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Stories tagged with “Bioethics”

Justice

Former Clerks Accuse Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Of Major Ethical Violations

By Josh Israel on Jul 31, 2012 at 11:58 am

Suspended PA Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin (R)

Suspended PA Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin (R)

For the past several weeks, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin (R) has been under suspension from her job and indictment for four felonies and five misdemeanors. In a preliminary hearing yesterday, former clerks alleged that they had been forced to work on her campaign and asked to falsify records to obtain “street money” to get people to the polls.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:

[Former former Orie Melvin chief law clerk Lisa] Sasinoski referred back to an incident just before the 2003 general election when she claimed that Janine Orie, the judge’s sister and office manager, asked her to copy receipts and vouchers of her travels with the judge, to make it appear the judge’s other sister, Sen. Jane Orie, accompanied them in their campaign travels. In that way, they could get a check from the campaign treasury, write it out to Jane Orie for reimbursement, and she would then in turn provide the campaign cash to be used as street money. She explained that street money was used to encourage and help people get to the polls.

Now an employee of Justice Max Baer, Ms. Sasinoski testified that at the end of the 2003 election season, she told Ms. Orie Melvin that she could no longer participate in political activity. Two days later, she said Janine Orie demanded her court and building ID.

Another former clerk also testified that she experienced retaliation after she declined to work for Orie Melvin’s campaign on election day.

Special interests and the legislature’s GOP majority killed a constitutional amendment earlier this year that would have switched from elected appellate judges to a merit-based selection system.

The Scranton Times-Tribune, Philadelphia Daily News, and the Philadelphia Bar Association have called for Justice Orie Melvin to resign. While she has refused to do so, the Supreme Court has already split three-three on at least one case and may effectively mean major decisions will be made by lower court judges.

Election

NRCC Chairman Sessions Brushes Off Buchanan Ethics Scandal, Attacks Democrats For Their Ethics

By Josh Israel on May 17, 2012 at 12:30 pm

NRCC Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)

NRCC Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) is chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (the House GOP’s campaign arm). His finance vice chair, Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for allegedly encouraging a business partner to file a false affidavit related to illegal campaign contributions — allegations Buchanan denies. A recent local television news report on these and other ethics allegations dogging Buchanan reported that a federal grand jury and the FBI are also investigating the car dealer and third-term Congressman.

Despite House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) promised “zero-tolerance” policy on ethical scandals, Buchanan continues to serve on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and to lead fundraising efforts for his party’s campaign committee. Watchdog groups and Democrats have called on Buchanan to resign — not just from those posts, but from his seat in Congress.

Sessions yesterday brushed aside calls for Buchanan to be removed from his NRCC post. He told the New York Times:

Vern Buchanan is entitled to have a fair hearing. At this point, there is no one that is making an accusation that he cannot sustain. And if it gets to the point where the ethics committee makes some decision, if they do, I’ll be glad to pay attention to that.

He notes that a “huge number of people that are Members of Congress, from outside groups, have been attacked for doing things. He’s not the only one.”

Watch the video.

While of course Buchanan and all politicians accused of political corruption are indeed entitled to a fair hearing, Sessions displays stunning hypocrisy on the point.

One of the most prolific of those unnamed “groups” attacking other Members of Congress is Sessions’ own NRCC. In a section of their website called “Democrats’ Dirty Laundry,” Sessions and his staff attack an array of Democratic members over allegations against them, even though they have not had a “fair hearing.”

Each post begins “SPIN CYCLE: Then-Speaker Pelosi Promised that Democrats Would ‘Demand the Highest Ethics from Every Public Servant’” and then contains an allegation against a Democrat described as “RINSE CYCLE.”

Given Cantor’s pledges of zero tolerance — and the wide array of Republicans serving in key roles under ethical investigation — perhaps Sessions should focus on washing his own dirty laundry and pay attention now.

Alyssa

‘Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes’ And Our Love-Hate Relationship With Science

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Aug 4, 2011 at 11:08 am

I’m excited to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes this weekend, but while we’re waiting for it to make it into theaters, Jonathan D. Moreno, who teaches bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania and is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, kindly offered to give us some perspectives the cinematic tradition of science critiques the movie is heir to. This post is published in collaboration with Science Progress

By Jonathan D. Moreno

Hollywood has done it again. The latest film about creepy scientists setting us on the path to the end of the world as we know and, more or less, love it will soon be in a movie theater near you — Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Since we’ve been warned for so long by filmmakers and novelists about the dangers of science run amok, we really have no good excuse not to believe them. From The Island of Dr. Moreau to Brave New World to Blade Runner, Gattaca, Splice, and now the inevitable prequel to the iconic The Planet of the Apes, we learn anew why we should never tempt biologists with the latest science.

Don’t pass that apple, Eve, just transfect that genome.

Why are we so anxious about biology? Considering how sci-tech crazy the world is, including the convergence of physics, engineering, and genetics, basic biology would seem to be commonplace. That’s the question I pose in my forthcoming book, The Body Politic: The Battle Over Science in America* (Bellevue Literary Press, 2011).

Through the 18th century, the Enlightenment philosophers largely set the tone of growing admiration among the educated classes for the importance of science for social improvement. By the early 19th century, the growth of knowledge itself provoked anxiety. Since its publication in 1818, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been a touchstone of popular resentment of overreaching science and scientists. Lately, it has functioned as a standard reference point for the critiques of an arrogant scientific community that messes around with stem cells and cloning.
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