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Council explores the ethics of biomedical innovations

The members of the President's Council on Bioethics have a daunting task, keeping in mind science, ethics and politics.

By Andis Robeznieks, amednews staff. May 20, 2002.

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Every month, a very exclusive club gathers in a meeting room of some Washington, D.C., hotel to discuss nothing less important than (in the words of the club's leader) "humanity's humanity."

Between them, the 18 members hold seven PhDs and six MDs. Four are attorneys, and two have doctor of philosophy degrees.

Two of the physicians are psychiatrists. One gained notoriety for his opposition to sex-change operations, while the other gained fame for writing a column for the Washington Post.

The other physicians include a former host of a PBS television show whose metabolism research has garnered numerous awards, one whose areas of expertise include biology and theology, another an award-winning researcher whose work includes studying the chromosome abnormalities of leukemia, and a bioethics pioneer whom, it's said, many bioethicists respect but disagree with.

This "club" is the President's Council on Bioethics. According to a January White House press release, President Bush is seeking its advice on the "complex and often competing moral positions associated with biomedical innovation." The president, however, already had announced his decision to allow limited federal funding of embryonic stem cell research in August 2001, and, in an April 10 speech, without mentioning the council, he urged Congress to pass a ban on all human cloning.

Council member Gilbert Meilaender, PhD, said it didn't bother him that the president already had staked out a position on cloning before the council had a chance to advise him. [...]