Sir

Your News report “Stanford gift scaled back over federal stem-cell policy” (Nature 413, 5; 2001) notes that Jim Clark, the founder of Netscape, has retracted his $60-million pledge to support a biomedical research centre at Stanford University, in retaliation for President Bush's decision to limit support for stem-cell research. Clark has wasted an opportunity to make good on the boldness inherent in the tradition of strategic private philanthropy.

Private philanthropy, at its best and most influential, is about doing what the government will not do because it is too controversial, risky or unpopular. The Rockefeller Foundation supported population research when timid governments would not. The Parkinson's Disease Foundation nurtured fetal cell transplantation research. The Aaron Diamond Foundation led the way supporting AIDS research.

The federal government must answer to the diverse interests, beliefs and desires of the public. Clark is spending his own money and answers only to himself. Government institutions can have their hands tied by bureaucracy and political expediency. Clark wisely pledged his support to a private institution free from such restraints. The bold response to President Bush's plan shouldn't be withdrawing money — it should be spending it!

So much of the current stem-cell debate is focused on pie-in-the-sky promises or nit-picking technicalities. Let's use private money to fund the research, let's get the data out there, and let's use the scientific findings to guide policy debates. Holding research hostage to a financial game of chicken accomplishes nothing. Clark could have made good on his pledge, upped the ante and challenged others to follow. Taking a stand and mobilizing the vast private wealth of this country — that would be a brave and daring manoeuvre.