Thursday, May 19, 2005
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle...
That noise you've been hearing is the brain drain starting up in earnest. The New York Times reports that South Korean scientist have streamlined the cloning of human embroys. Reactions among stem cell researchers in the U.S. was very positive, "'It is a tremendous advance,' said Dr. Leonard Zon, a stem cell researcher at Harvard Medical School and president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, who was not involved in the research." Unfortunately not everyone agrees, "Dr. Leon Kass, chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, said in an e-mail message that "whatever its technical merit, this research is morally troubling'." I guess that means no meaningful stem research will be happening in the U.S. anytime soon if Bush & Co. have their way. Remember these are the same "culture of life" people who support the death penalty, research into bunker busting nuclear bombs, and who came up with those innovative interrogation (torture) tactics for the War on Terror. None of which Dr. Kass has come out publicly and declared "morally troubling."
While there are serious ethical issues to consider with the science of human cloning, the bury our heads in the sand approach taken by the Bushies doesn't bode well for the future of science in the U.S. If this keeps up we'll not only be exporting heavy industrial jobs, but high tech jobs as well. Shucks...let's ban the production of or research into computer technologies that could possibly be used in stem cell research while we're at it. Or maybe we should just ditch all that research from the human genome project. Heck, let's just ditch the last hundred years or so of science while we're at it. I have a few scientific advances I'd like to see disappear starting with the atomic bomb because I find that little scientific advancement "morally troubling." Or maybe napalm or maybe plastic explosives or maybe...but research that might cure cancer or asthma or lupus or...? In fact I find the refusal to fund such research "morally troubling."
[Up Date 2:11 PM EST 05-20-05] Georgie joins the fray saying, "I've made it very clear... the use of federal money, taxpayers' money, to promote science which destroys life in order to save life, I'm against that."
And speaking of bill that would increase the number of cell lines eligible for federal funding, Georgie said,
"If the bill does that, I will veto it."
As a friend said recently, "It's telling about Georgie's character the kinds of things he remains steadfast about."
That noise you've been hearing is the brain drain starting up in earnest. The New York Times reports that South Korean scientist have streamlined the cloning of human embroys. Reactions among stem cell researchers in the U.S. was very positive, "'It is a tremendous advance,' said Dr. Leonard Zon, a stem cell researcher at Harvard Medical School and president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, who was not involved in the research." Unfortunately not everyone agrees, "Dr. Leon Kass, chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, said in an e-mail message that "whatever its technical merit, this research is morally troubling'." I guess that means no meaningful stem research will be happening in the U.S. anytime soon if Bush & Co. have their way. Remember these are the same "culture of life" people who support the death penalty, research into bunker busting nuclear bombs, and who came up with those innovative interrogation (torture) tactics for the War on Terror. None of which Dr. Kass has come out publicly and declared "morally troubling."
While there are serious ethical issues to consider with the science of human cloning, the bury our heads in the sand approach taken by the Bushies doesn't bode well for the future of science in the U.S. If this keeps up we'll not only be exporting heavy industrial jobs, but high tech jobs as well. Shucks...let's ban the production of or research into computer technologies that could possibly be used in stem cell research while we're at it. Or maybe we should just ditch all that research from the human genome project. Heck, let's just ditch the last hundred years or so of science while we're at it. I have a few scientific advances I'd like to see disappear starting with the atomic bomb because I find that little scientific advancement "morally troubling." Or maybe napalm or maybe plastic explosives or maybe...but research that might cure cancer or asthma or lupus or...? In fact I find the refusal to fund such research "morally troubling."
[Up Date 2:11 PM EST 05-20-05] Georgie joins the fray saying, "I've made it very clear... the use of federal money, taxpayers' money, to promote science which destroys life in order to save life, I'm against that."
And speaking of bill that would increase the number of cell lines eligible for federal funding, Georgie said,
"If the bill does that, I will veto it."
As a friend said recently, "It's telling about Georgie's character the kinds of things he remains steadfast about."