Liberalism and inequality
by Joao Fabiano Why inequality matters Philosophers who argue that we should care about inequality often have some variation of a prioritarian view. For them, well-being matters more for those who are worse off, and we should prioritise imp…
Read MoreWhy It’s OK to Block Ads
Over the past couple of months, the practice of ad blocking has received heightened ethical scrutiny. (1,2,3,4) If you’re unfamiliar with the term, “ad blocking” refers to software—usually web browser plug-ins, but increasingly mobile apps—…
Read MoreGuest Post: Is it Time for Ethics Experts in Lack of Consent Cases?
Written by Daniel Sokol barrister and medical ethicist at 12 King’s Bench Walk, Temple, London This article was first published in the Personal Injury Brief Update Law Journal on 12th October 2015 (http://www.pibriefupdate.com) Following t…
Read MoreIf I were you then I wouldn’t say that: The perils of giving and taking advice
Written by Andreas Kappes The school year just started, but surprisingly, the half-term break is already lurking around the corner, when children have a week off. For a lot of parents this implies seeing their own parents, having them take …
Read MoreSartre vs The Selfie: An Existentialist Critique of Selfie- Taking
Selfie-sticks are notoriously ubiquitous in modern society, and the art of ‘selfie-taking’ may well be something that future analysts identify as being one of the defining sociological trends of this period of history. In this post, I will …
Read MoreWhat’s the moral difference between ad blocking and piracy?
On 16 September Marco Arment, developer of Tumblr, Instapaper and Overcast, released a new iPhone and iPad app called Peace. It quickly shot to the top of the paid app charts, but Arment began to have moral qualms about the app, and its une…
Read MoreGuest Post: Should the army abandon their zero-tolerance policy on substance use?
Written by Anke Snoek Macquarie University In the UK around 500 soldiers each year get fired because they fail drug-testing. The substances they use are mainly recreational drugs like cannabis, XTC, and cocaine. Some call this a waste of re…
Read MoreWhy are unethical neonatal trials still taking place in developing countries?
By Dominic Wilkinson, @Neonatalethics Earlier this year, the Lancet published a trial (the ‘ACT’ trial) involving 100,000 babies at risk of being born prematurely in developing countries. Half of the mothers in the ACT trial did not receive…
Read MoreGene editing and eugenics
A study published last week in the journal Cell has led to speculation that a powerful new gene editing technique is about to be developed. Gene editing has received widespread media coverage over the past few months. Most of the excitement…
Read MoreDon’t write evil algorithms
Google is said to have dropped the famous “Don’t be evil” slogan. Actually, it is the holding company Alphabet that merely wants employees to “do the right thing”. Regardless of what one thinks about the actual behaviour and ethics of Googl…
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