Californians Aware: Public Interest Groups Support Lee-Halpern Petition on Ethical Stem Cell Research

Public Interest Groups Call on California Stem Cell Institute to Adopt Reforms Requested in Petition by Former US Assistant Secretary for Health and Public Interest Attorney

Who: Leading California public interest organizations have announced their support for a petition asking the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to adopt higher standards concerning conflict of interest, open meetings, hiring and compensation. The California Nurses Association, CalPIRG, Redefining Progress, Californians Aware, and the Greenlining Institute have joined the Center for Genetics and Society and the Pro-Choice Alliance for Responsible Research in supporting the petition filed on February 16 by Dr. Philip Lee, a former federal Assistant Secretary for Health, and Charles Halpern, a public interest attorney.

The groups also urge the CIRM's Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee (ICOC) to engage in a full public debate on the petition.

What/Where/When: The ICOC will consider the petition at its meeting this Tuesday, March 1, 2005 from 9:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., at Stanford University's Fairchild Auditorium, 291 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA. The complete agenda is available at http://www.cirm.ca.gov.

Representatives of several of the public interest organizations supporting the initiative will hold a press briefing at Fairchild Auditorium at 12:00 noon (during the ICOC meeting's scheduled closed session or lunch break), and will be available after the conclusion of the ICOC meeting at 5:30 p.m.

Californians Aware, an organization that supports and defends open government, has emphasized the importance of CIRM's working groups adhering to the standards of California's open meeting and conflict of interest laws, notwithstanding exemptions written into Proposition 71, which created the stem cell institute. "The function of the Working Groups is overwhelmingly a public one, and their role is traditionally a public one," said Terry Francke, general counsel for Californians Aware. "Moreover, public access to the Working Groups acts as vital insurance against conflicts of interest and in any event is protected by the California Constitution. The ICOC would be wise to put this issue behind it, avoid the needless risk to the finality of its decisions, and adopt proposed regulations 4 and 5 in the Lee-Halpern Petition."

The Greenlining Institute, a public policy, research, and advocacy organization, is concerned about the diversity and compensation issues raised by the Lee-Halpern petition. The ICOC "is admittedly not reflective of California's diversity," said Robert Gnaizda, general counsel for The Greenlining Institute. "This has been compounded by the failure to ensure effective diversity on the first nine hires and apparently in the recommendation of the Interim President."

Greenlining is also concerned that salaries offered to employees of the ICOC, a public agency, are at the high end of private-sector compensation. "Greenlining supports the petition's position that a cap on salaries should be approved by the ICOC of a maximum of $290,000. However, Greenlining would argue that even this salary is unnecessary, since the Director of the National Institutes of Health, who directs 16,000 employees and administers a budget ninety times larger than the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine budget, earns only $175,000," said Gnaizda.

"Lee and Halpern have made important specific recommendations, and the appointed ICOC members have an obligation to the public to make sure that discussion of the petition takes place in a public forum," said Pro-Choice Alliance For Responsible Research co-founder Susan Berke Fogel. "Delegating authority to the chair to respond would ensure only more secrets. The public was promised openness and transparency, not more closed-door meetings."

Michel Gelobter, executive director of Redefining Progress, also spoke in support of the petition. "Public resources should generate public wealth," Gelobter said. "This petition seeks minimum safeguards to ensure that the health and wealth of all Californians is a priority in this groundbreaking program."

Created after the expenditure of over $30 million to pass Proposition 71 in November, CIRM will issue $3 billion in grants for embryonic stem cell and other biomedical research.

"Many of CIRM's leaders still seem not to realize that the stem cell institute is a public agency, and that they are now public officials," said Marcy Darnovsky, associate executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society. "The outcry about CIRM's built-in conflicts of interest and lack of transparency will continue to build until the institute's leaders begin operating in a manner befitting the trust, hopes, and resources that the people of this state have given them."

About the Center for Genetics and Society

The Center for Genetics and Society is a public interest advocacy organization that works to encourage responsible uses and effective societal governance of human biotechnologies such as embryonic stem cell research.

The complete text of Californians Aware letter in support of the Lee-Halpern petition is available at http://calaware.org/news/weekly_detail.jsp?article_id=535

The complete text of Greenlining Institute's letter in support of the Lee-Halpern petition is available at http://www.genetics-and-society.org/policies/california/leehalpern20050216greenlining.html