Campus & Community

Authors fight misinformation on stem cell science

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California’s Proposition 71, which committed the state to raising $3 billion for stem cell research, was a public policy ‘atom bomb that shifted the embryonic stem cell research debate from ‘whether to ‘how, the author of a book on the issue said Monday (Dec. 11).

Michael Bellomo, author of ‘The Stem Cell Divide: The Facts, the Fiction and the Fear Driving the Greatest Scientific, Political and Religious Debate of Our Time (2006), equated California’s action to a state stepping up and saying it would fund an expedition to the moon had the federal government declined the challenge in the 1960s.

Since California’s action, several other states have considered funding stem cell science, Bellomo said, shifting the conversation from whether to do the research to how much it will cost.

Bellomo was one of three authors of recent books on the stem cell debate who appeared at a community outreach event sponsored by the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. The event, held at the Radcliffe Gymnasium Conference Room, also featured Eve Herold, author of ‘The Stem Cell Wars (2006), and Christopher Thomas Scott, author of ‘Stem Cell Now (2005).