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…

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…

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 …

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…

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…

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…

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 …

As Paul Ewart points out in an interesting recent Guardian article ‘Why God Needs Chance’ — http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/nov/03/god-chance-philosophy-atheism — chance events which result in certain individ…

The Swiss government (the Federal Council) has recently announced its intention to crack down on “suicide tourism” and to severely restrict the activities of suicide clinics like Dignitas and Exit, which have regularly made the headli…

The sacking of Professor David Nutt from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has led to a spirited row between politicians and scientists. Colleagues in ACMD are resigning, refusing to be used as mere rubber stamps for pre-determine…