Stem Cells in the Time of Fiscal Difficulties
Posted by Jesse Reynolds January 22, 2009
Biopolitical Times
David Jensen, blogger at the essential California Stem Cell Report, challenges the state's lavish subsidies for stem cell research in a time of major budget cutbacks:
As California's public universities are turning away students and state cash is being cut for projects ranging from research labs to affordable housing, the California stem cell agency is on track to give away $66 million later this month....
The disparity raises major public policy issues about the use of ballot initiatives to promote and protect various causes. Should the elderly and poor see their much-needed assistance and medical care cut while cash flows unimpeded, in this case, to researchers, some of whom are already exceedingly well funded?...
If California cannot get its financial act together in the next month or two, it will face problems of a magnitude that will dwarf such concerns as stem cell research.
I would add only that the recipient of the largest share of the recent facilities grants, and I believe the greatest overall grant recipient, is Stanford University, which is a private institution with the nation's third-largest endowment, recently reported at $17 billion.