Critics Accuse Bush Administration of Trumping Science With Politics

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HealthDay News) -- Health experts said Wednesday they agreed with former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona's claim that the Bush administration has continually silenced medical and scientific opinions in favor of politics and religious dogma.

During his testimony before a Congressional panel on Tuesday, Carmona said that "top Bush administration officials repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of political considerations," The New York Times reported.

"It doesn't surprise us to hear that the administration was ignoring science and attempting to silence scientists. That's how they have operated about stem cells for years," said Sean Tipton, president of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, an umbrella group that represents more than 100 medical associations, colleges, scientific societies and foundations interested in promoting stem cell research.

Tipton said the White House's position on embryonic stem cell research was a political decision from "day one."

"The administration has been upfront that they didn't make this decision on scientific grounds," he said.

There is a legitimate moral consideration involving embryonic stem cell research, Tipton said. "There is a moral imperative to help the sick, and the Bush policy flies in the face of that," he said. "The American public gives a different moral value to a fertilized egg in a laboratory than they do to a 9-year-old girl with diabetes."

"Dr. Carmona was reflecting the view of the medical and scientific communities who want to move forward on stem cell research," Tipton added. He said Congress has voted several times to overturn the Bush policy on stem cells and that the majority of the American public supports stem cell research.

Carmona's testimony came just before confirmation hearings to name Dr. James Holsinger as the new U.S. Surgeon General. Holsinger's nomination has been criticized by gay right groups because of remarks he made in 1991 about homosexuality. In a report presented to the United Methodist Church's committee to study homosexuality, Holsinger argued that homosexuality is not natural or healthy.

http://www.livescience.com/healthday/606348.html

I know that nobody here is really surprised by this. This however is one of the best written critiques of the Bush Administrations "War on Science" as me and many of my science orientated friends think of it. Unfortunately, brute strength and just moronic dogmatic willful ignorance seems to work better here than it does in Iraq. I know this adminsitration has done many bad and harmful things to our country but this constant attack on science and the scientific method is to me amoung the worst of the worst!:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: