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Foetal pain and the abortion debate: believing what you want to believe
By Janet Radcliffe-Richards Last Friday’s BBC morning news headlines included a report of two reviews by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of evidence about foetal pain. The reviews concluded that foetuses under 24 weeks could not feel pain, because “nerve connections in the cortex, the area which processes responses to pain in the…
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Drugs in sport debate: Proposer’s update 2
by Julian Savulescu Illegal prostitution still occurs in countries where it has been decriminalised; illegal use of dangerous drugs still occurs in countries which have relaxed their bans on recreational drugs. But overall, such societies are better for their tolerance, their focus on harm reduction, compared to absolutist, prohibitionist societies. So, too, for doping.
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A Universal Moral Code?
Might there be a universal moral code? When we look around, we everywhere find bitter and seemingly interminable moral disagreements about abortion, or euthanasia, or animal rights, or social justice, and many other issues, not to mention the vast gulfs that separate the moral outlooks of different cultures. The idea that there is a universal…
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Choosing how to live: death row inmates and terminally ill patients
by Shlomit Harrosh Convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner was killed by gunfire on July 18, 2010. Given the choice between lethal injection and being shot, Gardner opted for the firing squad. This was the first firing squad execution in the state of Utah since 1996. In the 37 states where the death penalty is in…
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Drugs in sport debate: Opposer’s update
by John William Devine Julian’s response to the problem of doping is to throw in the towel.
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Sex and the minimally conscious state
An interesting case is reported in the most recent issue of the Hastings Center Report. Mrs Z, is a 29 year-old woman who was released into her husband’s carefollowing a traumatic brain injury. She is in a minimally conscious state (MCI), a state of severely impaired consciousness. MCI cases cover a range of cognitive deficits;…
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Goodbye to Josè Saramago, genius, novelist and (sometimes) a bioethicist
The very sad news of the day is the death of Portuguese writer José Saramago. Saramago was a true genius and one of my favourite authors ever, so I thought it could be a good idea to show how this great man was able not only to write books where every single sentence is…
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How wrong may we be?
By Nicholas ShackelConsider these propositions: Mandatory licensing of professional services increases the prices of those services. Overall, the standard of living is higher today than it was 30 years ago Rent control leads to housing shortages. Third World workers working for American companies overseas are not exploited. Free trade does not lead to unemployment Minimum…
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The Cost of Non-Cash Incentives for Organs
The Times newspaper featured an editorial proposing changes in the organ procurement system last week by Sally Satel, a scholar from the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. I thought the first few lines were especially revealing about Satel’s attitude to market transactions – she reports that she desperately needed a kidney herself, but…
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A costly separation between withdrawing and withholding treatment
by Dominic Wilkinson Television child star Gary Coleman died recently following a severe brain haemorrhage. He was taken to an intensive care unit, but the next day was taken off life support because of the severity of his brain injury. Decisions like the one made by Gary Coleman’s doctors are common in intensive care. Many…