 |
 |
The source of this story is Contracostatimes.com: http://tinyurl.com/5bht2 Posted on Fri, Jul. 16, 2004 EBay founder's donation backs stem cell research By Paul Elias ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN FRANCISCO - Ebay founder and billionaire Pierre Omidyar and his wife, Pamela, contributed $1 million to the well-heeled campaign supporting Proposition 71, which would make $3 billion available for human embryonic stem cell research in California. The campaign has raised more than $7 million since last year, much of it coming from Silicon Valley venture capitalists. Omidyar is eBay's chairman and founder of the philanthropic Omidyar Foundation, which donates roughly $3 million annually to a wide range of organizations. Efforts to reach Omidyar through his publicists were unsuccessful. An association of California Roman Catholic churches has raised less than $50,000, said spokeswoman Carol Hogan. "This is going to be a real David versus Goliath fight," Hogan said. The church and other groups opposed to abortion also are opposed to the stem cell work because days-old embryos are destroyed during research. Some feminist groups also oppose the research because they fear some women may be exploited because researchers rely heavily on donated eggs. If passed in November, the $3 billion bond would make nearly $300 million available annually for 10 years to California researchers at state schools and biotech companies. That's 10 times greater than the amount of money currently available to stem cell researchers through the federal government and private foundations such as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The California initiative, if passed, would forbid the cloning of embryos to make babies, but would permit it to create stem cells in labs. Scientists believe cloning stem cells would help reduce immune rejection problems in people. The measure would prohibit funding for research that involves the destruction of embryos older than 12 days. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn