California Spinal Cord Injury Bill Promotes Embryonic Research

National   |   Life Priority Network   |   Apr 2, 2011   |   12:52PM   |   Sacramento, CA

There is a bill in the California state legislature that pro-life advocates should be concerned about and contact their legislators.

AB 190, Vehicle Code violation: additional penalty: spinal cord injury research, by Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski (D – Fremont) would impose an additional penalty of $3 upon every conviction for a violation of state or local traffic laws (except parking violations). The bill would require such penalties to be deposited with the county treasurer and transferred monthly to the spinal cord injury research fund within the University of California.

Funds acquired by AB 190 will be used by embryonic stem cell researchers. Funds acquired through AB 190 would be administered by the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at the University of California – Irvine. UC-Irvine was a major proponent of Proposition 71 that established the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) in 2004. Prop 71, with principle and interest, costs California taxpayers $6 billion and allocates almost $1 million a day for 10 years toward hESCR.

AB 190 would add an estimated $11 million per year to already heavily-funded human embryonic stem cell research that destroys human beings in their earliest stage of development. Despite huge expenditures, the CIRM has yet to produce a single cure attributable to embryonic stem cells. Clinical trials with hESCR experimental derivatives are still in their infancy. Yet hESCR proponents continue to tout its vast potential that continues to be just over the horizon.

Meanwhile, adult stem cell research, which was explicitly excluded from Prop 71 funding, is producing successful treatments for diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma, severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), and even some cases of spinal cord injury using ethical means that do not kill human embryos.

AB 190 is unethical and unnecessary. The lives of one class of human beings should not be sacrificed for another class of human beings, as tragic and heart-rending as their condition may be.

AB 190 will be heard in the Assembly Public Safety Committee next Tuesday, April 5. Contact the following legislators to oppose the bill:

Tom Ammiano, Chair, 916-319-2013; fax –2113; [email protected]

Steve Knight, Vice-Chair, 916-319-2036; fax –2136; [email protected]

Gilbert Cedillo, 916-319-2045; fax –2145; [email protected]

Curt Hagman, 916-319-2060; fax –2160; [email protected]

Jerry Hill, 916-319-2019; fax –2119; [email protected]

Holly Mitchell, 916-319-2047; fax –2147; [email protected]

Nancy Skinner, 916-319-2014; fax-2114; [email protected]