The distinguished Christian ethicist Gilbert Meilaender published an essay in this issue of Commonweal lamenting the dissolution of President Bush''s bioethics council, on which he served.That President Obama would want to appoint his own bioethics council is, of course, not surprising. As Professor Meilaender knows, President Bush dissolved President Clinton's bioethics commission in order to appoint his own group. My guess is that some members of President Clinton's commission were as displeased as Professor Meilaender now is when their group was disbanded.The larger question, it seems to me, is what is the purpose of such a presidential council? Moreover, we should ask what kind of diversity ought such a council to seek in light of its purposes? I reflect upon these questions in this article, which argues that neither the Clinton Commission nor the Bush Council really filled the bill.Correction: President Bush alllowed the Clinton Commission to expire naturally (on Oct. 31, 2001), but named Kass as the head of his new commission the preceding August, and set him to work on the stem cell question.