Originally posted by Rodnik
And I understand this---but my point is this IS a current point of contention. Stem cell research, for example. Scientific progress is slowed for the sake of ethics. That\'s my point.
A point of contention, this is only partially true. It is a good political meme, though.
Easy to provoke outrage. \"Why we can cure Parkison\'s, Blindness, deafness, male pattern balding, and obesity, but the mean old administration won\'t let us.\"
Stem cell research is being done and we have medical techniques already in use from stem cell research.
Embryonic stem cell research, however, has restrictions in order to get
Federal funding, as long as they stay within those bounds they get
Federal funding.
Now, you might think these restrictions, are hampering the research, au contraire, these restrictions can be bypassed simply by going to
State funding, or funding by
Private Corporations, or
Private Citizens.
Most in the field researchers prefer these as there is a hell of a lot less paperwork , however,there is a problem with these sources in that they generally want results to continue funding you. No result, no funding.
In fact, if they had real results, you could bet your ass that a corporation would pick up the tab immediately. Pfizer Pharmaceutical\'s, anyone?
Sure Federal funding lets you have cushier offices, nicer paychecks, but it is not a necessity. Since it is not a necessity, and the corporations aren\'t picking up the tabs, it seems to someone used to how funding works, that the lack of federal funding is merely an excuse.
It seems to a lot of us younger researchers that the large federal grants are going to those who can promise the most, results or not. Promise the sun, the moon, the stars, just get the funding. Death and destruction in 10 years if we don\'t do something right now, oh, and we need funding to do it. (Funny, how that one comes up every 20 years or so.)
So just because the Federal government may not be picking up the tab, doesn\'t mean that they cannot get funding (point in fact, wasn\'t it New York that set aside $240 billion for state sponsored stem cell research?), it means they aren\'t getting results.
Take this from someone who works at the only Synchrotron ring in the world to be run at the state level, on less than $5 million a year. A feat that all the major physicists said could not be done, that we absolutely needed Federal funding or we could not function. We\'ve been in operation for over 15 years. (Hmmm...Funny, the average estimated lifespan of federally operated synchrotron rings is 10 years before a major rebuild is necessary, which of course requires....You got it, more funding.) We found a way, and are contributing to the discovery of a technology that if utilized at only a fraction of what is theorized will change all of mankind, including making stem cell research moot...Nanotech.
