrounding Bush were "snowflake" children, born from frozen embryos and adopted. The purported point: Don't waste embryos in scientific research — use them to produce unique human lives.

But the veto won't lead to fewer embryos being destroyed.

The bill would have extended funding to research using discarded embryos from fertility clinics. Thousands of embryos that could have been used in research will now simply be thrown away, thanks to the president's principled pen.

Bush correctly identified the question: Is it right to balance the (supposed) rights of human embryos against the possible (and not yet known) benefits of embryonic stem-cell research? A wrenching dilemma: human embryos vs. human suffering. Despite Bush's characteristic sureness, the answer isn't clear.

His portrayal sure was frightening and inaccurate: "the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others." Along with the conservatives he is courting, Bush seeks to depict the use of embryonic stem cells as murder.

Alas for him and his party, most Americans, while they rightly grieve over the moral ambiguities, seem willing to trade some embryonic stem-cell research for medical benefit. Polls show wide support, including up to 70 percent of Republicans in some polls.

Both the House and Senate passed the bill by wide but not veto-proof margins. A House override failed shortly after the veto; now it doesn't matter what the Senate does.

Embryonic stem-cell research will continue. The Bush policy pretends to take a stand, but lets private businesses do what they please with embryonic stem cells.

The main point, however, is not research but democracy. Bush showed the world Wednesday that, under the guise of "leadership," he will ignore a growing social consensus in favor of the politics of the moment and his favored coterie.

Snowflakes? Snow job.