CGS-authored
Law gives small group tight control of $3 billion in stem cell funds
Imagine that a partnership of scientists and Hollywood moguls urged you to invest in a promising but controversial field of medical research.
The partnership would control how your money is spent, based on recommendations from appointed "working groups" whose meetings would be kept secret from you.
Would you accept such a deal? Probably not.
Yet in November, 59 percent of California voters effectively endorsed this arrangement when they approved Proposition 71, the Stem Cell Research and Cures Act. The new law authorizes $3 billion in borrowing for stem cell research, with few of the safeguards and oversight provisions that people require of their own investments.
Under the new law, an appointed committee of 29 people will alone decide how to spend nearly $300 million annually. This "Independent Citizens Oversight Committee" will base its decisions on recommendations from a trio of working groups, which are exempted under the law from holding open meetings or publicly disclosing their business ties.
Some say they've never seen a law that consolidates...
Imagine that a partnership of scientists and Hollywood moguls urged you to invest in a promising but controversial field of medical research.
The partnership would control how your money is spent, based on recommendations from appointed "working groups" whose meetings would be kept secret from you.
Would you accept such a deal? Probably not.
Yet in November, 59 percent of California voters effectively endorsed this arrangement when they approved Proposition 71, the Stem Cell Research and Cures Act. The new law authorizes $3 billion in borrowing for stem cell research, with few of the safeguards and oversight provisions that people require of their own investments.
Under the new law, an appointed committee of 29 people will alone decide how to spend nearly $300 million annually. This "Independent Citizens Oversight Committee" will base its decisions on recommendations from a trio of working groups, which are exempted under the law from holding open meetings or publicly disclosing their business ties.
Some say they've never seen a law that consolidates...