Assured for Now on Stem Cell Agency
It’s much too early to call it buyer’s remorse, but I want some assurance about my vote in November for the stem cell initiative.
Probably like most of the 7 million Californians who voted for Proposition 71, I didn’t pore over every nook and cranny of it. I just knew I liked the potential of stem cell research to fight crippling diseases and was impressed with the scientific, academic and medical heavyweights who backed Proposition 71.
Too old to be totally pie-eyed about things, I don’t mind admitting to falling for the put-a-man-on-the-moon elements of stem cell research.
That potential still fascinates me. Knowing that the federal government isn’t doing much, I’m intrigued by the thinking that California might be the fountain of hope for victims of Parkinson’s, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injuries and other diseases. Proposition 71 calls for doling out $3 billion over 10 years, and the thoughts of what that might buy led me to vote for it.
Recently, though, I’ve grown edgy. Not regretful about my vote, just a tad more skeptical. In broad strokes, the unease comes from the start-up actions of the committee overseeing the effort. It gave the chairmanship to Robert Klein II, who is neither a scientist nor a medical man. Instead, he’s a real estate developer who wrote the initiative and backed it with his own millions. He was the only real candidate.
Besides that, the committee has made me nervous because it has seemed indifferent to any hint of legislative oversight and initially cavalier about the need for complete openness at its board meetings.
I’m not inherently mistrustful of Proposition 71’s powers that be. It’s just that they’re dealing with huge amounts of money and huge amounts of hoped-for results. Just as surely as that formula provided the passion for the initiative, it could create pressure to do things too quickly or too much behind closed doors. History is full of examples of worthy endeavors veering out of control.
Like I said, I merely want assurance. To get some, I phoned James Warsaw, a Newport Beach businessman who made his fortune in a family sports merchandising business and who staunchly supported Proposition 71. I consider Warsaw a highly honorable man; it’s his name on the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. The center promotes business ethics as much as it does business smarts.
Reassure me, I asked him when we talked last week. “I’m reassuring you,” he said.
Warsaw said he wasn’t dismissive of my concerns; he just doesn’t share them.
The makeup of the 29-member oversight committee is of such high quality, Warsaw said, that he’s confident it will do things right. He said Klein is “perfect” for the chairmanship because he understands business. Moreover, the 80 Nobel Prize winners and 150 university presidents who supported Proposition 71, Warsaw said, attest to its potential for medical breakthroughs.
Warsaw, who has Parkinson’s, said the public can be reassured by the presence of the scientists and academics on the committee. “They are not going to go out and risk their reputations” by being clandestine or by betraying the public’s trust, he said.
“The public deserves a close look at what the committee is doing,” he said, but “not at the expense of reducing our commitment to stem cell research as a bona fide vehicle to provide therapies.”
Mindful that powerful forces would love to thwart the California project, Warsaw said its potential should dwarf anyone’s concerns over how its leaders have broken from the gate since election day.
So not to worry?
“The people on the committee are super-qualified,” Warsaw said. “Let them do their job.”
For now, Warsaw’s word is good enough for me.
*
Dana Parsons can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com.
