Murder or mercy?
The newspapers today are full of the horrifying story of three children who were found dead in their family home in South London on Tuesday. The children had all apparently been diagnosed with a severe genetic disorder (spinal muscular atr…
Read More“Whoa though, does it ever burn” – Why the consumer market for brain stimulation devices will be a good thing, as long as it is regulated
In many places around the world, there are people connecting electrodes to their heads to electrically stimulate their brains. Their intentions are often to boost various aspect of mental performance for skill development, gaming or just to…
Read MoreDiscrimination against the (historically) privileged
Most cases of discrimination involve someone who belongs to a historically subordinated group being unfairly treated, because they belong to that group. Must all cases of discrimination fit this mould? Here are two, involving people who cla…
Read MoreTerminal Illness and The Right Not to Know
The parents of a young woman named Vickie Harvey, who tragically died at the age of 24 from acute myeloid leukaemia, have launched a campaign to give patients the right not to know that they are terminally ill. Eric and Lyn Harvey claim th…
Read MoreCrowd homebuying (or: How to own a home with no savings and no mortgage)
by Rebecca Roache Follow Rebecca on Twitter here I originally posted this on my own blog. It’s not the usual sort of post I write for Practical Ethics, in that it’s not going to involve any ethical debate. But neither is it an e…
Read MoreThe No harm principle, an ethical principle for economic policy advisors?
In a recent article in the New York Times, Harvard economics professor Gregory Mankiw points out that economic policy advice always relies on political-philosophical standpoints and, inspired by medical ethics, suggests that economists that…
Read MoreBeing a Good Person by Deceit?
By Nadira Faulmüller & Lucius Caviola Recently, Peter Singer, Paul Bloom and Dan Ariely were discussing topics surrounding the psychology of morality. Peter was emphasizing the importance of helping people in need by donating money to p…
Read MoreConference: Experiments and Ethics, Oxford
On June 6th and 7th, 2014 the Ertegun Graduate Scholarship Programme in the Humanities will host “Experiments and Ethics,” an interdisciplinary conference at the University of Oxford. The conference aims to foster dialogue and explore conne…
Read MoreLiving near a busy road can kill you
Early April saw some unusually smoggy days across much of Western Europe, resulting in widespread media attention to air pollution. (See, for example, here, here and here.) On one day, air quality in some parts of London was worse than in B…
Read MoreAcademia, philosophy, and ‘race’
It was recently brought to public attention that of the UK’s 18,510 university professors, only 85 are of black origin (Black African/Black Caribbean/Black ‘other’), a soberingly disproportionate figure. Some people may want to explai…
Read More