Stemblog » 2008 » September

California: THE DEFEAT OF SENATE BILL 1565

Category: General — By: Raymond Barglow on September 30, 2008

Don Reed (www.stemcellbattles.com) talks below about the tremendous victory for stem cell research in California. Lots of credit goes to Don and to the patient advocacy group: Americans for Cures Foundation.

September 30, 2008

In the middle of the Wall Street chaos yesterday, as I sat watching CNN, wondering if I was witnessing the collapse of Western civilization, the telephone rang.

It was Amy Daly, co-executive director of Americans for Cures.

“I have news,” she said, “on SB 1565.”

Well, okay, I was sitting down anyway. More bad news would just fit with the rest of the day.

Senate Bill 1565: we patient advocates had been fighting that bill for the past eight months—through six committee hearings in the California Assembly and Senate– losing every step of the way. (Read on …)

Need your help here in California

Category: General — By: Raymond Barglow on September 26, 2008

Listen folks,

We stem cell advocates in California need your help, whether you’re from the Golden state or not.

Wrong-headed bill SB 1565 is on Governor Schwarzenegger’s desk, and he’ll be dealing with it soon. We’re asking him to veto, because the bill will remove the priority being placed on funding of embryonic stem cell research, and also because it contains other harmful provisions. See my blog posting on this subject on Sept. 3.

The governor’s fax number is: 916-558-3160. If you have any doubts your voice can make a difference, or if you just want to see what activists can really do, watch Don Reed’s presentation at: www.stemcellbattles.com.

Thanks,

Raymond Barglow

World Stem Cell Summit — A Report

Category: General — By: Raymond Barglow on September 26, 2008

This report comes to us from Don Reed. I missed the conference myself, but this report provides some compensation for that absence!

Raymond Barglow

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BACKSTAGE AT THE WORLD STEM CELL SUMMIT

Folks:

As anyone who has attended a Bernie Siegel stem cell extravaganza can verify, attendees get more than they could hope for. This year’s World Stem Cell Summit was no exception. Every year I think, this is the ultimate, can’t get any better than this; but it does. Bernie has put on events at the United Nations, Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, and this year the American birthplace of embryonic stem cell research, Madison, Wisconsin.—the Summit deserves its own book (and in fact had one there, to which I contributed a story, “How to Pass a Stem Cell Law”) —but I just don’t have the hours it deserves to write a full description.

Here, then, are only a few impressions.

Dropping off my luggage at the Sheraton Hotel, (being a speaker, I got my room paid for, otherwise I would be Motel Six-ing it as usual), I hurried for the bus—

–to the Governor’s mansion.

How classy is that?

On the drive over, I realized I had missed out on the Lab at the Lake, a hands-on-easy-to-understand tour through stem cell realities. The Summit’s goal was something for everyone: the Lab at the Lake meant folks had a chance to talk with world class scientists as well as personally adjusting a high-power microscope to see stem cells for themselves.

So, anyway, the Governor of Wisconsin had invited us to visit in his official residence. (Read on …)

Stem Cells in California – How Have They Fared Over the Past Four Years?

Category: General — By: Raymond Barglow on September 3, 2008

Science begins in human wonder before the immensity and complexity of the natural world, but then becomes appropriated by social interests that apply its discoveries in humane as well as inhumane ways. So we are right to pay attention to the ethics that underly the development of new technologies. One of the most promising, but also one of the most controversial scientific applications today is the use of stem cells to help us understand and remedy terrible illnesses.

In 2004 California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 71, the “Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative.” This measure authorizes the state of California to invest $3 billion in stem cell research, with the aim of healing diseases and injuries such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, juvenile diabetes, MS, ALS, spinal cord injury, and some forms of cancer and heart disease. (Read on …)