Medical Innovation and the Collapse of the GOP

Jill has a post up discussing a report from the President’s Council on Bioethics that basically warns about the dangers of biomedical innovation.

In short, the group argues that biomedical innovations are an affront to “human dignity” and should no be pursued.

Innovations like drugs that enhance cognition, genetic manipulation therapies that could extend life, and “therapeutic cloning” that could furnish replacements for diseased tissue and organs.

This is, unfortunately, exactly the kind of report we should expect from this group given the people George Bush appointed to the council.

People like Leon Kass who has argued that eating an ice cream cone in public is not only shameful and offensive but also, yes, an affront to “human dignity”.

Steven Pinker does a great job pointing out the flaws and the dangers of this report and this type of thinking.

But there is a positive side to this whole issue: the growing divide between the extreme social conservatives and the free-market, pro-business conservatives within the Republican party.

The medical advances that these christo-creeps want to ban in the name of “human dignity” have the potential to make American businesses billions of dollars.

This is one of those issues where Republicans are going to be forced to take sides: Jesus or GE.

There is no middle ground with an issue like this- and that’s the kind of thing that drives away voters.

Again, another great Bush appointee doing a heckuva job.