FEW DEBATES are as hard to keep up with as the biotech debate. The first problem is all that science. Sensible people, of course, major in English to avoid terms such as blastocyst. Then there are the competing jurisdictions of federal and private monies, law and commerce, science and religion. It’s no wonder President Bush subcontracted the problem to a commission led by the moral philosopher Leon Kass. Fortunately, for those trying to understand what such an appointment promises, there is the Winter 2002 issue of the Public Interest.*
The journal offers three excellent essays on our “posthuman future.” Think of them as a start-up kit for where this administration might be heading in terms of public policy. All three authors–Francis Fukuyama, Adam Wolfson, and Kass himself–are working for the President’s Council on Bioethics, who met for the first time a few days ago. (Fukuyama is a member of the council and Wolfson is a part-time adviser. Another member of the Council, Gilbert Meilaender has an essay in the new issue of First Things.) And they are in rough agreement on what the government’s general disposition should be.
