A Triumph of Moral and Political Leadership

Posted: Saturday, November 24, 2007
The president deserves enormous credit for standing firm on the ethical principle here, against massive political pressure. That was important and right in itself, and it also did help to nudge stem cell research in the right direction. But as a matter of moral and political leadership, the first part was much more important than the second, and was also what made the second possible. Science can be flexible, ethics must be firm, and the combination can help avert a collision.  [Full Story]

A Stem Cell Win-Win

Posted: Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The news embargo now seems to have been on what is likely to rank as the most important development in stem cell science since the first derivation of human embryonic stem cells in 1998. Two prominent scientific journals--Science and Cell--are each today publishing papers that demonstrate extraordinary success with a technique called "somatic cell reprogramming."  [Full Story]

Aging with the Boomers
The coming geriatric mindset.
Posted: Thursday, October 18, 2007
For six decades, the baby boomer generation has dominated America's understanding of itself. Now, as the baby boomers reach retirement, America's political life is likely to become increasingly obsessed with the problems of the elderly.  [Full Story]

What Comes Next

Posted: Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Conservatives show signs of intellectual fatigue, and of uncertainty about where their attention should now be directed. The prominent issues of the day seem, on their face, to favor the left. But in fact, conservatives have ready-made opportunities to take the initiative and to make a case for reform aimed at advancing the interests of the American family on precisely the issues where the left seems strongest: issues like health care, economic mobility, and the environment.  [Full Story]

Conservatives and Creeds
David Brooks misreads Burke and the Right.
Posted: Monday, October 8, 2007
New York Times columnist David Brooks says conservatives are down because they've rejected their Burkean roots and become mere ideologues. But the usually astute Brooks misreads both Burke and American conservatives, and so misses a real way out of the funk.  [Full Story]

Two Aspirin and Call Us in 2008
The GOP health care consensus.
Posted: Thursday, September 27, 2007
The 2008 presidential campaign has seen the Democrats more outspoken on health care than they have been since the early 1990s. The three frontrunners have produced health care proposals that would greatly increase the role of the government in funding and managing the nation's health insurance system, and all constantly speak about health care on the stump.   [Full Story]

A Doctor, But Whose?
Diagnosing the Disorder in the Surgeon General's Office
Posted: Monday, August 27, 2007
The Bush administration has gone through several minor scandals involving the surgeon general, including one this summer, and the Clinton administration had its share as well. The predictable theatrics and hand-wringing surrounding these controversies have tended to obscure some simple questions: What really is the surgeon general's purpose today? And how did the office come to occupy the peculiar role it has? The answers have a lot to tell us about the politics of public health and the culture wars.  [Full Story]

Diagnosis & Cure

Posted: Friday, July 6, 2007
From the plight of the uninsured to the sorry future of Medicare, the failings of American health care make constant headlines, and have inspired  at least a half-dozen books on the subject in just the past year. But Jonathon Cohn's contribution stands out. He offers a uniquely thorough diagnosis of the problems we face, even if his prescription seems very unlikely to heal the patient.   [Full Story]

Beginning of the End?
President Bush moves to redefine the stem-cell debate.
Posted: Thursday, June 21, 2007
With his executive order supporting newly emerging alternative sources of pluripotent stem cells, President Bush showed that he, unlike the leaders of Congress, understands that the basic premises of the debate over embryonic stem-cell research are being radically revised.  [Full Story]

Real Stem-Cell News
New developments point toward a consensus solution and away from the Democrats' bill.
Posted: Wednesday, June 6, 2007
The politics of stem cells are stuck in a repeating loop. While opponents of the Bush policy again and again trot out their tired arguments in Washington, scientific developments continue to point in a different direction -- away from the false opposition of science and ethics and toward a potential consensus solution.  [Full Story]