Bioethics comes of age. Arthur Caplan, prominent University of Pennsylvania bioethicist, was named along with several Penn doctors and hospitals in a lawsuit brought by the family of an 18 year-old who died last year during treatment for his inborm metabolic disorder. The suit charges that Caplan’s advice to enroll only consenting adults in the research protocol — the gene therapy researchers had originally designed a study to treat infants — led to the recruitment of their son, and eventually to his death. Some say that while Caplan’s advice satisfies the letter of ethical standards of informed consent, it defies the common sense that would inhere in treating critically ill infants instead of adults who have their illness under control and who might end up worse off than if they hadn’t undergone the intervention. A twist: bioethicists like Caplan are joining the boards of biotechnology firms which fund the research into their controversial potential products; the university researchers are often stockholders in the firms backing their research. Salon