Last week we made the case that the development and promotion of a “legislative agenda” by Leon Kass, the chair of the President’s Council on Bioethics, meant that he was (mis)using his role as the Council’s chair to advocate a special interest agenda.

“If Kass wants to be a political advocate, then he should resign his position of the Bioethics Council and join one of the many conservative advocacy groups that are truly independent of the Bioethics Council. If he wants to serve as an honest broker to the nation as chair of the Bioethics Council, then he should recognize that this means deferring his desire to serve as a political advocate advancing special interests. But he does have to choose, because he can’t do both.”

This week the Washington Post reports that Representative Diana DeGette (D-CO) has asked the Inspector general of HHS to investigate Kass’ actions,


“… At issue is whether Kass acted inappropriately by helping to lead an effort to craft a legislative “agenda” for Congress that would place new restrictions on embryo research and other areas of reproductive science. In the letter, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) expressed concern that Kass may have misrepresented his private views as those of the council and that the council’s resources may have been used in the effort. The effort brings “a cloud of suspicion” on the bioethics council, she wrote. Kass said he has been very clear with people that his work for the new “bioethics agenda” for Congress — still in its early stages — is independent of his work for the council. “No council resources or council time was used,” he said yesterday. The inspector general typically takes two weeks to decide whether to take on a congressional request, a spokeswoman said.”

Kass’ legislative agenda is available here from the American Journal of Bioethics Editors Blog, who write,

“…It contains the grand plan for all sorts of bans and restrictions of science to be enacted by the U.S. Congress, and has been unabashedly promoted by Kass – who says that he is not acting as Presidential Council Chair during his lobbying efforts. The agenda is sweeping, conservative, and odd enough that it has angered Republicans in Congress more than Democrats; the latter are beside themselves with joy at watching the right wing rip the Kass document to shreds for being too liberal. Democrats should not be too giddy – much of what is here could be pushed through the executive branch and left to the courts and states to reject.”

The AJB Editors Blog weighed in with a perspective on Kass’ actions similar to that expressed here:

“It isn’t that it is a surprising announcement, and the incredible gall of it requires no comment, but what is amazing to most … is how stupid a political move this is for the PCB. This morning, Gladys White put it best on MCW-Bioethics: “I have an old-fashioned idea. That idea is that chairs of Presidential bioethics councils/commissions should, once appointed, go about their business with as much objectivity and neutrality as they can muster in order to facilitate the work of the council and ultimately to serve the American people. I have this idea because in years past it has been the case that chairing these councils or commissions has been viewed as a distinct honor and well worth the price of setting aside personal views at least for the duration of the group’s work… Directly lobbying Congress in a role “that is independent of the role bioethics chair” accompanied by a group which “has no name,” is unprecedented, unwise and in my view, unacceptable for the chair of a bioethics commission. I don’t see how one person can function as a hard-headed lobbyist at one moment and as a neutral objective, bioethics chair at the next. I don’t think that this latest development bodes well for the work of the current council or for the future of independent bioethics analysis in the U.S. and I am very sorry to see it.””

And Iain Murray writing at Tech Central Station expresses similar sentiments,

“[Kass’] recent decision to draft a political strategy aimed at achieving certain policy goals renders his position as an honest broker on the issue untenable… The merits of Dr. Kass’s preferred policies are irrelevant here. The problem is that by hitching his star to a particular set of policies he has breached the trust set in him by the President, whose executive order creating the council asked it to “explore specific ethical and policy questions related to these developments; [and] to provide a forum for a national discussion of bioethical issues.” At the very least, by sheer virtue of his position, his favored policies are more likely to get a hearing than those of other well-qualified bioethicists who do not have the authority of such an office …Such a prospect would seriously undermine in the principle of “procedural justice” — the right of all sides of a political argument to be heard without fear or favor.”

I have yet to see anyone actually defend Kass’ actions in similar venues, though I’d welcome pointers. I’d also welcome comments and input on Rep. Degette’s letter to HHS IG (does anyone have a copy?) and the legal basis for her complaints. Of course, my objections, and those cited above, go far beyond any possible legal impropriety to the very core of what it means to serve on a government advisory committee and the inevitable trade offs between serving as an honest broker and political advocate.