Good news
Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- New Jersey
voters rejected a $450 million bond measure to fund stem-cell research,
a defeat for Democratic Governor Jon Corzine, who backed the proposal
with his own money and advocated on its behalf.
With 95 percent of precincts reporting, the question was defeated by 53
percent to 47 percent, according to nj.com, a Web site affiliated with
the Star-Ledger of Newark. The measure would have authorized the state
to borrow as much as $45 million annually for 10 years to fund
scientists' work in the field.
The rejection shows voters didn't buy Corzine's arguments that
borrowing for investment in stem-cell research would attract economic
development and help retain business in New Jersey, home to more
pharmaceutical companies than any other in the U.S. state, said Ingrid
Reed, a political scientist at Rutgers University. The governor
personally donated $150,000 to a stem-cell advocacy group campaigning
for the measure.
``This was clearly a big defeat,'' said Reed, director of Rutgers'
Eagleton Project New Jersey in New Brunswick. Voters ``didn't have
confidence that this would pay off in the short run,'' she said.
This is certainly good news that even in New Jersey the Pied Piper hymn of "cures, cures, cures" doesn't always work. It would be nice to think that the total disingenuous of ESCR supporters with their empty promises and texts of the bill that once again tried to fool voters in concern to cloning is what did the bill in. Most news outlets are reporting this as a case of cost-conscious voters rejecting it for monetary reasons. Surely some did it on those grounds, but if the ESCR hype was being bought this surely would not have hindered it.
Known as 
Today, the religious deny resources to ESCR research, so tomorrow they can attack for its lack of results.
Look, I know this is hard to accept, but, if given the same resources as any of the major religions have been over the last few hundred years, I am willing to bet ESCR research unlike say God, would have found a cure for things like missing limbs, mental retardation, and the like.
Hoodlum, the Church/Catholics sometimes attack ESCR for having no results. However that argument is not the central one--it's just a prop (and not always a good one).
ESCR could yield results all day long, and it would still be opposed by the Church and Catholics. Humans are human from the moment of conception, and killing embryos is not an action that can be justified by any end.
Part of the reason it was defeated was entirely selfish on the part of NJ voters, we can't afford to take out a $450 million dollar loan. Our tax rates are among the highest in the nation, this would just be another excuse to raise them again.
That being said, this is also the first time in 18 years we have defeated a state-wide ballot issue, so there is much to be thankful for.
chris from nj
"Look, I know this is hard to accept, but, if given the same resources as any of the major religions have been over the last few hundred years, I am willing to bet ESCR research unlike say God, would have found a cure for things like missing limbs, mental retardation, and the like."
It's NOT hard at all to accept that you'd make a bet which you wouldn't be around to pay out.
The major religions mostly have the resources of PEOPLE. To compare scientists to monks and nuns (of both Western and Eastern religion), you must first find researchers willing to DONATE their time, working with little compensation. Then you'll need to find corporations of people willing to give up their own bodies for research before they ever ask anyone else to do so. Also, to still compare apples to apples, you'll need to have research institutions that actively oppose using the poor or desperate as donors and instead ask the wealthy and privileged to make the great sacrifices. Lots of luck with that.
Adult Stem Cell research (the one that was going to get a very small amount of money if this bond passed) has already had sucesses in treating over 70 diseases. No lives were lost in the process, no embryos had to be killed.
400 million of the 450 million of this bond would have gone to embryonic stem sell research, which is speculative, ends lives, has not resulted in even one cure, and potential cures, if any, are decades away (that's according to scientists who are promoting it).
One of these days someone who supports embryonic stem cell research is going to have to explain to me why they would be willing to focus so much money and support on something that doesn't work (embryonic) while ignoring something that does work - adult stem cell research.
The Catholic Church in NJ has done an outstanding job of getting the word out. Ulike the media and governor of NJ, the Catholic Bishops of NJ (as well as the Knights of Columbus) have focused on educating and informing. The bishops and the K of C deserve a lot of thanks and praise for their efforts.
ESCR research is not going to cure anything. Adult Stem Cell Research already has and will do more. Let's stop waisting time, and lives, on ESCR and start focusing on adult stem cell research.
"Look, I know this is hard to accept, but, if given the same resources as any of the major religions have been over the last few hundred years, I am willing to bet ESCR research unlike say God, would have found a cure for things like missing limbs, mental retardation, and the like."
First of all, the only major religion centralized enough to manage and strategically utilize all of its assets the same way corporations do would be the Catholic Church. So, I guess it is not hard to see which major religion you are harping on here. Second, I see you still subscribe to the myth that the Catholic Church has some hidden money trees somewhere and just has oodles of money waiting to be used. Nope, the Catholic Church has never been very rich, not even during the medieval period and the Renaissance. So, all those scientific advancements achieved by monks, nuns and priests? Done with little to no funding. All those evangelization efforts? Same thing.
If ESCR is as good as advertised, we'd have seen something by now.
Not to burst the bubble, but I heard on Rush Limbaugh that Corzine and (I think) the State Senate Majority Leader were going to turn a deaf ear to the voice of the people and go ahead with the bond issue anyway. So much for the old saying that every vote counts! I feel for the NJ'ers who worked hard to defeat the proposal. I pray that, if this is true, that the courts will have the guts to stand up to the political pressure....