MSNBC reported on 22 April that “FDA expands access to Plan B for 17-year-olds”. They report:
U.S. District Judge Edward Korman ruled last month in a lawsuit filed in New York that President George W. Bush’s appointees let politics, not science, drive their decision to restrict over-the-counter access.
This mantra of “science not politics” has become the battle cry for those who wish to overturn the few good things that came out of the Bush administration. It is the same mantra that was used for embryonic stem cell research in spite of the fact that embryonic stem cell research has yet to show more promise than adult stem cell research.
It has been a long eight years for stem-cell researchers as the ugly stepchildren of science. “Looking back, I realize how restrained and constrained we were by working in a silo imposed on us by the previous Administration,” says Melton. “I am delighted because now we are free to interact with all of our colleagues here at the university and elsewhere in the world in an open manner.
It’s liberating to hear that science, not political ideology, will guide the Obama Administration in its decisions.”
~ Park, Alice (9 March 2009). Researchers Cheer Obama’s Vote for Stem-Cell Science. Time. Retrieved 26 April 2009 from http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1883861,00.html.
What is the role of government? According to the dictionary, government is:
The act or process of governing, especially the control and administration of public policy in a political unit.
~ government. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved April 26, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/government
Should government never extend its influence over science? The Germans during WWII did scientific experiments upon Jews, the mentally handicapped and homosexuals. Eugenics, in the name of “science”, was at one time promoted in the US as a way to control the population growth of blacks. Should science not politics really be the rule?