I have a few good friends who are scientists, and the one thing they all share is zero tolerance for asshattery perpetuated by religious bigots. And with good reason. Scientists have faced a fierce assault from the religious right on all fronts, ranging from climate change to evolution and even medicine. But, to a scientific mind, the illogical objections spawned by religious dogma can be especially offensive when it comes to advancing health.
If Bush could have his way, US scientists would idle on the sidelines while researchers across the globe innovate life-changing treatments with stem cells. But, while no one was looking, Scientists were giving Bush the proverbial finger. Jeffrey Hart of the Daily Beast provides the inspiring details behind how scientists became the Road Runner to the religious Right’s Wile E. Coyote:
In August 2001, President Bush issued an executive order blocking federal funding for embryonic stem cell research except for some lines that were still in existence. "It’s wrong to destroy life in order to save life," he explained. That required one to agree that a group of cells the size of the period at the end of this sentence is as important as a desperately ill human being.
Bush may have severely limited what research America could engage in, but he couldn’t build a cognitive wall around the United States. Scientific developments in other nations were written up in refereed journals and became universally available. And support for Bush’s position was crumbling within the U.S. In 2004, voters in California passed a resolution authorizing the state to spend $4 billion to support embryonic stem cell research. This immediately became the subject of litigation, but Governor Schwarzenegger enabled California laboratories to proceed by lending them money from state funds.
Amazingly, scientists had relocated to Singapore where they could safely pursue their life-saving medical advancements. With Schwarzenegger’s move, they could finally return to the United States to finish their work. These personal sacrifices have helped diminish the enormous threat our Health Care system faces from a science-phobic Bush administration.
Despite the political fortunes of the religious right the past eight years, Universities and states have been funding their own research. Hart identifies the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, a ground-breaking multimillion-dollar facility, as a "leading force in research, making dozens of new stem cell lines available for scientists nationwide."
So, while scientists in countries from China to Europe furiously pursued embryonic stem cell research over the past seven years, American scientists have been battling alongside them. In less than two months, their government will join.