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CA Supreme Court Clears the Way for Stem Cell Grants
Thursday,
17 May 2007
Finally the battle over the Californian stem cell program is over. The
California Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to take up the case, already
decided in the lower courts. In this way they cleared the way for the state
to start selling their proposed $3 billion in bonds. This will finance the
research grants distributed by CIRM over the next ten years.
Robert Klein, who authored
Proposition 71 and serves as chairman of the agency's governing board, said
the court's decision frees up the entire $3 billion, providing California
with more resources for stem cell research than any nation in the world.
Still, Klein said, the Bush administration's policy of barring any federal
funding for embryonic stem cell research is blocking facilities in other
states from moving forward.
"The key message is that
California is free from these limitations imposed by the extreme right for
ideological reasons and this nation needs to be free from these
unreasonable restraints," he said.
"Everyone with a family member
suffering from chronic disease needs the entire nation working on
therapies, not just one state."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
applauded the decision.
"Today's action by the
California Supreme Court is a victory for our state because potentially
life-saving science can continue without a shadow of legal doubt,"
Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
"This decision reaffirms voters
will to keep California on the forefront of embryonic stem cell
research," Schwarzenegger added.
Irving
Weissman, MD, director of Stanford’s Institute for Stem Cell
Biology and Regenerative Medicine, applauded the California Supreme
Court’s decision not to hear a case against the CIRM, thereby allowing the state to move
forward in funding stem cell research.
“A lot of people have been held back
from doing the kind of research that we know inevitably will save lives,”
he said.
Weissman added that the legal delays were instigated by out-of-state
interests.
“Possible paths to understanding and
treating horrible diseases have been stopped, against the will of the
California public,” he said.
“We hope this decision will free CIRM
to sell bonds, and to allow the construction of facilities and recruitment
of people to do the research,” he said.
A spokesman for state Treasurer Bill
Lockyer said his office aims to begin selling the general obligation
debt as soon as possible.
"At this point, the treasurer
intends to move as expeditiously as possible to issue Prop. 71 bonds,"
Lockyer spokesman Tom Dresslar told Reuters.
Voters approved Proposition 71 in 2004 to set up the institute, which
opponents had challenged in a long-running lawsuit in state court, delaying
the sale of the bonds. Voters approved the institute amid controversy over
whether the state should sell bonds to back research using embryonic stem
cells. In practical terms, the resolution of the suit means the agency can
now borrow money from Wall Street bond dealers.
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