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Guest Editorials
Mon Oct 25, 2004
| Big Science, Big Giveaway |
| By Francis Fukuyama (*) |
| Besides selecting a president, the California electorate will be asked to vote on Nov. 2 on Proposition 71, a state initiative to fund stem-cell research that would eventually cost Californians $6 billion ($3 billion in general obligation bonds and $3 billion in interest over the 10 years of the proposal). Prop 71 is a bad idea, not because stem-cell research is morally wrong, but because it represents a huge, self-dealing giveaway of money from cash-strapped California taxpayers to a small group of institutions and companies that will remain largely unaccountable. Over the past three years, support for embryonic stem-cell research has become a huge litmus test of political correctness, reflected in the list of celebrities,... |
(*) Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies |
[0] comments (832 views)
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Tue Mar 23, 2004
| "Unreasonable Fears, Slippery Slopes, and Unnecessary Legislation" - a Reply to Prof. Robertson |
| By Francis Fukuyama (*) |
| Prof. Robertson argues against the need for legislation to ban reproductive cloning, as well as the other prohibitions contained in the President's Council on Bioethics' pending report Reproduction and Responsibility, on two grounds. The first is that the new reproductive possibilities are highly speculative and not likely to ever emerge. He argues that other procedures mentioned in the Council's report, like cloning to produce organs and tissues, will never happen. The second objection applies specifically to reproductive cloning: if it could be done safely and effectively, it would benefit some individuals, and therefore should not be banned... |
(*) School of Advanced International Studies, Washington DC |
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Mon Feb 23, 2004
| Unreasonable Fears, Slippery Slopes, and Unnecessary Legislation |
| By John Robertson (*) |
| Reliance on slippery slope arguments often indicates that other arguments are weak. Francis Fukuyama's call for laws to ban reproductive cloning, creating embryos and fetuses for research, and other things he finds repugnant illustrates the point. Take his call for a federal law against reproductive cloning. He thinks that the Korean report of creating cloned embryos from cumulus cells has moved us "closer to the day when a cloned baby will be born," and therefore should be a wake-up call to get such a ban on the books. But the fact that an event has "moved us closer to the day" that cloning occurs doesn't tell us when in the future that will be, much less why it would be so bad... |
(*) School of Law, University of Texas |
[0] comments (399 views)
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Sun Feb 15, 2004
| Our Cloning Policy, Hostage to a Stalemate |
| By Francis Fukuyama (*) |
| Last week's announcement by South Korean researchers that they had cloned a human embryo and successfully extracted stem cells from it should be a wake-up call to U.S. lawmakers. It demonstrates both the speed with which science is moving ahead, and the urgent necessity to break the current logjam over cloning legislation that leaves the United States as one of the few developed countries without a legal framework in this area. There is almost universal agreement that reproductive cloning -- that is, the implanting of a cloned embryo in a woman's uterus with the intention of producing a child -- should be banned for a host of safety and moral reasons. Congress has not been able to pass such a ban, however, because right-to-life forces have demanded... |
(*) School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC |
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Tue Feb 03, 2004
| What is Enlightment? |
| By Francis Fukuyama (*) |
| Kant distinguishes between an "enlightened age," in which mankind as a whole is able to use its own understanding confidently in coming to judgments regarding the deep issues on which religion touches, and an "age of enlightenment," in which the obstacles to achieving enlightenment are cleared away. The latter he saw already emerging in Frederick's Prussia. What is most striking to me in rereading his great essay is both how thoroughly realized his vision of an age of enlightenment has become, and at the same time how far away we are from living in an enlightened age... |
(*) |
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