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Back to the Future: The Ethics of Cloning Neanderthals and Creating Genetically Modified Animals
“George Church, a genetics professor of Harvard School of Medicine, said that the process was possible and that far from being brutal and primitive, Neanderthals were intelligent beings. They are believed to be one of the ancestors of modern man and became extinct 33,000 years ago. He added that altering the human genome could also…
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Pedophilia, Preemptive Imprisonment, and the Ethics of Predisposition
The first two weeks of 2013 were marked by a flurry of news articles considering “the new science” of pedophilia. Alan Zarembo’s article for the Los Angeles Times focused on the increasing consensus among researchers that pedophilia is a biological predisposition similar to heterosexuality or homosexuality. Rachel Aviv’s piece for The New Yorker shed light…
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Think deep thoughts in the snow
“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think” ― Socrates But sometimes – stuck in a rut, going over the same things in the same environment, again and again – it can be so hard to think. To really, genuinely think, to explore new horizons and find new ideas and wisdoms –…
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Enlightened surveillance?
New York City contemplates using aerial drones for surveillance purposes, while North Korea buys thousands of cameras to spy on its impoverished population. Britain has so many cameras they cease being newsworthy. The stories multiply – it is trivial to note we are moving towards a surveillance society. In an earlier post, I suggested surrendering on surveillance might be…
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Amnesia and remorse: how much should we expect?
When people do bad things – especially when they cause a lot of harm to others – we usually hope that they will experience something like remorse: that they will feel horror at the thought of what they did to the person harmed, that they will resolve to avoid causing similar harm in the future,…
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Invoking and banishing the dread demon “Lead”
Some researchers have fingered a surprising culprit for the crime wave that ended in the 1990s: lead, mainly from leaded fuel. We know that lead leads to development difficulties in children, and in country after country, lead emissions closely mirror the crime rate 23 years later – after those children have grown up into mature, irresponsible…
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More theory needed: why things work
We have a lot of good theories as to why government policies don’t work. Regulatory capture explains why regulating agencies cosy up to the industries they’re suppose to reign in. Politicians’ relentless focus on short term economic growth and desperate chasing of positive headlines causes them to embrace ill-advised short-term measures (and forget about action…
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Armstrong Confesses: What Now?
On the eve of his confession, Armstrong is apparently ruined. The International Cycling Union (UCI) has stripped Lance Armstrong of his titles. Sponsors and Tour organisers want millions of dollars returned. UCI president Pat McQuaid said, “Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling. He deserves to be forgotten.” But doping will always be present in…
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Abortion and the cognitively impaired mother
It will be interesting to watch the reception of a recent Court of Protection case, as yet unreported, in which a woman with profound learning difficulties was found to have capacity to decide not to terminate her pregnancy. As so often, the case decided nothing new. But it is a timely reminder of the trite…
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An appetite for food addiction?
Natalia Lee and Adrian Carter, from the Neuroethics group at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, Australia and Members of the International Neuroethics Society Follow NeuroethicsUQ on Twitter by clicking here Many of us enjoy foods that are high in sugar, fat, salt, or a combination of the three; take savoury biscuits…