Among the letters from readers in the Minneapolis Star Tribune is one from Jeff Kahn, director of the Center for Bioethics at University of Minnesota, who writes:

[Columnist Michael Kinsley is] right that Leon Kass is viewed by some as “the secretary of bioethics,” but that’s the problem. Prof. Kass has become more a mouthpiece for the Bush administration than a credible voice for thoughtful analysis of controversial ethical issues … There are many in bioethics who support far greater public investment in embryonic stem cell research … [but] It’s no surprise that these are not the voices represented on the current President’s Council on Bioethics, which Kass chairs … the blame lies with an administration that won’t tolerate, let alone consider, dissenting views on stem cell research policy — a much bigger problem than the ethical noodling of Leon Kass and his cronies.