Politics
Thursday August 16, 2001
DR. LEON KASS AN EXCEPTIONALLY PRINCIPLED SCIENTIST
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
Wall Street Journal portrait of head of President's Council on Bioethics
NEW YORK, Aug 15, 2001 (LSN.ca) - An article by Bret Stephens in Today's Wall Street Journal presents a fascinating portrait of Dr. Leon Kass, recently appointed by President Bush to head up the new President's Council on Bioethics which will monitor stem cell research.
Stephens, a University of Chicago graduate, states that Kass' deeply serious seminars at the university "served as a kind of church in which we came to understand that one could not be intellectually respectable without being morally so".
Kass is described as a high level M.D., biochemist and researcher who has curiously "spent much of his career raising seemingly abstruse moral objections to the whole thrust of the modern scientific enterprise... Thus he has questioned the uses of in vitro fertilization; opposed the substitution of the Hippocratic Oath--with its injunction against abortion--with the American Medical Association's more anodyne version; decried the growing acceptability of euthanasia; and, most recently, argued strenuously against even basic research into human cloning.
Regarding his role as head of the president's bioethics council, Stephen's reports "it is not Dr. Kass's intention to serve as the country's 'ethics cop,' 'The task that's been assigned to us,' he says, 'is not to make arrests and catch scientists. The task is to clarify the issues, to lift the public understanding of the human and moral significance of doing what we're doing.' His council, he promises, will not be 'stacked with like-minded people.'"
(With files from Pro-Life Infonet)
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- "Manhattan Declaration" Embodies U.S. Christian Pushback against Abortion, Same-Sex "Marriage"
- Hoffman Loses Final Tally of NY-23 Race; Alleges ACORN Tampering and Fraud
- Abortion Activist Judge Hamilton Confirmed with Help of Ten Republican Senators
- CDC Reverses Gardasil Vaccine Requirement for Immigrants
- Germany Faces Economic Downturn with Plummeting Birth Rate and Aging Population
- CCHD in Archdiocese of Chicago Says it is Working to Fix Problems
- Rejection of Washington DC Marriage Referendum Challenged With Legal Suit
- Obama-Supporting Homosexual Activist to Out Sexually Involved Priests Unless they Support Gay 'Marriage
- Austrian Catholic Bishops Issue Bland Response to Govt's Homosexual Partnership Bill
- Interim Report on Catholic Sex-Abuse Says "Homosexual Identity" Not a Predictor of Sex Abuse
- Commentary on Nov 20 NewsBytes
- LSN NewsBytes - US Health Care Reform
- LSN NewsBytes - Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD)
- LSN NewsBytes - Life Issues, Religion, Swine Flu, US Politics, Sarah Palin, Miscellaneous
- LSN NewsBytes - Climate Change/Global Warming
- 59 Bishops Contributed Financially to Maine Bishop's Effort to Oppose Maine Same-Sex "Marriage" Law
- Pro-Abortion Lawmakers Shower Praise on Senate Bill's Phony Abortion Compromise
Most Read this Week
- Largest U.S. Homosexual Publisher Shuts Down, Closing Major Gay Newspapers
- EWTN's Arroyo Hosts Reform CCHD Reps Who Reveal Shocking Evidence Against USCCB Anti-Poverty Arm
- Italian Mayors Order Crufixes Put in Classrooms in Revolt against European Court Ruling
- Nat'l Organization for Marriage Responds to Miss California "Sex Tape" Scandal
- Obama Evades Questioning on Stupak Amendment in FOX Interview
- French Judge Finds Hospital Guilty of "Unreasonable Obstinacy" in Saving Newborn's Life
- EU Leaders to Choose President today in Secret "Soviet Style" Meetings
- Hoffman "Unconcedes" Battle for NY-23: Recount Provides Hope for "Miracle" Victory
- CCHD Responds to Reform Movement
- "Manhattan Declaration" Embodies U.S. Christian Pushback against Abortion, Same-Sex "Marriage"
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.