Sunday, May 22, 2005
Return to the Dark Ages
This Michael Kinsley article in the Washington Post makes me think that yellow dogs need to try to pass a "No Scientist Left Behind" Act. It's pretty pathetic when U.S. scientists are falling behind those in South Korea, as Kinsley (who has Parkinson's disease) explains:
"Imagine what it's like to open the newspaper (as I did Friday morning) and read that scientists in faraway South Korea have made a huge breakthrough toward curing a disease that is slowly wrecking your life. But closer to home, your own government is trying to prevent that cure.
Other nations are racing for the leadership role in stem cell research that the United States has abandoned. And individual states are defying the federal near-ban. So it seems unlikely that U.S. government policy will actually prevent a cure for Parkinson's and other diseases. And it's not too likely that a cure will come in time for most current sufferers in any event. But it might, it might. So if my government merely manages to slow the process down -- as it already has done for years -- that is disheartening."
Kinsley raises an issue that always irks me in this debate--the fact that many embryos produced as a result of in vitro fertilization go unused and are disposed of, but has anyone called for an end to this breakthrough in medical technology that allows women to conceive who can't otherwise? He also raises the "slippery slope" argument of Bushistas that stem cell research on human embryos might lead to cloning. But that would require that Republicans recognize "slippery slope" as a logical fallacy, which would require knowing what a logical argument is. So for now, good riddance to scientific breakthroughs, at least in the good ole USA.
. . . And Fear of the Unknown
"Imagine what it's like to open the newspaper (as I did Friday morning) and read that scientists in faraway South Korea have made a huge breakthrough toward curing a disease that is slowly wrecking your life. But closer to home, your own government is trying to prevent that cure.
Other nations are racing for the leadership role in stem cell research that the United States has abandoned. And individual states are defying the federal near-ban. So it seems unlikely that U.S. government policy will actually prevent a cure for Parkinson's and other diseases. And it's not too likely that a cure will come in time for most current sufferers in any event. But it might, it might. So if my government merely manages to slow the process down -- as it already has done for years -- that is disheartening."
Kinsley raises an issue that always irks me in this debate--the fact that many embryos produced as a result of in vitro fertilization go unused and are disposed of, but has anyone called for an end to this breakthrough in medical technology that allows women to conceive who can't otherwise? He also raises the "slippery slope" argument of Bushistas that stem cell research on human embryos might lead to cloning. But that would require that Republicans recognize "slippery slope" as a logical fallacy, which would require knowing what a logical argument is. So for now, good riddance to scientific breakthroughs, at least in the good ole USA.
. . . And Fear of the Unknown
