Proponents of embryonic stem cell experimentation are attempting to resurrect the failed California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), originally launched in 2004 under Proposition 71. The new bond measure, Prop 14, and will cost taxpayers nearly $8 billion.
The Prop 71 campaign was riddled with misrepresentations, deception, and outright fraud. So what has changed since 2004 that would warrant another round of funding for CIRM? In a word: NOTHING.
Here’s why you should vote NO on Prop 14:
- Even though CIRM and other entities have spent billions on unethical research using human embryonic stem cells (HESCs), not one actual cure has been developed.
- MIT’s Technology Review reports that “no field of biotechnology has promised more and delivered less in the way of treatments than embryonic stem cells.”
- Even the San Francisco Chronicle—not exactly a pro-life outlet—is critical of Prop 14. In its comprehensive investigation of CIRM, the Chronicle reported, “Not a single federally approved therapy has resulted from CIRM-funded science.”
- California law includes a “clone and kill” provision that allows researchers to clone human beings for the purpose of extracting their stem cells for research. HESC research requires scientists to clone human beings and then extract their stem cells. Any “leftover” human embryos not used for experimentation must be destroyed.
- Research using HESCs is not necessary, as there are alternatives that use patients’ own stem cells, in some cases reprogrammed to behave like HESCs. Researchers have found that reprogrammed adult stem cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells, “are molecularly and functionally equivalent” to embryonic stem cells.
- Still, CIRM insists that adult stem cells, unlike embryonic stem cells, are “very restricted in what they can do.” This is simply untrue.
- Multiple media outlets have found that CIRM’s board had exercised “improper and potentially illegal influence on the allocation of public funds.”
- Former CIRM Board member Jeff Sheehy opposes Prop 14, saying, “I continue to have serious concerns around Board member conflicts of interest, with the majority of the Board coming from institutions that have received the bulk of CIRM’s spending.”
Now that CIRM is out of money and looking to California taxpayers to rescue it, we can expect even more deception and manipulation from those who want us to prop up its unethical and unproven experimentation.
Life Legal strongly urges Californians to vote no on Prop 14. Embryonic stem cell enthusiasts, promising “cures around the corner,” fooled us once. Don’t let them fool us again.
Life Legal anticipates that significant ethical and constitutional violations will arise under Prop 14 and we are prepared to take legal action if the initiative should pass.
Click here to read Life Legal’s full article on Prop 14.
- https://www.technologyreview.com/2016/08/12/7565/will-embryonic-stem-cells-ever-cure-anything/
- https://projects.sfchronicle.com/2018/stem-cells/politics/
- https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.3388
- https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Undue-influence-at-the-stem-cell-institute-3235187.php
- http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/2020/06/text-of-sheehys-statement-on-his.html
- https://lifelegaldefensefoundation.org/fool-me-twice-californias-stem-cell-fiasco/#_edn14