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When Politics Drives Science: Lysenko, Gore, and U.S. Biotechnology Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2009

Henry I. Miller
Henry I. Miller
Affiliation:
Scientific Philosophy and Public Policy, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
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Extract

It has been said that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. It is important, therefore, to consider the parallels between the decimation of basic and applied biology by Trofim Denisovich Lysenko in the Soviet Union earlier in this century and the battering of present-day biotechnology by the Clinton administration. In both cases, we see the sacrifice of new science to old myth; heterodox, unscientific theories steering public policy; the abject failure of that public policy, with dire outcomes for research and commerce; and glib, condescending, and exclusionary attitudes toward policymaking.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Philosophy and Policy , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , Summer 1996 , pp. 96 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Social Philosophy and Policy Foundation 1996

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References

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24 See Miller, Henry I., “… Gore and His Minions Punish Civil Servants Who Dare to Disagree,” Washington Times, 06 2, 1994.Google Scholar

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