IT is customary when making critical remarks to start bout  by saying nice things about the person one is criticizing, and I want to do that now, but not pro forma. The report of the President’s Council on Bioethics is superb. It embodies the kind of reasoned discourse that you wish were used for all public issues and almost never is. Furthermore, Leon/Kass was the best possible person to head up this effort. I can think of no one else who brings to this difficult subject such moral seriousness, power of intellect, and generosity of spirit.