Looking for a bright spot in regard to Nov. 2? There are a few. One of them is a reason for renewed hope in regard to persons with disabilities. The research path that many researchers see as promising in curing or at least treating ailments such as Parkinson's disease, Altzheimer's and spinal cord injury, embryonic stem cell research, took a giant step forward a week ago. How is that, since George W. Bush, who opposes research on embryonic stem cells, was elected president? California has decided to make an end run around Bush's executive order banning most Americans from using embryonic stem cells in their research. Proposition 71 was approved by nearly 60 percent of the voters.

The Boston Globe reports.

WASHINGTON — In a campaign that played out like a red state/blue state version of the Hatfields and the McCoys, the issue of embryonic stem-cell research was one of many nails poured into the blue-state blunderbuss and fired across the Mason-Dixon line.

It may have been the only one that hit its target. The biggest McCoy of all, California, voted to authorize spending up to $3 billion over 10 years on stem-cell research — a plan intended as a direct assault on President Bush's strict limits on embryonic stem-cell research and, by extension, on the politics of religious values that underlay the Bush campaign.

. . .The California stem-cell referendum was extraordinary in many respects. It put a state government in the business of medical research, taking on a job that normally falls to the federal government and private sector. And while many state referendums seem more symbolic than real — a chance for citizens to cast a meaningless protest vote — this one delivered big money. The $3 billion is, by some measures, more than John F. Kerry promised in his plan to ramp up stem-cell research.

Bush refused to support embryonic stem cell research in 2001. His executive order bars American scientists receiving government funds from using the cells in their work. There is a tiny caveat allowing a score of preexisting ESC lines to be used. However, that is woefully insufficient. Nor will adult stem cells substitute for ESCs. They are limited in use because they are specialized in regard to the kinds of organs they are compatible with. Embryonic stem cells, on the other hand, are undifferentiated. Theoretically, any part of the body can be treated using them.

Bush's opposition is, of course, rooted in his support from the anti-abortion movement. Pro-life advocates contend that life begins at conception. So, the fetuses from which embryonic cells are initially taken are people from their perspective. Actually, the barely developed embryos are left-overs from in vitro fertilization that would be discarded as medical waste. Without government funding, American research into uses of embryonic stem cells has crept along at a snail's pace. The innovation in California means that incubators for ESC research will exist in at least one state.