Who needs ethics? Not Obama.

Members of the President’s Council on Bioethics were told by the White House last week that their services were no longer needed and were asked to cancel a planned meeting, a council staff member said Wednesday.

The council was disbanded because it was designed by the Bush administration to be “a philosophically leaning advisory group” that favored discussion over developing a shared consensus, said Reid Cherlin, a White House press officer.

President Obama will appoint a new bioethics commission, one with a new mandate and that “offers practical policy options,” Mr. Cherlin said.

Philosophy?  Forgit-about-it.  Who needs to discuss ethical questions when a "shared consensus" is what really matters?  (I am reminded of a science major who I once knew that said that philosophy was a waste of time because "no one can agree."  What he really meant was that it scared him because he couldn't think his way out of a paper bag.) 

Why discuss tough issues facing humanity when you can just look at the practicalities?  Joe Carter from First Things writes:

In other words, the Obama administration already knows where it stands on all those pesky moral issues like human cloning, chimeras, and euthanasia, and just needs a group to provide advice on how to implement its preferred policies.  Whereas the previous councils wrestled with such questions as “What is the nature of human dignity?” the new one will most likely be addressing more practical policy options, such as “How much should we pay women to harvest their eggs for cloning?”

I hate to be the one to point this out Mr. President, but real ethics tackles tough issues, not practical policies.  Addressing ethical issues that cannot be answered by science or business is tough.  Just looking at practical policy is taking the easy way out.  Or it is something else?  Again from the NYT:

Dr. Alta Charo, an ethicist at the University of Wisconsin, said that much of the Bush council’s work “seemed more like a public debating society” and that a new commission should focus on helping the government form ethically defensible policy.

A commission of this kind, Dr. Charo said, “lets the president react judiciously to rapid and often startling changes in the scientific landscape.”

Forget about real ethics and helping Americans understand ethical issues surrounding science so they can make informed decisions regarding the policies they want.  This new council will be focused on helping the government form "defensible policy" and making sure the president can "react judiciously."  This sounds like a presidential "CYA" operation.

This is President Obama's administration.  He can run it like he wants for sure.  But I believe it is telling that he has abandoned philosophy and real ethics for practicality.