Obama To Replace Bush Bioethics Panel To Redirect Focus Toward Practical Policy Matters

Main Category: Stem Cell Research
Also Included In: Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 19 Jun 2009 - 7:00 PDT

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President Obama last week disbanded the Bush administration's Council on Bioethics and announced plans to form a new commission with a mandate that will offer "practical policy options," according to White House press officer Reid Cherlin, the New York Times reports. According to Cherlin, the old council was disbanded because former President George W. Bush's administration designed it to be "a philosophically leaning advisory group" that focused on discussion rather than forming a shared consensus. Presidential bioethics commissions, which have existed since 1974, typically serve to inform the public of advances in science and develop guidance on controversial issues such as stem cells, human cloning and genetic engineering, the Times reports.

The Bush administration's council was created in November 2001, shortly after Bush restricted federal funding for embryonic stem cell research to lines existing at the time. Bush's council at times was accused of being more ideological than previous commissions, particularly under the leadership of Leon Kass of the University of Chicago, the Times reports. It often produced reports with "a somewhat philosophical bent" on issues like how to determine death or the genetic screening of newborns, according to the Times. Alta Charo, an ethicist at the University of Wisconsin, said much of the council's work "seemed more like a public debating society." Ruth Faden, a bioethicist at Johns Hopkins University, said, "The other view is that all presidential commissions are structured in the context of a particular administration" (Wade, New York Times, 6/18).

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