Charles Halpern Letter to ICOC
By Charles Halpern
| 01. 03. 2005
Dear Members of the ICOC:
I reviewed the agenda for the January 6 meeting with concern and surprise. I find that the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act is still not being complied with and that the Committee is being invited to rush into the core of its work without having laid an appropriate foundation.
I write to encourage you to take charge of the mission of the Institute and to begin to function as a deliberative body, allowing due time for serious consideration of complex issues, with public involvement in the manner prescribed by California law.
I suggest that the ICOC take the following steps:
1. Clarify the scope of the program.
Though there is an unfortunate ambiguity in the intertwined provisions of Prop. 71, it is clear that the Institute for Regenerative Medicine is not limited to supporting embryonic stem cell research. It is authorized to support a broad range of medical research intended to cure or mitigate disease. How will the ICOC define the mandate? Will the construction grants that are likely to loom large in the first year's...
Related Articles
What We Inherit by Sam Trejo and Daphne O. Martschenko; and Original Sin by Kathryn Paige Harden have a great deal in common, with substantial differences in style and emphasis. Both books attempt, in different ways, to show the reader just where current research into human genomics stands, where that might be going, and why the authors are interested. In short, the influence of genomic research on our societies is already large and seems likely to change them in ways...
By Dan Falk, Nautilus | 08.20.2026
The pseudoscience of eugenics, founded on the mistaken notion that nature envisions some “right” combination of genes, and that selective breeding can improve the human race, is making a comeback. While the heyday of eugenics was a century ago, the...
By Anna Louie Sussman, The New York Times | 08.21.2026
Since in vitro fertilization was invented nearly 50 years ago, at least 10 million children who would not otherwise exist have been brought into the world. New constellations of families — older moms, same-sex parents, single dads — have flourished...
By Jenni Fink, Newsweek | 08.19.2026
“Donald Trump” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
President Donald Trump's latest effort to limit birthright citizenship could have consequences for the international surrogacy industry, potentially affecting thousands of intended parents from overseas who travel...