-
“Treating” homosexuality in minors: Protected free speech or child abuse?
By Brian D. Earp See Brian’s most recent previous post by clicking here. See all of Brian’s previous posts by clicking here. Follow Brian on Twitter by clicking here. “Treating” homosexuality in minors: Protected free speech or child abuse? Should mental health providers be allowed to try to “cure” minors of their homosexuality?
-
Brian Earp on Anti-Love Drugs
In the final Uehiro Seminar of 2012, Brian Earp provides an absorbing analysis of the science and ethics of anti-love biotechnology. You can listen to the seminar here. While some personal distress as a result of love may be an important means of self-development, certain forms of love may be particularly perilous. Examples given by Earp…
-
Janet Radcliffe Richards on the past, present and future of sex: Part 3
On Wednesday last week, Professor Janet Radcliffe Richards gave the last of her three Uehiro lectures on ‘Sex in a Shifting Landscape’. (Here you can find recordings of all three lectures: 1st audio, 1st video, 2nd audio, 2nd video, 3rd audio, 3rd video.) She emphasised the goal she pursued with these lectures, namely, to demonstrate…
-
Terminator studies and the silliness heuristic
The headlines are invariably illustrated with red-eyed robot heads: “I, Revolution: Scientists To Study Possibility Of Robot Apocalypse“. “Scientists investigate chances of robots taking over“. “‘Terminator’ risk to be investigated by scientists“. “Killer robots? Cambridge brains to assess AI risk“. “‘Terminator centre’ to open at Cambridge University: New faculty to study threat to humans from…
-
Call for Applications: Academic Visitor Programme for Trinity Term 2013 (Start Date: 21 April)
The Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics hosts scholars and students wishing to engage in research in practical and applied ethics as academic visitors. Applications are invited three times a year and are to be submitted at least one term in advance of the proposed dates of the visit. Applications are open for one month…
-
The Liverpool Care Pathway in the News: Even by the Mail’s Standards, this is Low
(Cross-posted from the Journal of Medical Ethics blog) The Liverpool Care Pathway provides a rubric for managing the care terminally ill as they approach death. A helpful pamphlet explaining what it is and what it does is available here. Ideally, I’d quote the lot; but for the sake of efficiency, I’ll make do with an…
-
Tony Coady on Religion in the Political Sphere: Part 2, Deliberative Restraint
In his second Leverhulme Lecture on November 22nd, Professor Tony Coady focused on the issues underlying the common assertion that we ought to exclude religious arguments from deliberations in the political sphere of liberal democratic societies. Coady traces this idea to arguments by Audi and Rawls on ‘secular reasons’ and ‘public reasons’ respectively, which suggest…
-
The best ethical ideas of the year?
Foreign Policy magazine recently released its annual list of the top 100 global thinkers of the year. The members included a wide range of activists, scientists, politicians, academics and businesspeople, but what most interested me was a sidebar feature. The feature consists of a half-dozen questions that were posed to each person on the list,…
-
Don’t tax the fat!
by Rebecca Roache Dr Philip Lee, Conservative MP for Bracknell and a practising GP, today suggested that people whose lifestyle choices lead to medical problems should have to contribute towards their healthcare costs. He apparently highlighted type 2 diabetes – which can be brought on by an unhealthy diet, being overweight, and lack of exercise, although…