CGS-authored
Stem cell research initiative could be a boon for science, but business leaders are eroding public support by holding closed-door meetings and snubbing political nominees.
It may hold the promise of curing a number of diseases, but Proposition 71, the California ballot initiative that will raise $3 billion to research the medical applications of human stem cells, is running into political trouble.
The travails the initiative's backers are encountering in the press and the state legislature are a good example of what happens when business folks, particularly ambitious and well-funded business folks, get involved in politics. The danger here is particularly acute since Prop. 71 backers_with the eyes of the nation on their work_seem to be treating the ballot initiative like a funding round for a sure-to-be successful startup than a continuing project dependent on public good will.
Prop. 71, which will authorize the state to sell bonds to fund embryonic stem cell research in the California's universities and medical research labs, was approved with a comfortable 59 percent of the vote. Within days of its passage, the measure was...
It may hold the promise of curing a number of diseases, but Proposition 71, the California ballot initiative that will raise $3 billion to research the medical applications of human stem cells, is running into political trouble.
The travails the initiative's backers are encountering in the press and the state legislature are a good example of what happens when business folks, particularly ambitious and well-funded business folks, get involved in politics. The danger here is particularly acute since Prop. 71 backers_with the eyes of the nation on their work_seem to be treating the ballot initiative like a funding round for a sure-to-be successful startup than a continuing project dependent on public good will.
Prop. 71, which will authorize the state to sell bonds to fund embryonic stem cell research in the California's universities and medical research labs, was approved with a comfortable 59 percent of the vote. Within days of its passage, the measure was...