President Obama's Bioethics Commission

The recently announced membership of the new Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues is, as expected, significantly different from that of its predecessor. Rather than "a philosophically leaning advisory group" that favored discussion over developing a shared consensus, the plan discussed last June was to appoint a commission that "offers practical policy options."

On November 24, 2009, President Obama named the Chair and Vice Chair, and established the Commission. On April 7, 2010, he named the members, listed below as well as at the updated website, Bioethics.gov. As a group, they seem likely to be much less controversial than their predecessors, and perhaps to focus more on specifically medical issues. Most are not primarily bioethicists (nor were most of their predecessors), though several have academic experience in ethics and all seem to be professionally familiar with ethical dilemmas.

The summary charge of the Commission reads:

The President's Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues advises the President on bioethical issues that may emerge from advances in biomedicine and related areas of science and technology. The Commission works with the goal of identifying and promoting policies and practices that ensure scientific research, health care delivery, and technological innovation are conducted in an ethically responsible manner.

"As our nation invests in science and innovation and pursues advances in biomedical research and health care, it's imperative that we do so in a responsible manner."

- President Barack Obama

The Charter is linked here as a pdf. The Chair, Vice Chair and Members are:

• Amy Gutmann, Chair, President of the University of Pennsylvania; PhD Political Science, Harvard; professor at Princeton, 1976–2004; former president, American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy; founding member of the Association of Practical and Professional Ethics; "a prominent national advocate for equity in higher education," well-known for her theory of deliberative democracy, and work on group identity.
• James Wagner, Vice-Chair, President of Emory University; an engineer by training, including Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins and the FDA.
• Lonnie Ali, Parkinson's advocate; wife of Muhammad Ali; connected with the Michael J. Fox Foundation as well as the Muhammad Ali Center; a supporter of embryonic stem cell research, who has also testified before Congress for Parkinson's funding.
• Anita L. Allen, University of Pennsylvania Professor of Law & Philosophy; Chair, Hastings Center Fellows; has focused on privacy issues, including feminist & race-related concerns; former Human Genome Project Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues project member; has described herself as "ambivalent about reproductive innovations, from surrogate gestation to preimplantation screening for gender selection."
• Barbara Atkinson, Dean, University of Kansas School of Medicine; formerly at the University of Pennsylvania; MD; pathologist; research on tumors & cytopathology; argues that human reproductive cloning should be banned, but therapeutic cloning should not.
• Nita A. Farahany, Vanderbilt University, Associate Professor of Law and Philosophy; background in genetics, then law; "focuses on the legal, philosophical, and social issues arising from biosciences, particularly related to behavioral genetics and neuroscience." Concerned that technologies are challenging our society and Constitution.
• Alexander G. Garza, Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs and Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Homeland Security; MD, Masters in Public Health; a long record of military & civil service, with a focus on emergency medicine.
• Christine Grady, Acting Chief of Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center; Vice-Chair, Hastings Center Fellows; nursing background, then philosophy; focus on research subjects & clinical trials.
• Stephen L. Hauser, University of California, San Francisco, Chair of Neurology since 1992; formerly Harvard Medical School; focused on the genetic basis, immune mechanisms, and treatment of multiple sclerosis.
• Raju Kucherlapati, Paul C. Cabot Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School; has worked on mouse ESCs and mouse models for human cancer; interested in personalized medicine & genetic testing for targeted therapies.
• Nelson Michael, Director of the Division of Retrovirology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research; MD & PhD; a long career in HIV research.
• Daniel Sulmasy, Franciscan Friar; Kilbride-Clinton Professor of Medicine and Ethics in the University of Chicago Department of Medicine and Divinity School; MD, PhD in Philosophy; focused on end-of-life issues; opposes ESC research and all human cloning; author of "Promethean medicine: spirituality, stem cells, and cloning" -- "The illusory quest for immortality through the practice of regenerative medicine using stem cells is a gross violation of that virtue."

The current staff are: Diane M. Gianelli, Acting Executive Director; Judith Crawford, Administrative Director; and David G. Miller, Senior Research Analyst. All are held over from the previous Council, which had nine staff in total.

"The appointments of Gutmann and Wagner," wrote Ruth Faden, "reinforce the expectation that this commission will seek to provide practical, actionable guidance to the administration and the country." George Annas was concerned that "the commission may not be sufficiently independent of government." However, F. Daniel Davis, the Executive Director of the previous Council, wrote: "President Obama's decision to name Amy Gutmann and James W. Wagner to lead his new Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues is an inspired one."

On the members, Art Caplan's reaction was: "I think, overall, it's a group that was clearly selected both to have important names and to be somewhat non-controversial as possible. ... If [Obama] really did have an agenda to promote, this field doesn't reflect it." Robert George, a former member of the Bush Council said: "I don't like the politics of most of them, but the records of achievement are great."

This Commission seems likely to be pragmatic and to seek and perhaps try to mold consensus. The members have written little about the topics on which CGS focuses. But if someone claims to be cloning a child, or a researcher makes a serious proposal to affect the human germline, or another fertility doctor offers to select embryos on the basis of the future child's hair, eye or skin color, the commission's agenda -- which is yet to be revealed in any detail -- may perforce shift abruptly.

Previously on Biopolitical Times:

• Reactions to final NIH stem cell rules
• Stem cell opinion round-up
• Bioethicist and industry spokesman on the baby business
• Moreno to lead bioethics during presidential transition