Politics, Embryos, and the N.I.H.
If good looks was a minute/ You know that you could've been an hour- Smokey Robinson, 'The Way You Do The Things You Do'
This Tuesday, President Obama reversed the intransigence of the Bush administration and signed legislation which allows federal funding for embryo-derived stem-cell research. Obama heralded the signing as step toward the removal of politics from science. Unless, of course, you want to score political points with those who wished to see this reversal and paint those opponents of this research as religious zealots. And that is the case with this reversal.
The advances which will come from this decision promise to be nothing less than revolutionary. In The Atlantic, William Haseltine writes about the medical advances to come.
Scientists and doctors at Wake Forest have already successfully implanted the first laboratory-made human organs–bladders and urethras. Coming soon: synthetic corneas, heart valves, skin, cartilage, tracheas, and vaginas. More ambitious plans are underway to replace lost digits, muscles, and nerves, and to build entirely new complex organs such as livers, kidneys, and human hearts.
Great, right? We can build replacement organs. Right now, there are a glut of unwanted embryos frozen at fertility clinics across the country. I have no problem with using those embryos to further research.But once we build replacement organs, what’s to stop us from building replacement embryos for our children? Embryos are humans. I don’t think most Americans are comfortable with embryo factories. In Slate, William Saletan defends the position of the other side.
To most of us, the dilemma is more compelling from this angle [from the side of pro-research]. It seems worse to let the girl die for the embryo’s sake than to kill the embryo for the girl’s sake, particularly since embryos left over from fertility treatments will be discarded or left to die, anyway. But it’s still a dilemma. And as technology advances, the dilemmas will become more difficult. Already, researchers are clamoring to extend Obama’s policy so they can use federal money to create and destroy customized embryos, not just use the ones left over from fertility treatments.
My fear in all this is that we’re giving conservative America a new front. Just like pro-choice proponents liberalized abortion laws throughout the country, instigating a raging cultural debate which has yet to subside, I fear the same could happen over embryonic research. Inevitably, some scientists will grow embryos for research with federal funds. The ensuing debate will have very little to do with science, but very much to do with politics and religion.
Obama and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius wishfully think they have stuffed their opponents into a black hole of pure scientific reason. They will soon find out that just as science deigns to even nod toward religion, science bares the same ignorance toward politics, and therefore, the interests of any political party. 
O'Hare Arpt., IL
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