Hurlbut is back again. The science is bad. The ability to ‘prove’ to a prolifer’s complete satisfaction that a disabled embryo is truly disabled is non-existent (they do not believe that now about cloned human embryos or genetically defective embryos that can be identified today through PGD as incapable of development). But, still this sort of pseudoscience is receiving attention. Stranger still, note McCugh’s absolutely bizarre argument against Hurlburt:
The only clear criticism on the council came from Dr. Paul McHugh, psychiatry department chairman at Johns Hopkins University. He warned that Hurlbut could be making a “hybrid which would be super-human in some kind of way.” Hurlbut responded: “You create an entity that never rises to the level of what can properly be called a living being.” McHugh suggested Hurlbut was making “a doomed hybrid” that would not be permitted to become a human being. “Not doomed,” responded Hurlbut, “Only doomed if it’s alive first.”
This whole discussion is straight out of a the Salem witch trials. – Arthur Caplan
Labels: bad science, crazy scientists, Hurlbut, psuedoscience, strange arguments