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The Stephen L. Carter Stonewall, Day 55Emperor of Ocean Park author formally resigns from bioethics panel.

By Timothy Noah
Posted Thursday, Sept. 12, 2002, at 1:24 PM ET

"Following a rule of good manners may mean doing something you do not want to do, and the weird rhetoric of our self-indulgent age resists the idea that we have such things as obligations to others."

—Stephen L. Carter, "Just Be Nice," in the May 1998 Yale Alumni Magazine.

His book tour is now over, but Stephen L. "" Carter today let it be known that he is no longer a member of the President's Council on Bioethics, where he's been truant since February. (To read Chatterbox's prior items about this, click here, here, here, and here.) According to the American Prospect's daily Weblog, "Tapped," panel chairman Leon Kass announced at today's meeting that Carter had resigned. No transcript is yet available (the meeting's still going on), but when it is, Chatterbox will add a link to Kass' statement.

[Update, Sept. 23: Kass' statement sheds little light on the matter: "It is ... with regret that I want to announce publicly that Stephen Carter, for personal reasons, has had to resign his membership on the Council. The letter was received with sadness."]

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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
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