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Evil Online and the Moral Fog
The following is based on a brief presentation at the launch of Evil Online, by Dean Cocking and Jeroen van den Hoven and published by Wiley-Blackwell, in Bendigo, Australia, on 20 September 2018. It was an honour and a pleasure to be invited to speak, and I thank Dean for the opportunity.
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The Ethics of Consciousness Hunting
By Mackenzie Graham Crosspost from Nautilus. Click here to read the full article When Adrian Owen, a neuroscientist at the University of Western Ontario, asked Scott Routley to imagine playing a game of tennis, any acknowledgement would have been surprising. After all, Routely had been completely unresponsive for the 12 years since his severe traumatic
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Ethics Goes on Holiday
By Stephen Rainey Summer time, and the living is ethically perplexing. Hordes of holidaymakers, the shimmering sea, busy beaches, and one sun over it all. How can the eager ethicist assess how to make the most of a fortnight away? We all know how we can generally make the most of things – but how
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Fetal Reduction in a Multiple Pregnancy: the Case of Identical Twins
Written by Elizabeth Crisp and Roger Crisp When a woman aborts a single fetus, that abortion can be a morally troubling experience for her. What about a situation in which a woman is pregnant with more than one fetus, perhaps identical twins, and wishes to abort just one of them – that is, engage in
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Victoria’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Law isn’t on a Slippery Slope
By David Copolov and Julian Savulescu This week the Australian Senate will debate a private members’ bill that will consider whether to overturn the 21-year-old Euthanasia Laws Act that nullified the ability of Australian self-governing territories to pass legislation in relation to euthanasia and assisted suicide. The deliberation on whether to continue the arbitrary over-riding of the
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Terrorist Beheadings and Other Forms of Disease Transmission
By Hazem Zohny Most of us are disturbed by people who take hostages and then cut their heads off while filming it. Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh – the remaining members of the British Isis cell nicknamed “the Beatles” – are accused of such gore. Now that they have been arrested by the US-backed
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UK Supreme Court Decision Means Patients No Longer Forced to Live
By Mackenzie Graham On July 30, The UK’s Supreme Court ruled that there is no requirement to obtain court approval before withdrawing clinically assisted nutrition and hydration (CANH), when there is agreement between physicians and the family that this is in the best interests of the patient. In the judgement, Lady Black writes: “If the
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The Dangers Of Deferring To Doctors
By Charles Foster (Image: tctmd.com) There is a dizzying circularity in much medical law. Judges make legal decisions based on the judgments of rightly directed clinicians, and rightly directed clinicians make their judgments based on what they think the judges expect of them. This is intellectually unfortunate. It can also be dangerous. There are two
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Should Gene Editing Be Compulsory?
Written by Julian Savulescu Hypothetical Case 1: Enzyme Replacement Therapy for Gaucher’s Disease Consider a hypothetical version of a real life disease, Gaucher’s Disease. Gaucher’s disease is an inherited disorder caused by a genetic mutation. The mutation means an enzyme– glucocerebrosidase — is not produced. A a result, glucerebrosides (fats) build up, damaging cells. This
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What’s Wrong With Simulation in Football?
Written by Doug McConnell The 2018 edition of the football world cup has brought with it a renewed bout of hand wringing over ‘simulation’, e.g. players falling, diving, and tumbling under imaginary fouls, rolling around in mock pain, or clasping their faces pretending to have been hit. Stuart James writes in the Guardian that “play-acting