Editorials: Wanna Buy a Bioethicist?
Some corporations have discovered that bioethics makes good public relations
posted 10/01/2001 12:00AM
When the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine announced that it had created human embryos specifically for research purposes, it talked up the a priori endorsement of three separate panels of bioethicists. And at congressional hearings on stem-cell research and again on cloning, bioethicists both raised questions and calmed fears about the new technologies.
Bioethicist has certainly entered the American vocabulary, but its meaning remains murky. Classically speaking, an ethicist is a specialist in ethics, which, our dictionary says, is "a set of principles of right conduct; a theory or a system of moral values." A bioethicist would then be someone who applies principles of right conduct to the advancing borders of medical and biotechnical science. It seems, however, that few actually speak in that prophetic voice, while many are in danger of becoming priests who bless the moneyed interests who pay their bills.
This new priestly prominence of bioethicists came in two waves. First came new questions that went beyond what physicians and patients were prepared to face during the medical innovations of the 1960s and 1970s. When shall we unplug a comatose patient? Who best qualifies to benefit from scarce kidney dialysis machines? A group of thinkers emerged, willing to address new situations of life and death, scarcity and need.
Second came the public relations. Frightened by the passionate (and at times irrational) European reactions to genetically engineered foods, the biotech industry decided to prepare the public for developments in stem-cell research and cloning. And so companies such as Geron pioneered the formation of corporate bioethics advisory boards.
As Vicki Brower told it in a 1999 BioSpace article, "Biotechs Embrace Bioethics," these were originally composed of theologians who acted as unpaid consultants. Eventually, bioethics panels were made up of paid consultants (with some getting a pittance and others earning as much as $100,000 per year in company stock). While such compensation may be fair, it raises questions of compromise. And one thing is certain: whatever the motives of the ethicists, corporate interests are focused on public relations. Brower cited Millennium chief business officer Steven Holtzman as saying, "Many companies have become savvy enough to understand that the single greatest obstacle to utilizing new technologies is the potential for public backlash." Worried about negative reactions? Call in the ethicists.
As Brower pointed out, this approach is unlikely to produce ethical judgment: "To date, no company has reported suspending an ongoing research program or product on ethical grounds. … Most efforts at bioethical inquiry. … are inseparable from pr outreach: The former is often discussed as a way to smooth the path of research and product development."
No names, please
The Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine tried to reassure the public with its three panels of ethicists. But when the institute was asked to identify the ethicists, it refused to divulge a single name. The public doesn't care, nor would it likely recognize, who sits on these panels, but it does care about what values and training they bring to their work.
According to bioethicist Nigel Cameron, bioethics is not an easy field to describe. "It isn't a discipline; it is an interdisciplinary field," says Cameron, who helped forge the first bioethics degree program at a Christian university and who now works with Charles Colson at the Wilberforce Forum. "Most bioethicists don't train in bioethics. They move sideways from other disciplines—law, theology, medicine, philosophy."
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