CGS-authored
In a few weeks, Californians will be voting on Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative. If enacted, this measure would drain $3 billion over 10 years from the general fund to finance stem cell research and biotech companies in California. But the citizens of California should vote "no" for reasons that go beyond fiscal responsibility. I'm even talking about citizens who are pro-choice Democrats and frustrated by President Bush's restrictive stem cell research policy.
The $3 billion would be awarded and overseen by the so-called Independent Citizen's Oversight Committee (ICOC) -- a 29-member group composed of representatives of California universities, nonprofit research institutions, private life science companies and disease advocacy organizations. The ICOC would have broad new powers to define the trajectory of human cloning technology (somatic cell nuclear transfer) over the next two decades. It would also rewrite ethical guidelines for human-subjects research and for allocating patents to the private sector.
This structure of governance is a recipe for trouble. When we mix big money, big science and new biotechnologies with the state, stronger mechanisms...
The $3 billion would be awarded and overseen by the so-called Independent Citizen's Oversight Committee (ICOC) -- a 29-member group composed of representatives of California universities, nonprofit research institutions, private life science companies and disease advocacy organizations. The ICOC would have broad new powers to define the trajectory of human cloning technology (somatic cell nuclear transfer) over the next two decades. It would also rewrite ethical guidelines for human-subjects research and for allocating patents to the private sector.
This structure of governance is a recipe for trouble. When we mix big money, big science and new biotechnologies with the state, stronger mechanisms...
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