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Stemming the PAC Bucks
One of the interesting developments of the last twenty years or so is the tendency for research money to be allocated for purely political reasons, without regard for risk/benefit. For instance, even though the number one and number two killers of adults are heart disease and cancer, money to fix these problems is not at the same ratio as their occurrence. In fact, research money is most often allocated based on special interest groups, instead of overall danger to society. An even stranger twist on this is the recent stem cell funding debate.
As you may know, the current U.S. president started funding stem cell research a few years ago, with the proviso that only certain lines can be used. In response to this, many states are enacting their own laws to fund research.
I think research is a great thing, but a special law for a special kind of research? Seems to me that we have crossed some sort of threshold here. In the past, we debated the amount of funding and left the details to the system. Now we seem much more willing to dig into the process and micro-manage. After all, we are talking about billions of dollars here -- no matter what the value of the results, that's a lot of money to be throwing around.
As we pointed out recently, the politicians actually seem to be doing some work on the stem cell issue, so we won't continue to debate that. It just should be noted that with the incidence of science fraud on the rise, there is an inherent conflict of interest with the people who are doing the research and advocating the allocation of funding. Just something to keep an eye on, especially when we're debating doing some rather strange things, like mixing monkey and people brains inside research animals.
The fountain of youth is going to be a great thing, and with promises that stem cells will do everything, including making us younger, count on me for support. But let's also try to keep a level head on our shoulders, okay?
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