{"id":1063444,"date":"2013-02-10T02:55:19","date_gmt":"2013-02-10T07:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.longevitymedicine.tv\/stem-cell-agency-board-member-defends-independence-of-many-on-board\/"},"modified":"2024-08-17T20:29:34","modified_gmt":"2024-08-18T00:29:34","slug":"stem-cell-agency-board-member-defends-independence-of-many-on-board-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/stem-cell-therapy\/stem-cell-agency-board-member-defends-independence-of-many-on-board-2.php","title":{"rendered":"Stem Cell Agency Board Member Defends Independence of Many on Board"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A member of the governing board of the<br>California stem cell agency is taking exception to a statement on the<br><b>California Stem Cell Report<\/b> that no independent members sit on that<br>body.<\/p><div><\/div><div><b>Francisco Prieto<\/b>, a Sacramento<br>physician and a patient advocate member of the board, referred to the<br><a href=\"http:\/\/californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com\/2013\/02\/riverside-newspaper-ethical-minefield.html\">&ldquo;ethical minefield&rdquo; item Feb. 5, 2013<\/a>. Here is the text of what<br>Prieto wrote,<\/div><blockquote><p>&ldquo;I have to object to this line:&nbsp;'None<br>of the current members are independent. The ballot measure that<br>created the agency required board members to be appointed from<br>various constituencies.'&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote><blockquote><p>&ldquo;I think I am absolutely independent,<br>and I think the same applies at the very least to most if not all of<br>my fellow patient advocates, and probably to the biotech<br>representatives as well &ndash; remember that they all must come from<br>companies that are not involved in stem cell research.&nbsp; Although<br>I supported the proposition, I was not involved directly in the<br>campaign in any way, and I did not meet <b>Bob Klein <\/b>(the first chairman of the stem cell board<b>)<\/b>&nbsp;or any of my fellow<br>board members until the day I was sworn in at our first meeting.<\/p><\/blockquote><blockquote><p>&ldquo;The <b>Prop. 71<\/b> language I believe<br>specifies that advocates must have a record of advocating for people<br>with the disease or diseases they represent, and not that they belong<br>to or work for any specific organization. &nbsp;Checking my binder,<br>it refers to 'groups' but does not specify those &ndash; for example, it<br>refers to 'representative of a California regional, state or national<br>HIV\/AIDS disease advocacy group.'  I&rsquo;m not sure how you would<br>define 'independent' but I certainly don&rsquo;t think it means<br>'disinterested.'&rdquo;<\/p><\/blockquote><div>Our take: The <b>Institute of Medicine(IOM)<\/b> called for a new majority of what it described as independent<br>members, obviously not finding sufficient, if any, independent<br>members on the agency board.  The IOM, the most prestigious organization of<br>its kind in the country, said changes were needed because of damaging<br>conflict of interest issues at the stem cell agency.<\/div><div><\/div><div>Prop. 71, which created the stem cell<br>agency in 2004, was carefully crafted to avoid the use of the word<br>&ldquo;independent&rdquo; when describing the necessary qualifications for a<br>board member.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;Instead  the measure required that, in some cases, they<br>must come from very specific education institutions. (<a href=\"http:\/\/cirm.ca.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/files\/agenda\/Agedna%20Item%20%235%20Memo%20with%20Exs.%20to%20Board%20re%20IOM%20Discussion%20at%20Board%20Workshop.pdf\">You can find the CIRM summary of all qualifications within this document.)&nbsp;<\/a>In other cases, the speaker of the<br>state Assembly appoints  &ldquo;one representative of a California<br>regional, state, or national mental health disease advocacy group.&rdquo;<br>The leader of the state Senate appoints &ldquo;one representative of a<br>California regional, state, or national HIV\/AIDS disease advocacy<br>group. &ldquo; Four other statewide elected officials appoint an<br>executive from a &ldquo;California life science commercial entity.&rdquo;<\/div><div><\/div><div>Prieto is correct when he says he<br>believes he is &ldquo;absolutely independent.&rdquo; But he fills a category<br>that represents a special constituency.  What is missing from the<br>board is anyone who does not come from one special constituency or<br>another.  The board was constructed in that manner to make sure it<br>would win the broadest measure of support from all the various major<br>constituencies by guaranteeing them a seat at the table where the<br>money is handed out. &nbsp;Ironically, the full formal name of the CIRM governing board is the \"<b>Independent Citizens Oversight Committee<\/b>,\" a piece of political legerdemain to mask the actual nature of who would sit on the board.&nbsp;<\/div><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.longevitymedicine.tv\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/94dd1_1YDDznoTw4E\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\">Source:<br><a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/blogspot\/uqpFc\/~3\/1YDDznoTw4E\/stem-cell-agency-board-member-defends.html\">http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/blogspot\/uqpFc\/~3\/1YDDznoTw4E\/stem-cell-agency-board-member-defends.html<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A member of the governing board of theCalifornia stem cell agency is taking exception to a statement on theCalifornia Stem Cell Report that no independent members sit on thatbody.Francisco Prieto, a Sacramentophysician and a patient advocate member of the board, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/stem-cell-therapy\/stem-cell-agency-board-member-defends-independence-of-many-on-board-2.php\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1246878],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1063444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stem-cell-therapy","category-stem-cells"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063444"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1063444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1063444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1063444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1063444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}