What is the most pressing bioethics issue facing our country today?
What makes issues in this area so poignant is that they arise in connection with our good fortune to be living in an era when science and technology are doing wonders for our health and longevity, with promise of still more benefits to come. New developments are occurring with such speed, however, that they have outpaced reflection on their social, political and moral implications. Nor have our regulatory institutions been able to keep up with them. A further complication is that the scientific biomedical project has become deeply entangled with powerful economic interests. The most pressing issue, therefore, is whether we as a nation will make informed choices about ends and means, or whether we will allow our priorities to be set by scientific or business groups that may be indifferent to the general welfare. Is it possible to ever reach any meaningful consensus on how to approach these issues? The conviction that Americans can and must reason together about such issues has guided th
