What we should know (and almost didn't)

Come November, Californians will vote on Proposition 71, a $3 billion initiative to finance publicly stem-cell research that promises cures for diseases from Alzheimer's to cancer.

Limited space in the state voter information guide makes consideration of this controversial proposition difficult enough, especially when national discourse on the stem-cell controversy often appears as nothing more than a contest between Laura Bush and Nancy Reagan. It's harder still when initiative boosters seek to prevent voters from getting all the information they need in order to make an informed decision, as they tried to do in a court action just weeks ago.

Because California legislators passed a law in 2002 banning human- reproductive cloning, voters (including those who, like me, are pro choice and support embryonic stem-cell research in principle) should know that Prop. 71 prioritizes exactly the same research that must be perfected in order to succeed at human reproductive cloning. Sometimes referred to as "therapeutic cloning" or "somatic cell nuclear transfer," research to be given funding priority through Prop. 71 involves the same technology that led to the cloning of...