Michael Kinsley Forgets History On Stem Cells

Michael Kinsley opines on the latest breakthrough in stem cell research and explains "Why Science Can't Save the GOP".

Ramesh Ponnuru comments on the politics at The Corner but let me address this inconsistency from Kinsley:

Third, although the political dilemma that stem cells pose for politicians is real enough, the moral dilemma is not and never was. The embryos used in stem-cell research come from fertility clinics, which otherwise would discard them. This has been a powerful argument in favor of such research. Why let these embryos go to waste? But a more important point is, What about fertility clinics themselves? In vitro fertilization ("test-tube babies") involves the purposeful creation of multiple embryos, knowing and intending that most of them either will die after implantation in the womb or, if not implanted, will be discarded or frozen indefinitely. Even if all embryonic-stem-cell research stopped tomorrow, this far larger mass slaughter of embryos would continue. There is no political effort to stop it. Bush even praised in vitro fertilization in his 2001 speech about the horrors of stem-cell research. In vitro has become too popular for politicians to take on. But their failure to do so makes a mockery of their alleged agony over embryonic stem cells.

Well, Bush never attempted to ban all stem cell research - in fact, all he did was ban Federal funding of stem cell research except on existing stem cell lines, which parallels the Federal policy on in vitro fertilization.  Here is PBS:

America's first IVF clinic opened in Norfolk, Virginia, operating without any federal funds.  America's first test tube baby was born in December 1981, and the IVF movement grew exponentially after that, proceeding all along without federal help.

Consequences
The federal government's reluctance to fund IVF research had a number of consequences.

Or the Guttmacher Institute:

Although the first so-called test-tube baby, Louise Brown, was not born until 1978, the regulations also addressed the issue of in vitro fertilization (IVF) research. Noting the mounting political controversy over IVF—in which embryos are fertilized outside a woman's body—the regulations required that each research application be individually reviewed and approved by an Ethical Advisory Board (EAB). Although the EAB in 1979 approved IVF research as a permissible use of federal funds, the board itself was disbanded in 1980 without approving any specific applications, thereby creating a de facto moratorium on federal funding for IVF research and other studies of early human embryos that remains in effect even today. IVF research continued and, in fact, blossomed in the private sector, although without the federal oversight or ethical review that is required when research is funded with public dollars.

I have no doubt there are opponents of embryonic stem cell research who would be thrilled to ban both that and in vitro fertilization, but, contra Kinsley, they have been consistent in the no-federal-funding compromise they have been willing to accept.

 

Comments

[Don Meaker]

It is important to note that women have thousands of eggs that are never given a chance to be fertilized. Millions of sperm in each ejaculate.

Only 1 in 4 of fertilized embryos in a fertile woman emplants.

In vitro is on a par with in vivo.

[Rick Ballard]

"In vitro is on a par with in vivo."

Well, de gustibus non est disputandum, but in vivo gets my vote.

[centralcal]

TNR - Foer publishes "War and Peace" (I am not kidding, 11 PAGES!

Link in url.

[clarice]

It's a long and rambling piece with this ending:

[quote]

In retrospect, we never should have put Beauchamp in this situation. He was a young soldier in a war zone, an untried writer without journalistic training. We published his accounts of sensitive events while granting him the shield of anonymity--which, in the wrong hands, can become license to exaggerate, if not fabricate.

When I last spoke with Beauchamp in early November, he continued to stand by his stories. Unfortunately, the standards of this magazine require more than that. And, in light of the evidence available to us, after months of intensive re-reporting, we cannot be confident that the events in his pieces occurred in exactly the manner that he described them. Without that essential confidence, we cannot stand by these stories.[/quote]

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=51f6dc92-7f1d-4d5b-aebe-94668b7bfb32&p=14

And the penalty for hiring him, publishing this drivel, allowing his wife to be his main fact checker,cloaking him anoinymity, and standing by the story long after every sentient person knew it was false is?

h/t:http://instapundit.com/archives2/012392.php

[Charlie (Colorado)]

May I just say that if I never read another commentary on stem cell research by someone (yes, I mean you, Ramesh, and you're not far ahead there Michael, even if you think your substantia Nigra gives you a privileged view) who wouldn't know a stem cell from a watch stem, it will be at least three weeks too soon?

[Ralph L]

Millions of sperm in each ejaculate.
We sometimes take our road tractors to the Cummins Engine repair shop in Greensboro. They were apparently bought out a while ago because they put up a big sign, next to the old one and visible from the interstate, that said "ONAN". Someone must have read the Old Testament and become afraid God would smite them for a bad pun, if not spilt seed, because it was gone last time I went by.

A coworker told me in 1988 that her Catholic pre-marital instructor said couples could interlock parts however they pleased, as long as the sperm ended up in the vajayjay.

On a more serious note, my sister-in-law writes the section on stem cell research for the Dana Foundation's annual report on Brain Research. She got more information than was publically released and says the breakthrough is a very big deal.

[clarice]

Well, Charlie, I'm throwing down the gauntlet. Write up a piece on the technicals for AT and I'll beg the editor to publish it.What we need is more really smart people who can explain scientific and economic and legal stuff for other (often very smart) people who are in other fields and would like to know what they can't get on these topics without expending a lot of time and energy on it.

Ralph, that's really good news.

[Patton]

"""It is important to note that women have thousands of eggs that are never given a chance to be fertilized. Millions of sperm in each ejaculate.

Only 1 in 4 of fertilized embryos in a fertile woman emplants"""

Its also important to note that cigars do not cause pregnancy, but I don't see how that is relevant either.....

TNR finally admitted what we told them the day after they published and CNN still thinks they broadcast non-biased open minded Republican voters, and all is right with the world...

[jimmyk]

Kinsley's confusion stems (no pun intended) from the tendency of the left to blur distinctions between "I like" and "I favor federal government support for." And their tendency to forget or disbelieve that sometimes good things can happen without federal tax dollars funding them. Thus to that mindset, there's little difference between a refusal to fund and a ban.

[PeterUK]

"It is important to note that women have thousands of eggs that are never given a chance to be fertilized. Millions of sperm in each ejaculate."

Yes ,but one of them was Scott Beauchamp.

[Ralph L]

Ralph, that's really good news.
What, the Cummins-Onan connection? That's very old news.
I would think taking the embryonic stem cell funding issue off the table would help Republicans in a year, particularly in purple states. I was surprised to see it on the top of the front page of the NYT, but it was a holiday weekend, so they probably thought no one would see it, or remember it if they did.

[Jim Miller]

Actually, Bush was the first president to provide funds for embryonic stem cell research. What he did was limit the research funds to existing stem cell lines. (There was much debate at the time as to whether this limitation seriously hurt the research. I don't know enough about the issue to have an opinion on that question.)

Although Bush was clear enough about what he was doing at the time, his policy has been described inaccurately more often than not since then, at least in my experience.

Some even say that he has banned stem cell research in general, missing the crucial distinction between embryonic and adult stem cells, and making a limit on research funds a ban.

Since these mistakes are so common, let me repeat the main point: President George W. Bush was the first president to provide research funds for embryonic stem cell research.

[Ralph L]

his policy has been described inaccurately more often than not since then
I remember my liberal b-i-l, who thinks he's well informed because he listens to NPR, was surprised when I pointed out the research itself wasn't banned. Some people seem to hear what they want to hear, and some are just lied to.

[Neo]

You have to wonder if they stopped all federal funding funding for "Global Warming" research, if the problem would just .. go away ?

It's just amazing who is on the federal "dole".

[Neo]

Some even say that he has banned stem cell research in general, missing the crucial distinction between embryonic and adult stem cells, and making a limit on research funds a ban.

Ever heard of a Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) ?
Also known as bone marrow transplant ?
Bone marrow is made up of adult stem cells.

[syn]

"As soon as man began considering himself the source of all meaning in the world, and the measure of everything, the world began to lose its human dimension and man began to lose control of it" (Vaclav Havel 1993)

Never were spoken words so wise.

When humans are left to their own devices they are capable of creating some really creepy things.

[FEx]

Science doesn't need to save the GOP.

Cloning is the answer and has been the answer since lucifer messed with creation. We all see and hear in our sleep. That is lucifer. The UFO sent by lucifer was used to try to create. It can't create because of God and Satan. So, ask for a car or something and it turns out all funny. The 70s were an example of what happens when you ask lucifer for something. Weird products. The UFO has unlimited power ,so maybe we could use it to power things, but that works out strange too. The UFO cloned humans, but they were strange too, like the aliens lucifer created and put in the UFO.

Humans want to clone. We're just reflections of lucifer, so why would this be a problem? We are messing with creation, but it probably work because we are relections of lucifer.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Clarice, the last time I tried to write actual science about this stuff, the death threats went on for weeks. I'll give it a try, but expect to see AT's DDoS'ed or something.

[syn]

Speaking of the scientific community, the Nazis also performed all sorts of creepy scientific experimentation on pregnant women cuz they thought they were supreme intellectual humans who wanted to change the world for the better; the Humanists really know how to experiment.

Unless the scientific mind embraces a little humility whatever they do they it be for the good of humanity.

[syn]

I menat to say "whatever they do it will not be for the good of humanity"

[Ari Tai]

Curious that Mr. Kinsley thinks that this particular act of government has decreased his odds of living another few pain-free years. Maybe someday he'll come to the realization that nearly every act of government (save those that reward the random walk of the market and recognize the primacy of the individual) costs him not only money but days, if not years. Imagine what could have been if we had forced a regime change (the horror of pre-emption) on uncle Joe, and instead of the untimely death of 100 million, and the absolutely wasted efforts of billions (i.e. the soviets had many "factories" where the outputs were worth less than the inputs), these same individuals had contributed as their western brothers did to the general welfare, with the wonder of the invisible hand insuring few, if any, wasted efforts. Amazing how a price can substitute for the requirement of perfect information (for central planners and dictators).

[kim]

Russian resources and curiosity could have have reared a wonder. They didn't have the influx of the ambitious that we've had, and are about to demagogue into disarray.
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[Neo]

"Why Science Can't Save the GOP".

So, does this mean that they won't be cloning Reagan ?