It will pay for itself, supporters of Proposition 71 told voters. State residents will pay less for health care. Day after day it was one pie-in-the-sky promise after another. But now, the California Council on Science and Technology, has recommended that the state receive zero dollars in royalties from the billions it will borrow to fund this corporate welfare boondoggle. It might chill private investments, don’t you know. Not coincidentally, the Council is a state-funded body made up of private university and private sector firms—the very interests that will be lining up at the pork barrel once Proposition 71 grant money begins to flow!
What is chilling private investments is the low likelihood of success of turning cloned human embryos into efficacious medical treatments any time soon. What is chilling private investments is that embryonic stem cells cause tumors and can’t be used in humans. What is chilling private investments is the roaring success of adult stem cell research, which is already treating 65 human maladies. Indeed, the lack of private investments is why Big Biotech and their allies at “patents R us” university research centers sold this swamp land of a law to California voters with a $25 million war chest in the first place.
The arrogance of it all! The question is whether the people will put up with this too as Proposition 71 backers keep yelling, CURES! CURES! CURES!
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