Face Transplant & Cloning Reveals Mentally Ill Doctors

On Drudge today, a report that the woman who received the world's first face transplant is mentally ill, highlights the problems with cutting-edge (pardon the pun) procedures and over-eager doctors wishing to make a name for themselves under the guise of serving science.

On this same day, we find that the much heralded South Korean researcher who supposedly cloned 11 stem cells, and who has already admitted "ethical breaches" by asking (coercing?) female employees to "donate" their eggs to science for around $4,000.00 may not have succeeded in cloning anything at all.

In the hyper-competitive world of medical research (and it starts in medical school--remember the post about malicious students planting false tests to gain a competitive advantage? Cut-throats we called them appropriately enough.), immense pressure to present research ahead of rivals causes all kinds of ethical problems. Candace Pert, PhD talks extensively in her book Molecules of Emotion about the nonsense that goes on in this testosterone-charged world of one upmanship.

So, a doctor will take the face of a suicide victim and put it on the face of a woman who attempted suicide--thus the first face transplant. Nice. In France, too, what a surprise!

Another doctor pays for the eggs of underlings and lies about the resulting research. An American researcher from University of Pennsylvania Richard Schatten now is fleeing for his scientific life because he was the lead author on the article even though the research wasn't technically his (this happens all the time in the ass-kissing world of science so research gains more credibility with the "right" name attached and can make it into an esteemed journal like Science).

The whole system is BS. Research funded by taxpayer money reaches scientists who excel at writing for grants, excel at networking and do their time staying permanently attached to the proper derriere. That is to say, U.S. and world hard and soft science research, far from being merit-based, depends on elaborate networks of prima dona controlled information brokering.

Of course, all this research was done with the intent to save mankind, right? Good intentions negate the moral and ethical breeches every time. After all, the only reason this important research is being conducted is so Superman can walk again. What could possibly be more important than that?