There has been quite a lot of discussion in the last few years generated by militant atheists like Richard Dawkins. I have not followed if closely. But, being a moral philosopher, I am certainly interested in one aspect of it: the relation of religion and morality. It is often said that morality is based on […]
One of the most insightful economists writing about the meltdown is Robert Shiller, of Yale. He is also one of the few economists who gets credit for predicting at least some of it. In a recent column in The New York Times he added some reflections about how the behavior of consumers and lenders led […]
Federal law currently says no, or appears to say no, and it provides for criminal penalties for a violation of the law. So well-meaning states like Pennsylvania that want to pay burial expenses for organ donors have a hard time convincing state employees and funeral homes to pay or receive the benefit. Sen. Arlen Specter […]
According to an article posted to the the N.Y. Times‘ website today, drug maker Wyeth has turned over to the Senate Finance Committee a mountain of material on its practice of paying ghostwriters to prepare favorable articles for publication in medical journals. Physicians were then recruited to put their names on the articles. In some […]
Today’s Times has an interesting piece on the Cleveland Clinic‘s new policy of publicly reporting the business relationships that any of its 1,800 staff doctors and scientists have with drug and device makers. The clinic, one of the nation???s most prominent medical research centers, is making a complete disclosure of doctors??? and researchers??? financial ties […]
KTLA.com is reporting on a new survey of high school students’ ethics by the Josephson Institute for Ethics (press release (PDF)). Here are some highlights from the Institute’s summary: STEALING. In bad news for business, more than one in three boys (35 percent) and one-fourth of the girls (26 percent) ??? a total of 30 […]
Should a 13-year-old have the right to decide whether to acept a potentially life-saving heart transplant? That’s the question posed by the British case of Hannah Jones. Her story is told well in this article in The Guardian and in the news video below:
The United Kingdom has just completed a review of its organ donation system. The British, like others, have a long waiting list of people who need organ transplants. It is estimated that 1000 people a year there die while waiting for an operation. (In the US the number is above 7000 per year.) The Guardian […]
The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics has started a five-part weekly series leading up to Inauguration Day to discuss various ethical issues that confront our 44th president: — Who will the Obama administration bring into federal service? What virtues will they be looking for and what ethical considerations will guide their selection? — What tools […]
We are living through the greatest economic crisis since World War II, if not the Great Depression. It will take regulators, political scientists, economists, and historians years to sort out all of the sources of the crisis, although we can hope that concrete steps will be taken soon to right the economy, and restructure the […]