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:
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Organ Donation in the UK
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 […]
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Causes of the Meltdown
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 […]
As reported by the Dallas Morning News, the DISD board is voting this afternoon on its new ethics policy. The key issue that divides the trustees is how to deal with the situation of a vendor with family or business ties to a board member: Require disclosure and recusal? Or disqualify the vendor from having […]
Yesterday, I wrote that the Senate should expel Sen. Ted Stevens if he didn’t do the honorable thing and resign, at least if his appeal is unsuccessful. Today, Sen. McCain indicated he wasn’t particularly interested in the outcome of any appeal: “It is clear that Senator Stevens has broken his trust with the people and […]
After two somewhat downer-posts about ethics in goverment, it’s a pleasure to write something reasonably upbeat for a change. How’s this for a lead (from the BayouBuzz.com): Today, the Better Government Association (BGA) released its second edition of the BGA-Alper Integrity Index, announcing that Louisiana???s overall ranking improved from 46th in 2002 to fifth in […]
Senator Ted Stevens’ conviction today on seven counts of filing false financial reports with the U.S. Senate raises an interesting question. According to The New York Times report, this throws the senator’s re-election bid into some doubt. On the other hand, should the voters of Alaska decide the 84-year-old Stevens deserves an eighth term, there […]
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Physicians and placebos
As reported in The New York Times last week, a recent study published on-line by the medical journal BMJ, says that half of American internists and rheumatologists prescribe placebos on a regular basis. Although the BMJ article did not get into the ethical issues, the Times article did: One of the authors, Franklin G. Miller, […]
Stephen Branchflower Report to the Legislative Council (Vol. I, p. 8): For the reasons explained in Section IV of this Report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.11(a) provides: “The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office […]