The last couple days I have noticed the media and politicians "spinning" science. First, yesterday morning I heard a news program where the host kept saying things like, "Why is Bush so against stem cell research?" The guest would respond with statements like "the President feels that embryonic stem cell research is crossing an ethical line." The host, either intentionally or unintentionally, kept putting embryonic stem cell research and other stem cell research in the same category. This definitely causes people to think that if you are opposed to embryonic stem cell research that you are against all stem cell research. I personally think that a tremendous amount of knowledge and understanding can come from studying stem cells that are obtained from less controversial sources (such as skin or umbilical cord blood). By limiting the types of stem cells, the research will hopefully be more carefully constructed, which will likely lead to better scientific outcomes.
Then I heard a prominent politican make a statement about how she thought it was terrible that "ideology was placed before science." That is a scary statement. Who wants science to be placed before morals and ethics? Just because it is scientifically possible does not mean it should be done. Why do you think there are ethical review boards for human science experimentation? In some countries they test drugs and other medical devices directly in humans before doing animal trials and other types of validation. Do we really want that type of mentality here? Stop the science spin!
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