The President's Council on Bioethics (PCBE) was a group of individuals appointed by

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

to advise his

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

bioethics Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, med ...

. Established on November 28, 2001, by

Executive Order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of th ...

13237, the council was directed to "advise the President on bioethical issues that may emerge as a consequence of advances in

biomedical Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

and

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

". Executive Order 13237 - ''Creation of the President's Council on Bioethics'', November 28, 2001, Vol. 66, No. 231, It succeeded and largely replaced the

National Bioethics Advisory Commission The National Bioethics Advisory Commission was the name of a United States governmental organization which existed from 1996–2001. It was replaced by The President's Council on Bioethics. Reports In 1999 the NBAC issued a report containing 23 re ...

, appointed by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

in 1996, which expired in 2001. The members of the council were appointed directly by the President; the President also chose the

chairperson The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the council (last appointed Chair was

Edmund D. Pellegrino Edmund Daniel Pellegrino (June 22, 1920 - June 13, 2013) was an American bioethicist and academic who served as the 11th president of The Catholic University of America (CUA) from 1978 to 1982. For 35 years, Pellegrino was a distinguished profess ...

). Council members, totaling no more than 18, were appointed for a two-year

term Term may refer to: * Terminology, or term, a noun or compound word used in a specific context, in particular: **Technical term, part of the specialized vocabulary of a particular field, specifically: ***Scientific terminology, terms used by scient ...

, after which time they could be reappointed by the President. Individuals appointed could not be officers or employees of the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

. Executive Order 13237 was renewed in 2003, 2005 and again in 2007.

Expiration and replacement

In June 2009, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

's administration informed members of the council that their services were no longer needed.Wade, Nicholas. Obama Plans to Replace Bush’s Bioethics Panel. ''The New York Times'' June 17, 2009 Through a spokesperson, Obama made clear that he intended to replace the committee with a body that "offers practical policy options" rather than philosophical guidance. Executive Order 13521 of November 24, 2009, superseded the previous council by establishing the

Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (the Bioethics Commission) was created by on November 24, 2009.Executive Order 13521 - ''Establishing the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues'', November 2 ...

Executive Order 13521 Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive di ...

- ''Establishing the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues'', November 24, 2009, Vol. 74, No. 228, On November 25, 2009, Obama named

Amy Gutmann Amy Gutmann (born November 19, 1949) is an American academic and diplomat who is the United States Ambassador to Germany. She was the eighth List of presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, president of the University of Pennsylvania. In No ...

, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, to chair his new advisory panel on bioethics. James W. Wagner, the president of Emory University, was appointed vice chairperson.

Criticism

Critics have questioned the motives and goals of the PCBE.

Elizabeth Blackburn Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, (born 26 November 1948) is an Australian-American Nobel laureate who is the former president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Previously she was a biological researcher at the University of California, S ...

, who was dismissed from the Commission, co-authored an article, citing examples published by other members, suggesting that it was set up to justify President Bush's positions on stem cell research and abortion, writing "...our concern is that some of their contents... may have ended up distorting the potential of biomedical research and the motivation of some of its researchers." Bioethicist Leslie A. Meltzer accused the council of wrapping "political and religious agendas in the guise of dignity," and described them as largely Christian-affiliated neoconservatives; philosophers and political scientists rather than bench scientists. Meltzer said that Council members mischaracterized the positions of their opponents and used invective rather than addressing the merits of the arguments. The response to President Obama's decision to disband the council drew both criticism and praise.

Colleen Carroll Campbell Colleen is an Irish language name and is of Irish origin and a generic term for women or girls, from the Irish '' cailín'' 'girl/woman', the diminutive of '' caile'' 'woman, countrywoman'. Although it originates in the Irish language, Colleen ...

, a former speechwriter for President Bush and a member of the conservative advocacy group ''

Ethics and Public Policy Center The Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) is a conservative, Washington, D.C.-based think tank and advocacy group. Founded in 1976, the group describes itself as "dedicated to applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to critical issues of pu ...

'' predicted that "Obama's desire to see his policies backed by expert 'consensus' more likely will be realized with a new commission composed of like-minded political liberals steeped in utilitarianism than with the brainy, diverse and unpredictable crew that populated the now-defunct council." In contrast, Jacob M. Appel of New York's Mount Sinai Hospital wrote that "the panel itself, far from being an incubator of intellectual ferment, had evolved into a publicly funded right-wing think tank with a handful of token moderates for window dressing" and argued that "Obama was wise to scrap the entire panel and to start over."Moving Bioethics Forward, ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', July 8, 2009.

Members and staff

Chairmen

- chairman (2005–2008) * Leon R. Kass - chairman (2001–2005)

Members

- chairman (2005–2008) *

Ben Carson Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American retired neurosurgeon and politician who served as the 17th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2017 to 2021. A pioneer in the field of neurosurgery, he ...

* Rebecca S. Dresser * Daniel W. Foster * Michael S. Gazzaniga * Robert P. George * Alfonso Gomez-Lobo * Leon R. Kass *

William B. Hurlbut William B. Hurlbutt is a Consulting Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University Medical Center. Born in 1945 in St. Helena, California, St. Helena, California, he grew up in Bronxville, New York, Bronxville, New York (state ...

Charles Krauthammer Charles Krauthammer (; March 13, 1950 – June 21, 2018) was an American political columnist. A moderate liberal who turned independent conservative as a political pundit, Krauthammer won the Pulitzer Prize for his columns in ''The Washingt ...

Peter Augustine Lawler Peter Augustine Lawler (July 30, 1951May 23, 2017) was Dana Professor of Government at Berry College. He taught courses in political philosophy and American politics. He was a 1973 graduate of Allentown College and earned a PhD from the University ...

* Paul McHugh * Gilbert Meilaender * Janet D. Rowley * Diana J. Schaub * Elizabeth H. Blackburn (2002–2004) * Stephen L. Carter (2002) *

Francis Fukuyama Francis Yoshihiro Fukuyama (; born October 27, 1952) is an American political scientist, political economist, international relations scholar and writer. Fukuyama is known for his book ''The End of History and the Last Man'' (1992), which argue ...

(2002–2005) *

Mary Ann Glendon Mary Ann Glendon (born October 7, 1938) is the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a former United States Ambassador to the Holy See. She teaches and writes on bioethics, comparative constitutional law, property, and human rig ...

(2002–2005) * William F. May (2002–2004) *

Michael J. Sandel Michael Joseph Sandel (; born March 5, 1953) is an American political philosopher and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government Theory at Harvard University Law School, where his course Justice was the university's first course t ...

(2002–2005) *

James Q. Wilson James Quinn Wilson (May 27, 1931 – March 2, 2012) was an American political scientist and an authority on public administration. Most of his career was spent as a professor at UCLA and Harvard University. He was the chairman of the Council of A ...

(2002–2005)

Council staff

*F. Daniel Davis - executive director (2005–2009) *

Yuval Levin Yuval Levin (born April 6, 1977) is a conservative American political analyst, academic, and journalist. He is the founding editor of ''National Affairs'' (2009–present), the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the Americ ...

- executive director (2004–2005) *Dean Frazier Clancy - executive director (2001–2004) * O. Carter Snead - general counsel (2003–2005) *Richard Roblin - scientific director (2001–2005), acting executive director (2005)

Reports and publications

Taking Care: Ethical Caregiving in Our Aging Society (2005)

* ttps://bioethicsarchive.georgetown.edu/pcbe/reports/reproductionandresponsibility/index.html Reproduction and Responsibility: The Regulation of New Biotechnologies (2004)
Monitoring Stem Cell Research (2004)

* ttps://bioethicsarchive.georgetown.edu/pcbe/reports/beyondtherapy/index.html Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness (2003)
Human Cloning and Human Dignity (2002)

References

External links

The President's Council on Bioethics
archived website.
Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics
* The executive order that established the Council and defined its goals and powers. {{DEFAULTSORT:President's Council On Bioethics Bioethics Executive branch of the government of the United States United States national commissions