FROM:
Time
Monday, May. 17, 2004
Stem-Cell Rebels
The battle over a controversial line of medical research resurfaces as
states strike out on their own

By Margot Roosevelt
Katie Zucker, 16, has sky blue eyes, wild curly hair and a dazzling
smile. She is a champion equestrian and an A student. Her parents are
doting, her friends devoted. So what's not to envy? Well, there's the
small rectangular box attached to her belt that pumps insulin through a
tube into her hip. To test her blood, she pricks her finger seven times a
day. "It's scary," she says. "If your blood sugar goes too low, you could
go into a coma." Sometimes at school her eyes swell, and she can't see
the blackboard. She knows that her diabetes can result in kidney failure,
amputation and blindness. But mostly, she says, "I try to think it won't
affect me too much in the future."

If there's any hope for a cure for Zucker and more than 1 million other
Americans with Type 1 diabetes, the most debilitating form of the
disease, it may lie in a revolutionary new field of research based on
manipulating human embryonic stem cells. These building blocks of life,
when isolated in a microscopic cluster of cells, can morph into any kind
of tissue. (So-called adult stem cells, which can be harvested without
sacrificing embryos, can turn into only a few tissue types.) One day,
scientists hope, the entire genetic makeup of a patient like Zucker could
be transferred into a cloned human egg that can produce the
insulin-producing cells her body lacks.

But some religious groups believe the clumps of 100 to 200 cells from
which embryonic stem cells are taken represent a potential human life as
worthy of protection as any child's. Three years ago, President George W.
Bush, under pressure from both sides, adopted a compromise that ended up
choking off most federal research funds to the field. He said at the time
that although the research offered "great promise" in saving lives, it
could lead to "growing human beings for spare body parts."

Today a brush-fire challenge to Bush's stem-cell policy is spreading
across the U.S., fueled by the frustration of such families as Zucker's
who have allied themselves with patient activists for other diseases,
major universities, several state legislatures and members of Congress.
Last month 206 U.S. Representatives wrote to the President, calling on
him to fund stem-cell research on spare embryos from a pool of some
400,000 stored in the freezers of in vitro fertilization clinics. These
embryos, only a few days old and smaller than the head of a pin, will
probably be discarded unless they are donated to science. Embryonic stem
cells, the letter noted, can be used to treat "diseases that affect more
than 100 million Americans, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes,
Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury ..." The
signatories included two dozen pro-life Republicans.

Given the emotional nature of the debate, the Bush White House is
unlikely to make any sudden moves before the November election. But in a
startling rebellion against the federal biomedical establishment, several
states are moving forcefully into the vacuum. California and New Jersey
have passed laws specifically authorizing the cloning of human eggs to
create stem cells (so-called therapeutic cloning), and the legislatures
of seven other states, including Illinois and New York, are considering
similar bills. This week New Jersey Governor James McGreevey, in a nod to
the state's pharmaceutical industry, will inaugurate a $50 million
stem-cell institute to be funded with state and private money. In
California, activists last month submitted 1.1 million signatures ?
nearly twice as many as necessary ? to launch a November ballot measure
that would underwrite stem-cell research with $3 billion in state bonds
over 10 years. The California funds would dwarf federal grants, which
have stalled at about $17 million a year for human embryonic research
since Bush restricted funding to a few dozen pre-existing stem-cell
lines. Only 19 of those turned out to be available. Says Stanford Nobel
prizewinner Paul Berg: "California is paving the way for a revolt in a
lot of other states."

Meanwhile, universities are maneuvering for position, fearing that they
could lose their brightest scientists to programs overseas. It was only
six years ago that a biologist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison,
James Thomson, isolated the first human stem cells from in vitro embryos.
But in February, South Korean researchers stunned the scientific world by
successfully harvesting stem cells from cloned human embryos ? considered
the most promising avenue for treating disease. A prestigious American
investigator moved to Britain, where the research is encouraged. Now
Stanford and Harvard hope to raise at least $100 million each for new
stem-cell institutes. The universities of Wisconsin and Minnesota are
expanding their labs, and in March an anonymous donor gave $25 million to
the University of Texas to boost its Houston program.

Billions of dollars are at stake in the race for medical cures.
California boasts half of the nation's biomedical research capacity and
one-third of its biotech companies. The bond initiative, if it passes,
would pay to build 12 to 15 new stem-cell research centers, a massive
magnet for scientific talent. "California will be the center of stem-cell
research for the world," predicts Palo Alto real estate developer Robert
Klein, co-chairman of the initiative campaign. Klein, who has contributed
$1.4 million of his money toward the effort, touts the economic benefits,
forecasting $70 million in tax revenues from new jobs even before any
cures are discovered. And if cures are found, the profits would accrue to
California companies, along with substantial savings on the state's $114
billion annual health-care bill.

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."


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