Last year, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) set forth strict rules requiring human embryonic stem cell lines created for federally funded research. But a team of California researchers and bioethicists now say that these rules fail to adequately protect the rights of people who donate sperm or eggs to fertility clinics.

These donors generally sign a waiver giving the recipient of their eggs or sperm unrestricted authority over how to dispose of embryos that result from in vitro fertilization. Donors, however, are rarely told that the embryos could be used in research: Although many state, national, and international scientific committees — including those of California, Canada, Australia and the International Society for Stem Cell Research — have recommended that such third-party donors should give more formalized informed consent for stem cell research, the NIH guidelines, established last July, do not include such a requirement.

The members of the University of California–San Francisco’s Human Gamete, Embryo, and Stem Cell Research Committee argue today in the journal Science that egg and sperm donors should be told of what might happen to their cells before granting blanket approval to IVF recipients to decide on the fate of the embryos. “It’s critical that we consider all parties involved in the creation of embryos and honor their wishes,” says study co-author Arnold Kriegstein, director of the UCSF Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, in a press release.

Meanwhile, a California state senator is also calling for greater accountability for stem cell research. Elaine Kontominas Alquist, a Democratic senator from San Jose, introduced a bill this week aimed at helping taxpayers get a fair return on their $3 billion investment in the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state’s stem cell agency. Among other measures, the proposed legislation would require that intellectual property stemming from CIRM-funded projects go back into the state coffers.

“CIRM is essentially accountable to no one,” Alquist said in a press release. “If a cure or life-saving medicine is discovered using taxpayer dollars, we must be sure that all Californians benefit from that research.”