Religion & Law

In December, President Obama's Bioethics Commission issued a report on synthetic biology -- the engineering of new forms of life.  I have not heard much news coverage about it, and I haven't read the report.  For my own research purposes, I'm interested in how the concept of "human dignity" is being used (or not) in public policy discussions.  I ran a "find" search for "dignity" in the report, and the word does not appear.  I know that President Bush's Commission was criticized for relying on "dignity" to do too much heavy lifting in its analysis (a criticism with which I disagree), so I wonder if this is a deliberate decision by the new Commission to chart a new course.  Again, though, I haven't read the (192-page) report, and I know the Commission has some good folks on it (e.g., Daniel Sulmasy).  Can anyone comment on the report or steer me in the direction of some good commentary?