SOME RATHER CRITICAL THOUGHTS on the President’s Council on Bioethics, and on the bioethics profession in general.
I’ve been pretty critical of the White House bioethics council myself. I will say, though, that I’ve read the chapter on aging in this report as part of a law review piece I’m writing, and although I certainly disagree with the Kass slant on ethics, the treatment of the science isn’t too bad, really, and the ethical arguments are straightforward even though I disagree with them. When they ask, “Is the purpose of medicine and biotechnology, in principle, to let us live endless, painless lives of perfect bliss?” however, my answer is “yes, if at all possible.”