Bioethics in Philadelphia? Let's Cover Australia Instead!

There hasn't been a single major media story about the major presentations at the annual meetings of the American Society for Bioethics and the Humanities in Philadelphia just before the election. The media missed a session in which members of the CDC panel on vaccines discussed strategy. They missed the major session on Leon Kass. They missed major sessions on neuroenhancement. The ASBH conference was in Philadelphia, where many mass media are either based or can uplink, or can get to by train in 45 minutes. Actually, the point doesn't really require argumentation; you won't find anybody in bioethics who doubts that media can and do get to Philadelphia every week. Just not to the ASBH, just days before an election that hung in large part on social issues like abortion and stem cells.

But the media is in Australia. There, at the World Congress of Bioethics, even single papers like this one on face transplantation, and this one on deafness genetic testing are getting major coverage. The EU draft consensus document on stem cell research finalized by John Harris received coverage around the world. Yes these are important documents and it is good that the world is covering these meetings, sponsored by the International Association of Bioethics. Where were the media a couple of weeks ago? Sydney beats the heck out of Philadelphia, granted, but somebody at ASBH must be scratching his head ... or perhaps the winds have begun to fade IAB as the primary public bioethics group?