Bioethics is Awfully Popular Now, Yadda Yadda

Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow of the Village Voice published a truly dumb piece on the development of the field of bioethics, with loads of ridiculous claims, including the classic claim made by Elliot about how bioethicists are shills for industry and losing their reputation (a claim still unsupported by even a shred of data even from Elliot, in fact, arguably the claim has traction only because Elliot keeps getting paid to make it by highly public journals), and an even more dubious claim that bioethicists are getting awfully powerful, with the Kass commission as an example (um, did they actually do anything of consequence such that they can be accused of exerting too much power, apart from the highly suspect actions of Kass in lobbying the Senate and the equally dubious efforts made to sell Council products through the American Enterprise Institute?).

At any rate the new Council is run by a smart responsible bioethics scholar and it is clear there are no attempts underway for Dr. Pellegrino to become stooge to anyone, however conservative his views. And the notion that bioethicists are awfully powerful and dangerous because they take so much corporate money has become nothing but insulting McCarthyism from a single critic.