Staying Human

The media—goaded on by the science establishment—have been in full cry against Leon Kass, the chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics, accusing him of politicizing the panel and “stacking the deck” with conservatives to reach predetermined results.

For example, when University of California-San Francisco scientist Elizabeth Blackburn was not reappointed for another term on the Council, she complained to anyone who would listen that her absence from the panel undermined science—and her charges were reported widely. She was given space to grouse in The New England Journal of Medicine, and bioethicists who support federal funding of embryonic-stem-cell research and therapeutic cloning circulated a public protest petition—generating even more anti-Kass news coverage. On Slate, journalist Tim Noah called Kass a “silly ass.”

About the Author

Wesley J. Smith

Wesley J. Smith is an author and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism.

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The media—goaded on by the science establishment—have been in full cry against Leon Kass, the chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics, accusing him of politicizing the panel and “stacking the deck” with conservatives to reach predetermined results.

For example, when University of California-San Francisco scientist Elizabeth Blackburn was not reappointed for another term on the Council, she complained to anyone who would listen that her absence from the panel undermined science—and her charges were reported widely. She was given space to grouse in The New England Journal of Medicine, and bioethicists who support federal funding of embryonic-stem-cell research and therapeutic cloning circulated a public protest petition—generating even more anti-Kass news coverage. On Slate, journalist Tim Noah called Kass a “silly ass.”