Testimony on Stem Cell Research Oversight to California State Senate
By Marcy Darnovsky, PhD, Associate Director, Center for Genetics and Society
| 03. 09. 2005
Oversight Hearing on the Implementation of Proposition 71, the Stem Cell Research and Cures Act
To the Joint Hearing of the California Senate Subcommittee on Stem Cell Research Oversight, Senate Health Committee, and Assembly Health Committee:
Thank you for inviting my testimony today. My name is Marcy
Darnovsky. I'm the associate director of the Center for Genetics
and Society, an Oakland-based public interest organization that
works to encourage responsible uses and effective governance
of human biotechnologies. Together with other pro-choice public
interest groups, we support embryonic stem cell research and
public funding for it. Both before and since last November's
election, however, we've felt that we have had to raise a significant
number of concerns about Proposition 71 and the stem cell research
institute it established.
California now finds itself in a unique position with regards
to embryonic stem cell research. Nowhere in the world is this
research being as generously funded as it now is here, by the
people of this state. All of us hope that these funds will be
spent usefully and responsibly in order to develop treatments
and therapies, and to make them affordable and accessible to
the citizens of our...
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