March 16, 2009 - March 19, 2009

Federal Money and Scientific Freedom

Access to federal funds has now been granted for embryonic stem cell research. The reporting done about various people receiving money from the federal government reveals something interesting about our mainstream media. The media is intensely suspicious of contracts awarded to military companies, and relentlessly implied that our previous president was looking out for big oil companies.

However, when it comes to embryonic stem cell research, no one asks who benefits from it. Journalists don't go digging for what biotechnology companies might benefit from getting money from the government for research. There are no incessant reminders in the media that this or that politician or bureaucrat once worked in the biotechnology industry.

Perhaps this is for good reason - perhaps nobody in President Obama's administration who used to work for a biotechnology company. However, it's very likely that at least one biotechnology company would benefit from having the government (really you and me) pay for its research instead of having to do so itself. And it seems fairly likely that there's at least one lobbyist who was hired to promote such a proposition. So why aren't such possibilities being reported upon or even considered in mainstream media stories about the debate over federal funding of embryonic stem cell research? I suggest that the mainstream media doesn't really want to consider the possibility that scientists might just be ordinary guys who need to eat, or that they, like anyone else, will throw money at politicians if they think they will get money in return.

But let us rejoice that science has been freed from religion and is headed towards the promised land of grants and money! Hallelujah! Now that we've cleared religion out of the way, science is being conducted by persons with no morals whatsoever.

A viewpoint on the atomic bomb we commonly hear is very inconsistent with the rhetoric that is now being espoused in favor of embryonic stem cell research. That viewpoint is that it was bad, of course, when scientists made the atomic bomb. Those scientists were immoral and shortsighted. But we're told that sort of thing won't happen again with embryonic stem cell research. Scientists who work on embryonic stem cell research are supposed to be just good, ordinary scientists out to make the world better. They slice and dice children - I mean, blobs of tissue - to create all sorts of wonderful things like cures for incurable diseases, health and longer life for children, the kitchen sink, a chicken in every pot, and an invisible rust sealant!

It seems a bit odd, that we fight so over embryonic stem cell research, when nobody that I know of has a problem with adult stem cell research, and we've actually made a bit of progress with it. A cynical person would even suggest that embryonic stem cell research is impractical, or at least less efficient, than adult stem cell research, and that few fund embyronic stem cell research with their own money because no one wants to bet on a loser. The solution for a scientist who needs another year's grant money is to scream that religion is interfering with his research, and he needs access to the federal funds that those nuts have denied him.

With those funds granted, science may be now freed from religion, but who now will free science from the heady enticements of government money? What will prevent scientists from promising us the moon and stars for another year's grant money?

Perhaps the problem is not religion interfering with science, but instead is a combination of scientists hunting for pork and politicians fudging morals while betting on research with the money of ordinary mortals like you and I.