President's bioethics panel gets new leadership, direction

Critics say the former chair politicized the President's Council on Bioethics. They expect his replacement will have a different style.

By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. Oct. 10, 2005.

In what could mark a notable change in direction for President Bush's Council on Bioethics, Leon Kass, MD, PhD, stepped down from his post as chair of the panel Oct. 1 after four years of steering the group toward conservative positions on issues ranging from human embryonic stem cell research to age retardation.

Dr. Kass's replacement is Edmund Pellegrino, MD, professor emeritus at Georgetown University's Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, in Washington, D.C., and widely recognized as a founder of bioethics.

Dr. Pellegrino, 85, said in a statement that he plans to focus on issues such as access to health care and end-of-life care.

The founding editor of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Dr. Pellegrino opposes all embryonic stem cell research, but has long been primarily interested in clinical ethics, whereas Dr. Kass's focus was the ethical implications of biomedical advances.

"It would benefit the country if the council turned itself toward topics closer to ground," said Jonathon D. Moreno, PhD, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Biomedical Ethics. "A lot will depend on what kind of stamp Ed decides to put on the council in the next few years."

Dr. Kass, a philosophy professor at the University of Chicago, had tired of his unpaid tour of duty as chair of the 18-member council and wanted to engage in other pursuits, according to a council spokeswoman. He will continue to serve as a council member.

Though Dr. Kass, who was not taking interview requests, did not achieve what he wanted legislatively, some say his work with the council had an impact.