Among the
letters from readers in the Minneapolis Star Tribune is one from Jeff Kahn, director of the Center for Bioethics at University of Minnesota, who writes:
[Columnist Michael Kinsley is] right that Leon Kass is viewed by some as "the secretary of bioethics," but that's the problem. 
Prof. Kass has become more a mouthpiece for the Bush administration than a credible voice for thoughtful analysis of controversial ethical issues ... There are many in bioethics who support far greater public investment in embryonic stem cell research ... [but] It's no surprise that these are not the voices represented on the current President's Council on Bioethics, which Kass chairs ... the blame lies with an administration that won't tolerate, let alone consider, dissenting views on stem cell research policy -- a much bigger problem than the ethical noodling of Leon Kass and his cronies.
