God & Country

Doug Kmiec and Robby George Set to Debate at National Press Club

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April 21, 2009 RSS Feed Print
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By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

Conservative Roman Catholic legal scholars Robby George and Doug Kmiec are set to debate at the National Press Club next month, continuing a back and forth that began on this very blog last month over President Obama's embryonic stem cell research policy. George argued that Obama left the door open to human cloning, while Kmiec called that view a distortion of the president's position.

With new National Institutes of Health guidelines on embryonic stem cell research explicitly outlawing somatic cell nuclear transfer, federally funded cloning is now off the table, regardless of how you define it. But the disagreement continues; Kmiec has embraced the new guidelines, while George considers them a "grave injustice."

The debate, which George calls a "public discussion," is set for May 28 and will be moderated by Mary Ann Glendon, a former ambassador to the Vatican and a Harvard Law School professor. Glendon also happens to be Notre Dame's other guest of honor at next month's commencement, sharing the stage with President Obama.

Sponsored by the Catholic University of America's Columbus Law School, the National Press Club debate appears to be by invitation only. I'll post more details when I have them.

 

Tags:
stem cells,
religion,
Catholic Church

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C-SPAN 2 carried the discussion, but does not appear to have it up yet. CUA has it on their website here: http://digitalmedia.cua.edu//calendar/event_dsp.cfm?event=4696.

I thoroughly enjoyed the event, admission was certainly hard to get. Doug had one good point about Evanglium Vitae and Robby had a lot of good points about the dignity of the person. Mary Ann did an excellent job selecting the questions which mostly asked Doug for points where the Obama administration tried to reduce the number of abortions. Robby noted that the administration sees abortion as a knee replacement, an undesirable surgery no one actively seeks yet carries no moral consequence.

Some one brought an infant that cried softly during Doug's presentation. Robby's was accompanied by clashes of thunder. Doug appeared tired and spoke in a monotone for most of his discussion. Robby was more vibrant to the point where, at the end, Doug accused him of using a rhetorical argument.

All-in-all it is worth the watch. Enjoy!

Mike of VA 10:30PM May 28, 2009

While we're at it, could we stop referring to anyone as a conservative (or a liberal) Catholic? The Catholic Church does not have a left or a right wing. Conservative and liberal are labels borrowed from politics, and they are not particularly apt here.

Chris of DC 2:15PM April 21, 2009

Please stop referring to Doug Kmiec as a "conservative Catholic." Conservative Catholics don't serve as Obama apologists.

Robert of MS 2:08PM April 21, 2009

God & Country

Dan Gilgoff covers religion for U.S. News & World Report. He is the author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War, and is a former politics editor at beliefnet. E-mail Dan at godandcountry@usnews.com.

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