March 19, 2004

2 Scientists on Bioethics Council Say Its Reports Favor Bush Ideology

By JEFFREY BRAINARD and GOLDIE BLUMENSTYK

Two scientists on the President's Council on Bioethics, including one who was dismissed from the council in February, have published a critique that accuses the panel of deliberately misrepresenting, and in one case sensationalizing, the nature of research on human aging and stem cells in two of its recent reports.

The two scientists don't offer motives for those actions in the critique itself. But one of its co-authors, Elizabeth H. Blackburn, said in an interview that it seemed