Last month, President Barack Obama quietly disbanded the President's Council on
Bioethics, a deliberative body whose changing cast of erudite and ideologically
diverse members had spent the past eight years thinking through today's
toughest moral questions. Members received only one day's notice of the
council's dissolution, forcing them to cancel a planned meeting and leave
unfinished several major reports that were due to be released soon.

Their abrupt dismissal received little press, aside from a New York Times
article that noted Obama's reason for dismantling the council. According to
White House press officer Reid Cherlin, the council was "a philosophically
leaning advisory group" and Obama wants a new bioethics commission that focuses
less on discussion and more on forming consensus around "practical policy
options." As University of Wisconsin law professor and Obama ally Alta Charo
explained, the old council "seemed more like a public debating society,"
whereas Obama's new one will help him form what the Times described as
"ethically defensible public policy."

It's ironic that a president often hailed as a sort of philosopher-king regards
the discussion of philosophical questions as a waste of time for a bioethics
commission. And it's odd that a leader who talks incessantly about the
importance of listening to diverse viewpoints found so little to like about a
council that was one of the few vehicles left in America for intelligent, civil
public discourse about weighty moral questions.

While many politicians and pundits shout past each other when discussing such
issues as cloning or end-of-life care, the council's members engaged each
other's ideas with respect and offered an elevated model of debate for our
sound-bite society. They raised profound questions about science and technology
that too few Americans consider, much less discuss in depth with principled,
thoughtful opponents. Gathering some of America's brightest scholars from
across disciplines, the council tackled everything from the ethics of genetic
screening for newborns to the moral dilemmas posed by our struggle to care for
aging loved ones.

It's true that council members frequently debated and disagreed. That was, in
many ways, the point. President George W. Bush created the council in 2001 not
to rubber-stamp his policies — roughly half the members he appointed to the
newly formed council disagreed with his position on embryonic stem-cell
research — but to advise him "on ethical issues related to advances in
biomedical science and technology" and to provide "a forum for a national
discussion" and education about bioethical issues.

Under the leadership of the University of Chicago's Dr. Leon Kass and, later,
Georgetown University's Dr. Edmund Pellegrino, the council did just that. Its
probing reports and public discussions reminded Americans that when it comes to
evaluating the moral implications of scientific advances, science does not have
all the answers. And the fact that we can do something doesn't always mean that
we should.

The council had its critics and sometimes made waves. The latest came in March,
when 10 of its 18 members publicly criticized Obama's decision to lift
restrictions on federal funding for research that destroys human embryos. That
criticism, and Obama's reluctance to draw more criticism when his
administration unveils new National Institutes of Health guidelines for federal
funding of embryo-destructive research this month, may explain the president's
eagerness to disband the council immediately, rather than wait until its
charter would have expired in September.

Obama's desire to see his policies backed by expert "consensus" more likely
will be realized with a new commission composed of like-minded political
liberals steeped in utilitarianism than with the brainy, diverse and
unpredictable crew that populated the now-defunct council. Ensuring uniformity
of thought among one's ethical advisers may make the president's job easier,
but it will do little to benefit the diverse nation that he serves.

Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television and radio host and St.
Louis-based fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is
www.colleen-campbell.com.