Can you be too ethical?
In a recent column in The Guardian, Andrew Brown argues that there are several ways in which one might, in a sense, be ‘too ethical’: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/27/can-you-be-too-ethical
Read MoreOppressing smokers for fun and profit
According to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine (Prabhat & Peto 2014), Tripling tobacco tax globally would cut smoking by a third, and prevent 200 million premature deaths this century from lung cancer and other diseases…
Read MoreTis’ the season of pardons
This year Alan Turing got a posthumous royal pardon for his conviction of homosexuality. Justice Minister Chris Grayling said: “Turing deserves to be remembered and recognised for his fantastic contribution to the war effort and his l…
Read MoreEmergence’s devil haunts the moral enhancer’s kingdom come
It is 2025. Society has increasingly realised the importance of breaking evolution’s chains and enhancing the human condition. Large grants are awarded for building sci-fi-like laboratories to search for and create the ultimate moral …
Read MoreHappiness, meaning and well-being
If someone were to ask you what you want from life, how would you reply? Plausible answers might include: ‘to be happy’, ‘to be successful’, ‘to make a difference’, or perhaps ‘to experience as much as possible’. Whatever these aspirations …
Read MorePursuing your dreams when drunk
For a long time I wanted to go to Indonesia on a holiday, to see the rice fields, the buffalo’s and the wayang puppets. But for some reason it took me actually years to realize this. The reason why I didn’t go had nothing to do with practic…
Read MoreShould exceptional people receive exceptional medical treatment?
There are approximately 150,000 human deaths each day around the world. Most of those deaths pass without much notice, yet in the last ten days one death has received enormous, perhaps unprecedented, attention. The death and funeral of Nels…
Read MoreProfessor Tim Scanlon: When Does Equality Matter?
2013 Uehiro Lectures by Professor Tim Scanlon (Department of Philosophy, Harvard University) We are very grateful to Professor Tim Scanlon (Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity, Harvard University) for de…
Read MorePodcast: Genetic Parenthood, Assisted Reproduction, and the Values of Parental Love
On the evening of Thursday 28 December, Prof. Justin Oakley, Deputy Director of the Centre for Human Bioethics at Monash University, gave a fascinating and suggestive lecture on whether there is reason for the state to broaden access to IVF…
Read MorePodcast: Is Networking Immoral?
Guest Post: Ned Dobos, University of New South Wales This post is a summary of a talk presented by Dr. Dobos at the University of Oxford. Listen to the Podcast Despite being ubiquitous in both the public and private sectors, “networking” ha…
Read More