California

California is generally considered to offer the most supportive and permissive environment for stem cell researchers in the United States. As early as 1981, California researchers collaborated with researchers at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom to cultivate mice embryonic stem cells from explanted inner cell mass cells. California was the first state to adopt an official position of support for stem cell research. When federal funding was severely restricted for embryonic stem cell research because of the ethics debate over using aborted or discarded fetuses as the chief source of stem cells, California expressed its support for stem cell therapies that could save lives by passing Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Bond Act. Proposition 71 allotted $3 billion in state ...