Forget, for a moment, the morals of the embryology Bill before parliament, instead, let us suppose that you are the chairmen of a huge international pharmaceutical company charged with the responsibility of deciding where to place finite funds for further research into stem cells. You have one department from your research centre urging you to invest in embryonic stem cell (ESC) research, but simultaneously you have another department insisting that you support their efforts using adult stem cells (ASC). Both parties make great claims for the future efficacy of their approach leaving you with an impossible decision, you might think, one that can only be resolved by the toss of a coin, or by a rather weak effort to placate both by splitting the money down the middle. Suddenly you have an original thought, a rare occurrence but the sort of thing that justifies your monumental salary, colossal bonuses and your pension for life; you point out to your two scientists that all this stem cell stuff has been going on for years so what progress have they made to date? You remind them that there is only one pot of money!
The ASC man pipes up proudly that over the last decade or two adult stem cells have provided treatments or cures for over 70 different diseases and conditions, and they are already involved in over 1,300 human clinical trials. You turn to the ESC man with an unspoken query on your face and all he can do is shuffle his papers and his feet and report that, no, they have not yet produced a cure or a treatment for anything and, no, neither are there any human clinical trials about to take place or even close to taking place - oh, but, honestly, he insists, there's lots and lots of potential ... (1)
Happily this is one meeting which can be quickly closed whilst attention can then be more 'profitably' turned to consideration of directors' bonuses next year. So, why, I ask, are those idiots in Westminster wasting their time and my money debating the issue? Probably because so many of them appear to be the product of a fusion between a pig and an ox!
Not that I disagree completely with your point but aren't we always warned in those invariably upbeat advertisements for investment funds that "past performance is no guide to the future"?
Posted by: Umbongo | Wednesday, 21 May 2008 at 10:46
Quite right, Mr. Umbongo, but even so, 70 - nil is certainly persuasive!
Posted by: David Duff | Wednesday, 21 May 2008 at 18:53