Today Governor Rod Blagojevich announced his Executive Order, directing the Illinois Department of Public Health to create a program that will award $10 million in grants to medical research facilities for the development of treatments and cures.  The intended recipients of these grants will perform embryonic stem cell research.

Use of Illinois taxpayer funds for embryonic stem cell research is a misuse of state funds.  This research has generated much more hype than reality.  Even the researchers themselves are becoming concerned with the level of hype. 

James Thomson, a Wisconsin researcher, conceded that embryonic stem cell cures may not be available until "ten to twenty years from now."  Celgene President Alan Lewis pointed out that venture capitalists "are very cautious'' about investing because of the limited success and lack of future prospects.  William Haseltine, CEO of Human Genome Sciences, is a leading advocate of embryonic stem cell research.   Even so, he says results are decades away and his company is not spending money on the unproven embryonic cells.  “The routine utilization of human embryonic stem cells for medicine is 20 to 30 years hence," Haseltine admits.  "The timeline to commercialization is so long that I simply would not invest," Haseltine added.

Does this sound like a good use of taxpayer money when there is already a budget crisis?  No wonder embryonic stem cell researchers are seeking taxpayer funds.  Where else can they find people who are willing to throw their money away?  Does Governor Blagojevich has constitutional authority to direct $10 million for this program, to be named the Illinois Regenerative Medicine Institute (IRMI), without specific appropriation for it by the Illinois Legislature? 

Use of state funds for embryonic stem cell research creates serious ethical issues.  This research requires the killing of human embryos.  Some of these sacrificed embryos will be extras from in vitro fertilization.  Other embryos will be cloned and then killed for their stem cells.  Even though the announcement claims no cloning will be done, this is not accurate.  The embryos will be cloned, but they will not be implanted and allowed to grow until born.  The cloning has already occurred when the embryo is created.   Then it is just a matter of what is done with the clone.  The taxpayers of Illinois should not be forced to pay for the cloning and killing of human embryos.

If money is to be spent on stem cell research, it needs to be spent on research using adult stem cells and those obtained from umbilical cord blood.  Research using stem cells from these sources has shown great success, including many experimental treatments on human patients.  A large percentage of these treatments have produced positive results or even total success.   More resources are needed to move more of these results from experimental treatments to standard medical practice.  The diversion of funding embryonic stem cell research will only delay making effective treatments available.  That is a tragic misuse of Illinois taxpayer funds.