The remnants of President George W. Bush's pro-life policies are fading quickly now that the Obama administration is in office. The latest casualty? The President's Council on Bioethics.
The irony in Obama's dismantling of the group is that it was actually filled with experts from both sides of the life issue. Topics covered included embryonic stem-cell research, human cloning and organ donation.
The council was created in 2002 and was one of the first groups to tackle some of today's hotly debated issues at the intersection of science and morality, according to former member Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University.
"The president, as a strong pro-life person, was opposed to killing embryos," George said. "But he wanted a full account of the facts and of the ethical arguments being put forward by people of different points of view on the fundamental question."
David Prentice, senior fellow for life sciences at the Family Research Council, said the council may not be dead for long.
"I'm afraid what we're going to see from President Obama is a much-stacked ideological bioethics council," he explained.
Such a council could likely support destructive embryonic-stem research, human cloning and experiments that might include animal-human hybrids.
George added that the council was working on two reports when the announcement was made. One was on organ donation – including when it is legitimate to take organs for transplants. Another was on the ethics of health care reform.
"Those reports are now in limbo. I don't know if anything will ever come of them since we've been disbanded," he said. "We're not in a position to officially approve them."
The council's charter was set to expire in September.
