Thursday, August 27, 2009

The cure for disease, etc., etc.

Seems there is no frontier science won't cross without rushing past an ethical boundary. From embryonic stem cell harvesting to human/animal "chimeras" to human cloning and now on to three-parent embryos. Ethics is virtually non-existent among scientists.

"The market" seems to determine the research. Whether privately funded or publicly funded - the issues are ethically very thorny. That is to say if governments who are answerable to its voters get involved with these types of bioscience endeavors it (or at least voices of conscience) can place limits in the name of bioethics upon certain types of forays into the bizarre. On the other hand if governments do not get involved, it becomes an "anything goes" laboratory. But when governments do get involved who have no qualms about killing the unborn - as is the case with our own government in power - the power to fund the bizarre and race past the ethical boundaries of life is made manifest.

Consider this latest breakthrough.

Another thing: was there ever any frontier science crossed that was not done using the "curing disease" catchphrase? People may argue that all research is worth a try to see if it can cure disease, but isn't it equally possible for the chemotherapy to be worse than the cancer?

Just thinking...

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