CA: Stem cell effort mired in legal bog, global scandal (Prop 71)

SFGate.com ^ | 1/22/06 | Carl T. Hall

[NormsRevenge]

California's Proposition 71 program was intended to create a $3 billion West Coast counterpart to the National Institutes of Health empowered to go where the NIH could not: full steam into the new field of biomedical research centered on human embryonic stem cells.

Instead, the program has gotten stuck in a seemingly endless legal morass. Although state officials say they are optimistic about their chances in court, it's expected that the program will take at least 15 more months to slog through appeals and start issuing the first major grants. Meanwhile, revelations of faked cloning research in South Korea have set back the scientific agenda and scandalized the entire stem cell field.

--snip--

Universities have had to put construction plans on extended hold because of Prop. 71's slow start, while researchers seek other sources of grants to tide them over. At the same time, the nation's main font of medical research grants, the NIH, is implementing cutbacks after its first budget reduction since 1970.

And because of the Bush administration ban on grants for research on early-stage human embryos, the NIH isn't even an option for scientists working with most human embryonic stem cells.

--snip--

When Robert Klein, mastermind of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, put his considerable force behind Prop. 71, he called it a once-in-a-lifetime chance to "impact human suffering in a really fundamental way."

That's why he sought enough financial resources and independent decision-making to get the stem cell field going -- stepping foursquare into the void created by the Bush administration's stem cell policy.

Now, the state effort is a magnet for attacks. Research advocates in other states view Prop. 71 not as a model to emulate, but as one to avoid.

[Carry_Okie]

California's Proposition 71 program was intended to create a $3 billion West Coast counterpart to the National Institutes of Health... Instead, the program has gotten stuck in a seemingly endless legal morass.

$3 billion worth of blood in the water.

Anybody surprised at this should rescind their voter registration on grounds of mental incompetence.

[muawiyah]

I recall predicting this.

[Carry_Okie]

I recall predicting this.

I don't doubt it. It was obvious.

[Lancey Howard]

The whole "embryonic stem cell" con is nothing more than a bogus battle front for the abortion industry's propaganda machine. It staggers the mind how many "scientists", with greed in their eyes for government "grant money", are willing to throw their shame and their decency aside and jump on the corrupt abortion industry bandwagon.

[Lancey Howard]

The Stem Cell Cover-Up

[Mount Athos]

The insanity of the california initiative is that it absolutely requires research only be done on EMBRYONIC (Abortion) stem cells. It doesn't matter if ethical sources of (adult) stem cells prove equally or even more effective, they cannot receive any funding under this initiative.

[calcowgirl]

Giving the benefit of $6 billion of taxpayer dollars to an unaccountable agency
for an unproven science was certainly insanity.

[Penner]

Meanwhile, revelations of faked cloning research in South Korea have set back the scientific agenda and scandalized the entire stem cell field.

Yes, this initiative was a scam from the get-go.

Snake Oil for the over-socialized.

Still shaking my head.

[jiggyboy]

Man we jumped at this like a fish at a fly. It was "state money" that was going to be spent, you see. I actually heard a girl pointing that out to her friend when I was in line somewhere.