Two yale experts on bioethics panel

As medical and ethical concerns move from the laboratory to the front page, the Bush Administration has named 11 people, including two experts with ties to Yale, to serve on a new advisory committee on federal protections for human research subjects. The panel is charged with reviewing regulations aimed at safeguarding volunteers in medical and behavioral studies.

“There’s more of a consumer interest and input into bioethics than in the past,” said Celia B. Fisher, Ph.D., director of the Center for Ethics Education at Fordham University and a visiting bioethicist in residence at Yale. Fisher is especially interested in examining protections for special populations, such as pregnant women, prisoners and children. How federal guidelines should be applied to embryos is expected to be one of the more controversial issues the panel considers.

Mary Lake Polan, Ph.D. ’70, M.D. ’75, HS ’77, chair of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Stanford University School of Medicine, was also named to serve on the panel.