Pelosi on Embryonic Stem Cell Research: “We need science, science, science, science, science!”
BY NCViking:
“We need science, science, science, science, science!” Nancy Pelosi says in response to GOP criticism of Obama for lifting the federal funding ban on embryonic stem cell research.
This stuttering may have been from an allergic reaction to Sarah Palin’s speech in Indiana where she was ripping Obama for his actions. Wait a minute, why is Palin out of Alaska? Shouldn’t she be saving polar bears from Global Warming Climate Change? Anyway, Pelosi then goes on to try and equate destroying embryos to universal health care, or something …
“It will take us to a place where we will have personalized, customized care… it will address disparities in health care that exist. And we need science, science, science, science, science in order to do that. So I’m standing my ground.”
“And at a time when we are going forward with affordable, accessible, quality health care for all Americans, the investment in basic biomedical research is really essential – a fundamental principle of that universal access to quality health care.”
“We’re saying science is an answer to our prayers.”
An answer to our prayers, huh? It’s just basic biomedical research, what’s the big deal? The benefits to humanity could be huge! All we need is science and all will be solved for the greater good. Sounds like Scientism not Science.
How about boundaries, boundaries, boundaries, boundaries, boundaries? I like the fictional Dr. Ian Malcom’s take on this from the movie Jurassic Park:
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
I think we could also include politicians in that quote when relating it to this issue. We have been down this road before with Eugenics. Check out the vast collection of high-profile individuals and organizations that endorsed this horribly flawed and immoral concept ‘for the greater good’:
In the USA, eugenic supporters included Theodore Roosevelt, pre-1960’s Democratic Party, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Medical Association and the National Research Council. Research was funded by distinguished philanthropies and carried out at prestigious universities. It was taught in college and high school classrooms. Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood of America to urge the legalization of contraception for the lower classes. In its time eugenics was touted by some as scientific and progressive, the natural application of knowledge about breeding to the arena of human life. Before the realization of death camps in World War II, the idea that eugenics would lead to genocide was not taken seriously by the average American.
Eugenics was supported by Woodrow Wilson, and, in 1907, helped to make Indiana the first of more than thirty states to adopt legislation aimed at compulsory sterilization of certain individuals. Although the law was overturned by the Indiana Supreme Court in 1921, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a Virginia law allowing for the compulsory sterilization of patients of state mental institutions in 1927.
We all know how this finally ended. It should serve as a reminder that science may be a wonderful vehicle for the advancement of knowledge, but it should always be tempered by human reason and morality. Destroying life to improve another’s life is a very slippery slope indeed. Just ask a Ukrainian.
Finally, leave it to Charles Krauthammer to sum it up best:
Science has everything to say about what is possible. Science has nothing to say about what is permissible. Obama’s pretense that he will “restore science to its rightful place” and make science, not ideology, dispositive in moral debates is yet more rhetorical sleight of hand — this time to abdicate decision-making and color his own ideological preferences as authentically “scientific.”
Amen.
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Well said. I agree with Dr. Charles and fictional Dr. Ian. Scientists have no moral authority over the rest of us. In fact, their judgment may be clouded by their ability to make happen what is possible, and possibly immoral.
True science is about discovering the truth. Stem-cell research is probably one of the most overblown areas of investigation in current society. If stem-cell research was a total home run, all private pharmacuetical companies would be pouring almost all R&D money into it. It would not take government funding or encouragement if it were an easy route to cures. While some truly unique and wonderful breakthroughs may be forthcoming, I am not holding my breath awaiting the next miracle.
The total understanding of cellular biology will better focus work in this area but total understanding of cellular biology will bring far more results than simple stem-cell research.
One thing is for sure, politicians will never and, for that matter, can never dictate the course or progress of scienitific discovery. They can at best provide support and encouragement and then stay out of the way!
“If stem-cell research was a total home run, all private pharmacuetical companies would be pouring almost all R&D money into it. It would not take government funding or encouragement if it were an easy route to cures.”
I gotta disagree with your reasoning. Pharm companies R&D funding is down. In the end, they are companies just like everything else. Cures that may spring from stem cell research aren’t going to garner the same profits that the Viagra and Prozac. The profit is in drugs like anti-depressants and trying to find new ways to rebrand and sell them to the general public. R&D into a new area of pharmaceuticals is a risk at anything but certain odds, and unlikely more profitable than the business they are doing now. There is no incentive for them to give it high priority.
You may have a valid point that stem cell research isn’t the way, but the pharm R&D budget isn’t telling of that conclusion.
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