Abstract

The New Scopes Trials

The authors argue that scientific panels and committees have proven especially susceptible to political manipulation by the administration of U.S. president George W. Bush. In one revealing case, Bush & Co. intervened at the precise moment that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention was set to consider once again lowering acceptable blood-lead levels in response to new scientific evidence. The supposedly nonpartisan President's Council on Bioethics--a panel whose creation Bush announced during his much publicized stem-cell speech of August 2001--proved susceptible to a different arm of his political base, the far right. A similar case of politically inspired panel-stacking involved the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health, which reviews research and makes suggestions on a range of public health policy issues. None of this should be surprising from an Administration that sees nothing wrong with conducting an ideological litmus test for potential scientific appointees. The scientific community has balked at these decisions and appointment practices. Science magazine published an editorial signed by ten prominent US scientists railing against Bush's appropriation of the nation's scientific advisory committees and panels for political purposes. While Bush's supporters may giddily profit from such changes, it's the rest of us who lose out when science becomes another avenue for propaganda.