It isn’t odd to do what President Obama is doing with the bioethics council that Bush established, its just….well….. Let me first tell you what I’m talking about.
Members of the President’s Council on Bioethics were told by the White House last week that their services were no longer needed and were asked to cancel a planned meeting, a council staff member said Wednesday.
The council was disbanded because it was designed by the Bush administration to be “a philosophically leaning advisory group” that favored discussion over developing a shared consensus, said Reid Cherlin, a White House press officer.
President Obama will appoint a new bioethics commission, one with a new mandate and that “offers practical policy options,” Mr. Cherlin said.
I’m wondering if anyone else caught the odd part of this all. I began to doubt myself that I just may be wrong on something, because it just didn’t seem to make sense, so I looked it up.
The study of bioethics is basically the philosophy of ethical controversies in the advancement of biology and medicine. So, why would they be disbanded for doing their jobs? This council actually went against a lot of what the Pro-life community thought they would. An example is the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The bioethics community established that this study could continue as long as no knew embryo’s were created for the purpose of research. It did not stop the research. In January of this year the FDA approved the first human trials of human embryonic stem cell research so it is obvious that advancements were made under the Bush policy.
My first thought was that maybe Bush stacked the council with all conservatives, but found that not to be the case. The first person in charge of Bush’s bioethics team was Leon Kass. He was not and is not against embryonic stem cell research- he is against the unrestrained progress. Basically he is against treating human life as a natural resource. His arguments on this subject are sound, educated and not based on religion. He bases his arguments on the natural elements of human nature.
The second and last person in charge was Edmund D. Pellegrino. He is is a master of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Those groups have been ridiculed by the hard core pro-life conservatives on many occasions and are not really know to be politically conservative by nature.
I also looked up who has all been on the council only to discover it is actually polit
ically even with more moderates than anything else. To me, it sounds like a good group for the job. So, we are now back to why disband the whole group?
The reason given is that the group was “’a philosophically leaning advisory group’ that favored discussion over developing a shared consensus”. Well, isn’t that really what bioethics is? Even our Supreme Courts don’t develop a “shared consensus” they go by majority of opinion. Although I may complain about the court systems, it does seem to work well when it comes to checks and balances.
So the new “mandate” will be that the group “offers practical policy options”. How do they obtain those options? Could it be through philosophical discussion that advises what the options are? Why doesn’t Obama just tell us the truth. He wants the “old” out and the “new” in. I would be able to accept that excuse better than all the B.S.
We all know that I do not trust Obama so I want to know your opinions on this? Should Obama remove this group? Is it wise for him to replace all the people involved? Do you think he is doing this so he can have his own agenda be backed? Do you think he should just disband the idea of a bioethics group entirely?
Val-
Obama wouldn’t know ethics if they jumped up and slapped him upside his smug little face. He is likely replacing them so he can have another little group of “yes, sire” lackeys at his and Rahmbo’s disposal.