Stem Cell Research

A brief foray into poliblogging:

Look, the question on the ethics of stem cell research is one on which reasonable people can differ.  I have no problem if you think it should be banned outright, or if you support the Bush administration policy on stem cell research, which is to limit federal funding for such research to the 20 stem cell lines that have already been developed (for the record, I don't for a variety of reasons, but as I noted, reasonable minds can differ on the question).

But I think it's somewhat disingenuous to claim that the Bush policy both correctly resolves the ethical problem while simultaneously allowing meaningful and significant stem cell research.  It just doesn't allow for such research, ok?

Dr. Pa TP is an academic physician who has spent his entire career writing grants, obtaining funding from the NIH and conducting research (some of which you've probably read about, honestly).  Whether you think it ought to be the case or not, a great deal of cutting-edge scientific research in this country is performed at academic medical centers that obtain their needed funding from NIH and the federal government.

Here, it's important to beware of the naturalistic fallacy (confusing "is" with "ought").   Maybe government should be smaller and give less money for research, but it is simply a fact of current scientific research that much of the most cutting-edge research is funded, at least in significant part, by federal monies.

Given that context, it is difficult to overstate the effect that restricting federal funding for research to only 20 adult stem cell lines has on the progress of such research.  It's something of a straw man to point out that privately funded research on stem cells is still possible.  Of course that's true, but the point isn't that stem cell research has been banned or completely halted, but rather that the rate at which the research progresses has been dramatically slowed by the Bush policy.  Without meaningful federal funding, the progess is incremental.

Just today, a breakthrough in stem cell research was announced -- in Korea.

Again, I am not suggesting that reasonable people cannot in good conscience support the Bush policy -- not at all.  I am simply saying that a necessary consequence of that policy is the marked slowing of the rate at which stem cell research can progress.