Fwd: SECOND OPINION FROM REDFLAGSDAILY.COM, JULY 16, 2003

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Wed, 16 Jul 2003 11:51:12 -0700

SECOND OPINION FROM REDFLAGSDAILY.COM, JULY 16, 2003

 

 

JULY 16, 2003http://www.redflagsdaily.com

 

SECOND OPINION

ARE BIOETHICS " EXPERTS " DEAD AS THE DODO?

 

By RFD Editor, Nicholas Regush

 

 

 

The answer to the above question is: If not dead, then certainly dying.

 

When I use the word " dead, " what I mean is that, generally speaking, many of

these so-called experts are no longer trustworthy, particularly well-informed,

or, for that matter, relevant to the modern ways of often brutal medical

commerce and fast-paced science.

 

However, what I find very unsettling is that bioethics experts appear to be

multiplying like rabbits. Is there some new fertility drug out and about?

 

You name the health topic, and there they are on TV, radio and in the

newspapers, behaving like seers, pontificating, often in very vague terms, about

what should and should not be...It would be perfectly fine to transplant a human

head onto another torso. Heck it’s only a matter of time...Human cloning is not

advisable —yet, because we still haven’t worked out all the scientific

details...Genetic screening makes people uncomfortable, but it’s inevitable...

 

There are also those bioethicists who know perfectly what everybody should be

thinking. This is known as expressing your political agenda and pretending you

are exploring ethics in an open fashion. Or sometimes this is known as " pleasing

the program producer because if you do, you’ll get to be a regular. "

 

Ah yes, then the media sometimes give bioethicists the kudos they do not

deserve. For example, in yesterday’s edition of The Guardian, we learn that

" things that once seemed like science fiction are now a reality, forcing us to

look at the ethical implications. " Gosh, this is really big news. Part of this

piece is focused on how academics are teaching ethics to bioscience students.

Big deal. They get a credit and then enter the REAL world of politics,

corruption, greed and territoriality.

 

As for " ethics committees, " well, anyone wanting to take a peek at how ethics

often functions, for example, in the area of medical experimentation, please

take a trip to a site which RFD highly recommends, called ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN

RESEARCH PROTECTION,.... http://www.ahrp.org and click away to get a drift of

what is REALLY going on in " ethics. "

 

Certainly, there are some bioethicists who are well-intentioned and do a good

job in focusing our attention on various trouble spots in medicine and science.

But they now seem to be members of a small club that is getting smaller all the

time. Some of the bioethicists that I have known over the years have become

pathetically ineffectual in raising issues because they usually do so much too

late; or, when there is an important issue to address, such as wide-scale

corruption in biomedical science, they become mute and tremble in fear in their

offices, which are impressively lined with a lot of books with heady titles,

warning the world about inevitable disasters, written by people who have guts

and are willing to shake their fists at stupidity and corruption. Even those

bioethicists who raise their voices a little usually get drowned out by the

sound of medical money changing hands. This is not a world for weenies, if you

think you have something important to say.

 

In short, bioethics is not where the REAL action is anymore. This is an area of

academic life which once had a good chance of doing a lot of good. But it lost

its guts a long time ago. Much of what bioethics is today is agenda building for

some cause or for some benefactor. And a lot of what day-to-day ethics has

become is a masturbatory exercise in some ivory tower.

 

While we’re on this subject, you may want to read a BRIEF COMMENT I made a while

back about bioethics, which links to a news story about how bioethics has also

become a very elitist endeavor.

 

If bioethics is to survive with any degree of integrity and relevance, it needs

to become tougher in approach, more challenging in its overall attitude, and

fearless in confronting the powers that be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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