The President’s Franciscan Ethicist

Brother-Medical Doctor Brings Pro-Life Views to Obama’s Bioethics Commission
by JOAN FRAWLEY DESMOND
REGISTER CORRESPONDENT
04/29/2010

ABOVE THEIR PAY GRADE? Newly appointed members of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues will be debating about, among other things, the human embryo. Some observers, though, see the new commission under President Obama as merely window dressing.
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s recent appointment of Franciscan Brother Daniel Sulmasy to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues has refocused attention on the commission’s specific mandate and prompted questions about its power to shape policy on issues that divide Americans.

Catholic moral theologians and pro-life advocates applauded the appointment of Brother Daniel, whose record on abortion, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide and human embryonic stem-cell research is consistently pro-life. They suggest he possesses the perseverance and diplomatic gifts required for extended debates on ideologically charged issues.

At the same time, some Catholic bioethicists raised concerns about the political balance of the new commission and its independence from a White House whose policy on a spectrum of issues differs sharply with Catholic moral teaching. the rest