Terra Incognita

Tonight's blog is a simple one.  Often i find great examples of how established institutions limit mankind's ability to improve the quality of life of his/her fellow human.  Today's example comes from the PBS documentary, "Mapping Stem Cells: Terra Incognita". The documentary follows Dr. Jack Kessler as he journey's to find a cure for spinal cord injuries using stem cell research.  His research is being opposed by religious activists and political agendas due to the fact that stem cell research requires human embryos to be harvested and thus destroyed. The debate surfaces when the question of whether or not this embryo is consider a human life or not.  Even though the senate voted in favour of funding stem cell research, George W. Bush then commander in chief of the US, vetoed his first bill as president because in his opinion, stem cell research "... destroys life in order to save life". This is the perfect example of a single religious institution, namely the Christian church, as well as the established US political institution using opinion  to egotistically make a decision instead of using the scientific method to logically arrive at a decision through discovery. The irony is that the very scientific discovery needed could come from the research work that Dr. Kessler is trying to do.  Science is the progressive discovery of our own ignorance and established political and religious institutions are keeping us ignorant. The current system is broken.

Harvesting Stem Cells