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Stem cells: missing out on an economic boon?

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

The conclusion of Selling Stem Cell Science: How Markets Drive Law along the Technological Frontier [33 Am. J. L. and Med. 541 (2007)] states:

In the end, the promise of stem cell science will almost certainly prove too alluring for the law to resist. Pushed by private investors and the demands of those who stand to benefit, federal and state restrictions on stem cell research will decline, allowing latter-stage markets to once again trump the moral concerns occasioned by radical technology. Just how quickly this gap will close, however, and how expensive it will be, remain to be seen.

There is text:

Meanwhile, even slow progress in California has led other parts of the country to worry about a potential "brain drain" of top researchers. n195 Gerald Fischbach, dean of Columbia's Medical School, has predicted "an enormous sucking action to California. n196 Other states have rushed to follow California's lead, fearful of missing out on the potential economic boon from stem cells. n197 In May 2004, for instance, Governor James McGreevey of New Jersey announced plans to create a state-funded stem cell institute and provide $ 50 million over five years for research. n198 In December of 2005, New Jersey became the first state to actually fund this research when its Commission on Science and Technology divided $ 5 million in grants among seventeen research teams. n199 Connecticut announced its intention to spend $ 100 million over the next ten years for embryonic and adult stem cell research in June of 2005; in March 2006, the Republican governor of Maryland agreed to sign a bill passed by the Democratic legislature to use state funds for embryonic stem cell research. n200 Other states have subsequently followed suit. n201

The article by Spar and Harrington did not mention the words "Hwang" or "fraud", and the article did not cite 88 JPTOS 239 (2006). Presumably the manuscript was already completed when New Jersey voters rejected the stem cell bond issue in November 2007.

Full post as published by IPBiz on March 02, 2008 (boomark / email).