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March 17, 2004
Changes to Bioethics council
I'm very concerned about the personnel changes happening on the Bioethics council. But the bottom line is that the more we separate medical research from federal funding--and thereby federal oversight--the better.
Kass's performance as the chairman of the President's Bioethics Council is little different from than the chairs of a variety of other presidential bodies tasked with reviewing scientific discoveries. This is an administration, as has been widely noted by numerous concerned American scientists, that routinely dismisses science it finds politically distasteful. The chairmen are picked to produce the reviews that the White House wants. Kass is just the most egregious example of this worrying trend--but similar problems have been noted on other panels and councils, particularly those tasked with evaluating environmental issues.
By the way, as Sherwin Nuland pointed out in an article in the first issue of Acumen, it is actually illegal for an Admistration to stack scientific councils in this fashion.