Worrying about the "Bioethics Crisis".(bioethics as a useful field)(Reprint)

An article has been published in the Chronicle of Higher Education entitled "Bioethics Crisis Looms Unless NIH Changes Course, Critics Warn," byline Richard Monastersky. Bioethics crisis? Apparently, practitioners believe we need more bioethicists to tell us what to do in future biotechnological research. From the story:

The nation is adrift when it comes to the academic field of bioethics, according to two prominent medical officials, who call on the National Institutes of Health to chart a strategic plan for training more people in that area and for conducting more research into ethical aspects of medicine. The dearth of leadership and support for that work erodes public trust in government-supported medical-research programs, which pour billions of dollars into academic medical centers, according to the officials, who published two separate commentaries in the June issue of Academic Medicine.

Perhaps it isn't a dearth of bioethicists but the policies and ideas that the mainstream movement promotes that cause the perceived loss of public trust.

Moreover, there are bioethicists and there are bioethicists. The President's Council on Bioethics made ...