Critics slate ethical leeway in California stem-cell proposal
By Jonathan Knight,
Nature
| 09. 16. 2004
Opponents of California's $3-billion plan to fund embryonic
stem-cell research say that the proposal would give researchers carte
blanche to rewrite well-established ethical guidelines to suit their
needs.
They say the research institute planned
under the initiative will be exempt from legislative supervision and,
if established, will be able to make its own rules about conflicts of
interest and informed consent.
Proponents are
reacting angrily to the charges, saying that the proposal provides the
highest possible level of accountability and will serve as a model of
how science can be funded at the state level.
The
California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative will appear as
Proposition 71 on the ballot in the elections due on 2 November. If
passed, it will authorize a bond issue of nearly $3 billion over ten
years to fund embryonic stem-cell research and infrastructure. It will
create the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to distribute
the funds.
But public opinion is sharply divided on
the proposition, with 45% in favour and 42% opposed. A California
columnist has branded it an "audacious raid on the...
Related Articles
By Gregory Laub and Hannah Glaser, MedPage Today | 08.07.2025
In this MedPage Today interview, Leigh Turner, PhD, a professor of health policy and bioethics at the University of California Irvine, unpacks the growing influence of stem cell clinics and the blurred line between medicine and marketing. He explains how...
By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 06.20.2025
A single infusion of a stem cell-based treatment may have cured 10 out of 12 people with the most severe form of type 1 diabetes. One year later, these 10 patients no longer need insulin. The other two patients need...
By Christina Jewett, The New York Times | 06.05.2025
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently declared that he wanted to expand access to experimental therapies but conceded that they could be risky or fraudulent.
In a podcast with Gary Brecka, who describes himself as a longevity expert...
By Mike Baker, The New York Times | 02.25.2025
As investigators struggled for weeks to find who might have committed the brutal stabbings of four University of Idaho students in the fall of 2022, they were focused on a key piece of evidence: DNA on a knife sheath that...
