Prop 71

CALIFORNIA STEM CELL RESEARCH AND CURES INITIATIVE

SECTION 1. Title

This measure shall be known as the “California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act.”

SEC. 2. Findings and Declarations

The people of California find and declare the following:

Millions of children and adults suffer from devastating diseases or injuries that are currently incurable, including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, spinal cord injuries, blindness, Lou Gehrig’s disease, HIV/AIDS, mental health disorders, multiple sclero-sis, Huntington’s disease, and more than 70 other diseases and injuries.

Recently medical science has discovered a new way to attack chron-ic diseases and injuries. The cure and treatment of these diseases can potentially be accomplished through the use of new regenerative med-ical therapies including a special type of human cells, called stem cells. These life-saving medical breakthroughs can only happen if adequate funding is made available to advance stem cell research, develop thera-pies, and conduct clinical trials.

About half of California’s families have a child or adult who has suf-fered or will suffer from a serious, often critical or terminal, medical condition that could potentially be treated or cured with stem cell ther-apies. In these cases of chronic illness or when patients face a medical crisis, the health care system may simply not be able to meet the needs of patients or control spiraling costs, unless therapy focus switches away from maintenance and toward prevention and cures.

Unfortunately, the federal government is not providing adequate funding necessary for the urgent research and facilities needed to devel-op stem cell therapies to treat and cure diseases and serious injuries. This critical funding gap currently prevents the rapid advancement of research that could benefit millions of Californians.

The California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act will close this funding gap by establishing an institute which will issue bonds to sup-port stem cell research, emphasizing pluripotent stem cell and progeni-tor cell research and other vital medical technologies, for the develop-ment of life-saving regenerative medical treatments and cures.