New Jersey acting Gov. Richard Codey announced plans to create an ethics panel headed by University President Emeritus Harold Shapiro GS '64 to oversee state-sponsored stem cell research in a speech at the Wilson School on Friday.
Codey, a vocal advocate for state-sponsored stem cell research, said the state "cannot afford to wait" before it budgets additional money for stem cell research.
"Science and the benefits of this research, economically and on a human level, cannot be put on hold until New Jersey's financial stars align," he said. "Right now New Jersey is ahead of the curve, but other states are already catching up."
Codey's speech was part of "States and Stem Cells," a symposium about the economic and political implications of state-sponsored research on stem cells.
Sponsored by the Wilson School's Policy Research Institute for the Region (PRIR) and the New York Academy of Sciences, the conference was "among the first to bring policymakers, venture capitalists and the business community together with leading scholars in an attempt to understand the policy implications of these increasingly popular state efforts," PRIR assistant director Udai Tambar said in an email.
Paul Berg, a Nobel laureate in chemistry, opened the symposium with a keynote speech on his experience as an adviser to California's Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, the group that organized implementation of the state's $3 billion stem cell initiative.
Other speakers included University professors of molecular biology and public affairs Leon Rosenberg and Lee Silver and economics professor Uwe Reinhardt — as well as business, medical and nonprofit leaders from New Jersey and New York.
In his State of the State speech in January, Codey proposed the construction of a $150 million stem cell research center in New Brunswick and the allocation of an additional $230 million for research grants through a bond initiative.
The funding for construction must be approved by the state legislature, and the bond measure is set to appear on the November ballot.
The panel will review grant proposals before financing can be approved, but another panel will be created to evaluate the scientific merit of grant applications, the governor said.
Shapiro will bring five years of experience as chairman of the Clinton administration's National Bioethics Advisory Commission to his post. The commission studied issues related to human cloning, research on mentally handicapped people and research using human biological materials, in addition to human stem cell research.
Though speakers at Friday's conference generally discussed stem cell research from a policy perspective, audience members' personal narratives pleading for additional funds for state-sponsored research brought the controversial issue back to the human level.
Patricia Riccio, a member of the New Jersey Citizens Coalition for Cures, a group lobbying the legislature to pass the $150 million bill, told the story of her teenage son, paralyzed from the neck down during a wrestling match two years ago.
"I want my son to walk someday," she said. "I want it to be yesterday, but I will take tomorrow."
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