Most debate about federal funding for embryonic stem cell research has focused on the moral issue.
That’s not a bad thing. The issue lends itself to a major moral debate.
What’s drawn less discussion is the “big government” element of the debate. Why should the federal government be involved?
In this week’s TIME article “The Politics of Science,” Nancy Gibbs reports (with no attribution, by the way):
But to make a wedge issue work, it helps to have a crisis–or, as the gay-marriage issue showed, to manufacture one. As private research continues even without federal funds and Governors like California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger rush in to fill the void with state money, voters end up concluding that Bush’s veto is not likely to prevent science from going forward in some way.
Companion articles discuss state-based stem cell initiatives, along with private efforts at Harvard and other research sites.
Given the fact that private money is flowing toward this research, doesn’t it make sense to allow entrepreneurs and scientists to do the heavy lifting?
