Bush: Science vs. Ethics or Scientists vs. Ethics?
Dr. Elias Zerhouni
In an interview with the magazine Medline Plus, NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni repeats his call for more embryonic stem cell research. Dr. Zerhouni has made similar statements before, including during congressional testimony in March.
When confronted with this disagreement with its policy on the part of its chief medical adviser, the White House has offered the typical non-denials—”No, there’s no disagreement, we both think embryonic stem cell research should proceed”—without confronting Zerhouni’s point that the research is hobbled by the current policy.
Also familiar is the spin that this is a matter of science versus ethics, a line the president used in the 2004 presidential debates. Now the administration has gone further.
The notion that scientists lack ethical judgment—they’re only trying to cure horrible diseases after all—surfaced more clearly than ever in the reported White House response to Dr. Zerhouni’s latest statement. According to the Washington Post blog The Sleuth, spokesman Tony Fratto said that the president must “draw the line in a different place than Dr. Zerhouni” because he has to take into account “moral and religious views.”
The change of tone is notable. The White House could have said, “Well, we just disagree and the president is the decider.” Instead, as its position has become more untenable the White House has moved from “science vs. ethics” to “scientists don’t worry about ethics.”
Fortunately, those benighted scientists and the rest of us have politicians to do that for us.
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