Readers respond: Science funding is not government waste

I have seen celebrations in the news about a baby whose life was saved by gene therapy using CRISPR technology, (“

A race to edit a newborn’s genes and save his life,

” May 16). I am celebrating too. This technology also underlies a new treatment for the much more common problem of

sickle cell anemia

, and it could lead to therapies for

cystic fibrosis

or

Tay-Sachs

disease.

These news reports should include the source of the money which supported scientists and graduate students as they labored for many years to understand how genes work in our bodies. The efforts of these heroes and heroines were funded almost entirely by grants from the federal government: the

National Institutes of Health

, the

U.S. National Science Foundation

and others.

The current administration has cut this funding off. This is not only sad, but also inhumane and unconscionable.

Charlotte Shupert, Portland

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