The Stem Cell Initiative - The Public’s Business

As a senior citizen of the state of Wisconsin whose family suffers from three serious cell-based diseases and who has been working with both private and public officials in support of public funding for stem cell research in Wisconsin, I was deeply disappointed when my Governor in his State of the State address looked our legislators and the citizens of Wisconsin in the eye and boasted that Wisconsin has stayed at the forefront of stem-cell innovation “because we kept politicians out of it.”

I have to assume that the “we” was referring to you and I the citizens of Wisconsin. Or did the “we” refer to his Administration? In either case, I predict that there will be a time in the not too distant future when the taxpayers and the health consumers of this state will deeply regret that the people and their representatives acquiesced and remained disengaged while the most critical health policy issues were left unaddressed.

How can the citizens of this state and our policy makers remain disengaged around a human health concern having to do with the essence of life itself? If not us – the citizens through our legislature - then who will decide? While I support our free market place and the critical role that private enterprise including venture capitalists and foundations will and must play if Wisconsin’s stem cell programs is to succeed, as a citizen I am not about to support anyone who advocates that citizens and their policy makers withdraw from the public square on this or any other vital public issue.

As much as I admire Dr. James Thomson and his team of talented and dedicated scientists, they nor UW-Madison university research community or the biotech/pharmaceutical industry CEOs, can be left to mind the people’s business relating to how best to fund stem cell research and to ensure that the taxpayers and future health consumers of this state’s needs and interests are fairly represented.

Corporate media is trying to distract us from this issue by framing it primarily an economic answer to all our problems. They would prefer that the citizen see the chief public benefit for their investment in terms of the trickle down effect and the promise of future job creation. While this sexy public benefit policy being dangled before us is very compelling and worthy indeed, it is one that is far too narrow and short-sighted.

Further allocation of public tax incentives and innovation grants must be accompanied with accountability and public benefit requirements, including intellectual property rights (ownership rules), public disclosure and conflict of interest safeguards. To continue to focus primarily around job creation outcomes and ignore the State’s present health care crisis is short sighted and irresponsible.

Now is the time for our policymakers to decide whether the miracle cures promised will be made accessible and affordable to Wisconsin families with cell-based diseases. The answer to this question must be reflected in the language of the state’s financial and tax research innovation incentives now being proposed? “Asking the grantees to do the right thing after giving away the farm is like asking the fox to cough up the chickens after giving him the key to the hen house.”

If Wisconsin truly is to remain at the forefront in its stem cell initiative, like California and many other states, we will set about immediately to fill the policy gaps referred to above. Without legislative leadership we should not expect that cell-based therapies and drugs derived from this research will eventually benefit all of us as health consumers and taxpayers?

Hopefully one year from now when our governor again gives his State of the State address he will be able to thank your legislators and mine for building a policy platform that will match the genius of our science and insure that Wisconsin’s stem cell program remains at the forefront of both stem cell and health care policy innovation.

Submitted to the Wisconsin State Journal 2/1/08