California, Here We Come

Long before the most recent showdown between the U.S. Congress and President George W. Bush over the use of embryonic stem cells, the administration’s intransigence drove proponents of the research to take their case to the states. California’s successful passage in 2004 of Proposition 71, which set aside $3 billion in tax dollars to fund stem cell research, quickened the pace of advocacy in various regions, with officials around the country kept awake by visions of the Golden State extending its lead in biotechnology.

By inadvertently creating a new grassroots movement to support embryonic stem cell research, the Bush administration actually may have fostered a model that will serve biomedical research more broadly in the future. It has also put many Republicans in a bind. In many parts of the country, biomedical research — and especially embryonic stem cell research...

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