Carl Kallsen of Fort Wayne, Indiana, has two granddaughters with Type I diabetes: Kendall, 6, and Kelsea, 13. After they were diagnosed, he got involved with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In the campaign for expanded federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research, few organizations have been more active in public than the JDRF. Earlier this year, Kallsen told the JDRF that he was taking his family to Washington, D.C. The family wanted to meet with their congressman, Republican representative Mark Souder, an opponent of the funding. The JDRF set up the meeting, and the family, armed with the information the organization had provided them, went to Souder's office on June 15.
The meeting with Souder did not go exactly as planned. They didn't persuade Souder to support the funding. Instead, he persuaded them to oppose it.
