Bioethics Council Reshuffled
Or should that be "Bioethics Council Stacked?" The recent change in council membership ejects supporters of stem cell and therapeutic cloning research in favor of new members more likely to toe the desired line. This is most likely a response to "Monitoring Stem Cell Research," a report that does not make policy recommendations or condemn the research ... which was undoubtably not the desired result for the US administration.
This new example of bald-faced bias on the part of the US government, following so soon on the heels of widely publicized examples of the same, has Chris Mooney riled enough to post twice on a weekend:
The best comment is the following, I think:
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.
Rather than looking back, I'm concerned about the future. This would seem to be a sign that this US administration intends to follow through with its attempts to ban and criminalize the most promising modern medical research. Now would be a good time to head on over the Longevity Meme and help to call for the abolition of the President's Council on Bioethics!