To admit a bias, I’m no fan of Leon Kass (to put it mildly), but it is interesting that Murray is and still thinks that Kass should resign as Chairman of the President’s Council on ‘bioethics’.

This is the heart of his argument:

“According to The Washington Post, Dr. Kass has teamed up with Eric Cohen, editor of the excellent journal of science, politics and philosophy The New Atlantis, to devise “a bold and plausible ‘offensive’ bioethics agenda…[aimed at] tak[ing] advantage of this rare opportunity to enact significant bans on some of the most egregious biotechnological practices.” The merits of Dr. Kass’s preferred policies are irrelevant here. The problem is that by hitching his star to a particular set of policies he has breached the trust set in him by the President, whose executive order creating the council asked it to “explore specific ethical and policy questions related to these developments; [and] to provide a forum for a national discussion of bioethical issues.” At the very least, by sheer virtue of his position, his favored policies are more likely to get a hearing than those of other well-qualified bioethicists who do not have the authority of such an office (a point well made by Roger Pielke Jr of the University of Colorado here). Such a prospect would seriously undermine in the principle of “procedural justice” — the right of all sides of a political argument to be heard without fear or favor.”

Murray is right. Kass should go.