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And as an interdisciplinary field, it is "quintessentially postmodern," Cameron told ct. Because few academic programs are specifically designed to prepare bioethicists, the field is "decentralized, more tied to periodic conferences than anchored to institutions." The field is "perfectly designed to be the midwife for the birth of a whole posthuman future," he said.

Classical ethics set forth sets of rules or principles to guide ethical judgment. The results of ethical inquiry could usually be predicted by applying those principles or rules to the facts. Not anymore, says Cameron. "Bioethics doesn't like being locked into any kind of framework that would involve predictability," he said. "From a Christian or traditional perspective, it isn't ethics at all, but uses items from the ethics toolbox so it can do what it wants in any situation."

According to William Saletan, who has written repeatedly about bioethics for the online magazine Slate, the chief tool plucked from the toolbox is proceduralism. The public can be distracted from the goals and results of biotechnologies, he argues, by elaborate protocols that ensure certain classical ethical worries (such as informed consent) are not violated. Indeed, corporate officers and scientists can deceive their own consciences by focusing on the how rather than the why, on the means rather than the end.

For example, Saletan wrote about the recommendations of the ethics panels employed by the Jones Institute, "The only question addressed is whether the donors properly consented. The propriety of what they consented to is ignored."

Thus, Saletan concludes, "The slickest way to make yourself look ethical is to narrow the definition of ethics so that it won't interfere with what you want to do. But that won't make you ethical. It'll just make you an ethicist."

The state of bioethics is not completely dismal. Indeed, this year two of the nation's most prominent bioethicists resigned in protest from the Advanced Cell Technology ethics advisory board. One of them, the University of Pennsylvania's Arthur Caplan, said that while act was using his name (and paying dearly for it), it wasn't seeking his advice. And after he resigned, Glenn McGee, also from the University of Pennsylvania, called corporate ethics boards "rubber stamps" created to give companies an aura of acceptability.

Next time you hear the word bioethicist, don't let your eyes glaze over, but ask who is paying the bills and what someone is hoping to slip past the American public.

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

A Matter of Life and Death | Why shouldn't we use our embryos and genes to make our lives better? The world awaits a Christian answer. (Sep. 28, 2001)

Recent media coverage and commentary on bioethics include:

The Ethicist's New Clothes — Slate (Aug. 16, 2001)

Bioethicists Fall Under Familiar Scrutiny — The New York Times (Aug. 2, 2001)

Bioethics: Toughest policy calls of era — Christian Science Monitor (Aug. 2, 2001)

Biotechs Embrace Bioethics — BioSpace (Aug. 14, 2001)

Bioethics in the Hot Seat — Wired News (Jan. 18, 2001)

Frankensteins's Minister — Slate (Dec. 9, 1998)

Media coverage of Advanced Cell Technology's ethics advisory board includes:

Ethicist spurs debate on biological research— The Philadelphia Inquirer(July 17, 2001)

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October 1 2001, Vol. 45, No. 12