Climate scientists behaving badly? (Part 1)
Global warming hawks claim the moral high-ground, claim to speak for what is right against grubby self-interest. It behooves those who take the high ground to behave well themselves. Do they? Data and email exchanges between climate…
Read MoreA Controversial Use of Taxpayer Funds
The health care reform bill currently being debated in the United States has re-ignited controversy there over abortion, and in particular over the availability of federal government funding to pay for the procedure. Earlier this month, the…
Read MoreBelgian coma confusion
By now most readers will have heard about the case of the Belgian man, Rom Houben, apparently misdiagnosed as in a persistent vegetative state for 23 years. Rather than being unconscious, as persistent vegetative state patients are thought …
Read MoreHappiness and the Dragon King
By: David EdmondsAs so often, I’m with King Wangchuck. The former King of Bhutan, the fourth ‘Dragon King’, coined the term, Gross National Happiness (GNH). Governments, he thought, should aim to boost the nation’s well…
Read MoreIs your fingerprint part of you?
In a report expressing concern about the increasing use of biometric information to protect security and privacy, the Irish Council for Bioethics (ICB) claimed earlier this month that “an individual’s biometric information is an intrinsic e…
Read MoreAre some ethicists really really ethical?
In this blog recently Simon Rippon discussed the empirical evidence collected by Eric Schwitzgebel that suggests that perhaps ethicists are no more ethical in their behaviour than non-ethicists. A survey of academics in the US reveals that …
Read MoreShould Psychiatrists Pray with Their Patients?
In a recent interview in the Psychiatric Times (Podcast here: http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/1483619?verify=0) psychiatrist and ethicist Dr. Cynthia Geppert discusses the interesting issue of whether or not it is ethi…
Read MoreIs Religion Good or Bad for Society?
Is Religion Good or Bad for Society? As part of their promotional tour for the book "Is Christianity Good for the World?”, English-American journalist/prominent atheist Christopher Hitchens, together with American evangelical theologia…
Read MoreShould parents decide? The case of RB
In the Family Court yesterday, a controversial case that has been widely reported in the media came to a premature close. The father of baby RB, a severely physically disabled 13 month-old infant, withdrew his opposition to the plan by RB’s…
Read MoreScience, drugs, policy and Hume
In this blog last week Anders Sandberg discussed the widely criticised sacking of Professor David Nutt from the government’s advisory council on the misuse of drugs. Professor Nutt had openly criticised government policy, in particular the …
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