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Supporting Unsubsidized Stem-Cell Research

Boston University economist Jeffrey Miron has an excellent op-ed in today’s Boston Globe. In it, he argues that stem-cell research is worthwhile and ought to be legal – but that government subsidies to such research undermine the effectiveness of scientific research using stem-cells, as well as public support for keeping this research legal.

Miron also backs his case with the plausible claim that the profit-potential of successful stem-cell research means that the public-goods argument for government subsidies on this front is especially weak. He reports that "A research team at Harvard University, for example, has recently produced 17 new stem cell lines using funding only from private sources."

Read the entire op-ed.

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