Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Leave it to capitalism
Steven Milloy wrote a very interesting article a few days back on what he calls the "smoke and mirrors" of stem cell research. The most interesting point in the article is that conducting research using the morally questionable destruction of embryonic stem cells is not illegal, so long as the funds being used for that research are private. The reason so many medical researchers are so adamantly opposed to this policy is because the private funding for stem cell research is drying up. The reason for the lack of private funds? As one might expect, investors do not see the promise of a strong return. As my good friend John Fulton put it, "Leave it to capitalism to really show the potential for legitimate success in a venture."
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As a topic completely divorced from the specifics of stem cell research, I think that capitalism is often a fairly poor engine for research, particularly basic research. While capitalism is very good at the "D" of "R&D," it as a system is fairly reluctant to invest in seemingly hare brained ideas that don't have an obvious payout in the near term. I believe that we can only exploit the past's basic research for so long until our corporations will suffer the dry well which resultng from myopic research funding.
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