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GUEST: John M. Simpson, the Stem-cell Project Director for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.

Proposition 71, the Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, was passed by Californian voters in November 2004. The proposition allocates three billion dollars of taxpayers’ money for the public funding of stem cell research. But the language of the proposition omitted public accountability and transparency protections. Some biotech firm executives have scoffed at public-interest proposals that would put oversight conditions on research grants. Meanwhile, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a California based non-profit consumer watchdog group, has called for for full public disclosure, and the strengthening of conflict of interests rules for members who advise the stem cell oversight committee.

For more information visit www.consumerwatchdog.org.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“Only by continued oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot; only by un-intermitted agitation can a people be sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity.” – Wendell Phillips