Bioethics are too important to leave to the bioethicists

One of my longstanding complaints is that bioethics are too important to leave to the bioethicists. It's an insular profession where insiders who have never written anything of interest outside bioethics are treated as if they were Marcus Aurelius, Confucius, and Einstein rolled into one. The only two bioethicists whose names anyone on the outside can remember are Peter Singer and Leon Kass, and they got that way for their sophomoric extremism. Pete, you know that old saying Dog is Man's best friend? Well, you are supposed to stay just friends. And Leon, civilization won't collapse if people eat ice cream cones while walking down the street.

With that in mind, Bush's new nominees for his Council on Bioethics seem much stronger than I expected. James Q. Wilson, for example, has a long track record of making successful predictions (e.g., to reduce crime: put more crooks in jail for longer terms and fix broken windows). Francis Fukuyama, Charles Krauthammer, and Stephen Carter are also smart guys that you might have heard of. 1/22/02