[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 56 (Monday, March 24, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Page 14239]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-6865]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES


The President's Council on Bioethics; Request for Comments; 
Current Regulation of Assisted Reproduction, Embryo Research, and Human 
Genetics

AGENCY: The President's Council on Bioethics, HHS.

ACTION: Request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The President's Council on Bioethics requests that interested 
individuals and organizations submit written comments--normative as 
well as descriptive--on the current regulation of the biotechnologies 
that touch the beginnings of human life, more specifically on those 
technologies and practices that exist at the intersection of assisted 
reproduction, embryo research, and human genetics. The Council is 
especially interested to know commenters' opinions as to which human 
goods and values they think should animate any regulatory activities in 
this area, as well as on how well current practices promote and protect 
these goods and values. New technologies and practices, such as pre-
implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), greatly expand the power not 
simply to bring new life into existence in novel ways (as through in 
vitro fertilization) but also to select or even manipulate its 
character, fate, and future. The Council is thus deeply interested in 
how these activities are currently regulated, by whom, and to what 
effect. In an effort to better understand the contours of the current 
regulatory landscape, the Council has been studying: The legal 
authority and institutional competence of the Food and Drug 
Administration, professional self-regulation by practitioners of 
assisted reproduction, the current system of protecting human research 
subjects, and the patentability of human organisms, among other aspects 
of the subject. To ensure a thorough, accurate, and comprehensive 
understanding, the Council invites the public to submit written comment 
on this subject as well.

DATES: Submissions must be received on or before April 15, 2003.
    Form of Submission: Submissions should be written, no more than 
3,000 words long, and addressed to The President's Council on 
Bioethics, attention: O. Carter Snead, General Counsel.

ADDRESSES: E-mail (preferred): [email protected]. Fax: 202-296-
3528. Mail: Suite 600, 1801 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 
20006.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: O. Carter Snead, General Counsel, The 
President's Council on Bioethics (202/296-4669; 
[email protected]).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The President's Council on Bioethics was 
created by Executive Order 13237, on November 28, 2001, to advise the 
President on the ethical and policy questions arising from developments 
in biomedical science and technology. For more information about the 
Council, see http://www.bioethics.gov.

    Dated: March 14, 2003.
Dean Clancy,
Executive Director, The President's Council on Bioethics.
[FR Doc. 03-6865 Filed 3-21-03; 8:45 am]
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