A Vote For Science

At the 18 September head-to-head between health advisors from the McCain and Obama campaign that Scientists and Engineers for America hosted at George Washington University, a question on in vitro fertilization completely stumped McCain health advisor Jay Khosla. The Obama campaign surrogate, Dora Hughes, MPH, MD answered it without hesitation.

Frankly, the inability to answer this simple question on a widely used assisted reproductive technology or clarify whether McCain will once and for all lift Bush's ban on use of federal funds for human embryonic stem cell research is deeply disturbing. Is it pandering to the religious right, an innocent flub or an indication of intentions to tighten restrictions on assisted reproductive technologies? This is hardly "gotcha journalism." The inability to answer is scary.

The moderator, Julie Rovner from NPR, was taking questions from the audience and by email, here is the IVF question...

"Senator McCain has stated that human life begins at the moment of conception. This would have many implications for scientific research and health policy. Would Senator McCain ban in vitro fertilization, a procedure where most fertilized eggs are destroyed; and if not, why not?

The question itself hinges upon the definition of "conception," there are two. Generally, the religious right defines conception as fertilization of an embryo (regardless of the means of delivery). The medical definition requires implantation of the embryo. The easy answer would have been "Of course not. Senator McCain has no intention of banning IVF. That's preposterous" Mr. Khosla said he would be willing to answer this question off line. I wonder what his answer would be with the cameras off. Watch the whole forum here.