Lasker Award Politics

The Lasker Awards are known as one of America’s most prestigious honors in medicine.  The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation has a sterling reputation for honoring scientific achievement.  Past winners have included the developers of the cochlear implant and discoveries in brain stimulation for Parkinson’s.  Several went on to win the Nobel Prize.  So it’s an absolute travesty one of their three awards this year is going to Planned Parenthood.  Keep in mind Planned Parenthood won’t even admit life begins at fertilization—a basic scientific fact in medicine.  Why would the Foundation do this?  Albert and Mary Lasker were supporters of Margaret Sanger and Albert is credited with coming up with the name Planned Parenthood.   This award was a political statement, not earned by scientific achievement.