Scamcell Research Update

Well, I sure hope you're sitting down. This is quite a shocker. Seems that the proponents of Prop 71 may have been less than completely forthright.

"It starts to have the look of a bait and switch," said Jesse Reynolds, a spokesman for the Center for Genetics and Society, an Oakland nonprofit organization that supports genetic technology but advocates ethical constraints. It was Klein, the architect of the Prop. 71 campaign, who persuaded voters to commit billions to research during a state budget crisis by saying that the universities and private firms that received stem cell grants would share as much as $1 billion or more in royalties with the state. Newspapers and news services reported that claim, and Klein aired it on PBS' "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.''

But what Klein knew before the election was that such royalty-sharing by the state might be hampered by federal regulations, according to an attorney who helped Klein draft the initiative. Yet he didn't tell voters.