Letter to editor points out failings in supporting spending Michigan tax dollars on embryonic stem cell research

In a letter to the editor published in the Detroit Free Press, Paul Long, President and CEO of Michigan Catholic Conference, ably demonstrates the folly of encouraging the state of Michigan to throw money down the drain and use tax-dollars to support embryonic stem cell research.

Four years past Michigan's ballot question that allowed for human embryos to be destroyed in Michigan, the research continues to divide both the research community and the general public.

With campaign promises of life-saving cures and an influx of jobs entirely unfulfilled, advocates now claim that a lack of taxpayer funding has impeded results. This tacit request for tax dollars should sound the alarm, as it did for the proposal's supporters who accused opponents of lying when the question of public funding was raised.

Considering that more than $100 million in private grant dollars have been allocated in Michigan toward an industry that has, state after state, failed to live up to its hype, calls for hundreds of millions more in public funding will certainly blow away with the wind.

In recent days, both the Detroit Free Press and the Michigan Daily have advocated on behalf of spending Michigan tax dollars on failed embryonic stem cell experiments. 

FULL LETTER