Science and Politics

In the New York Times , John Tierney files a brief report about the possibility of new drugs and genetic modifications to turn off or on homosexual tendencies.

For some years now, the medical associations (particularly the American Psychological Association) have firmly condemned psychiatric and religious attempts to alter sexual orientation. It will be interesting to see what they make of the chance for a new medical technique—for it seems to sit badly with their preferred narrative of anti-science bigots and pro-science liberals.

About the recent breakthroughs in stem cells that seem to take abortion out of the equation, I predicted that we would begin to see a strong turn against science from the left. The reactions to drug and gene therapies for homosexuality ought to provide a good case study.