Bioethics Questions put to McCain, Obama

Nancy Gibbs at TIME puts a couple of good bioethic questions to McCain and Obama.  "Imagine if the presidential candidates were willing to talk frankly about the things that affect us most: not just guns and butter, but also life and death..." she says.

For Barack Obama: Democrats have long argued for greater reproductive freedom. Do you think that should include the right to choose the sex of your child? The same genetic tests that screen for terrible diseases could in theory target many other predispositions. What if prospective parents could screen for short or shy or gay or blond? This is a largely unregulated universe of treatment; should it be?

For John McCain: About 8,000 people may die this year waiting for organ transplants. Do you think the free market should include kidneys? You've said human rights begin at conception. But fertility clinics create excess embryos that are frozen and often discarded, which you've favored using for research. So are some embryos more equal than others?

Click here to read her entire article.  Click here to read Albert Mohler's comments.