Leon Kass, Citizen

I refuse to comment on the newfound role Professor and Presidential Bioethics Committee Chair Leon Kass has carved out for himself as “private citizen” lobbying Congress, utterly independent of his role as Chair of the President’s own bioethics panel. It isn’t that it is a surprising announcement, and the incredible gall of it requires no comment, but what is amazing to most who are reading Rick Weiss’ revelation about the ‘Neocon March on Washington’ and the ‘Bioethics Agenda’ is how stupid a political move this is for the PCB. This morning, Gladys White put it best on MCW-Bioethics:

I have an old-fashioned idea. That idea is that chairs of Presidential bioethics councils/commissions should, once appointed, go about their business with as much objectivity and neutralityas they can muster in order to facilitate the work of the councilandultimately to serve the American people. I have this idea because in years past it has been the case that chairing these councils or commissions has been viewed as a distinct honor and well worth the price of setting aside personal views at least for the duration of thegroup’s work.

It was with great distress, therefore, that I read Rick Weiss’s article on p. 6 of the Washington Post this morning, “Conservatives Draft a ‘bioethics agenda” for President.”

Directly lobbying Congress in a role “that is independent of the role bioethics chair” accompanied by a group which “has no name,” is unprecedented,unwise and in my view, unacceptable forthe chair of a bioethics commission. I don’t see how one person can function as a hard-headed lobbyist at one moment andas aneutral objective, bioethics chair at the next. I don’t think that this latest development bodes well for the work of the current council or for the future of independent bioethics analysis in the U.S.and I am very sorry to see it.

There is much more that needs to be said and probably will be said, but for the moment, I guessI remain hopelessly old-fashioned.