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It has become very clear that the President's Council on Bioethics is nothing more than a rubber stamp intended to justify bans on stem cell medicine, therapeutic cloning and other new medical technologies that anti-abortion groups and other conservatives dislike. Research in these fields is vital to the development of working regenerative medicine, a field that promises cures for a wide array of age-related conditions.
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The Bioethics Council, appointed by President Bush, is ostensibly an intellectual group that provides an "adequate moral and ethical lens through which to view particular developments in their proper scope and depth." In practice, the council is stacked with members who are strongly opposed - mostly on religious grounds - to embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning, both vital to the developing field of regenerative medicine. The chairman, Leon Kass, has frequently gone on record to state his opposition to any research that would extend the healthy human life span.
The Bioethics Council is used by the current US administration to provide justification for anti-research policies that have already caused enormous damage to medical research. Despite the designed bias in the council against stem cell and therapeutic cloning research, the case for research is so strong that the council was not able to condemn it in their official report, "Monitoring Stem Cell Research."
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In late February 2004, the few members of the council who have spoken out in favor of medical research for regenerative medicine were abruptly replaced by members more likely to toe the line desired by the US administration. This is most likely a response to the neutral nature of "Monitoring Stem Cell Research," a document containing no policy recommendations nor explicit condemnation of this science. Chris Mooney, a frequent commentator on medical research, legislation and Washington politics, offered the following thoughts on the matter:
We now know how President Bush responds to highly publicized charges that he's stacking scientific advisory panels: He gives his critics the finger and stacks another one. This morning the news broke that Bush has removed two important dissenters from the President's Council on Bioethics, one of them being the scientist and telomere expert Elizabeth Blackburn, who just so happens to be one of the most outspoken defenders of stem cell research on the panel. And Bush has replaced these thinkers with people who are much more inclined to parrot the administration's line on key issues.
This shuffle of members in the Bioethics Council is one item in a long list of brazen behavior by the US adminstration regarding stem cell medicine, therapeutic cloning and freedom of scientific research. It indicates that administration politicans are determined to block this research one way or another. Michael Kinsley has commented on this aspect of the Bush administration in October 2003.
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Clearly, the Bioethics Council has to go. It is a body expressly designed to produce the anti-research answers that a small set of politicians want to hear, irrespective of the science, the costs, the benefits or any rational discussion. It is a body that promotes the anti-life-extension views of its Chair, Leon Kass. You can put a halt to this scam by contacting your elected representatives to call for the abolition of the council. Use the following website:
All you have to do is enter your zip code and you will be given the opportunity to send an email message to each of your elected officials and/or the President. However, I strongly urge you to send a fax instead. It takes little longer to write and send, but most elected officials no longer read their email or take notice of opinions and movements that exist online. A fax that is short, well-written, clear and to the point is the most effective way to make yourself heard. You can click on the "info" link beneath the picture of a Senator to find their office fax number.
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Isn't it nice to live in a country where your opinion on the future of your own health and longevity is unwanted? You and I, by raising our voices, can change this state of affairs! Take a few minutes to protest, to talk to your elected representatives, to call for the abolition of the Bioethics Council. It's time well spent - an investment in your future health and longevity.
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| Last updated July 18, 2005 |
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