Stem cell committee urged to slow down

Ethics rules, transparency discussed at 2nd meeting

The committee that will dole out $3 billion in state grants for stem cell research heard yesterday from critics and some of its own members who said the group should slow down in its race to get money to scientists.

As the committee met for the second time, one of the overriding messages from the public and some of the committee members was to start by establishing standards for complicated and weighty issues such as how to reimburse taxpayers for their investment.

"No one wants results to come back faster than I do," said committee member Joan Samuelson, a former lawyer who has Parkinson's disease. "But some of these questions and issues are complicated. Some of the answers may take awhile."

The stem cell initiative that voters approved in November was set up to sidestep the slow crawl of bureaucracy and quickly get money to scientists looking for cures to diseases such as Parkinson's and Lou Gehrig's.

The committee's goal is to write the first check by the end of May, said Robert...