The President’s Council on Bioethics

The President’s Council on Bioethics was created by President George W. Bush on November 28, 2001. (The executive order creating the Council is online here.) It was disbanded in June 2009. During those years, the Council held dozens of meetings and discussions under its two chairmen: Dr. Leon R. Kass and Dr. Edmund D. Pellegrino. It also released nine original publications — all archived below in PDF format — and one anthology. The full website of the Council is now archived and made available online by Georgetown University’s Bioethics Research Library.

	Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry July 2002 Archived online version of the report Click here to download [PDF, 3.4 megabytes] Click here to purchase [PublicAffairs]
	Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness October 2003 Archived online version of the report Click here to download [PDF, 2.7 megabytes] Click here to purchase [Harper Perennial] Click here to purchase [Dana Press] This book was the focus of a New Atlantis symposium called “Biotechnology and the Good Life” (Winter 2004).
	Being Human: Readings from the President’s Council on Bioethics December 2003 Archived online version of the anthology This volume is not available as a PDF for reasons of copyright. Click here to purchase [W. W. Norton]
	Monitoring Stem Cell Research January 2004 Archived online version of the report Click here to download [PDF, 1.5 megabytes]
	Reproduction and Responsibility: The Regulation of New Biotechnologies March 2004 Archived online version of the report Click here to download [PDF, 2.3 megabytes]
	White Paper: Alternative Sources of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells May 2005 Archived online version of the report Click here to download [PDF, 0.6 megabytes]
	Taking Care: Ethical Caregiving in Our Aging Society September 2005 Archived online version of the report Click here to download [PDF, 2.2 megabytes] Click here to purchase [Government Printing Office] An excerpt from this report was published in The New Atlantis as “The Aging Self” (Fall 2005).
	Human Dignity and Bioethics: Essays Commissioned by the President’s Council on Bioethics March 2008 Archived online version of the report Click here to download [PDF, 6.0 megabytes] Click here to purchase [Notre Dame Press]
	The Changing Moral Focus of Newborn Screening: An Ethical Analysis by the President’s Council on Bioethics December 2008 Archived online version of the report Click here to download [PDF, 1.0 megabytes]
	Controversies in the Determination of Death: A White Paper by the President’s Council on Bioethics December 2008 Archived online version of the report Click here to download [PDF, 1.2 megabytes] This report was discussed in the New Atlantis essay “What and When is Death?” by Alan Rubenstein (Spring 2009).