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?

A Permanent Ethics Panel on Vaccines at CDC

This is huge news for bioethics. If you've been wondering whether there will ever be a federal-level bioethics group with real teeth, many will tell you that this will be the one: The New York Times is reporting today that CDC has taken its most significant step ever into bioethics, creating a permanent panel on ethical issues in vaccine distribution. Senior scholars abound, including longtime CDC bioethics consultant and Yale fixture Robert Levine, John Arras, Tom Beauchamp, and Emory's Kathy Kinlaw. Great comments here from Arras.

Global Genetic Epidemiology Initiative UPDATED

Data on population health has become the most important component of research into genetics and disease. In this CDC Genomics article, Muin Khoury, one of the key bioethics people within the CDC, makes the argument that something roughly analagous to the human genome project should be developed for the globalization of genetic epidemiology. It is an extraordinary proposal that follows on Francis Collins' earlier proposal for an intra-US program. UPDATE: Voice of America reports on a Canadian argument for essentially the same initiative, sponsored by the U Toronto bioethics group.