So what's with the Vatican sending cash
to the California stem cell agency? One would imagine that is an
improbable event since the agency is involved in human embryonic stem
cell research, which is an anathema to the Roman Catholic church.
However, CIRM President Alan Trounson
earlier this week disclosed the payment in an interview with Patt
Morrison of the Los Angeles Times. He said,
“Last year I was invited to the Vatican to present a paper, but when I sent in a summary of what I was going to say, they decided not to have it. They sent a check to the treasurer of California and the treasurer rang us up and said, "What the heck is this check from the Vatican for?" It was for the inconvenience!”
We wanted to know a little more about
this so we queried the agency about the matter. Kevin McCormack, a
CIRM spokesman, said,
“The money was actually a wire transfer from the Vatican to us for $453.23 and it went to CIRM's account. It was to reimburse us for money spent on plane tickets, etc., for Dr. Trounson to attend the Vatican conference on stem cells.”
And yet, John Gurdon was a featured speaker at the Vatican conference this year, and stirred up a lot of chatter in the Catholic press about the immorality of iPSCs..look into it- it's interesting.
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