[extropy-chat] Three-quarters of N. American's support stemcellresearch

Reason reason at longevitymeme.org
Sun Jun 20 07:35:55 UTC 2004


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brett Paatsch [mailto:bpaatsch at bigpond.net.au]
>
> > It is annoying that people make this argument while ignoring
> > the effects of  government policy - existing and threatened
> > - on private funding. In case you hadn't noticed, the threat of
> > a complete ban on therapeutic cloning and stem cell research
> > has been hovvering close over the industry in the US for
> > the past two years. The same or worse goes for Europe.
> > Substantial private funding just doesn't happen under those
> > circumstances - the risk is too great.
>
> Good thread. Important topic. But I think the surface is still only
> getting scratched here.  I'd like to see both  J. Andrew Rogers
> and Reason develop their respective cases if they can.

Thought experiment: you are a US biotech/pharma VC sitting on top of capital
itching to be invested. Knowing this

http://www.longevitymeme.org/projects/oppose_global_therapeutic_cloning_ban.
cfm

and this

http://www.longevitymeme.org/projects/oppose_the_therapeutic_cloning_ban.cfm

are you going to invest in any new medical venture that utilizes therapeutic
cloning (i.e. pretty much anything good involving stem cells)? Of course
not. No one invests in business plans that are in imminent danger of
criminalization. This has been the case for several years now in the US; ACT
lost a round because of it, and it hasn't been getting any better since
then.

What really irks me about this all is that free market conservatives who
also happen to be against embryonic stem cell research are using an
extremely dishonest argument resulting from this set of circumstances.
Ignoring the effects of pending and threatened legislation on the market for
private funding, they claim that embryonic stem cell research a) would be
funded by the free market if people really thought it was worthwhile, and b)
can be banned without any loss since it's obviously going nowhere. See here:

http://www.fightaging.org/archives/000127.php

This sort of thing makes me grind my teeth. The fact that any research has
happened at all in the past few years is a tribute to how much people want
it to happen.

Reason
Founder, Longevity Meme





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