A bioethics council formed by President George W. Bush to provide advice to his and future administrations on bioethical issues such as cloning and embryonic stem cell research was disbanded without warning by President Obama last week.

The move came after 10 of 18 members of the commission publicly criticized Obama’s decision earlier this year to overturn a Bush-era edict and encourage more embryonic stem cell research.

It also follows a widespread acceptance that despite the controversy surrounding embryonic stem cell research, the real advances in stem cell therapies are coming from researchers working with adult stem cells. 

Some opponents of embryonic stem cell research said the move was par for the course for a president who has demonstrated little tolerance for criticism, and predicted he would appoint a bioethics panel whose members were more philosophically in line with Obama’s positions on life-science issues.

“The commission was appointed to be a watchdog on these complex ethical issues, and now Obama will hand-pick people who will rubber stamp his policies,” said Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue, a group that has opposed embryonic stem cell research and human cloning. “This sounds like an omen for what we can expect from his administration.”

Dr. David Prentice, senior fellow for life sciences at the Family Research Council, in a message posted on the council’s blog, speculated that the criticism by 10 commission members was one factor that led to the group’s sudden disbanding.

“But a more likely reason is that he needs a philosophical, well-stacked bioethics rubber stamp,” Dr. Prentice wrote.

Prentice added the he expected the new group “swiftly to consider (and to agree with the president) on the issue of stem cells, cloning and embryo experiments.”

Prentice also provided a link [see below] to the disbanded commission’s website, so citizens could see for themselves the group’s accomplishments, “before their website is erased.”

The commission was most recently chaired by Ed Pellegrino, professor emeritus of medicine and medical ethics at the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at Georgetown University Medical Center and the former director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics.  The members of the council were considered to be ideologically divided, but balanced and productive in their published reports.

- Phil LaCerte

Resources:

• Disbanded President's Council on Bioethics website: http://bioethics.gov/
• Members of the President's Council on Bioethics:  http://bioethics.gov/about/members.html
• 'Adult stem cell therapies are coming to market' (Fortune Magazine): http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/16/technology/adult_stem_cell_therapy.fortune/index.htm
• Operation Rescue: http://operationrescue.org

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