CGS-authored

Scientists are normally a cautious bunch, nervous about making bold predictions or being accused of unprofessional hype. Yet those cautions flew out the window last year, when supporters of Proposition 71 dangled $3 billion in stem cell research money before scientists and California voters.
A Nobel Prize winner went on TV to tout Proposition 71. Other top-flight scientists joined Dustin Hoffman and other Hollywood stars for a "Countdown to Cures" event in Los Angeles. Promoters sent out press releases claiming that therapies developed by Proposition 71 "could save the lives of millions of California children and adults."


Nothing was mentioned about the embryonic state of embryonic stem cell research.
Now that the initiative is law, Proposition 71 supporters face a daunting challenge - how to manage lofty public expectations.

Partly because of the P.R. campaign, many patient advocates and California taxpayers believe that medical miracles are imminent. In reality, most scientists say it will take years, and possibly decades, before embryonic stem cell treatments are proven and made widely available.

"No one knows if you can control embryonic stem cells,"...