LIFE DIGEST: ‘Fix is in’ on new Obama bioethics panel, expert says
- Jun 23, 2009 - 1
The President’s Council on Bioethics established under the Bush administration has been disbanded, and President Obama will name a new commission to take its place.
A bioethics specialist warned the new panel would be a “political hammer.”
The New York Times reported June 18 that members of the Bush panel were asked the previous week to cancel a meeting and were told they would no longer meet as a body, a council staff member said.
Also in this edition: New York first state to OK egg-donation payments and Woman aborts other mother’s wrongly implanted embryo.
A White House spokesman, Reid Cherlin, said the Bush council was dissolved because it was intended to be “a philosophically leaning advisory group,” according to The Times. Obama’s new panel will have a new mandate and will provide “practical policy options,” Cherlin said.
That is code for “the fix is in,” said bioethics commentator Wesley Smith on his weblog.
While the council appointed by Bush sought a “true discourse” and was equally divided on its report on the ethics of cloning for research purposes, Obama’s new commission “will not be collegial or about true discourse,” Smith said.
“The ‘recommendations’ we will see are entirely predictable – yes to federal funding of therapeutic cloning; yes to health care rationing; yes to everything radical in bioethics,” Smith wrote. “And then the President, Congress and the press can say – unlike they did during Bush’s term – ‘They’re the experts! We should listen to them.’”
Bush named his bioethics council in 2001 after he issued an order barring federal funding of stem cell research that destroys human embryos. Leon Kass of the University of Chicago was chairman until 2005, when Edmund Pellegrino of Georgetown University replaced him.
The Bush-era council issued reports on such bioethics issues as cloning, regulating biotechnology, sex selection and stem cells.
Among pro-life members of Bush’s council were Robert George of Princeton University and Gilbert Meilaender of Valparaiso University.
New York first state to OK egg-donation payments
New York is the first state to approve payments for women who donate eggs for embryonic stem cell research.
The Empire State Stem Cell Board (ESSCB) made the decision June 11, saying in a statement its members “agreed it is ethical and appropriate for women donating oocytes for research purposes to be compensated in the same manner as women who donate oocytes” for reproduction.
Pro-life bioethcists decried the decision, however.
New York has a $600 million stem cell research program, and the ESSCB said other states that have government-backed stem cell programs but do not pay for egg donation have experienced difficulty in recruiting donors. This has been the experience in California and Massachusetts, The Scientist reported.
Health problems, most typically from ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, have resulted in a small percentage of women who have gone through the egg donation process, which involves repeated injections of hormones. Infertility and death have even occurred in some cases, and there has been concern expressed about the potential development of cancer.
“It is a twisted sort of logic that seeks cures for some [through embryonic stem cell research] while ignoring the risks to healthy young women,” said Jennifer Lahl, national director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, in a written release. “The egg donation process ahs well documented risks associated with the dangerous drugs taken to produce abnormally large numbers of eggs along with the risks of anesthesia and surgery to remove the eggs.”
The ESSCB’s Ethics Committee voted 10-1 in support of the recommendation. The sole dissenter was Thomas Berg, a Roman Catholic priest who is executive director of the Westchester Institute.
“I can assure you, it won’t be the upper-class set who responds to state inducement and risks potentially life-threatening side-effects of human egg harvesting,” Berg said in a written statement. “It will be the vulnerable classes of cash-strapped and college-aged women who will be exploited by the state in this scheme.”
Woman aborts other mother’s wrongly implanted embryo
A British couple has experienced one of the nightmares of in vitro fertilization – a woman aborted their last embryo when she discovered it had been implanted in her womb by mistake.
The tragically lethal mix-up, which occurred in 2007, was reported June 15 in The Guardian, a British newspaper.
Deborah, 40, and Paul, 38, whose last name was not reported, received undisclosed damages, though the amount was believed to be in six figures, from the National Health Service trust, The Guardian reported.
“That embryo was my baby and it was taken away from me,” Deborah said, according to The Guardian.
“I was in total shock when the hospital said it had been transplanted into another woman – not only that, she had made the decision to terminate it. It was killing my baby and possibly our last chance of becoming parents again. . . . to lose our baby this way is unbearable and unforgivable.”
The couple already had a 6-year-old son, Jamie, by means of in vitro fertilization (IVF), according to the newspaper.
The mix-up occurred in the IVF clinic at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. The couple said they may try IVF again but would not return to the Cardiff clinic, The Guardian reported.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission works to protect the sanctity of human life. If you would like to learn more about this issue, additional resources are available here. If your church is interested in purchasing bulletin inserts or other materials on the sanctity of human life, please visit our online bookstore and erlc.com.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Life, Abortion, Cloning, Infertility, Stem-Cell Research, Citizenship, National, Science, Bioethics
Comments are closed. Please use our contact form if you have any thoughts or questions.
comments
1 On Jun 23rd, 2009, at 11:02am, clinton e. wolf wrote:
Southern Baptist Convention
I am extremely disturbed that our convention would give President Obama any type of recognition or commendition due to his stance on moral issues. He is a disgrace to bible believng people.I am a long time conservative baptist and a contributor to the SBC.