Irony: Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to man that cost the lives of babies over scientist that save

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine  is awarded every year for outstanding contributions in the medical field. Specifically for saving lives. In that regard, this year was especially ironic. The winner of the prize was the guy that invented IVF:

From the AP via the Detroit News: In-vitro pioneer Edwards wins medicine Nobel

Robert Edwards of Britain won the 2010 Nobel Prize in medicine today for developing in-vitro fertilization, a breakthrough that has helped millions of infertile couples have children but also ignited an enduring controversy with religious groups.

Edwards, an 85-year-old professor emeritus at the University of Cambridge, started working on IVF as early as the 1950s. He developed the technique — in which eggs are removed from a woman, fertilized outside her body and then implanted into the womb — together with British gynecologist surgeon Patrick Steptoe, who died in 1988.

..."(Edwards') achievements have made it possible to treat infertility, a medical condition afflicting a large proportion of humanity, including more than 10 percent of all couples worldwide," the medicine prize committee in Stockholm said in its citation.

"Approximately 4 million individuals have been born thanks to IVF," the citation said. ...

The dark side of IVF of course is that more lives are destroyed than created. A bunch of eggs are fertilized with only a few that get a chance for life, the others being discarded with about as much regard as fecal matter. Sometimes, rather than being discarded, they are donated to embryonic stem cell researcher that destroy life to try to find ways to extend it. Ironically, a scientist that has made embryonic stem cell research all but obsolete was passed over for the prize. From Creative Minority Report:

it should come as no surprise to anyone that Edwards beat out the Japanese scientist that discovered how to make stem cells from ordinary skin cells.

The big prize money and recognition in medicine comes with killing babies, not saving them.

That's about where I'm at with the award too. The Nobel committe that also hand out the Nobel Peace Prize did award it to 1) Fraudster Al Gore, 2) Terrorist Arafat, and 3) Idiot failed President Jimmy Carter. So it's not worth what it once was.

http://theblogprof.blogspot.com/2010/10/irony-nobel-prize-in-medicine-awarded.html

Sent with MobileRSS for iPhone

Sent from my iPhone