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Cohen: Once again, science bows to ideology 05/05/2001 By RICHARD COHEN / The Dallas Morning News Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (1898-1976) was a Soviet-era agronomist whose name became synonymous with the subordination of science to ideology. As a scientist, he was something of a fraud. His experiments were shoddy and often were unverifiable, but he did have his champions. After one speech, a certain listener was prompted to exclaim, "Bravo, Comrade Lysenko, bravo!" His name was f Stalin. America has no Mr. Lysenko, but it does suffer from what might be called creeping Lysenkoism. I refer to the tendency of the political right to seize on any scientific finding, no matter how tentative or wrong, to support its ideology.

Exhibit No. 1 is the recent study on day care that found – without any doubt whatsoever – that day care is bad for a child, not so bad for a child or, possibly, good for a child. The finding that got the most immediate and widespread media attention was the first. Day care somehow produced kids with "disobedient" or "aggressive" tendencies. The exact figure given was "17 percent," and that, in turn, led much of the conservative press into arias of Lysenkoism.

"These findings ... don't bode well for the brave new world originally engineered in the name of feminism," editorialized the Washington Times. "They suggest that there is a steep, possibly prohibitive cost in the so-called 'liberated' life of countless American women."

Actually, the findings suggest no such thing. In fact, the study conducted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development makes no conclusion at all. It doesn't know how to account for that 17 percent – nor, for that matter, for the 83 percent who aren't disobedient, aggressive or – would you believe? – pyromaniacal. Maybe, in fact, you can draw no conclusion at all from the study – unless, of course, you already think the term "working mother" is synonymous with "child abandonment."

Next, we move on to stem cell research. Stem cells harvested from embryos are capable of forming any kind of human tissue. We know that. Cells taken from adults – fat cells, as it happens – may possess the same properties. Then again, they may not. Nevertheless, the anti-abortion movement has seized on one (questionable) study published in one (obscure) journal to declare adult cells the equal of embryonic ones.

Why? Because in the ideology of the anti-abortion movement, a fetus, or even an embryo, is a life – a person. Therefore, it would be morally wrong to use the stem cells harvested from abortions or left over from fertility treatments – more wrong, if such things can be measured, than, say, not using the cells possibly to save the lives of people with Parkinson's disease.

That is why the anti-abortion movement jumped at the news that adult cells taken from fat tissue might work just as well. One study suggested that was the case – never mind that the scientific community wasn't impressed. What mattered wasn't the requirements of science but of ideology. Use the fat cells. Close down all embryonic stem-cell research. We now can cure disease with a press release.

Finally, we come to President Bush and missile defense. That isn't necessarily a bad idea – but it certainly is one whose time hasn't come. The technology for the system simply doesn't exist. But in a burst of creative Lysenkoism, Mr. Bush not only talked as if it did, he justified the system's rapid implementation by earlier reinstating North Korea as just the sort of totally nuts country that missile defense is aimed at deterring. Mr. Bush not only created a system, he created a need for it. Mr. Lysenko himself would be green with envy.

Trouble is, North Korea has put its missile testing on hold. (We can verify that sort of stuff.) Its "Dear Leader," Kim Jong Il, cut a deal with the Clinton administration. North Korea would forgo the development of its medium- and long-range missiles for the usual exchange of money (food aid, etc.) and flattery (possibly a visit from the president himself).

The deal – a triumph of diplomacy – made so much sense that when Secretary of State Colin was briefed on it upon entering office, he pronounced it a splendid bargain. However, his dear leader, Mr. Bush, overruled him. North Korea must remain a rogue state. For the sake of missile defense, we need an immediate enemy.

Mr. Bush is the near-perfect personification of the conservative tendency to make facts the servant of ideology – bend them, change them or invent them but by all means make them politically acceptable. Mr. Lysenko himself once said, "It is better to know less ... just what is necessary for practice."

Or to put it another way, "I would rather be president than be right."

Cohen writes for the Washington Post.

Martha Murdock, DirectorNational Silicone Implant FoundationDallas, Texas Headquarters