Now that the South Koreans are busy building their monument to the human usurpation of creation, we are once again subjected to calls to loosen our laws (and forget about our "ethical qualms") in order that the United States may "keep our competitive edge".
Given that, you may be interested to know some actual statistics on world-wide funding of stem cell (and embryonic stem cell) research. The following stats are from a Financial Times and Scientific American Special Report - The Future of Stem Cells, from July 2005.
The US:
Federal government funding: About $550m for all stem cell research ($24m for hESC)
Private funding: About $200m
Public funding at state level:
California: $3bn over 10 years
New Jersey: $11.5m (another $380m proposed)
Wisconsin: $375m proposed
Illinois: $1bn proposed
Connecticut: $20m proposed
The UK:
Government funding: About $80m
Private funding: $15m-$20m
South Korea:
Government funding: About $10m
Private funding: About $50m
Did you catch that? US - $750 million SK- $70 million
And what is more, the vast majority of our money is being spent on actual cures. Not hype.
