Presentation at the Symposium, "The Next Four Years, the Biotech Agenda, the Human Future: What Direction for Liberals and Progressives?"

[summary]

I would like to focus on four points:

1) The discourse on science policy issues has been dominated by two extremist ideologies: libertarianism and conservative fundamentalism, with the former holding that there should be no constraints on science, and the later holding that the constraints on science are determined by religious evangelical principles. These two ideologies have generated the new false idols of the mind: the free market, and faith-based science.

2) These ideologies have staked out separate spheres of influence: the religious conservatives have purview over government policy, and the libertarians have the private sector. So you have two systems of ethics, one for the government and one for the private sector, with the universities straddling both.

3) Traditional sector boundaries are disappearing, notably that between academia and the private market. This has generated a crisis in the integrity of science. Drug manufacturers are running clinical trials of drugs. Manufacturers of cancer drugs are taking over management of cancer treatment centers.

4) The corporate capitalist and the neo-conservative fundamentalist agendas have found their rapproachement: the religious right wants...