blog.bioethics.net

BioEdge and Charo's "Conspiracy of Hype"

One can hardly be surprised to find that Michael Cook's BioEdge blog would jump at the chance to take Alta Charo's remarks about the "hyping" of stem cell research as an all-too-easy chance to suggest that embryonic stem cell research generally has been oversold. To make the implication that a "conspiracy of hype" has surrounded embryonic stem cell research from one of the strongest political and ethical proponents of embryonic stem cell research is something that advocates of adult stem cell research dream about. Too bad, they really didn't listen to what Charo said.

While Cook quotes Charo's comments made at the Milken Institute Global Conference in late April, taken on face value, her comments are really nothing more than an honest appraisal of a field of research mixed with politics that over the last 8 years that has done its best to survive in a world with limited public funding, fierce political in-fighting, and ambitious scientific researchers.

If one goes back to the original source from which the conference's proceedings were originally discussed and posted, the Faster Cures blog, a much more even-handed assessment of the entire conference is presented, as well as the context in which Charo made her comments.

There is nothing to suggest, as BioEdge would lead us to believe, that the take-home message from Charo's discussion was the "conspiratorial" nature of the state of stem cell research or even its media coverage, or its advocacy groups. Rather, awareness about these various factors at play in the on-going political, social, and scientific progress being made in stem cell research is essential.

Without such awareness, we would be duped into thinking that new, huge scientific advances were being made in stem cell research daily, that stem cell cures were around the corner, that we should all fly off to China to be cured of whatever ails us, etc...

Creating such awareness about what is real and what is not, in fact, one of the roles of a bioethicist. Charo was doing precisely that--not suggesting that embryonic research is propped up by a "conspiracy of hype." If anyone is being conspiratorial, it's those who oppose embryonic stem cell research and who are looking for any gap in consistency in argument or logic among their opponents and to use their words against them. In this case, those like Michael Cook have again failed to do so.

Summer Johnson, PhD