Under a plan announced last week by Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., the Senate is set to take up a series of bioethics bills held dear by both Republicans and Democrats. They include a measure that would lift limits on federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research laid down by Bush nearly five years ago.

Bush has vowed to veto the popular measure, which passed the House by a wide margin last year. If he does, it would be his first veto of legislation from the Republican-led Congress in his five and a half years in office.

Many lawmakers opposed to the research were hoping to avoid that scenario, in part by presenting alternatives that could allow stem-cell research to proceed without destroying human embryos to collect them. Along with the House bill, the Senate will vote on a measure sponsored by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., that seeks to fund embryo-sparing embryonic-stem-cell research.

But groups both for and against expanding research using existing technology -- the kind requiring destruction of embryos -- say that the alternative is unlikely to attract enough lawmakers to defeat the House bill, known as H.R. 810.

"We are confident that we have the votes to pass 810, and that is the important thing," said Sean Tipton, president of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, an umbrella group of dozens of organizations backing the repeal.

Conservative opponents of the research say they're counting on Bush to follow through on his threat to veto the measure, even though it remains popular with voters who will soon be casting ballots in mid-term elections.

Douglas Johnson, chief lobbyist for the National Right-to-Life Committee, an anti-abortion group opposing embryonic-stem-cell research, pointed to statements from Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., saying that his bill repealing Bush's policy has the 60 votes it will need to clear the Senate.

"It may well prove to be the case that Specter's correct," he said. "If he is, it'll go to the president. The president has made it very clear he will veto."

Some anti-abortion lawmakers have said they favor repealing the White House stem-cell policy. Most notable among them is Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a staunchly anti-abortion lawmaker who strongly favors research on embryos left over from fertilization clinics and slated for destruction.

Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, a conservative group, said that her group would take lawmakers to task on H.R. 810 and another scheduled bill banning what opponents have dubbed "fetal farming," the so-far theoretical process of creating human embryos or fetuses for the purposes of medical research.

"It will be something in our voter guide, making people aware of how senators voted on it," she said.

Santorum, currently trailing in polls against a Democratic challenger, is the main sponsor of both the alternative embryonic-stem-cell bill and the "fetal farming" measure.

CAMR's Tipton said his group would not oppose the bills but called them a "fig leaf" attempting to give vulnerable lawmakers a way to support stem-cell research without enraging conservatives by supporting backing a repeal of the Bush policy.

"I think it's clear the American public supports stem-cell research, and that creates a political dilemma for a couple people," he said.

"What we're going to do is expose anyone who tried to not support H.R. 810 and still argue that they're pro-patient, pro-research," he said.

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