BIOETHICS,
SCIENCE AND POLITICS
Since 1969, when Daniel
Callahan and Willard Gaylin founded the Institute of Society, Ethics and the
Life Science (The Hastings Center), the problem of Bioethics as an unbiased
science has been an unsolved conundrum. Stem-cell research re-proposes old and
unanswered questions.
A correspondence in The
New England Journal of Medicine, published last July 15 (Correspondence, NEJM
351, 298-300, 2004), focuses the subject criticizing the recent Council
on Bioethics’ account. The article reads: “In the pursuit of scientific truth,
one of the most basic principles is the rigorous exclusion of
pre-existing bias. Without such exclusion, scientific investigation
and experimentation have no validity. Blackburn's account of the
recent restructuring of the President's Council on Bioethics (NEJM
April 1 issue) raises the question of why this council, when dealing
with an issue of such enormous scientific importance as the future
of stem-cell research, is not held to the same standard. If Blackburn
is correct, the council's ability to render unbiased recommendations
is fatally compromised”.
BM&L-July 2004