Stem-Cell Rebels

JUSTIN IDE / HARVARD UNIVERSITY NEWS OFFICE
CULTURED CELLS: Harvard launched a multimillion-dollar center to attract new researchers to the field

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Finances, however, have little to do with Klein's passion for the measure. Like Janet and Jerry Zucker, Katie's parents and the initiative's other chief organizers, Klein is the father of a diabetic, Jordan, 13. In addition, his mother, 84, has Alzheimer's. Distraught at the federal cutoff of stem-cell research, Klein and the Zuckers, who are Los Angeles film producers, were brought together last year by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, one of the nation's most forceful disease-advocacy groups. They hired a clutch of sophisticated lawyers and political consultants to draft the measure and conduct polls. They enlisted allies from Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis, Parkinson's and other disease-advocacy groups and spent $2.5 million gathering signatures for the initiative. Ten Nobel prizewinners have endorsed the measure, including David Baltimore, president of the California Institute of Technology, and Berg, who created the first recombinant DNA molecule. Behind the scenes, Silicon Valley venture capitalists are backing what is expected to be a $20 million campaign.

It will certainly be a celebrity-studded crusade. Last Saturday, the Zuckers and other Hollywood notables were hosts of a Beverly Hills tribute to Nancy Reagan that raised $2 million for stem-cell research. The former First Lady, who took up the cause after her husband developed Alzheimer's, had earlier written to President Bush in favor of federal funding. But this is the first time Mrs. Reagan has spoken out publicly on the issue. Proponents of the California initiative hope that advocacy by an icon of the conservative movement will help neutralize resistance to the November bond measure.

Opponents have barely begun to organize. "We're not Hollywood producers," says Richard Doerflinger, spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "We don't have the money they do." Nonetheless, he says, pro-life groups will explain to voters that embryonic stem-cell cloning is "unpromising for cures" and offers "a gateway to all kinds of possible genetic engineering in humans." Although the California measure would initially limit research to embryos less than 12 days old, Doerflinger contends it could lead to "the exploitation of women as 'fetus farms.'" Such arguments have persuaded eight states, including Iowa, Michigan and Kansas, to restrict therapeutic-cloning research. More dramatically, the U.S. House passed legislation last year that would make cloning human cells a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The bill stalled in the Senate, in part because of opposition from Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, who is antiabortion yet favors stem-cell research.

The initiative's backers plan to run a grass-roots operation urging the 5 million Californians who are members of disease-advocacy groups to e-mail friends and neighbors. A December poll commissioned by organizers showed that 85% of probable voters have a relative or close friend with one of five illnesses most likely to be a target of the research. The possibility of curing such afflictions as Alzheimer's and diabetes will be the focus of a multimillion-dollar statewide television campaign. "This is not a wedge issue," contends state senator Deborah Ortiz, who was attacked by Catholic Church officials, with little effect, for authoring the law to encourage stem-cell inquiry. "Ours will be a heartwarming message: that millions of people might be cured of diseases."

Whatever happens in California is likely to reverberate nationally. Already, breakthroughs in stem-cell science, published almost weekly in medical journals, are ratcheting up the stakes. If the initiative passes in the nation's largest state, "it will put tremendous pressure on the White House to re-evaluate its policy," predicts Daniel Perry, head of the Washington-based Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research. If it doesn't, scientists claim, the work will move to such research-friendly countries as Israel, Singapore and even China.

No one is more aware of the issues than Katie Zucker. A couple of years ago, she visited Congress with her parents to lobby for stem-cell research, and she plans to help generate support for the initiative. "I have dreams and goals in life," she says, fingering her insulin pump. "What keeps me going is that people are working so hard to find a cure."