Moral Status, Human Identity, and Early Embryos: A Critique of the President''s Approach

Underlying President Bush's view regarding stemcell research and cloning are two assumptions: we originate at conception, and we have full moral status as soon as we originate. I will challenge both assumptions, argue that at least the second is mistaken, and conclude that the President's approach is unsustainable.     

Small business innovation,research, and development

Historically, small businesses have been the innovation engine of the United States, with significantly more than half of the new technologies and products coming from small enterprises. In 1992, there were more than 21 million small businesses with fewer than 500 employees each in the United States, including 4.5 million small corporations, 1.6 million partnerships, and 15.1 million sole proprietorships. Although most small businesses have considerably fewer than 100 employees, they employ more than half the private U.S. work force, contribute more than half of all sales in the country, and are responsible for over half of the private sector's products. From 1976 to 1990, small firms also generated 65% of the net new jobs. From 1988 to 1990, all of the net new jobs in the U.S. economy were created by small firms. Indeed, small business is really big business in the United States.     

NASP program technology: An example of transfer benefit for the medical industry and spinback benefit for the government

Technology developed in the National Aero-Space Plane (NASP) program is finding its way into a variety of applications ranging from aerospace to automotive to medical. The NASP Technology Applications Integrated Product Team (IPT) is pursuing technology transfer opportunities to promote the wide use of NASP-developed or-inspired materials in these and other industries. While product innovations and enhancements serve the commercial sector well, they also spin back to the government in the form of cheaper, higher-performing systems and components.