How Dr. Ben Carson Ruined His Legacy

[DonViejo]

Russell Saunders

Why Ben Carson the politician is an embarrassment to Ben Carson the neurosurgeon.

As a doctor, it’s hard to imagine a career more accomplished and admirable than that of Dr. Ben Carson. His achievements as a physician so vastly exceed my own as to render any comparison laughable, a fact that I will happily concede.

In fact, so great are his successes as a pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins that they comprise the sole basis for his run for president of the United States. Which is why it is astonishing to me as a fellow medical professional to watch as he takes a blowtorch to his own credibility in service to his political ambitions.

The most recent example of Dr. Carson the candidate saying something Dr. Carson the medical scientist knows to be incorrect was his response to the ongoing controversy about Planned Parenthood and the use of fetal tissue obtained from abortions performed there. According to Dr. Carson “there’s nothing that can’t be done without fetal tissue” when it comes to medical research.

As it turns out, Dr. Carson has himself participated in research on fetal tissue obtained through abortion. First reported by obstetrician (and The Daily Beast contributor) Dr. Jennifer Gunter, Dr. Carson was an author on a 1992 paper that studied tissue from two different fetuses, one aborted at 17 weeks.

In response to Dr. Gunter’s blog post, Dr. Carson has said, “My primary responsibility in that research was when I operated on people and obtained the tissue. This has everything to do with how it’s required. If you’re killing babies and taking the tissue, that’s a very different thing than taking a dead specimen and keeping a record of it.”

This equivocating non-answer adds to the pernicious narrative surrounding abortions and Planned Parenthood that suggests some kind of ghoulishly nefarious end to use of fetal tissue following abortions, or that babies are being aborted specifically for the purposes of harvesting that tissue. Of course this is not the case, and the decisions women make when they seek abortions are not informed by the research that may be done afterward. Those conducting that research are no more implicated in the process by which the samples were obtained than Dr. Carson was.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/14/how-dr-ben-carson-ruined-his-legacy.html

[Fast Walker 52]

1. it is bizarre-- and a perfect example of how conservative ideology can destroy your brain

or at least your critical thinking skills.

[spanone]

2. a staunch hypocrite....perfect for republicans

'killing babies' how disingenuous

[Princess Turandot]

3. I suspect that the dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine thanks the universe...

every morning that Carson stepped down from his position there in its entirety, rather than just retiring from surgery. "Hey, Dean Hodges! Any of your department chiefs think the world is flat? Any alchemists in the attic?"

Carson is/was a world class pediatric neurosurgeon. He achieved one of the field's holy grails, a method to separate twins conjoined at their heads which gave them both a chance to live. (As opposed to the doctors and parents knowing/deciding in advance which one would be sacrificed.)

When I heard that he had ended his surgical practice, my guess was that he had perhaps developed a slight tremor that would not be readily apparent to someone else but would be too great of a risk during surgery. I didn't consider that he might be orbiting Pluto without the help of New Horizons.

[Supersedeas]

4. I'd be willing to bet that there is a rather diverse group over at John Hopkins

[DirkGently]

5. Brilliant doctors who are also idiots mystify me.

Especially when they're somehow idiots about ... science?

Didn't Carson, who as the piece says is clearly a world-class physician, say that if evolution was real, every animal on Earth would now be a human?

Michael Crichton shocked me in the same way, when he wrote that "State of Fear" book that turned out to be one long, crazy-ass diatribe denying climate change and basically all of environmentalism. "Old-growth forests suck" stands out in my mind as a line the Harvard-trained Dr. Crichton actually wrote. He also opined that banning DDT "killed more people than Hilter," and that environmental groups are all just "law firms." He actually made footnotes as though he had studied the subject, yet somehow reached the same conclusions as every oil company lobbyist.

I guess it speaks to our ability to rationalize any belief we want more than anything. Smart people can "believe" stupid things.

I'm embarrassed for Carson, frankly. He's done great work and shouldn't have to be known as the guy who was actually too kooky for the Republican Party.

[backscatter712]

6. Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon famous for giving himself a lobotomy... n/t

[harrose]

7. He became a criminal ReThug

... that's enough to tarnish anyone's legacy.

[Gothmog]

8. Carson has wasted his legacy by being stupid