John Harris is an influential UK bioethicist whose hard core utilitarianism makes his ideas dangerous and potentially as tyrannical as those of Peter Singer—perhaps more. I first became aware of Harris when researching Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America, when I read an . . . . Continue Reading »
In Marshall McLuhan’s vast television wasteland that is getting vaster and more wasted with each passing year, there are a few shining examples of true excellence. Perhaps the best show on television today—and one of the best ever—is Battlestar Gallactica, a program that like the . . . . Continue Reading »
I’ve gotten some early responses to my attempt to describe words that sound true of themselves , and I thought I’d pass them along. A linguistics professor at Swarthmore points out that Russian linguists have a term for these words, obrazopodrazhatel’no , which means, literally, . . . . Continue Reading »
I was stunned. I have been teaching college freshmen for about thirty years in big state institutions, elite conservatories, smallish private universities, and Christian colleges, and I’d never seen anything like it. Like many of us reading these pages, I was in the middle of that spring . . . . Continue Reading »
“What about the higher law, the law of love ?” So pleads the lesbian presidential speechwriter in David Mamet’s latest Broadway comedy, November . The waddling, squawking, lame-duck president is at his wits end. Clarice won’t give him the speech transcript that offers him a . . . . Continue Reading »
Advocates for an “anything goes” scientific sector often claim that attempts to place reasonable ethical parameters around biotechnology—say by outlawing all human cloning as has been urged by the UN General Assembly—is a war on science or the imposition of religion. That . . . . Continue Reading »
The Swiss ethics panel gives an example of violating “animal dignity.”A global warming scientist’s prayer the night before his big . . . . Continue Reading »
A radio interview I gave back in 2004 about euphemisms, confusion, and animal rights on the splendid, but now lamentably defunct radio program Issues Etc., was just posted on-line over at Wittenberg Media blog.I get a bit excited about some scientists not knowing what they are talking about when it . . . . Continue Reading »
Geron Corporation has released a series of press releases over several years stating that “next year” it would start the first human trials using ES cells. Apparently, that won’t be happening yet. From the story: The F.D.A. convened a meeting April 10 of expert advisers who . . . . Continue Reading »
Ah, the days when “choice” seemed to be the end all and be all of bioethics. You say you want your profoundly disabled spouse’s feeding tube pulled so he dies slowly by dehydration? Choice! You say you want assisted suicide? Choice! You say you want your life extended with . . . . Continue Reading »
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