Paul Seaton writes an elegant defense of President Bush’s appointments of Diana Schaub and Peter Lawler to the Council on Bioethics. He claims, rightly, that these two are great appointments, that they have a deep understanding of the full range of human goods and practices, and that their thinking balances nicely with those who are only interested in the "progressive technologies" of scientific reality. Seaton, like Schaub and Lawler, understand that it is perfectly possible for the so called progressive science to turn into regressive science and that those who are students of political philosophy--as Schaub and Lawler are--have a great deal to contribute to this critical conversation.

You can see Being Human: Readings from the President’s Council on Bioethics, and get one free copy by sending an e-mail to them. Note the table of contents, everything from Homer to Willa Cather to Tolstoy. This is a very unusual government document, to say the least. This is the Introduction, "The Search for Perfection" and is followed by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, "The Birth-Mark."