Illinois to Pay for Cell Research
By New York Times,
New York Times
| 07. 13. 2005
CHICAGO, July 12 - Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich signed an executive order on Tuesday making Illinois the fourth state to devote public money to embryonic stem cell research.
A state program will distribute $10 million in grants in its first year to seek treatments and cures for conditions like Alzheimer's, spinal cord injuries and heart disease.
"It is the necessary and proper role of government to take action when no one else will," Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, said at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where he signed the order. "Unfortunately, the federal government has decided to sit on the sidelines." Four years ago, President Bush limited federal financing for stem cell research to existing stem cell lines.
The state program, which Mr. Blagojevich said he expected to be running by the end of year, permits research on adult, cord blood and new embryonic stem cell lines, but prohibits research involving human cloning, tissue that was bought or sold for research, and embryos from abortions.
Several other states have financed or considered financing embryonic stem cell research.
Voters in California have...
Related Articles
Several recent Biopolitical Times posts (1, 2, 3, 4) have called attention to the alarmingly rapid commercialization of “designer baby” technologies: polygenic embryo screening (especially its use to purportedly screen for traits like intelligence), in vitro gametogenesis (lab-made eggs and sperm), and heritable genome editing (also termed embryo editing or reproductive gene editing). Those three, together with artificial wombs, have been dubbed the “Gattaca stack” by Brian Armstrong, CEO of the cryptocurrency company...
By Emily Mullin, Wired | 10.30.2025
In 2018, Chinese scientist He Jiankui shocked the world when he revealed that he had created the first gene-edited babies. Using Crispr, he tweaked the genes of three human embryos in an attempt to make them immune to HIV and...
By B.A. Parker & Gene Demby, NPR | 10.29.2025
What do conservatives like JD Vance and tech executives like Elon Musk have in common? They, like other pronatalists, want to “save civilization” by having more American babies. But it wasn’t that long ago that some people wanted to save...
By Jallicia A. Jolly, Sydney Curtis and Nicole Sessions, Ms. Magazine | 10.17.2025
Pronatalism is an old idea with roots in eugenics and nationalism, that is now fashionable among far-right influencers and policymakers. They talk of “moral decay” and see low birth rates as a threat to the future of humanity. In the mainstream media...
