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Bioethical, social and legal questions relating to genomics and behavioural research are all on the commission's agenda. So are issues of intellectual property, scientific integrity and conflicts of interest in research.
The contrast with the previous bioethics council established by President George W. Bush is stark. Bioethicist George Annas of Boston University, Massachusetts, has described that council, which existed in two incarnations, as having a "narrow, embryo-centric agenda", focusing largely on the research implications of questions such as the moral status of the embryo and when life begins (see Nature 431, 19-20; 2004).
In another break with the past, Obama has chosen not to appoint...