Charles Krauthammer (born 1950, New York) is a syndicated columnist who appears in the Washington Post and other publications. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987.
Krauthammer obtained a first-class honors degree in political science and economics from McGill University in 1970, and was a Commonwealth Scholar in politics at Balliol College, Oxford 1970-71. In his freshman year at Johns Hopkins medical school in 1972, he was paralyzed in a serious diving accident which permanently confined him to a wheelchair [1]. Continuing medical training during his rehabilitation, he earned an M.D. from Harvard University's medical school in 1975, and worked as a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital for several years. Krauthammer also engaged in research, for example he and his colleague Klerman described the secondary mania as a syndrome with multiple causes.
In 1978, Krauthammer quit medical practice to direct planning in psychiatric research for the Jimmy Carter administration, and began contributing to the magazine, The New Republic. During the presidential campaign of 1980, he served as a speech writer to Vice President Walter Mondale. He also writes essays for TIME and the Weekly Standard.
The "Unipolar World"
Krauthammer believes that "the notion that legitimacy derives from international consensus" is a political absurdity in what he calls the "unipolar world" dominated by US foreign policy. As a member of the Project for the New American Century whose goal is to promote American global leadership, Krauthammer defends unilateralism and maintains that as a superpower, the U.S. should assert its positions and invite others to join. He was one one of the most vocal supporters for the war in Iraq.
Defending Israel
Krauthammer's articles are usually supportive of Israel, and he frequently accuses those who are uncompromisingly critical of Israel's policy of anti-Semitism or anti-Zionism.
In 2002, he received the Guardian of Zion Award from Bar-Ilan University's Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies for "his support of the Jewish State in print over the years." This honour has been given to Elie Wiesel (1997), Herman Wouk (1998), A.M. Rosenthal (1999), Martin Gilbert (2000), Cynthia Ozick (2001) and Ruth Roskies Wisse (2003).
President's Council on Bioethics
Appointed to the President George W. Bush's Council on Bioethics in 2002, Krauthammer has held many controversial positions in opposition to such practices as human experimentation, stem cell research, human cloning, and euthanasia. For example, part of Krauthammer's objection to human cloning rests on the grounds that cloning might be used to "creat[e] a class of superhumans." However, this view is controversial. Krauthammer may have a unique perspective on stem cell research, being a paraplegic himself. A fellow member of the Council, Janet D. Rowley , insists that Krauthammer's vision is still an issue far in the future and not a topic to be discussed at the present time. [2] Yet many council members tend to agree with Krauthammer, lending credence to many objections that the Council is ideologically conservative.
External links
References
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A Man For All Searons commentary on Hermann Lisco by Charles Krauthammer, Aug. 28, 2000 Jewish World Review
Last updated: 09-12-2005 02:39:13
