10/21/2006
appears to be legit
Professor Harbour wrote me back saying he wrote it and to feel free to distribute it. So, I think I'll follow up at some point soon, particularly the part about silencing dissent. I find that really fascinating, because it's frequently a rightist talking point, when in reality, it is often liberal professors who get silenced (in no small part, due to the effort of vocal conservatives trying to restrain them).
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2 comments:
Nathaniel,
I also suspected a hoax. However, you being from the business school at WU should know there are plenty of profs who are definitely not liberal.
As liberal as I am personally, though, I don't think stem cells from living embryos are fair game for science or medicine. Using living human tissue without the consent of its donor looks like Frankenscience to me, crossing the invisible ethical line. I'm not for this amendment or this type of research.
Though I'll bet they're all for it in China, where the many thousands of criminals executed every year are used as organ donors. Not something that seems "right" regardless of any religious spin.
What we do with embryos is really intersting to me because I am uncomfortable with the basic concept of having fertilized eggs lying around. Yet, we already do that in IVF clinics. So my take on stem cell research is it's a ridiculously arbitrary line to draw, to say, well, here, it's wrong. But I know some people see it differently, which is why I found this particular email so interesting. Not because I'm particularly interested in the science, but because this particular professor makes Wash U out to be this bastion of liberalism which isn't letting divergent views be heard.
Which it isn't, from Danforth to Talent to, as you point out, the B-School.
If you're curious about this, I'll have more to post, but I'm waiting for the professor to get back to me because he apparently didn't realize that people post emails online for the world to see and is quite unhappy. I am torn between wanting to respect his response of concern and finding it ridiculous that he sees it ok to email people to influence their opinion and then has a problem when somebody posts said email and applies commentary. To me, that strikes of the very problem of limiting dialogue for which he blasts Wash U.
As far as China, I actually think it's Singapore that's taking the lead on stem cell research. The Chinese just force people to get abortions.
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