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California Stem Cell Proponents Resorting to "Arcane" Distortions to Gain Tax Funding

Researchers Worried by Hesitant Private Investors

SEATTLE, Washington, May 10, 2004, (LifeSiteNews.com) - An article appearing in the February 22 edition of the Seattle Times Business and Technology section says that, although huge profits are theoretically possible with the ability to create new tissues from stem cells, the slow progress and moral qualms are giving investors pause. Some of the world's leading biotechnology researchers say that successful cures could be as much as 20 years down the road. David Greenwood, head of Geron, the world leader in embryonic stem-cell research, says that cures from cloned embryos, when they do come, could be prohibitively expensive.

Wesley Smith, a prominent critic of biotechnologies and their ethicists, has heavily criticized a proposed California bill asking for public funding for stem cell research. He warns of a push by researchers and large universities like Harvard to convince the Bush administration to relax the restrictions against tax funded stem cell research.

Says Smith, "Stymied by the wisdom of investors' caution, but intent on learning how to clone human life reliably, the industry and its allies in the science and bioethics establishments have resorted to a Plan B: Get taxpayers to foot the bill." Smith calls the proposed California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act (CSCRCA) "thoroughly disingenuous," saying, "It was written in obscure and arcane language intended to hide its true agenda - even to the point that human embryos are labeled as mere 'products.'"

Smith goes on to point out in clear English, the activities the California bill proposes to allow. He writes, "it would create a constitutional right to create cloned human life solely as an experiment." He points out that in allowing for the creation of human clones for research, the way for so-called 'reproductive' cloning is opened. "The knowledge gained by human cloning research funded by the CSCRCA could also be used to learn how to engage in reproductive cloning. Moreover, the modifier "initially" was not included in the bill by accident: It creates a huge loophole allowing a later extension of time during which cloned human embryos could be maintained."

Read Wesley Smith's full critique on the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act (CSCRCA).
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/smith200405060830.asp

Read Seattle Times article:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001862747_stemcells22....

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