Mega movie star Mel Gibson made a surprise appearance on Saturday at a hospital in the Watts section of Los Angeles, to make the case that California's Proposition 71, which carves out $6 billion from the state budget for embryonic stem cell research, will siphon off health care dollars that could be better spent on inner city hospitals.
"Some of the [Prop. 71] money could be used to keep hospitals and trauma centers like this open instead of squandering it for unethical experimentation that doesn't work," Gibson told the crowd, which had turned out to attend an anti-Prop 71 rally at the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.
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The event was organized by civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, whose group BOND (Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny) has been pushing to save the Watts medical facility, which has been slated for closure by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors as a cost-cutting measure.
In a statement issued before the rally, the Rev. Peterson said he couldn't understand why the state would be "diverting more California taxpayer dollars away from basic needs of the African-American community" to fund questionable scientific research.
Gibson agrees. In a radio ad he released last week, the "Passion" producer posed the question: If embryonic stem cell research is "so promising, why aren't private companies paying the $6 billion?"
"Because in 23 years embryonic stem cell research has not produced a single human cure," he explained. "All it's yielded is tumors, rejection and mutations."
"Bad science," said Gibson, "doesn't attract venture capital, so why should the taxpayers be bled dry?"
Meanwhile, research on adult and umbilical cord stem cells, which isn't covered by Prop. 71, has led to cures in 300,000 cases, he said.
After the rally, Gibson toured the Drew Medical Center and visited with patients in the facility's pediatric center.
Editor's note:
Mel Gibson fights back and talks with NewsMax Magazine – Click Here for new revelations
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