Subject: Bush's ESCR Panel Will be Led by Pro-Life Advocate
Source: Associated Press, New York Times, August 10, 2001

Bush's ESCR Panel Will be Led by Pro-Life Advocate

Washington, DC -- Ask Dr. Leon Kass if President Bush spurned his first
advice by allowing limited federal funding of previously-conducted
embryonic stem cell research , and the University of Chicago bioethicist
responds, ``No comment.''

But in heading Bush's new bioethics advisory council, this pro-life
opponent of certain areas of biotechnology - he has called some avenues of
stem cell research science fiction - promises to include a variety of
voices.

``I think he (Bush) was absolutely right that embryonic stem cell research
is at the leading edge of a series of moral hazards,'' Kass said.

But, he added, ``I'm not looking for agreement. Sure members on this
council will have a wide spectrum of opinions. The point is not to push a
particular line but to see that the highest formulations and the deepest
understanding of these issues can be brought before the American people
and the president.''

In announcing his long-awaited stem cell decision Thursday night, Bush
also named the Chicago professor to head a new president's council on
bioethics.

It is not a stem cell council, Kass stressed when asked if he would
oversee government grants on stem cell research. Instead, the council will
replace the National Bioethics Advisory Commission that President Clinton
had appointed, which is set to expire in October.

Kass said details must be worked out, but that his council will explore
``the ethical and political questions that may emerge as a consequence of
many biomedical advances.''

Kass, 62, has written extensively about his reservations regarding many
medical areas, from in vitro fertilization to genomics. His essays
include, ``What price the perfect baby_'' and ``Babies by means of in
vitro fertilization: Unethical experiments on the unborn_'' Last month in
the Chicago Tribune, he labeled science fiction stem cell researchers'
hopes that their work could provide so-called therapeutic cloning, calling
the chronically ill ``easy marks'' for exploitation ``by biotech
entrepreneurs.''

``I am an outspoken opponent of human cloning,'' Kass said in an interview
Friday. ``I am not keen on euthanasia, I can't hide that. But I regard
myself as a friend of biomedical research.''

He added: ``This is the question of our century: Can we enjoy the benefits
of biomedical technology and not slide into the 'Brave New World_' We need
the wisdom to do it.''

"It's important that we achieve our benefits in medical and health without
undermining what is humanly decent and dignified," said Dr. Kass. "New
technology made possible by the wonderful science of biology poses a real
challenge of how to do that. It is a vexingly difficult but deeply
important area."

"Our task really is to find a way to reap the benefits of medical science
without undermining human dignity or human decency,'' Kass said. "We want
to bequeath to our children a world in which human dignity no less than
human health can flourish.''

Dr. Kass earned a medical degree at the University of Chicago and a
doctorate in biochemistry from Harvard University. He lives in Chicago and
is a professor in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of
Chicago.

He has been described as a pro-life thinker who has spent the greater part
of his career dealing with the moral implications of scientific advances.

He is the author of "Toward a More Natural Science: Biology and Human
Affairs" and, with James Q. Wilson, "The Ethics of Human Cloning." He
wrote an article in the May 21 issue of The New Republic calling for a ban
on human cloning. In his five books and 83 articles and writings, he has
taken strong stances against abortion, cloning, physician-assisted
suicide, in-vitro fertilization and genetic engineering.

Kass, 62, said his lifelong fascination with ethics and morality was
instilled at an early age by his parents--Jewish immigrants from Eastern
Europe--at their Chatham home. His father ran a clothing store in
Englewood.

"Moral considerations and the need to be . . . upright and dignified and
decent were the archvalues of the house,'' he said.

Dr. Kass learned of his appointment about a week before the president's
announcement.

Some of Kass' commentaries include:

Cloning: Even if human cloning is rarely undertaken, a society in which it
is tolerated is no longer the same society--any more than is a society
that permits incest or cannibalism or slavery on even a small scale. It is
a society that has forgotten how to shudder, that rationalizes away the
abominable.

Physician-assisted suicide: The present crisis that leads to the demand
for a "right to die'' is thus an opportunity to recover an appreciation of
living with and against mortality, and to affirm the residual humanity
that can be appreciated and cared for even in the face of incurable and
terminal illness. Should we cave in, should we choose to become technical
dispensers of death, we will not only be abandoning our loved ones and our
duty to care for them; we will also exacerbate the worst tendencies of
modern life.