Ethics news:
13 April 2005
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Marching towards the gas chamber and the Model T
Material progression has often been accompanied by moral regression. Can history be turned into the story of progress? The ambition that it should yield that insight has its own kind of history. For at key moments, circumstances coincide to open up the idea of a chosen future. And the quality of the choices decides whether that future is an implosion or an advance. A general election is a collective choice about national values. At the same time, beneath today's fluttering flags in Windsor, British royalism looks enfeebled by Clarence House's poor choices; while in Rome, cardinals will decide whether a universal church should welcome, or contradict, modernity ...
The Guardian - 9 April 2005
Ducking lfe-and-death decisions
In supporting living wills, are doctors offloading responsibility for guiding patients and their families through tough choices? Following the sad death of Terri Schiavo on 31 March, many commentators pointed out that if only Terri had let her family know what she wanted, things would have been so much easier. In the Guardian, Helen Pidd wrote: 'There is a way to avoid the sort of dilemma highlighted by the Terri Schiavo case...make your own wishes clear in a "living will".' Many doctors are also keen on the idea of living wills, or advance directives. This is perhaps because living wills take some of the responsibility for difficult decisions out of medical hands ...
Spiked-Online - 7 April 2005
Why we should give up on race
As geneticists and biologists know, the term no longer has meaning. Identity is fluid. One of us used to describe herself as "English" (erasing her Gypsy grandparent), the other as "British Jew" (or did he say Jewish?), but our shared whiteness was then always unspoken. Today complex identifiers such as "black English" or "Brummie Punjabi British" or "British Sikh" speak both of a new ease and pleasure in difference, and of a political demand that racism become history. The confidence of the voices claiming these new multiple identities tells us change - not without fierce opposition - is happening ...
The Guardian - 9 April 2005
While dirty money flows, the poor stay poor
In recent weeks, high-profile advocates have appealed for more foreign aid for the developing world. The Commission for Africa established by Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain recommends, in part, an additional $25 billion in aid per year by 2010. The United Nations Millennium Project's recent report, "Investing in Development," calls for more than doubling foreign aid from rich to poor countries over the next 10 years. These are certainly worthy goals, but what about the billions of dollars that stream illegally the other way, from poor countries to rich? ...
The International Herald Tribune - 13 April 2005
After John Paul II
Catholicism-lite has become a refuge for Western leaders bereft of moral and spiritual authority. The universal acclamation of Pope John Paul II appears to confirm the rise of the Catholic church to a major role in the new world order that has emerged following the collapse of the Soviet Union. But the succession crisis that now faces the church is likely to expose the disintegrative forces within Catholicism that have barely been contained by the charismatic pontiff. I happened to be in New York when the Pope's death was announced. I was amazed to find that, within hours, several thousand people thronged to St Patrick's cathedral in Manhattan ...
Spiked-Online - 8 April 2005
Time to speak ill of a dead leader who let millions live in anguish
Pope John Paul II is remembered as being compassionate, but in many ways he was anything but, writes Emily Maguire. About 5 million people flocked to Rome last weekend to farewell Pope John Paul II. That's the same number of people newly infected with HIV in 2003. That's 10 million people - at least - whose lives have been touched by the man who was Pope. Speaking ill of the dead is not the done thing, which is why all we've heard about the Pope over the past week is that he was an inspirational and compassionate leader who played a significant role in the defeat of communism in Poland. This may be true, but for many his legacy is one of great suffering ...
The Sydney Morning Herald - 13 April 2005
Did the Pope spread AIDS in Africa?
The evidence is less than compelling. What do you know about Pope John Paul II? He was a Catholic. He travelled a lot. He's now dead. And he apparently did more to spread AIDS around Africa than 'prostitution and the trucking industry combined'. That last claim has won the status of established fact among critics of the Vatican since the Pope died, tripping off the tongues of various left-leaning commentators and radicals who claim that the Vatican's condemnation of condom-use in turn condemned many in Africa - where over 100 million are Catholic - to long and painful deaths ...
Spiked-Online - 8 April 2005
Snapping the dead Pope on a camera phone
hey have come to pay their final respects, so is taking a mobile phone picture of the Pope's body disrespectful or just a sign of how times changed during his 26-year papacy? To some it is distasteful, inappropriate and plain disrespectful. To others it is recording an historic moment to share with those who cannot be there. With mobile phones as advanced as they are, many people are routinely carrying cameras around with them in their pockets ...
BBC News - 7 April 2005
Turning back the clock for Aborigines
Proposed changes to the Land Rights Act attack the basis of Aboriginal culture, writes Galarrwuy Yunupingu. In the early 1960s, as a young man, I saw bulldozers rip through our Gumatj country in north-east Arnhem Land to mine bauxite at Gove. I watched my father try to stop them clearing sacred trees and saw him chase away drivers with an axe. I watched him cry when our sacred waterhole was bulldozed. It was one of our Dreamings and a source of water. The great struggles of that time, including the bark petitions, Wave Hill walk-off, and the 1971 Gove land rights case, led to the Commonwealth's 1976 Land Rights Act ...
The Sydney Morning Herald - 11 April 2005
Is it ethical to visit 'outposts of tyranny'?
Zimbabwe's wildlife industry struggles as many tourists steer clear of the Mugabe regime. Not long ago, travelers longing for adventure and wildlife in Africa had an obvious destination: Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. This small city on the Zambezi river not only boasted the mile-wide falls - its own "wonder of the world" - but game parks full of elephants, safari guides aplenty, and hotels catering to everyone from backpacking bungee-jumpers to would-be colonialists. It was a regional tourism center. That was before Zimbabwe's collapse ...
Christian Science Monitor - 7 April 2005
Robert Mugabe: the teflon tyrant
It seems only his death will spare Zimbabwe from its despotic leader. Robert Mugabe barged through a loophole in a European Union travel ban to fly to the Pope's funeral in Rome. The Idi Amin of his day, there is almost no rule, no protocol, no code of decency the Zimbabwe strongman hasn't flouted. Just as he is gatecrashing St Peter's Basilica, there are also suspicions he may turn up unannounced at a summit of Asian and African leaders in Indonesia later this month. Indeed, such is the in-your-face arrogance of the ageing tyrant, there is half a chance he will be pressing for an invitation to next year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne ...
The Age - 9 April 2005
A point of view: privacy
In his weekly opinion column, Brian Walden considers privacy and who is to blame for the lack of it in modern life. My father used to say that though most of the people we knew loved gossip and spent hours discussing it, the fact was that none of us knew much about each other. When one of life's disasters occurred astonishing revelations emerged. At Mr Jones's funeral it turned out that Mrs Jones wasn't his wife - the real one was sitting alone in a pew at the back of the church. Long lost sons were ten a penny and popped up frequently, usually at Christmas. Fifty or 60 years ago nobody seemed to resent not knowing all their neighbour's secrets ...
BBC News - 4 April 2005
Demonising youth of today tonight
Young Australians don't watch TV current affairs. It's easy to see why. Channel Seven's Today Tonight recently invited 10 kids to trash a house in the name of "news-tainment". Described as a "unique experiment", the young people, aged between 10 and 15 were allowed to live without parents for a week "to teach them a lesson" about respect and responsibility. Everything they did was recorded by hidden cameras and the most controversial parts packaged for broadcast each night. The result was commercial prime-time current affairs television at its worst: a potent mix of voyeurism and exploitation that was light on news value but committed to presenting the most negative stereotypes of young people possible ...
The Age - 13 April 2005
TV violence: the good and bad for our children
Values, not viewing habits, are the key to moulding behaviour. Here we go again with a simple-minded answer to a complex social question. For every hour a four-year-old spends in front of television, we are told, regardless of what they view, the odds of his becoming a bully increase by 9 per cent. (The Age, 6/4). That has to mean every four-year-old is a bully shortly after his fourth birthday. The single question that has occupied researchers in relation to children and the media since the introduction of television is: what is the impact of media, particularly media violence on children? Despite the many millions of dollars spent on research, the findings are spurious ...
The Age - 11 April 2005
Life lesson in virtual adultery
If you walked into a room and found your partner in a passionate clinch with someone else you'd probably have good cause to worry. But would you worry if those doing the kissing were characters in a game being controlled by your partner and someone else? For some players of Second Life, a massive multi-player online role-playing game, such virtual infidelity is a step too far. So to keep an eye on their loved ones, some spouses are paying real money to in-game detectives, to snoop on the character or avatar used by their real world partner ...
BBC News - 11 April 2005
The Christian Right's fundamental problem
If you believe in Armageddon, you don't need to save the planet. That's a concern if you also influence the White House and US foreign policy. Let's move on from last Sunday's rhetorical question: Does it matter to us that there are 70 million Bible-believing, born-again Christians in the US who believe the second coming of Jesus is imminent? There are two consequences of having so many Christian fundamentalists near the levers of power in imperial America. First, it is a precondition of the return of Jesus that all Jews return to Israel and that the territory of that country should coincide with that promised to Abraham by God ...
The Age - 10 April 2005
Global warming won't save nuclear power
The case for nuclear power won't be won by those hiding behind doomsday fears. Unlike the burning of fossil fuels, nuclear power does not emit carbon dioxide. Fears about global warming have raised interest in nuclear power, with the government's chief scientific adviser Sir David King recently giving support to an expansion of nuclear on the basis that it is 'carbon-free'. He called for more investment in nuclear fusion research, and said that a new generation of existing fission technologies should be an 'option' ...
Spiked-Online - 7 April 2005
A most dangerous message
Contradictory US and British nuclear proliferation policies will lead other states to conclude that nuclear weapons earn respect and deter attack. A few days before the general election, an international conference will confront one of the most pressing issues facing the planet. Its outcome will help determine the future security of states around the world, including Britain. It is a safe bet it won't get a mention during the UK election campaign. The issue is nuclear weapons ...
The Guardian - 13 April 2005
Better off because of the war
After a nine-week stalemate, Iraq's first elected president was finally appointed last week. Jalal Talabani is also Iraq's first non-Arab president and a Sunni in a country in which the majority of the population is Arab and Shia. The belated formation of a democratic government represents a historic turning point in the Middle East. To be sure, the violence and insurgency continues in Iraq, but it is less intensive than previously and of a different nature. It is driven by a destructive ideology and financially and ideologically fed from outside Iraq by the isolated and extremist movement that produced al-Qa'ida and related groups ...
The Australian - 11 April 2005
The truth about torture
The government has said it is "vehemently opposed to torture as a matter of fundamental principle" following claims by a group of MPs that Britain may be using intelligence from tortured prisoners abroad to fight the terrorist threat at home. In the past though, torture has been a common tactic for interrogation, and its former practitioners say it was one of the most effective. The Beatles music may not be an obvious tool of torture, but combine loop playing of Yellow Submarine with holding an individual under water, and it tests the endurance of most people ...
BBC News - 5 April 2005
Remembering James, a son and a brother
he death of a loved one at the hands of a callous and cowardly driver cries out for justice. Thankfully, for most of us, arguments about how effective our justice system is and whether criminal sentences are too lenient are academic. Not so for our family. Since the death of my son James, in a hit-and-run accident in July 2002, we have had to confront such issues in a very real and personal way. The unexpected death of a loved one at the hands of a callous and cowardly driver who not only left our dying son by the side of the road, but who conspired with his parents for 2 years to hide his crime cries out for justice ...
The Age - 12 April 2005
If placebos work, should doctors use them?
Most people think of placebos as harmless "sugar pills" given in clinic trials to some participants so that medical researchers can gauge the effects of the real drug on others. But in some trials, the "placebo effect" proves to be as strong as that of the drug. Consistently 30 percent or more of the subjects given placebos will show some improvement by taking the dummy pills. So over the decades a small band of researchers has taken a hard look at those pills. Are they really effective? Should they play a role in medical therapy? ...
Christian Science Monitor - 7 April 2005