The Worm Turns: NJ Rejects $450 Million Cloning Bond Measure
This is great news: The "blank check" mentality finally hit a wall as New Jersey's voters said a big no to borrowing $450 million for human cloning and stem cell research. From the story:
New Jersey voters rejected the state's plan to borrow $450 million over 10 years to finance stem cell research, one of the most closely watched questions on state ballots Tuesday...With 95 percent of the vote counted, 53 percent of voters opposed the New Jersey measure, one of the nation's most ambitious public efforts to fund the research.And the New York Times added this relevant note:Multimillionaire Gov. Jon Corzine campaigned heavily for the measure and spent $200,000 of his own money on TV ads for it. He argued the funding would help find cures for conditions such as spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease, sickle cell anemia and multiple sclerosis while also luring leading scientists and research firms to the state. But the measure was opposed by anti-abortion activists, conservatives and the Roman Catholic Church because it would pay for research that destroys human embryos and would increase state debt.
"It's a reinforcement of our values and a rebuke to the governor," said Steve Lonegan, a conservative Republican who led opposition to the question. "The taxpayers are saying enough is enough."...
Senate President Richard J. Codey, a Democrat and leading stem cell supporter, pinned the defeat on chronic state fiscal problems and mounting state debt. "The taxpayers of New Jersey are not against stem cell research," he said. "It's clear. The message we're getting is put your fiscal house in order and then do these things."
The sound defeat, coupled with the failure of another initiative that would have set aside more money for property tax rebates, marked the first time in 17 years that voters in New Jersey had defeated any statewide ballot question.Maybe CURES! CURES! CURES! is finally losing its political potency. Maybe voters are finally seeing through the hype, obfuscation, and mendacity. And maybe, just maybe, this can lead to both ethical sanity and fiscal responsibility in biotechnology. In any event, whoopee!
Labels: Question 2 Fails
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 10:27 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
The local news is concentrating on the financial debt it would cause New Jersey. It would sink the state into a very big hole financially.
Perhaps individual voters don't like ESCR, or perhaps they do. Or, perhaps the "liberal media" is right and the citizens just don't like the debt.
Well, the MSM isn't going to say people have turned on Big Biotech! Remember, majorities oppose all human cloning research--which is why the pro cloners pretend to outlaw cloning. And the junk biology! You saw the loose definition put into the bill--making a FETUS. Good grief.
But whether it is the debt, which I am sure it is, disgust with the hype, which I hope it is,or a combination of the all of the above, all I can say is that I am most pleased.
Wesley, are you thinking that big biotech has overplayed its hype/hand emphasizing miracles?
I know that's hard to substantiate, but I'm wondering if you think we might be seeing some of that. I sure hope so. This is anecdotal evidence, but I hear a lot of the same reaction to stories like the story on somewhat overweight people living longer/healthier... "scientists don't know anything. They send us so many contradictory messages that you don't know what to believe." I wonder if that kind of attitude might kick in with ESCR as they make promises of miracles.
Don: This is just a sense, but after all of the promises, and with the news almost absent on the ESCR front, and with states in dire fiscal straights, I think that people have soured to some degree.
And there is a warning here for scientists: Science is in danger of becoming a mere special interest. And scientism is transforming rational inquiry into dogmatic belief--a belief that runs contrary to the views of a vast majority of the people.
In this milieu, the screaming about cures begins to ring hollow.
Time will tell, but with the plunge in support of Amendment 2 in MO at the end and the NJ vote, the wind is still billowing Big Biotech's sails, but it is far less gusty now. More of a breeze.
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