A fantastic article at the journal First Things outlines how, even with huge public funding, embryonic stem cell research is failing to produce the goods, with money now increasingly being diverted to ethical and successful adult stem cell research.
An extract:
"The battle over embryonic stem cell research is over. A few skirmishes will no doubt continue—perhaps even for years—and some ESCR advocates will refuse to acknowledge defeat. But they have decisively lost. Years from now, when we look back in astonishment at having been fleeced for billions to pay for therapeutically worthless research, we’ll recognize that California was the Waterloo for ESCR."