Back in 2004, Californians passed Proposition 71 to direct $3 billion to embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) and cloning. The people were promised that the investment in embryonic stem cells would lead to cures and huge economic returns for the state. As Investor's Business Daily notes in an editorial, "Five years later, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine...is diverting funds from ESCR to research that has produced actual therapies and treatments: adult stem cell research. It not only has treated real people with real results; it also does not come with the moral baggage ESCR does." Only four of the Institute's 14 recent grants involve embryonic stem cells. According to Alan Trounson, CIRM's director, "If we went 10 years and had no clinical treatments, it would be a failure." That would definitely be the case with embryonic stem cells!
Meanwhile, adult stem cells are helping thousands of patients now. The IBD editorial sums things up well: "It is ESCR researchers who have politicized science and stood in the way of real progress. We are pleased to see California researchers beginning to put science in its rightful place." To see some examples of real science with adult stem cells that are treating real people now, visit FRC's new website to hear true stories from patients.
