Documentary warns of the macabre political creation.

March 11, 2005

Sacramento -  State Senator Deborah Ortiz,  D-Sacramento, one of the loudest proponents of the Proposition 71 initiative to allow government-sponsored growth and use of human embryos for their stem cells, has had a rude awakening. The special quasi-government organization she helped create is now taking $6 billion of tax money ($3 billion of principal and $3 billion in aggregate interest) and doing whatever it wants, free to act outside of public interest and government control. Ortiz sponsored a hearing on Wednesday, March 9th reviewing the impotence of the state government to control this shadowy new entity created by the California Research and Cures Act. 

Talking broadly about legislative oversight and potential conflicts of interest, a few California lawmakers tried their best to gain some authority over the state's new stem cell agency, which is run by an independent board that answers to no one.

The lawmakers said Wednesday the state must watch over how the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine doles out its $300 million in annual research grants over the next 10 years.

To do so, however, they'll have to clear a hurdle that Sen. Deborah Ortiz called formidable: The language of Proposition 71, the initiative that created the institute, explicitly prohibits California's legislature from amending the initiative for at least three years.

"We understand we don't have the ability to dictate or legislate," Ortiz said before the five-hour hearing.

In November, few voters understood what they were enacting. The bill specifically authorizes the Institute to create human clones and then destroy them in experiments with their body parts. The Institute was provided with secrecy provisions that exempt it from state review and from standards of informed consent ethics in research on human beings. Furthermore, there is no obligation that the state receive any funds back, even though taxpayers are footing the entire bill. Finally, there are very few conflicts of interest controls over the billions expected to be made through experimentation, and the Institute is authorized to create its own regulations of conflicts of interest that apply only to itself.

 A special documentary, The Human Experiment: Understanding Cloning and Stem Cell Research was widely distributed during the campaign in an effort to alert the public to these problems. The popular media ignored these concerns and like Ortiz, tended only to vaunt the false promises of cloning and embryonic stem cell transfer.

By presenting clear and compelling explanations from the nation's leading pro-life and scientific experts, the documentary is timely and insightful while providing a powerful tool for quickly informing and motivating others. When a bill to promote the creation and purposeful destruction of living human embryos was introduced into the Virginia legislature earlier this year, the Virginia Society for Human Life distributed the documentary to legislators; the bill was immediately defeated.  The film is appropriate for all ages and is a useful instrument in classrooms, libraries, bible studies, and pro-life speaking engagements.  

The Human Experiment: Understanding Cloning and Stem Cell Research is available from the California ProLife Council for a suggest donation of $15, which includes shipping and handling. Click the "add to cart" button below to order online or call (800) 924-2490.  Quantity discounts for groups are also available.