Back in the pre-9/11 days of the summer of 2001, President Bush went on national television one summer night simply to announce that he was restricting federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. There was a moral line to be drawn, said the president, and he drew it at 78 stem cell lines.
Almost three years later, Bush’s moral line is under sharply mounting pressure. Nancy Reagan and advocates of research into many diseases want a stem cell push. American academia and business fear being left behind in a profound global race. Now Congress is piling on.
Click the “Listen” link to hear about the momentous shifts in the stem cell research debate in America.
Guests:
Juan Enriquez, founding director of the Harvard Business School Life Science Project. He is chairman of Biotechonomy, a life sciences research and investment firm. He is a board member at Harvard Medical School Genetics Advisory Council. He is author of, “As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth.”
Daniel Callahan, co-founder and director, International Program at the Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institute. He is the author of 36 books including, “The Research Imperative: What Price Better Health?” and “What Kind of Life: The Limits of Medical Progress.” He is a senior fellow at Harvard Medical School.
