Shrub n' Huxley


What makes me think this is probably accurate is that Dear Leader didn't actually read the book...nor was it a book on tape:

In a new piece in Commentary magazine, Jay Lefkowitz -- who advised Bush on stem cells -- reveals how the President formulated his 2001 policy. While Bush heard from a variety of groups on both sides of the issue, the turning point appeared to come when Lefkowitz read from Aldous Huxley’s fictional novel, Brave New World, and scared Bush...

It’s unclear what passage Lefkowitz read, but Brave New World opens with a scene at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where embryos are turned into full human beings -- often dozens of pairs of "identical twins" to ensure "social stability."

Scientists are not proposing such fictional experiments and recognize the need to balance ethics with scientific progress. In fact, the legislation expanding embryonic stem cell research (vetoed by Bush) -- actually proposed ethics regulations that were stricter than Bush’s. Additionally, a bill banning human cloning was blocked by conservatives in Congress in June.

Six years since the President’s misguided, outdated restrictions, the scientific community has come together in support of lifting this ban. Even University of Wisconsin Professor James Thomson, whose work isolating embryonic stem cells has been used by the right wing -- including Lefkowitz -- as vindication for Bush’s policies, has stressed that the administration’s restrictive stem cell policies are "counter to both scientific and public opinion" and are inhibiting potential treatments.

Too bad Lefkowitz didn't read Bush any passages referring to the effects of soma...that might've made stem cell research a national sacrament.