Hiding Behind "Science"

At this rate VI threatens to become all Kerry-bashing all the time, but some things just cry out for comment (perhaps I’ll make a point to bash President Bush some more just to keep things fair and balanced).

Anyway, this past weekend Senator Kerry gave a radio address wherein he promised, if elected, to lift the restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research that President Bush has put into place. As CNN reports:

“This is not the way we do things in America,” Kerry said in the Democrats’ weekly radio address. “Here in America we don’t sacrifice science for ideology. We are a land of discovery, a place where innovators and optimists are free to dream and explore.”

“We know that progress has always brought with it the worry that this time, we have gone too far,” Kerry said. “Believe it or not, there was a time when some questioned the morality of heart transplants. Not too long ago, we heard the same kind of arguments against the biotechnology research that now saves stroke victims and those with leukemia.”

Such work, Kerry said, is too important to risk for an ideological base and must be “a priority” in the nation’s medical community.

“People of good will and good sense can resolve the ethical issues without stopping life-saving research,” he added. “America has long led the world in great discoveries, always upholding the highest standards, with our breakthroughs and our beliefs always going hand-in-hand. And when it comes to stem cell research, we will demand no less.”

What I take issue with here is not so much Kerry’s position on stem cell research (which is defensible, though, I think, wrong). Rather it’s the way he tries to hide the fact that he’s taking a moral position by wrapping himself in the mantle of “science.”

Kerry sidesteps the moral argument by setting up a false dichotomy between “science” and “ideology.” Science as such doesn’t give us moral guidance. It tells us what we can do, but not what we should or shouldn’t do. Moral norms have to come from elsewhere. So “science” can’t tell us if it’s right to destroy human embryos in order to harvest their stem cells. Surely Kerry knows this. Heck, I know it, and I didn’t even go to Yale.