Cloning, still a sensitive issue for California

In November 2004 California decided to spend around $6 billion (including interest charges) on cloning and embryonic stem-cell research. The campaign was strangely sustained by Gov. Schwarzenegger, and driven by some of the worst hype in the history of American politics.

Popeple were given hopes and promised cures and also cash returns on their investment—within five years. Investors aren't committing billions of dollars in cloning and embryonic-stem-cell research because society hasn't clearly decided whether the research is moral, the field is too risky and researchers don't know how to do it cheaply, conveniently, or consistently enough to make it a viable business.

Some stem cell researchers say cloning human embryos in petri dishes will help them better understand diseases. Cloning also may offer a way to avoid immune-system rejection after transplanting replacement tissue in sick people. The scientists universally oppose cloning to create babies.

Supporters of the proposition, including Deborah Ortiz, have drawn attention on some huge problems raising, such as the fact that profits from any "cures" that result will not go to the state and that poor women may be used as egg farms by researchers.

Now there are two new key issues debated, the first being the fact that the governor has terminated a modest effort led by Ortiz and others to tackle some of the most scandalous aspects of the project. The aim is to protect women from having their eggs harvested, an issue that has brought pro-choice and pro-life advocates together. It also sought to tighten audit requirements.

"Much of the California electorate was sold last year on the idea that human embryonic stem-cells might be turned into amazing cures for incurable diseases, propelling Prop. 71 to easy victory in the Nov. 2004 election. Now, it's increasingly clear that stem-cell transplants for diabetes or Parkinson's or Alzheimer's are nowhere close, maybe decades away," says Carl Hall, science writer, citing embryologist Rudi Jaenisch of MIT who believes that the focus now is on using cloned embryos as disease models—in other words, for basic research.

Dr. Hwang, the Korean scientist who has grabbed the world's attention by cloning human embryos for research and cloning a dog for birth, came with the idea of letting scientists write their own ethics code and he is working on a 10-point ethics "charter."

Adult stem-cell research is advancing at a breathtaking pace, and indeed, is already in early human trials. The CSCRCA pushes adult stem-cell research to the back of the line by giving "priority" to funding "research opportunities that cannot or are unlikely to receive timely or sufficient federal funding unencumbered by limitations that would impede the research."

There are no federal funding or significant regulatory impediments to pursuing adult stem-cell research. And the federal government does not fund research into human SCNT at all.

Cloning Still Haunts California