What's a human?

Interview | Bioethicist and presidential advisor Leon Kass wants to get back to basics about medical science's complexities | Lynde Langdon

Leon Kass did not appoint himself shepherd of the rocky hills of modern-day bioethics. He set out with a one-year leave of absence from his biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health to explore bioethics 35 years ago. The young physician-scientist never made it back to the lab.

Instead, his thoughts and writings about the nature of human dignity became guideposts for a nation struggling to answer the question: What does it mean to be human?

Mr. Kass' most famous bioethical encounter happened in the summer of 2001, when President George W. Bush met with him to discuss embryonic stem-cell research. Shortly after that conversation Mr. Bush announced his decision to open federal funding to embryonic stem-cell research, but only on stem-cell lines that already existed. He also announced the formation of a President's Council on Bioethics, which Mr. Kass would lead.

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January 28, 2006, Vol. 21, No. 4

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