Insights: A Proposition for Stem Cells; September 2005; Scientific American Magazine; by Sally Lehrman; 2 Page(s)

When the oversight board for California's stem cell research agency met in late May, South Korean scientists had just described a breakthrough in so-called therapeutic cloning. David A. Kessler, dean of the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine, pressed fellow board members for clarification. "So we're not cloning human beings?" he asked. "No, we're taking the cells out at a very, very early level of development and cloning cells," answered neuroscientist Zach W. Hall, the state agency's interim president.

With stem cell research under a microscope, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) takes great pains to make its intentions clear. The institute, dreamed up by real estate investment banker Robert Klein and approved as Proposition 71 by voters last November, funds embryonic stem cell research that the federal government will not.