embryonic stem cell colonies from the lab of developmental biologist James Thompson
Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Used with permission © University of Wisconsin Board of Regents

Commentary

The basic premise of Proposition 71 is that 30 million Californians should invest $200 each, 6 billion dollars altogether, in bio-medical research designed to understand and use embryonic stem cells to treat terrible diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's.

If the project is a bust, and no cures are found, the people of California will be, collectively, 6 billion dollars poorer, but at least they'll be able to say they tried, and the scientists, research institutions and real estate developers slated to receive 25 per cent of the $3 billion in bond money ($750 million), will have something to show for it.

If the project is a great success, if the mysteries of the organism are revealed by the cleverness and perseverance of the scientists funded by the project, resulting in new medicines and treatments that can eliminate the aforementioned and other devastating scourges, who exactly will benefit, either as patients or investors?

Will everyone who votes for, or, more to the point, pays for, Proposition 71 (every taxpaying Californian) be entitled, ipso facto, to free stem cell research-derived treatments based on the work for which they've collectively paid $6 billion?

Or will these seemingly-miraculous means of restoring cellular vigor be available only to the rich and/or those with the very best medical insurance, while everyone else needs to sit interminably in the waiting room and then be charged hundreds of thousands of dollars they don't have for access to treatments they themselves paid to have developed?

Will the billions of dollars to be earned marketing these phenomenal new treatments in California, in the U.S., and worldwide accrue to the real investors, the taxpaying residents of California?

Or will they go to university medical centers, bio-tech corporations, and the venture capitalists who've created these companies and who have provided the millions of dollars of seed capital to write, qualify, and pass Proposition 71 in the expectation of "cashing out" at the end of the scenario with billions in barely-taxed capital gains, according to laws and regulations they've managed to create by also investing heavily in their favorite politicians' careers?

Before anyone either votes for or allows his or her tax money to be used to pay for Proposition 71, he or she ought to require the Legislature and the Governor to establish by law a public entitlement to the cures and the profits they will be making possible with their votes and taxes.