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Annoucement: Bio-ethics Bites
We are pleased to announce the launch of Bio-ethics Bites, a freely-available series of interviews with leading thinkers on issues in practical ethics. Already posted: an interview with Jeff McMahan (Rutgers) on the question of moral status, and an interview with Julian Savulescu (Oxford) on designer babies. In the pipeline: interviews with Peter Singer (Princeton),…
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Should we be able to know how long we have to live?
A new test, soon to become available to the general public in the UK, can tell people how fast they are aging, thereby allowing them to estimate their life expectancy. The test, which should be available for €500 (£435), is based on an analysis of the telomeres, small protective caps at the extremities of a…
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A New Life Unexamined may be More Worth Living
Suppose that you’re part of an interracial, black African and white Caucasian, couple. You have a baby together, and immediately after the birth you phone around your friends and family to tell them the happy news. They all seem to have just one question, which you keep hearing over and over, immediately after you tell…
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Strauss-Kahn, Schwarzenegger, and the Failure of Public Discourse
First came Strauss-Kahn. Then Schwarzenegger. And now Goodwin. Three powerful men, all married, all accused of sexual impropriety. Cue the inevitable trend pieces in the press: why do influential men cheat? But something is wrong here: one of these does not belong. The accusations against Dominique Strauss-Kahn – that he sexually assaulted a housekeeper at…
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Charity: Why It’s the Thought That Counts
Do we treat giving presents and giving to charity too differently?
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From Ivory Coast to Ivory Tower
The former president of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbabgo, did little to enhance his democratic credentials by refusing to step down from power after defeat at the polls. President Barack Obama, it has recently transpired, tried to encourage him to depart by offering him an ivory tower carrot – an academic post at a prestigious East…
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Belgium: where rapists and muffin thieves are treated alike
Some recent prison sentences in Belgium, as reported in several articles in De Standaard, one of the major Flemish newspapers: Repeated rape of 13-year old stepdaughter: 2,5 years Repeated rape of 15-year old girl:2 years Rape of 2 mentally disabled girls: 2,5 years Repeated rape of 2 girls younger than 15, making one pregnant: 2…
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Should Journalism be Amoral?
George Orwell was not a peace journalist; he was a proper journalist! Jean Seaton, professor of media history at the university of Westminster and official historian for the BBC, hurled the comment from her seat in the audience onto the stage, interrupting the current speaker, Richard Keeble, professor at the University of Lincoln’s school…
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‘No smoking’ signs trigger urge to light up: Communism, Marriage, Evidence-Based Medicine and the Fate of the World
Before you read the blog, please take: General Knowledge Ethics Quiz What is the main cause of climate change? What is main cause of global poverty? Why does terrorism exist? What caused the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster? Write your answers on a piece of paper for reference. I will provide my answers presently and we…
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Should the US have Killed Osama Bin Laden?
I heard the news that Osama Bin Laden (OBL) had been killed by US forces on the BBC World Service this morning. In the hour or so before I left for a conference I was struck by the absence of discussion of whether this was morally justified.