US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has vowed to lift restrictions on embryonic stem research should she be elected. This was the first of a number of issues she used to attack the Bush administration’s track record on science. "For six and half years under this president, it’s been open season on open inquiry," Mrs Clinton told an audience of scientists at the Carnegie Institution for Science. "By ignoring or manipulating science, the Bush administration is letting our economic competitors get an edge in the global economy." She described Bush’s limits on funding for embryonic stem cell research a "ban on hope".

Her catalogue of Republican interference with science included: allowing political appointees to censor studies on climate change, muzzling global warming experts, overruling doctors and the FDA on emergency contraception, suppressing and manipulating data on mercury pollution, manipulating scientific advisory committees, and censoring government websites on breast cancer research, contraception, climate change, "and so much else".

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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