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October 15, 2004
Medical Research On The Campaign Trail
The important topic of medical research is finally reaching the presidential race.
For the most part, I'm glad it's happening. Voters are being exposed to the need in our society of medical research. Granted, a number of the 'facts' being thrown around are BS, but at least it is being discussed.
This week John Edwards gave a speech this week and he said "If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair and walk again."
This statement created quite a bit of outrage, especially from paraplegic Charles Krauthammer who wrote "In my 25 years in Washington, I have never seen a more loathsome display of demagoguery. Hope is good. False hope is bad. Deliberately, for personal gain, raising false hope in the catastrophically afflicted is despicable."
Ouch. Well, yes, it's true about the demogoguery (in English - B.S.) but we have a candidate for vice-president saying that we have the ability to cure the serious medical ills of this society should we choose to fund it. That's a good thing.
It's about time we had this discussion. I just wish it wasn't limited to embryonic stem cells. There is a lot more research going on out there, such as RNAI, that offers great promise, especially for our community.
As far as the debate...Bush has greatly increased spending on medical research during his tenure. Under his watch, NIH has done a great job reorganizing in a way that will greatly help research Huntington's Diseae research. Now, Bush is recommending the increases in spending for NIH slow to around the rate of inflation. Kerry is promising more NIH spending (though his drug-reimportation plan would greatly hurt non-NIH spending on medical research).
I just wish the discussion extended beyond the limited field of embryonic stem cells. Oh well, something is better than nothing. Right?
Posted by Dave at October 15, 2004 05:04 PM
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