Sydney, Jan 29: Disabled "Superman" star Christopher Reeve said Wednesday that Washington's strict limits on stem cell research will eventually be overtaken by support from individual American states. Reeve told Reuters by telephone that he expects the administration of President Bush to remain opposed to the research, which he maintains could free disabled people such as himself from the confines of their wheelchairs.
He said individual states would, one by one, follow the lead of California, which passed a law in September allowing therapeutic cloning -- which could help repair spinal injuries and cure Parkinson's and other degenerative diseases.
"Once that happens in about a half a dozen states with a vital research community and a vital pharmaceutical industry, a momentum will have been created that the federal government probably won't be able to stop," Reeve said.
Some groups, including anti-abortion conservatives, oppose the destruction of a human embryos for any reason and President Bush agrees with them.

Wednesday in his State of the Union message, Bush called for a law "against all human cloning."
Reeve, 50, played the title role in the 1978 hit film "Superman" and three sequels. He was thrown from a horse in 1995, an accident which left him wheelchair-bound and on a respirator.
But he has been very active since and is a self-appointed champion for one of the most controversial areas of science.
"One thing you learn when you're forced to sit still, and I've been sitting still for seven years, is patience," he said in Sydney, where he is raising money for research.
The government of New South Wales paid Reeve a fee of A$135,000 to go to Sydney for spinal injury forum, fund-raising dinner and other engagements.
Critics say the money would have been better used for research.
Bureau Report