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If you’re an egalitarian, how come you’re a speciesist?
According to Oxfam’s latest report, by 2016 the richest 1% will own more than all the rest of people in the world. For many, the current and increasing inequality among individuals is deeply worrying. For many of us this is because we believe that equality matters. That is, we hold the view that how desirable a
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Facebook’s new Terms of Service: Choosing between your privacy and your relationships
Facebook has changed its privacy settings this January. For Europeans, the changes have come into effect on January 30, 2015. Apart from collecting data from your contacts, the information you provide, and from everything you see and do in Facebook, the new data policy enables the Facebook app to use your GPS, Bluetooth, and WiFi
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Video: Julian Savulescu on the Ethics of Mitochondrial Transfer
Julian Savulescu discusses the ethics of mitochondrial transfer
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Mitochondrial disease kills 150 children a year. A micro-transplant can cure it
Imagine that there was a law which prevented 150 children a year suffering from a life threatening liver or kidney failure from receiving a transplant. This would be unethical. But this is precisely the current state of affairs for around 150 children every year in the UK suffering from mitochondrial disease, or mitochondrial failure. From
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Cancer – The Best Way to Die?
A blog post late last month by Richard Smith, former editor of the BMJ, has provoked a storm of criticism and controversy. Provocatively entitled, “Dying of Cancer is the Best Death”, the author argues that a death from cancer is preferable and closes, controversially, with: “…let’s stop wasting billions trying to cure cancer, potentially leaving
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New Book: The Ethics of Embryonic Stem Cell Research
There is wide agreement that embryonic stem cell research holds unique promise for developing therapies for currently incurable diseases and conditions, and for important biomedical research. However, as it is currently done, the isolation of embryonic stem cells involves a process in which an early embryo is destroyed, which many find highly problematic. This has
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Conventional and non-conventional medicine and the Placebo Paradox
Alternative medicine is a trendy topic to discuss – both by despising and praising it in a contradictory manner. But there is something controversial in the categorical critique towards it. The controversies and fallacies in the categorical praise are much elaborated and I will mostly leave aside that part.
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Plausibility and Same-Sex Marriage
In philosophical discussions, we bring up the notion of plausibility a lot. “That’s implausible” is a common form of objection, while the converse “That’s plausible” is a common way of offering a sort of cautious sympathy with an argument or claim. But what exactly do we mean when we claim something is plausible or implausible,
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Bentham and butterflies
Rampisham Down, in West Dorset, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. But it soon won’t be. In a decision of dazzling stupidity, the local planning committee has said that it can be covered with over 100,000 solar panels. It accepted that renewable energy was a Good Thing and, in effect, that the loss of
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Review: Beyond The Abortion Wars, by Charles C. Camosy
@JimACEverett www.jimaceverett.com I was recently lucky enough to receive an advance copy of Charles Camosy’s forthcoming book to review – ‘Beyond the abortion wars: a way forward for a new generation’. In this book, Camosy masterfully traverses the ‘battleground’ between the ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-choice’1 camps in order to show that this battleground is in