Leon Kass is leaving the White House Council on Bioethics. This is good news for those who oppose federal limitations on biotech research, right? Not necessarily. Reason's Ron Bailey suggests that Kass' replacement is even more opposed to certain technologies. According to Bailey:

The bottom line: Pellegrino's appointment as chairman of the President's Bioethics Council will, if anything, increase that body's opposition to a lot biotechnological progress.

Meanwhile, in another piece Bailey suggests that the Bush Administration's decision to limit federal funding of research on embryonic stem cells has had some unintended consequences. Accotrding to Bailey,

these federal funding restrictions have provoked an outpouring of state initiatives for research funding for stem-cell research. So far four states have put taxpayer dollars behind human embryonic stem-cell research. . . . . private funding for academic stem-cell research is also rising.

No doubt, that is not what the administration intended.