Stem Cells, and What They May Mean for Human Augmentation -- Bio, Soc
The Economist has a new article on recent progress on stem cell research, as does The New York Times. Actually, they're not the only people to be discussing this subject lately. But there's two points here relevant to the themes of this site.
First, there's the idea we've discussed in the past -- the argument that any major progress in both therapeutic and reproductive research will almost always be applicable to human augmentation techniques, even when such techniques are the furthest thing from researchers' minds. Gregory Stock goes into this concept in depth in Redesigning Humans, which is also an excellent book.
The second point is one which scientists have been concerned about for some time -- the concern that America's hostile political climate towards embryonic stem cells will push more and more cutting edge biotech researchers out of the country. A situation which will lead to America losing her enormous edge in the biotech industry, an area she presently dominates.
These concerns actually come together quite neatly. Because modern biotech research in unrelated areas is so deeply tied to potential augmentation research (as well as other things like stem cells) attempts to shut down such research in the U.S. appear merely to be pushing those researchers into other countries... thereby depriving Americans of exercising either regulatory control of the research or of directly reaping its benefits. As well as threatening the nation's ability to compete in a critical and highly lucrative field.
Oddly enough, I don't mean the above observations to serve as a political rant. They are merely meant as an observation -- shutting down research outright on the national level seems to be an ineffective means for stifling augmentation research. Regardless of your opinions of such work -- whether you think it should be stopped altogether, closely monitored and regulated, or allowed to proceed unchecked (and possibly well-funded at that) -- it is worth observing that present blocking strategies are merely changing the identities of the main players, but not the game itself...
Future Imperative
First, there's the idea we've discussed in the past -- the argument that any major progress in both therapeutic and reproductive research will almost always be applicable to human augmentation techniques, even when such techniques are the furthest thing from researchers' minds. Gregory Stock goes into this concept in depth in Redesigning Humans, which is also an excellent book.
The second point is one which scientists have been concerned about for some time -- the concern that America's hostile political climate towards embryonic stem cells will push more and more cutting edge biotech researchers out of the country. A situation which will lead to America losing her enormous edge in the biotech industry, an area she presently dominates.
These concerns actually come together quite neatly. Because modern biotech research in unrelated areas is so deeply tied to potential augmentation research (as well as other things like stem cells) attempts to shut down such research in the U.S. appear merely to be pushing those researchers into other countries... thereby depriving Americans of exercising either regulatory control of the research or of directly reaping its benefits. As well as threatening the nation's ability to compete in a critical and highly lucrative field.
Oddly enough, I don't mean the above observations to serve as a political rant. They are merely meant as an observation -- shutting down research outright on the national level seems to be an ineffective means for stifling augmentation research. Regardless of your opinions of such work -- whether you think it should be stopped altogether, closely monitored and regulated, or allowed to proceed unchecked (and possibly well-funded at that) -- it is worth observing that present blocking strategies are merely changing the identities of the main players, but not the game itself...
Future Imperative
posted by Ralph Cerchione | Monday, May 23, 2005
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