06/11/2004: "Science politicized"

With the death of Ronald Reagan this week, we've been treated to a renewal of the call for wholesale embryonic stem cell research, which is held up as the magic bullet that can end Alzheimer's Disease. The trouble is, according to Wesley Smith, that it just isn't true, and a lot of the scientists handing out this line knows it isn't:

Here's the story: Researchers have apparently known for some time that embryonic stem cells will not be an effective treatment for Alzheimer's, because as two researchers told a Senate subcommittee in May, it is a "whole brain disease," rather than a cellular disorder (such as Parkinson's). This has generally been kept out of the news. But now, Washington Post correspondent Rick Weiss, has blown the lid off of the scam, reporting that while useful abstract information might be gleaned about Alzheimer's through embryonic stem cell research, "stem cell experts confess...that of all the diseases that may be someday cured by embryonic stem cell treatments, Alzheimer's is among the least likely to benefit."

But people like Nancy Reagan have been allowed to believe otherwise, "a distortion," Weiss writes, that "is not being aggressively corrected by scientists." Why? The false story line helps generate public support for the biotech political agenda. As Weiss noted, "It [Nancy Reagan's statement in support of ESCR] is the kind of advocacy that researchers have craved for years, and none wants to slow its momentum."

This is a scandal. Misrepresentation by omission corrupts one of the primary purposes of science, which is to provide society objective information about the state of scientific knowledge without regard to the political consequences. Such data then serves as a foundation for crucial moral analysis about whether and how controversial fields of scientific inquiry should be regulated, a debate in which all are entitled to participate. But we can't do so intelligently if we are not told the truth.

Some scientists have become alarmed by how politicized science has become. As Roger Pielke, Jr., Director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado warned two years ago in the prestigious science journal Nature, "Many scientists [now] willingly adopt tactics of demagoguery and character assassination as well as, or even instead of, reasoned argument," in promoting their views. This politicization of science, he worried, has led some scientists, "not to mention lawyers and those with commercial interests," to "manipulate 'facts' to support" their advocacy, "undermining the scientific community's ability to advise policy makers." Consequently, he warned, science "is becoming yet another playing field for power politics, complete with the trappings of political spin and a win-at-all-costs attitude."

Read the whole piece.

Replies: 1 Comment

on Sunday, June 13th, Debbie said

Alzheimer's Disease is one of the most horrorable diseases anybody can have. Not only for the patient but for the family as well. To see your loved one go down hill a little everyday is a terrible thing.
Scientist and doctors have known all along that this disease involved the whole brain and not just parts of it. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that stem cells will not help this disease. It is all about the money. And where does that money come from? The government. So it only stands to reason that the scientist are going to paint the picture that is going to get them the most money. They are not stupid. If you are presenting documents and research to a bunch of people who may give you money to help with this research of course you are going to tell them what they want to hear. That you have found a cure for a most horrible disease that will cure millions of people. If you tell them that you want their money to "maybe" help "some" people, do you think they are going to give you the money? I think not.
After seeing Nancy Reagan during the services for Mr. Reagan, you can see how much this disease has taken it's tole on her.
Having had a grandmother who was in the middle stages of Alzheimer's Disease, I can feel for her. I'm sure that she wanted to believe that there would be a cure that would save her beloved husband. Of course the scientist are going to tell her that because they have money. We didn't have anybody telling us anything about the possible cures for Alzheimer's Disease because we are simple, everyday working people.

I appreciate people who have money who donate money for this type of research because "someday" it may save one of my children. I don't know if researchers or scientist understand the impact it has on families to tell them that this will work or that will work to save their family member or not but they will tell wealthy people anything to get their money.