President's Council on Bioethics

In January 2002, President George W. Bush selected bioethicist Leon R. Kass to head the 18-member President's Council on Bioethics. Kass was given the task of selecting the other 17 members of the Council. 

On January 17, 2002, President Bush named the members of the first Council and, in 2004 and 2006, appointed replacement Council members.

Creation
The Council was created November 28, 2001, by Executive Order 13237: Creation of the President's Council on Bioethics. Subsequently, the Council was renewed September 23, 2003, by Executive Order 13316 and September 29, 2005, by Executive Order 13385.

Council Members
The following 15 individuals are currently listed as Council Members according to the Council website (accessed March 18, 2006):
 * Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D., Georgetown University Medical Center
 * Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., M.D., Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
 * Rebecca S. Dresser, J.D., M.S., law professor at Washington University in St. Louis and a member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM)'s Ethics Committee
 * Daniel W. Foster, M.D., University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School (chairman of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and a world-famous diabetes researcher)
 * Michael S. Gazzaniga, Ph.D., neuroscientist at Dartmouth College
 * Robert P. George, J.D., D.Phil., law professor at Princeton University
 * Alfonso Gómez-Lobo, D.Phil., metaphysician at Georgetown University
 * Leon R. Kass, M.D., Ph.D., American Enterprise Institute
 * William B. Hurlbut, M.D., physician and theologian who teaches medical ethics at Stanford University
 * Charles Krauthammer, M.D., psychiatrist and Syndicated Columnist
 * Peter A. Lawler, Ph.D., Berry College
 * Paul McHugh, M.D., professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital
 * Gilbert C. Meilaender, Ph.D., theologian and professor of Christian ethics at Valparaiso University
 * Janet D. Rowley, M.D., leukemia researcher and a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago
 * Diana J. Schaub, Ph.D., Loyola College

"The President intends to appoint the following individuals to be Members of the President's Council on Bioethics, for the remainder of a two-year term expiring January 15, 2008:" as of March 17, 2005.
 * Floyd E. Bloom, of California
 * Nicholas Eberstadt, of the District of Columbia

"The President intends to appoint Carl E. Schneider, of Michigan, to be a Member of the President's Council on Bioethics, for the remainder of a two-year term expiring January 15, 2008." as of May 18, 2006.

Former Council Members
Biographical links for the following former members of the Council can be accessed on the Council's website:
 * Elizabeth Blackburn, biochemist at University of California San Francisco; "better known as the outspoken advocate of human embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning whom the Bush administration fired from the President's Council on Bioethics last month," the Associated Press reported March 19, 2004. "The 55-year-old scientist has become a cause celebre for many researchers who complain that the White House's science policy is distorted by politics."
 * Stephen Carter, law professor at Yale University
 * Francis Fukuyama, professor of international economy at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University
 * Mary Ann Glendon, law professor at Harvard University
 * William F. May, theologian and emeritus professor of ethics at Southern Methodist University
 * Michael Sandel, professor of government at Harvard University
 * James Q. Wilson, political scientist

Contact Information
1801 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Suite 700 Washington, DC 20006 Phone: 202-296-4669 E-mail: info AT bioethics.gov Website: http://www.bioethics.gov/

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * bioethics
 * bioengineering
 * Bush administration
 * eugenics
 * genetics