Last November California voters passed proposition 71, which allows for the sale of $3 billion dollars in bonds ($6 billion with interest) for embryonic and embryo cloning research. Because of several legal challenges (mainly transparency and fiscal accountability issues) no bonds have been able to be sold. The stem cell agency has just awarded 16 grants to the tune of $39.7 million! Sp far they have been running on $8 million in borrowed money. $5 mil from the Dolby Sound family and $3 mil in a state loan. They say next year they will run out of money if the bonds cannot be sold. What a burn rate! Should they be granting awards when the bonds are not able to be sold? The 16 grants awarded will be used to “train students and budding scientists on how to conduct stem cell research, including the cloning of embryos exclusively for research use.”

Question: Do you remember how you voted on prop. 71? Do you remember what prop. 71 was all about? I’d love to hear from you!

Author Profile

Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, MA, BSN, RN, is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl couples her 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager with a deep passion to speak for those who have no voice. Lahl’s writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community, even being invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address issues of egg trafficking; she has three times addressed the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women on egg and womb trafficking.