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If daily journalism is the rough draft of history, then a compilation of daily reports on the stem cell wars, with links to audio interviews of the main characters in those wars, is a second draft.

That's what you're got here: a compilation of 100 or so articles, featuring audio interviews, covering the battle over the passage of Proposition 71; second thoughts about it after it passed; the struggle over the formation of the Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee (ICOC) and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM); efforts to locate the CIRM in cyberspace; the lawsuits brought to shut down the project; South Korean breakthroughs; the shifting of the battle to Washington, D.C.; and the latest maneuverings and arguments of the lawyers on all sides who now hold center stage in this conflict.

The point of including contemporaneous and comprehensive audio interviews with the participants in these struggles is to let each of them speak in his or her own words, and, thereby, give the listener an opportunity to hear first-hand the arguments on all sides and the information they need to decide how they themselves feel about the issues involved.

To quote one of the most recent of these reports:

"Some people may believe that destroying that object [a human embryo or the product of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)] to harvest blastocystic stem cells (as we now call them) is tantamount to, the moral equivalent and a clear case of murdering innocent unborn children, while others may believe it is something that must be done with dignity but nevertheless ought to be done (and/or publicly funded) because of the promise it holds to alleviate human suffering, prolong life, and/or revitalize California's bio-tech sector.

"Honest people of good will can hold either of these two positions, but no good is served by obscuring and confusing what is involved. Things need to be called by their proper names and the objective and factual nature of what is proposed to be done needs to be understood by everyone participating in this discussion/debate. Only then can serious ethical discussions leading to principled political decisions take place."

Here's nother brief quote, which ends the most recent article:

"The essence of this [consolidated reverse invalidation action] case is that, under the terms of Proposition 71, the State of California was to issue and be responsible for the repayment of (at least) $6 billion to cover the cost of raising $3 billion from bond sales for the ICOC to spend, while the ICOC was to exist and operate independently of the bureaucratic and political control of the State of California, its elected officials, and the voter/taxpayers these officials represent."

More of this is on the way. Reading and listening to what's contained here will provide you with a solid understanding of what's happened so far and help prepare you for whatever level of involvement you feel is appropriate during the further evolution of the various campaigns that make up the Stem Cell Wars.

Accordingly, this compilation of reports from the various bio-medical, ethical, legal and political fronts is called Stem Cell Wars, Volume 1.

Marc Strassman
Studio City, California
August 28, 2005

Living organisms have been successfully reproducing themselves on Earth for billions of years, but it wasn't until 1998 that James Thompson, "a developmental biologist and veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, made history…when he and fellow researchers derived the first embryonic stem cell lines from frozen human embryos."

On September 22, 2002, California Governor Gray Davis "signed Senate Bill 253 (Ortiz) which affirms state policy allowing human stem cell research." In 2003, California State Senator Deborah Ortiz sponsored three additional and related bills to support stem cell research in California.

One of these bills, SB 788, according to a May 9, 2003, article in the San Francisco Business Times, "would create a mechanism for funding facilities and research for stem cells through general obligation bonds. No amount has been attached to the legislation yet, but capitol staffers say funding could add up to $1 billion over a 10-year period. The funding would be available to private and public sector researchers. Companion bill SB 332 would establish a research council that would develop guidelines for stem cell research in the state, and SB 771 would establish a state-level embryo registry for stem cell research." These bills failed.

In 2004, a group of patient advocacy organizations, bio-tech companies, and venture capitalists, led by attorney Robert Klein, wrote and successfully qualified for the ballot Proposition 71, a ballot initiative to establish the "'California Institute for Regenerative Medicine' to regulate stem cell research and provide funding, through grants and loans, for such research and research facilities."

For the complete text of Proposition 71, click here.

Etopia Media News Networks (EMNN) responded by creating a web site called Stem Cell World and conducting an interview on August 14, 2004, with stem cell researcher Evan Snyder, Director of the Burnham Institute's Stem Cell and Regeneration program, who provided an introduction to the world of stem cells.