Genetic tests at birth, designer babies, synthetic life and resurrected mammoths. In the final part of this series, Richard Dawkins talks to Craig Venter and other leading scientists about the potential powers of genome science in the future. The program also includes an interview with Julian Savulescu and others about the ethical implications of these… Read More »The Age of the Genome – on BBC radio tomorrow night
by Roman Gaehwiler
Within human history sport consistently has been abused as a platform of political disputes and athletes came to be exploited by governments to benefit the economy. The simple competitor has been transformed into a nationalized single warrior and pushed to represent his country as perfectly as possible. This spirit of the “idealized hero”, whose ability stands for the strength and force of a whole nation persisted until the twenty-first century. Of course not in the same dimensions, but there’s no doubt elite-sportspeople are a kind of mirror for society. In connection with the increasing influence of monetary incentives, a simple comparison of physical strength became an inexorable business. Excessive artificial performance enhancement is just an unavoidable result of that. The paradox obviously is that the audience calls for supernatural performances, but at the same does not approve the athlete to do so by taking performance enhancing substances.Therefore it’s legitimate to ask ourselves: “Are we taking sport too seriously?”
Read More »Artificial Performance Enhancement in Sports – Are we Overreacting?
by Bridget Williams
Who has the right to decide when life prolonging treatment
should be withdrawn? Should doctors have the right to refuse to use costly and
scarce resources to continue to treat a permanently unconscious, dying man? Is
there a limit to the medical resources we can reasonably claim for ourselves
and our families when there are others who have the potential to receive much
greater benefits from those same resources?
by Tony Coady
Israel’s decision to institute an inquiry into the military misadventure with the flotilla attempting to break its blockade of Gaza and its subsequent partial relaxation of restrictions on aid to Gaza represent grudging concessions to international outrage about the flotilla episode. Any recognition by Israel that its military policies are offensive to so many in the outside world is surely welcome. But the flotilla episode will be misunderstood if it is seen only as a failure in public relations or an instance of military mismanagement. Certainly it constitutes both of these since it has badly damaged Israel’s image throughout the world and alienated its few friends in the region as well as called into question the competence of its much-vaunted armed forces. But there is a deeper lesson to this tragic fiasco and that concerns the influence and failings of the spirit of militarism.
by Dominic Wilkinson Quads, Quins, Sexts, Septs, even Octs! High order multiple pregnancies such as the Suleman octuplets in California generate enormous media attention. However, they also raise some unique ethical questions. In the second of a series of seminars on critical care ethics, the neonatal grand round today looked at ethical questions arising from… Read More »Critical Care ethics series – the ethics of maxiple pregnancies
Robot companions are being used in Japan and the the US for elderly patients in nursing homes. They take advantage of our innate tendency to develop affection for things that are cute and appear to respond positively to us. Paro is a robot modeled after a baby harp seal. It trills and paddles when petted,… Read More »Robolove – Robot Machines as Companions
Judy is an intelligent, articulate woman with a great sense of humor. She is also completely paralyzed on her left side. Trouble is, she doesn’t know she is. On the contrary, she knows that she isn’t.
What’s going on? Self-deception? Denial? Puzzling examples like this are scattered throughout a recent series in the NY Times, which explores what it means to know, not know, know what you don’t know and not know what you know. Follow? Me neither.
Would relaxing the ban on doping lead to a fairer, safer sporting field with a better spectacle for audiences? Or would it distort and undermine the very nature of sporting endeavour and run contrary to the virtues that are the essence of sport? What have the debaters got right and where have they gone wrong?… Read More »Don’t forget to vote in the Drugs in Sport debate
Our debate could have been polarized, between a pure libertarianism
which advocates the lifting of all restrictions on performance-enhancing
drugs in all sports, and a pure prohibitionism (similar to the WADA's)
which rules out any use of such drugs in any sport. In fact, it has been
more nuanced. There has been a good deal of consensus, both
participants agreeing for example that the safety of athletes must not
be compromised. The question we end up facing really concerns the
direction of travel in which we think sport should be moving – that of
looking into permitting more drugs in more sports, or that of continuing
the war against drugs in sport by testing with greater vigour and by
encouraging sportspersonship especially among the young.
Read More »Drugs in sport debate: Moderator’s closing comment
by John William Devine
I have advanced two main lines of argument in favour of a ban on doping:
1. Doping may preclude the display of certain excellences that we value
in sport, 2. Even where doping does not preclude the display of
relevant excellences, it may disrupt the balance of excellences in a
sport.
Read More »Drugs in sport debate: Opposer’s closing statement
