Why were leprosy patients still being quarantined in Japan all the way up until 1996, despite the fact that other nations had long since abandoned the practice? According to a new report, the country's health ministry was simply trying to protect its budget:

"Japan's policy of absolute quarantine... did not have any scientific grounds," the government panel said.

"The health ministry, in order to secure an adequate budget for treatment, emphasised the continued need for the policy of absolute isolation to the finance ministry," it said.

Doctors, who also had vested interested as the administrators of sanatoriums, did not challenge the policy, the 1,500 page report added.

The panel also criticised Japan's courts for helping the government uphold the policy and the country's media for failing to report it.

Yes, this story should be a cautionary tale for liberals about the sometimes dangerous nature of bureaucracies. But conservatives should be even more abashed. After all, they're the ones who've been working overtime to get the science out of scientific policy-making for the last four years. And this is but a tiny example of the kind of tragedy that their irresponsible conduct is courting.