Stepping Out of Line in Stem Cell Research
There's no doubt that the emerging revolution in life sciences will profoundly transform society in the coming decades. The question Californians now need to ask themselves is whether they want to abdicate control of this transformation and hand it over entirely to scientists and the private sector. If they do, then Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act, is the way to go.
Biomedical scientists, patient advocacy groups and others have reason to be frustrated by the restrictions President Bush has placed on stem cell research. But Proposition 71 asks voters to cure these frustrations by undermining their own democratic safeguards and institutions.
Proposition 71 creates an unprecedented state constitutional "right to conduct stem cell research." It sets aside $3 billion of public spending for stem cell research -- and then insulates that money from meaningful public or legislative accountability. It creates an oversight body -- the misnamed Independent Citizen's Oversight Committee -- but then stacks that body with those who benefit directly and indirectly from the initiative. And it specifically precludes any amendments of the initiative for three years -- and even then allows them only with a 70% supermajority of the Legislature.
In other words, Proposition 71 would put stem cell research out of the reach of democracy -- in a move that would seriously undermine the unwritten social contract that exists between government and science in this country.
Under that social contract, the federal government increased its annual investment in basic scientific research from about $265 million in the early 1950s to close to $30 billion today (or a 2,000% increase after accounting for inflation), while affording scientists considerable protection from direct political interference in their work. In return, the world's most productive research enterprise has delivered to Americans enormous benefits, such as childhood vaccines and the Internet.
But underpinning this contract is an understanding that scientists are accountable not just to themselves but to society, to democratic processes and, ultimately, to the public will. This core of public accountability has been good for science and for society in three important ways.
