| MERCHANTS OF IMMORTALITY Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension Stephen S. Hall Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003 |
Rating: 4.5 High |
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| ISBN 0-618-09524-1 | 439pp. | HC | $25.00 | |
Chapters 14, 15 and 16 of this book describe the progress of the stem-cell debate in America during 2001. The author documents in excruciating detail how right-wing ideology overwhelmed scientific rigor in the political process, and ties this to the divisiveness of the abortion debate. As making abortions illegal under all circumstances drives women with unwanted pregnancies to "back-alley butchers," so the prohibition of government funding and oversight of stem-cell research in the U.S. results in unfettered attempts to commercialize on the demand for cures to diseases like Parkinson's — attempts which, being unregulated, may end up duping their customers, perhaps to a tragic degree.
At bottom, this is one more result of America's dysfunctional and scientifically ignorant federal politics. All the foofarah over embryonic stem cells ignores the fact that, as the author notes on page 245, "Embryonic stem cells do not come from fetuses; in fact, they cannot be found in fetuses, aborted or otherwise." So the effective ban on embryonic stem cells in this country has driven some research overseas, and in this country has fostered the growth of unregulated for-profit biotech companies. Meanwhile, it may have protected some fetuses — but only from those who do not know, as a competent scientist would, that embryonic stem cell researchers have no reason to attack fetuses.
Hall notes the reluctance of the scientific community to weigh in vigorously2 on the issue, and eloquently explains the downside of that.
If it remains inert, the scientific community may come too late to the realization that what is at stake is not merely the ethics of conducting research on human embryos, but the larger issue of a particular segment of society attempting to proscribe, through political influence rather than public consensus, areas of scientific inquiry on the basis of largely (though not exclusively) theological beliefs. The greatest secular glory of Western society since the Renaissance, and the especial glory of the United States in the years since the end or World War II, has been the incredible productivity of basic science. But every instance of corporate adventurism strengthened the hand of the people who sought to portray science as a "runaway train." – Page 290 |
I'll let him have the last word.
"When we can all agree that something goes against the essence of social norms, such as cloning for baby making, it's not inappropriate to proscribe that activity through legislation and enforcement — at least while we feel our way through the new terrain. In the absence of such consensus, however, in the face of an uncertain future about which we might respectfully have different interpretations and expectations, the social and political impulse to ban represents not moral decisiveness, as some would have us believe, but a form of moral insecurity. It nourishes itself on a kind of pessimism about the human condition, a lack of faith that we can understand and use our newfound powers wisely, a lack of faith that we can discriminate between desirable uses and undesirable misuses, a lack of social and political faith that we can, if necessary, adapt to unpredictable consequences that might inadvertently ensue." – Page 355 |
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