Jesuit's magazine America on:

"Science and Ideology"

Expert scientific advice is not free of ideology or politics


Adapted from the current edition of March 30 - April 6, 2009.

"The phrase makes a good sound bite, but it is a false dichotomy: Science, not ideology.

"President Obama is right to try to correct the politicization of science under the Bush administration, but he is wrong to present the lifting of the restriction on stem- cell research imposed by his predecessor as freeing science from politics.

"The Bush policy, like that of Bill Clinton before him, was an arbitrary political compromise for which there was no coherent moral defense.

"[S]cience policy and Big Science are often entwined with politics and ideology.

"Consider, for example, the health and environmental effects of depleted uranium munitions or Agent Orange.

"In the health field, reproduction has often been the target of scientific experts, whether in eugenic sterilization programs or compulsory birth control policies.

"The unexamined ideology in the stem - cell debate is the promise of scientific progress.

"Especially now that pluripotent stem cells can be produced from adult cells, it is not at all clear what advocates of embryonic stem- cell research can offer us but hopes supported by guesses, questionable predictions and future scenarios.

"In recent years, the salesmen of medical research touted fetal - tissue transplants and genetic therapy as panaceas, only to end up without success.

"Embryonic stem cells are only the latest in a series of super - cures being hyped to the American public.

"As the National Institutes of Health and Congress consider future stem- cell legislation, they should understand that expert scientific advice is not free of ideology or politics."

Well said, Rev. Father Anonymous, S.J. ! :)