[Dean's World] Aziz P: a veto for progress

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Aziz P:
a veto for progress
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1153338543.shtml


   [1]Matoko-chan deseerves some serious props for her stem-cell related
   posts over the past few months - and for her, it's deeply [2]personal.
   As she [3]notes, the argument by the conservatives who are
   [4]applauding the President's impending veto that the need embryonic
   stem cell research (ESCR) is rendered moot by adult stem cell lines
   (ASCR), is bogus. These are complementary technologies, not
   competitive ones. The administration's [5]dishonest statements to the
   contrary, adult lines simply do not have the differentiation potential
   that embryonic lines do - a fact [6]vouched for by 80 Nobel laureates.

   Others may ask, why do we need federal funding? Why can't private
   funding foot the bill? Simply put, because ESCR is the Manhattan
   Project and the Apollo Project rolled into one. ESCR isn't an
   overnight panacea; therefore the immense profits are a long way off,
   far too long a horizon to justify the expense. NASA is why we have
   independent spaceflight companies like Scaled Composites (SpaceShip
   One) and Blue Origin today; the original and ongoing government
   investment is what lowered the risk and created the scientific and
   personnel infrastructure that we will reap benefits from for the next
   hundred years, even as NASA itself declines. Even mighty California, a
   state whose GDP would rank it among the world's wealthiest nations,
   can't sustain via its stem-cell ballot initiative efforts the kind of
   investment over the next several decades that is needed for ESCR to
   bear fruit.

   Others attempt to draw an equivalence between ESCR and organ
   harvesting. Slippery slope, they argue - ignoring the fact that a ban
   on fetal farming pased the Senate by unanimous vote, is expected to
   easily pass the House, and will be signed into law with no fanfare by
   President Bush later this week. Given that ESCR is the exact opposite
   of fetal farming - wherein eventually future generations grow their
   own replacement organs from stem cells harvested at birth - the
   President's veto today makes a black market in harvested organs all
   the more likely.

   Ultimately, today's veto represents a significant repudiation of the
   idea that we can use technology for moral ends. Saving lives, curing
   disease - all using non-viable embryos that would have been discarded
   into the trash and never attained snowflake-baby status - all from the
   biological equivalent of splitting the atom. The history of American
   technology has shown that we as a society have used our immense
   knowledge and advantages for the greater good - that we as a society
   can be trusted with the keys to Pandora's box. However, the
   Administration says otherwise; the Singularity will have to wait.

References

   1. http://quantumghosts.blogspot.com/
   2. http://quantumghosts.blogspot.com/2006/07/alzheimers-nation.html
   3. http://quantumghosts.blogspot.com/2005/09/why-bill-frist-changed-his-mind.html
   4. http://redstate.com/story/2006/7/19/12021/0417
   5. http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_4033656
   6. http://www.aau.edu/research/StemCell3.26.01.html