Let molecular biologists be molecular biologists

I'm up at this ungodly hour (4 AM EDT) because in a few minutes, a car service is ferrying me to Newark Airport for a flight to sunny Phoenix (today's estimated high temperature: 111 degrees Fahrenheit) for a business trip.

Couldn't really sleep, so I've been catching up on my reading. And an article in this week's Economist has me hopping mad.

Some context:

Basic scientific research has historically been one of the great intellectual and economic strengths of our nation. With no disrespect intended to the bright scientists and researchers doing fine work elsewhere (and there are many of them), the US has led the world in many areas of research and technology.

Recently, for political reasons, the advancement of two related and highly significant and promising areas of biological research--stem cell technology and cloning--has been essentially shut off to US-based scientists.

Let's not beat around the Bush, okay? The controversy over stem-cell research and cloning is a stalking horse for the abortion issue... a way for social conservatives to demonstrate their intellectual consistency when it comes to so-called "culture of life" issues.

Never you mind about the rights or desires of people struggling with painful, disabling or even deadly diseases (ranging from diabetes to Parkinson's) that might be treated one day with stem-cell-based therapies or cloned tissue; the social conservatives are making a courageous stand in favor of Blastocyst Rights. Apparently, the "life" that interests them most exists as undifferentiated masses of cells, rather than actual human beings suffering actual medical problems.

Okay, okay, stay with me, I'm getting to the point.

This week, the august journal Science published an article in which it was revealed that an enormous breakthrough has been made in human embryonic stem-cell cloning technology.

By a team composed almost entirely of South Koreans, working in South Korea.

Here, I'll let The Economist fill you in:

AMERICA'S loss is South Korea's gain. Unlike many Americans, up to and including the president, Korean scientists--and the authorities that support them--do not wring their hands in agony about experimenting on tiny clusters of cells that might, in other circumstances, grow into people. They just get on with it. The latest paper in the field, published this week in Science, has 25 authors. They were led by Woo Suk Hwang of Seoul National University, and all but two of them work in South Korea.

The tiny clusters of cells in question are known as blastocysts. A blastocyst is the precursor to an embryo. It contains a number of so-called stem cells that are capable of differentiating into many different types of tissue. Optimists hope stem cells might be used to generate replacement tissues—and even entire organs—for those who have lost their originals to disease. But not just any old stem cells. Using stem cells derived by cloning from the very patients who need the transplants might get around the problem of rejection by the immune system that bedevils transplant techniques at the moment.

I just cut a check to the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research. We need to take the handcuffs and shackles off of our scientists and researchers and allow them to push forward in this very promising area.