The following appeared in Volume 98, Number 1 (Fall, 1998) of the APA Newsletters

Hot off the press is a paper by Kenneth De Ville and Loretta Kopelman that discusses Wisconsin’s new Fetal Protection Law. They examine the evidence for implementing such draconian measures, they review the legislation, explore significant issues of justice and liberty, and raise several important questions about whether the Wisconsin approach will be counter-productive by doing more harm than good. De Ville and Kopelman conclude that the Wisconsin law is inconsistent with current abortion policy and they suggest that it appears to be an ill-conceived politically motivated statement rather than a coherent policy that can justify limitations on liberty by achieving significant social goods.

In a similar spirit, Greg Pence in his paper, "Parental Expectations and Cloning," asks us to reconsider what so many have responded to as beyond the pale of morally acceptable biotechnology. Pence carefully reviews the main arguments that have been used against cloning humans by nuclear cell somatic transfer and finds that the objections would apply to any reproductive choice or that they are ungrounded, based on gross over-simplification, or that they can be met by instituting reasonable institutional policies. In sum, he urges readers to be open-minded and tolerant about this new reproductive technology. Pence’s conclusion suggests that all of the international bans are steps in the wrong direction.

The motif of taking issue with conventional wisdom comes up again in Thomas Mappes’s paper, "Some Reflections on Advance Directives." In his discussion of the documents that are often treated as bioethicists’s highest achievement, Mappes cautions us to temper our enthusiasm. He points out some of the limitations that are inherent in their design, some philosophical issues that they raise, and some common problems of implementing their commands. He also shows how they are entirely irrelevant in many instances and in most states. In spite of all these shortcomings, Mappes allows that bioethicists should keep them in their arsenals because they can also be immensely valuable.

Matti Häyry continues the critical theme by taking aim at the activity of bioethicists. In his paper, "The Role of Philosophers in Bioethical Research Programs," Häyry suggests that bioethics is often defined too narrowly. Then Häyry argues against the status quo of philosophers who are engaged in bioethics and most typically offer metaethical analysis, theoretical implications, or moral sociology. Instead of remaining in those comfortable roles, Häyry maintains that bioethicists have to be normative and that the philosophers’ task should be " cognitive deprogramming" and "rational reconstruction." In other words, he asks bioethicists to be philosophers and he charges philosophers to do their traditional job. First, the philosopher is to focus on flushing out the Aegean stables of ambiguous and unfounded beliefs and then to demand "conceptual consistency and logical soundness" of all potential solutions to the problems of applied ethics that arise in the biomedical sciences, the clinical practice of medicine, and health policy.

David Schiedermayer’s poem, "My Son’s Ears," echoes the challenge of the papers in this section with a vivid picture of a doctor, the parent of a boy who has surgery. This dramatic presentation invites us to see a medically reasonable procedure from the emotional perspective of an apprehensive and deeply engaged relative. It reminds us that something that’s "No problems at all, just a little outpatient surgery, nothing to worry about" doesn’t look at all that way when it’s happening to someone you love.

In addition to these wonderful pieces, we have an informative and insightful collection of book reviews in this issue of the Newsletter. We have two new books by Arthur Caplan, Am I My Brothers’ Keeper? and Due Consideration, assessed in two sets of comments, one by Samuel Gorovitz and another by Julie Zilberberg. Mary Anne Warren’s new book, Moral Status: Obligations to Persons and Other Living Things, is reviewed by Karin Brown. And the collection of essays, The Future of Biomedical Research, edited by Claude Barfield and Bruce Smith, is discussed by David Resnick.

A letter from Len Fleck, the new Chair of the APA Committee on Philosophy and Medicine introduces him to our readers. His letter also includes the Committee’s programs for the upcoming APA Division meetings. Some announcements round out our issue.

Please feel free to volunteer your papers, comments, stories, poems, your book reviews, or your comments on papers IN THE LITERATURE. Please continue to send in notices of events and activities that you would like to have announced in these pages. Anything to be announced in the Spring 1999 issue should reach me by February 1, 1999. Items should be sent to me at the address below. Submissions should follow the Guidelines on the inside back cover of this issue. Please include both a disk and a printed copy and a telephone number or email address.

Rosamond Rhodes
Box 1108
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, CUNY
One Gustave Levy Place
New York, NY 10029
phone: 212-241-3757
fax: 212-427-7862
email: rhodes@smtplink.mssm.edu