Back in 2004, California voters passed Proposition 71 which allows scientists in California to experiment with stem cell research with human embryos. Furthermore, it pumps $3 billion taxpayer dollars into the funding of this research. Since then $700 million has been spent and even more than that has been raised with private money. Of this $53 million has been given to UC Irvine’s Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center which is on campus. However, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has not been protecting taxpayers’ interest or its own lofty goals. Some members of the CIRM board are people who stand to benefit from the funding. “[This] fuels concerns that the committee never can be entirely free of conflict of interest or self-dealing,” says the Little Hoover Commission Report. The board is too large, consisting of 29 members, it lacks cohesiveness, and board member terms are too long so they don’t allow fresh new perspectives that could help further the advancement of stem cell science. However, what is important is to restructure the CIRM governing board around principles of efficiency and transparency. This way oversight becomes more efficient and it allows the CIRM to focus on finding new ways of helping cure diseases instead of playing God. In times like these, where we are in a serious financial crisis, it would be irresponsible for scientist to be wasting BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars trying to anything but finding medical cures.
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