Monday, April 27, 2009

CIRM Panel to Debate NIH Rules This Morning

The San Francisco Chronicle this morning carried a stout defense of the NIH's proposed rules for human embryonic stem cell research just hours before the California stem cell agency is scheduled to debate the proposal.

The proposed regulations, opposed by some scientists in California, were endorsed Jesse Reynolds of the Center for Genetics and Society of Oakland, Ca., in an op-ed piece in the Chronicle.

Reynolds said the proposals were thoughtful and the "right thing to do."

He said that that barring federal funds for cloning-based stem cell research would help to prevent creation of a technical foundation for reproductive cloning, which "continues to tempt rogue scientists."

The CIRM directors Legislative Subcommittee is scheduled to take up the NIH proposal at 7:30 a.m. PDT today. The agency has only posted a cryptic agenda item on the subject and has not offered to the public any analysis of the regulations or a rationale for why CIRM should take a position on the federal plan.

We will have coverage of the meeting later today.

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