The LA Times published an article online discussing Proposition 71, a California bill passed in 2004 that funnels billions of dollars into embryonic stem cell research.

The article talked mostly about how grant money could speed up promising stem cell research but the article was vague as to what kind of stem cell research and it seemed to move back and forth without distinction between adult stem cell research and embryonic. There’s a massive difference between the two.

Embryonic stem cell research is the creation and harvesting of human embryos for the purpose of researching the medical therapy capabilities of the embryo’s stem cells. This is the making and destroying of human life for the purposes of medical research.

Just a minor detail right?

The article also very lightly dealt with a stunning new revelation. Five years into the billion dollar research and embryonic stem cell research has produced no results, no new therapies, no cures, no hope. As a result of this the backers of Prop 71 are withdrawing their support of embryonic stem cell research and turning to adult stem cell research relying on it’s already proven results to secure future monies for future research.

Investor’s Business Daily ran an editorial explaining and analyzing the issue more clearly:

Five years after a budget-busting $3 billion was allocated to embryonic stem cell research, there have been no cures, no therapies and little progress. So supporters are embracing research they once opposed.

California’s Proposition 71 was intended to create a $3 billion West Coast counterpart to the National Institutes of Health, empowered to go where the NIH could not — either because of federal policy or funding restraints on biomedical research centered on human embryonic stem cells.

Supporters of the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, passed in 2004, held out hopes of imminent medical miracles that were being held up only by President Bush’s policy of not allowing federal funding of embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) beyond existing stem cell lines and which involved the destruction of embryos created for that purpose.

Five years later, ESCR has failed to deliver and backers of Prop 71 are admitting failure. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state agency created to, as some have put it, restore science to its rightful place, 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…