President Obama recently announced that he will disband the President’s Council on Bioethics.  He plans to replace the Council with a new bioethics commission, whose members he will appoint.  The current Council, appointed by President Bush in 2001, was led initially by Leon Kass of the University of Chicago, and later by Edmund Pellegrino of Georgetown University.  Trained as physicians, both men later became eminent philosophers and leading bioethicists.  They are two of the most thoughtful voices in contemporary bioethics debates. 

Rather than setting aside thorny issues or complex questions in favor of simplistic policy recommendations, the old Council chose to allow sustained and serious reflection, debate, and dialogue among its diverse membership.  The President’s Council on Bioethics never became a rubber-stamp machine for Bush’s social policies.

All that is about to change.  Obama wants to waste no time with dialogue, debate, or indecision.  He plans to ask the new commission for “practical policy options”.  Don’t think too hard, don’t debate too long … just give us the green light.  There will be few, if any, dissenting voices: Obama is about to appoint a collective “yes man”.  The old days of the President commissioning a group of serious ethical thinkers, led by the likes of Kass and Pellegrino, will be missed.

Dr. Kheriarty is an Assistant Clinical Professor at UC Irvine's Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior. He is also the Director of Residency Training and Medical Education and a Director of their Psychiatry and Spirituality Forum. He regularly lectures to professional audiences and the general public on mental health, medical ethics, religion, and spirituality.