Bioethicists As Sources

Bioethicists are increasingly used by reporters as expert sources in media stories about science and technology. Prompted by controversial topics such as genetically modified food, human cloning, and nanotechnology, reporting on bioethical issues [Page 89]has grown while a new type of expert, the bio-ethicist, has gained credibility and prominence through the media. Journalists and bioethicists have developed a mutually beneficial relationship, although many news consumers are unsure about who bioethicists are and what they do.

Bioethicists specialize in studying the ethical aspects of the life sciences, health care, and technology. The field of bioethics emerged in the late 1960s at the intersection of science, medicine, and ethics. Over time, bioethicists have become an accepted source of moral guidance, a role once reserved for clergy members and philosophers. Bioethicists advise patients and health care professionals on making difficult medical decisions, such as end-of-life care. They also play a part in science and technology policy making and counsel research institutions, hospitals, government agencies, and the courts on ethical issues surrounding scientific, medical, and technological developments.

Before the 1990s, reporters covering science and technology primarily used scientists, physicians, and industry and government officials as expert sources. Since then, reporters have expanded their traditional list of expert sources by using bioethi-cists to help them make sense of the complex bio-ethical issues that often accompany developments in science and technology. Still, bioethicists had a relatively low profile in the news media until 1997, when Dolly the sheep became the first mammal to be cloned. Cloning is the production of a new, genetically identical animal from a single parent animal. Reporters covering Dolly sought out bio-ethicists to explain and comment on cloning and its ethical consequences, including the possibility that humans could be cloned. Worldwide media coverage on Dolly helped make bioethicists recognized public figures. In 2004 to 2005, bioethicists were again in demand as expert sources when the lengthy death of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman with irreparable brain damage, spurred intense debate about right-to-life and right-to-die issues and captured the media spotlight.

Expert sources differ from other types of news sources reporters use during the news-gathering process to provide information for stories. Reporters use expert sources in the hope of enhancing the credibility and authoritativeness of their work; the experts, in turn, help shape the news by providing comment and context for stories. But it can be difficult for reporters to choose expert sources, including deciding which sources have real expertise and which simply have information. And although public opinion research indicates that people believe in experts less and less, studies have shown that reporters rely more and more on expert sources of all kinds. In general, however, there has been little research on who expert sources are and how they are used, as well as on how reporters determine their expertise.

Bioethicists are used most often as expert sources in media stories on science, medicine, and technology, with strong ethical implications. They have provided information and opinion on a wide range of topics, including the deaths of patients stranded at a New Orleans hospital after Hurricane Katrina, debate over whether consumers should be told about food exposed to radiation to kill microorganisms, developments in stem cell research, and the use of high-tech surgery to prolong the lives of pets.

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