The Placebo Effect

Now that Obama has reversed the Bush ban on federal funding of stem cell research, and Congress is poised to enact a law authorizing funds for that purpose, what does it really mean? Will it actually accomplish anything? I an very wary of government involvement in anything, and while Obama's pledge to insure the highest of ethical standards sounds reassuring, what that probably means in reality is just a more burdensome government presence in the research labs. I sometimes seriously wonder if there would ever have been a cure for polio or chicken pox if the federal government had been involved, or for that matter if even penicillin would have been developed to its true potential. I honestly doubt it.

At the same time, even if there are cures discovered and radical new treatments developed as a result of this decision and the research it engenders, I think people are fooling themselves if they think these will not come without a higher price than they realize.

Since the decision was announced, stock in stem cell research firms have shot up, one of the few bright spots in a very dismal and, dare I say, depressive stock market. It shouldn't take a world class economics expert to understand that people invest in stock in the hopes of making profits, and that profits arise from firm minimum prices. Yes, the infusion of government cash in the way of grants is supposed to ameliorate that phenomenon somewhat, but you can rest assured the market will most assuredly act to encourage a moderating effect, and the government will help by insisting on the highest and most rigid standards. Translation-don't expect any miracle cures overnight and don't expect the government to absorb the entirety of the expense when they do finally come about.

In the long run, I doubt that this will amount to much. The science is almost at a point right now where a person can set aside his own stem cells for the purpose of finding designer cures and treatments, including but not limited to not only repairing severely damaged limbs and organs, but potentially even growing new replacement ones. That could well be the wave of future, but there is a problem with that. How can one depend on a steady infusion of cash from such a dependable cure? Cures are forever, but symptoms pay a lot of salaries.

In the meantime, frozen stem cells might become a new growth industry, with the profits taken in by clinics from eggs and semen sold for research purposes surpassing their dubiously gotten gains from the Octomoms of the world. In fact, this might well save the in vitrio fertilization industry, which is obviously in serious need of regulation if anything is.

As for the ethical standards, I leave you with this excerpt from the Reuters article.

But DeGette and Castle, a Delaware Republican, said they would not take on the Dickey-Wicker amendment, which prevents the use of federal funds to actually extract the stem cells from human embryos.

"I think the Dickey-Wicker decision perhaps could be done later," Castle said.