Nowhere is bioethics more politicised than in the United States. A pro-abortion group, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, is arguing that a "medical Right" is advancing the agenda of the "Christian Right" by offering a spurious blend of fundamentalist Christianity and scientific commentary to hoodwink the public. In a comprehensive report, The Medical Right: Remaking Medicine in Their Image, published last year,  the RCRC contends that "the Medical Right is the attempt to turn their religious views into the dominant philosophy and to apply their policies to people from all walks of life, whether or not they share the same belief system."

According to RCRC, analysts experts from the Medical Right have been "incredibly adept at tying... issues together in a conservative framework based on a concept of 'human dignity' [scare quotes in original]". Their list of the principal institutions and individual involved in promoting the Medical Right agenda is a who's-who of the pro-life movement – extremely useful for partisans of either side of the debate.

Last month, the leading American euthanasia lobby, Compassion and Choices, borrowed the "Medical Right" slogan and published its own analysis of the enemies of compassion and choice in The 'Medical Right': Impact on End-of-Life Care. This document, though not as glossy, also includes a useful list of people and organisations "opposing patient self-determination at the end of life".