Long Road Ahead for Stem Cell Initiative
Proposal to Finance Research Qualifies for State Ballot
By Carl T. Hall,
San Francisco Chronicle
| 06. 04. 2004
A $3 billion state proposition to promote controversial stem cell
research in California qualified Thursday for the November ballot,
opening what promises to be a bruising campaign that pits moral critics
of the research against family members of people with incurable
diseases.
The ballot initiative represents an
ambitious attempt to circumvent President Bush's stem cell policy,
which severely restricts research in the field. Even so, some promoters
of the research say state funding would set a dangerous precedent in
departing from the system of federally financed biomedical research.
Supporters
of the "California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative" said they
turned in about 1.1 million signatures to California Secretary of State
Kevin Shelley, almost twice the minimum needed to put the measure
before state voters in the presidential election on Nov. 2.
The
measure, which requires a simple majority to pass, would authorize an
average $295 million a year in state-backed bonds to be issued over 10
years. Although the bonds would be guaranteed by tax revenue, no
payments would be due for the first five years.
The
ballot measure...
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