A lot of academic bioethics deals with allocation of health priorities. Nowhere is there a clearer instance of competing priorities than in California. On the one hand, voters overwhelmingly voted in 2004 to burden the state with a US$3 billion bond issue to  create the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. This gigantic amount was originally to be spent largely on embryonic stem cell research. Ultimately, after interest payments are included, the cost will be $6 billion. Since the CIRM is bulletproofed against legislative interference, only a new constitutional amendment can make its funds available for any other health initiatives.

On the other hand, California is almost broke. Its prisons are so overcrowded and the health needs of inmates are so pressing that  the court-appointed receiver in charge of the prison health care system wants $6 billion for new prison health care centers and $2 billion to improve existing ones. A leading politician in the California Assembly, Mike Villines, called this "a ridiculous sum." He questioned how the state could justify spending that amount on inmate medical care "when hardworking taxpayers can't even get health care in California." Hmmm. At least they can read about taxpayer-funded stem cell research... ~ San Diego Union Tribune, Aug 13