WBP - Bioethics in the United States

When the “God squad” formed in Seattle in the late 1960s—a group of medical professionals, clergy, and community representatives who were charged with deciding which patients were “worthy” of receiving limited dialysis resources—bioethics originally focused on individual clinical decisions. Topics such as resource allocation, truth-telling to patients and families, and the protection of human subjects involved in medical research were the ﬁeld’s primary concern. The nature of today’s biotechnology forces us to look beyond simply making clinical decisions.

A number of academic bioethics centers exist today, including the Hastings Center (www.thehastingscenter.org), the Penn Center for Bioethics (www.bioethics.upenn.edu), the Center for Practical Bioethics (www.practicalbioethics.org), the Kennedy Institute of Ethics (www.georgetown.edu/research/kie), and numerous other university-afﬁliated organizations. Because no deﬁned academic discipline or credentialing system exists for bioethics, each center is somewhat idiosyncratic in its makeup, emphasis, and philosophy. However, the academic centers are alike in attempting to present a balanced range of opinion and providing a forum for scholars from many different academic disciplines.

In parallel with advances in biotechnology and medicine, bioethics issues have become increasingly politicized. Many ideologically driven policy think tanks—especially those with conservative political goals—are beginning to include bioethical issues among the areas they study. Leon R. Kass, the immediate past-chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics, also serves as the Hertog Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (www.aei.org). AEI takes a strong conservative position on a range of issues including cloning, reproductive technologies, abortion, assisted suicide, and stem-cell research. The Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org) likewise provides research and analysis to support right-wing policies on marriage, abortion, sex education, and health care ﬁnance. The Ethics and Public Policy Center (www.eppc.org) sponsors the Biotechnology & American Democracy program, which has put a conservative spin on questions such as embryo research, abortion, and transhumanism.

In addition to groups like these, conservative organizations have been established that focus exclusively on bioethics issues. These include the Center for Bioethics and Culture (www.thecbc.org), the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity (www.cbhd.org), and the National Catholic Bioethics Center (www.ncbcenter.org).