Alliance for Medical Research: “Science and Spin”

My piece in the Daily Standard is out today deconstructing the ridiculous piece of propaganda drivel: “Regenerative Medicine: Pathway to Cures” produced by the Houston-based Alliance for Medical Research.

Science depends on intellectual integrity to be, well, science. Pathway to Cures is anti-science because it is profoundly deceptive; in the words it uses, the hyped claims it makes, and it apparent resort to outside fabrication, e.g., chimpanzees have been “cured” with human embryonic stem cells.

What is sad is that I am not the one who should be up in arms about this: “The scientists” should be, because when a supposedly scientific “educational” video is actually mere propaganda, the endeavor of science itself is harmed. It is time for the leaders of the scientific community to begin insisting on accuracy and integrity in debating the various political disputes we have over science and research policy issues. If they don’t, in the end the worst casualty will be science itself.