Critiquing the Stem Cell Board
By Editorial,
Los Angeles Times
| 02. 27. 2013
After years of resisting all criticisms of its operations, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine is finally listening — a little. It spent $700,000 for an outside, high-level review that complimented the stem cell agency for funding an excellent portfolio of research projects, but also raised serious objections to the agency's structure, which the review said was likely to lead to financial conflicts of interest.
The criticisms were nothing new — many of the same points have been made since the agency was created by Proposition 71 in 2004 — but the positive response by the chairman of the agency's board was. The governing board is now making changes to address some of the long-standing issues.
Yet the agency isn't exactly embracing an ethical overhaul. It's doing just enough to address the criticisms without triggering any oversight from the Legislature. The modifications are more a bandage than a cure. Like a bandage, they will probably do, but only for a limited time.
The single biggest problem identified in the report by the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National...
Related Articles
By Mackenzie Mays, Los Angeles Times | 10.29.2024
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Sunday that requires large health insurance companies to cover in vitro fertilization — a win for reproductive health advocates amid nationwide concerns about the future of access to fertility treatments.
The bill also...
Reproductive rights have been a flashpoint in national politics for decades, with the stakes surging after the Supreme Court shredded the right to an abortion. In the current presidential campaign, the battle over abortion has swelled and morphed to encompass in vitro fertilization (IVF), which has now moved rapidly from widely accepted to partisan hot button.
This dramatic shift was highlighted by the February decision of the Alabama Supreme Court that granted personhood rights to frozen IVF embryos, signaling that...
By Sara Moretto, The Varsity | 09.22.2024
It was 2020. I was wrapping up grade nine science with a solid 60 per cent, hoping that if anyone saw my failed tests in the recycling bin, it would contribute to an air of mystery about me. This reason...
By Don Sapatkin, Managed Healthcare Executive | 09.20.2024
Gene therapy comes with the expectation that it will “cure” an expanding number of genetic disorders. If you’ve never wondered – and even if you have -- what that word actually means, four Dutch researchers have a surprise in store...