Political Quotes

“In recent years, I have often voiced concern that medical technology is moving at an unprecedented pace, leaving the rest of society ill-prepared to cope with the increasingly complex moral and ethical dilemmas that follow in the wake of new inventions. We must never attempt to divorce scientific progress from ethical considerations. We must instead fashion timely answers to the timeless question ``Is there a line that should not be crossed even for scientific or other gain, and if so, where is it?'' The recent furor over Dolly the cloned sheep, and Dr. Seed's subsequent announcement that he intended to clone a human being through the same technique, has highlighted the necessity of an independent, balanced forum to address the ethical implications of new technological capabilities. Two temptations threaten both science and ethics in the current milieu. There is pressure on legislators (often unfamiliar with scientific issues) to rush to draft laws that could hamper important research efforts. There is a parallel tendency on the part of academic scientists to resist any input from law or ethics into their research. Thus, science and ethics are lost in the political morass, while the public often remains uninvolved and frightened.”