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X Factor Abortion: Is it Wrong?
by Julian Savulescu Paije Richardson's dreams of a new life were crushed tonight as the public voted him from the X Factor final rounds. On Dec 9, the fate of another young hopeful will be decided by the people’s choice. But this time it will be a life and death choice. A couple have allegedly…
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Unintentional contraception
by Anders Sandberg The pope approves of the use of condoms to fight AIDS: according to an upcoming book he says it is acceptable when the intention is to reduce the risk of infection. While he still views abstinence as the proper way of fighting the disease, "In certain cases, where the intention is to…
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Reframing Sacred Values and Making Political Compromises
Steve Clarke Scott Atran’s Talking to The Enemy (HarperCollins: New York, 2010) has recently been published. This is a big, sprawling and very readable book which has much that is important to say about religious behaviour and the role of religion in inspiring, and also in preventing, terrorism and conflict in general. I recommend it…
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Against Open Mindedness
Lots of people believe in psychic powers, but there has never been any convincing evidence for their existence. Though there are many anecdotes attesting to their existence (below I will say something about why we ought not to be impressed by these stories), there has never been any genuine evidence in their favour. That is,…
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Stem Cell Trial for Stroke: Is It Cannabilizing Human Beings?
By Julian Savulescu Reneuron has today announced the first transfer of stem cells in the UK to treat stroke. This follows quickly from Geron’s recent trial in spinal cord injury. This is a historic moment which may be viewed in the same way as the first attempts to use antibiotics. Stem cells offer the door…
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Lethal Ethics: When Philosophical Distinctions Kill
by Julian Savulescu Teresa Lewis died on the 24th of September after being a lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Centre in Virginia. The 41-year-old was convicted of plotting to kill her husband, Julian Lewis, and her stepson, Charles Lewis. She persuaded two men to carry out the murders in return for sex and money.…
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Focussing on diseases
Further to Julian’s article about Giving What We Can, an important part of helping people as much as possible is to find out which charities do the most good for a certain amount of money. This has been in the news recently with this article. It claims that we are missing out on doing a…
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Palmistry for the genome: genetic fundamentalism fights on
Who will rid us of these turbulent reductionists? They are very difficult to cull. The one gene = one protein idea is dead. But some of its offspring, which include the notion that there is a gene for immensely complex, plainly multifactorial traits, limp on. The war’s over. They’ve lost. But they keep on fighting.…
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Living in Plato’s Cave
Roger Crisp writes … Plato’s allegory of the Cave (Republic 514a-517a) is perhaps the most famous image in the history of philosophy. Socrates describes a group of people living underground, bound so that they can see only in front of them. Behind them burns a fire, and in front of the fire there is a…
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Smoking and yellow teeth
With at least one airline announcing this week that it was stepping up screening on Yemeni passengers, I want to return to a topic I’ve touched on before: profiling. What interests me is ‘rational profiling’. If a security guard believes, for no good reason, that members of racial/ethnic/national group R are more likely than average…