Following the September 11 attacks and subsequent Anthrax attacks, the US began introducing new biosecurity regulations as a counter to bioterrorism. The centrepiece of the new regulatory framework has been a list of 'select agents'…

Imagine a naked, beautiful person of your preferred gender. Now imagine that they sensously fondle a sausage. They gently caress it, they lick it, they eventually insert it somewhere… While no doubt some of my readers have been turned…

Practicalethicsnews is now 2 1/2 years old, and continues to grow. We are keen to improve this blog further, and are going to make a few changes in coming weeks. One change that we are trialling is an alteration to our comments policy. We a…

The Telegraphs proclaims that Anti-ageing drugs 'will fuel euthanasia'. The origin of the story was a lecture by Dr David Gems at UCL. He pointed out that if people were to live much longer healthy lives more would choose to end the…

We encourage readers of our blog, including those who do not have a background in philosophy or ethics, to respond to posts and to engage in debate with our authors, and with each other. Comments should be polite, concise and relevant to th…

Ilina Singh and colleagues argue that the use of drugs such as Ritalin among young people is becoming so common that family doctors should be able to prescribe them as study aids to school pupils aged under 18.(1) While the Guardian article…

Politics is the art of compromise, but rarely has compromise been so necessary a political virtue in Britain as it is today. Very soon we’ll know who’s done a deal with whom. The Liberal Democrats are the king-makers: ultimately they’ll dec…

by Dominic Wilkinson and Julian Savulescu There are 8000 patients on transplant waiting lists in the UK. Every year 400 patients die while waiting for an organ to come available. We are all far more likely to be in need of an organ transpla…

There is a shrill, unpleasant new sound in the UK church. It is the sound of conservative Christians saying that they are persecuted. It’s the voice of a minority. And as Rowan Williams trenchantly observed: ‘The Church of England is like a…

Tomorrow will see the closest election in the UK for many years and there is considerable debate about whether tactical voting is acceptable (see here, here, here). This is a particularly big issue this election as the Liberal Democrats (th…