Betrayal of the Voters! Proposition 71 Bait and Switch
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!
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 7:36 AM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Though perhaps our position (and I am a Californian) should be we shouldn't take such blood money. Of course, our hands are not clean since we not only approved it, we are paying for it.
But if cures come from extracting not only embryonic stem cells but by harvesting organs and fluids from fetal farming, I want no part of that to fund my police, my paramedic, my roads or my schools. Just a matter of remaining principle. Wonder what Arnold would think of my position??
The point is that voters were promised a financial return for their borrowed financial support of cloning and embryonic stem cell research. Second, I am in CA too, and we are going to borrow this money to pay to fat cat biotech companies while our emergency rooms and trauma centers are shutting down for lack of resources. Thus, today's urgent needs are being neglected to pursue the pot of gold over the rainbow.
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