CategoryEthics
Assisted-Suicide Death Ceremonies Becoming Normalized
I certainly believe we should all remember that we are going to die as a means of focusing our faith or concentrating on how to live better lives
Edge of Sentience Summarizes Research on Animals’, AIs’ Feelings
And animal rights laws as well. But there is a dark side to Jonathan Birch’s approach too…Philosophy prof Jonathan Birch, principal investigator of the Animal Sentience Project at the London School of Economics, has written a book on whether and how animals feel things: The Edge of Sentience (Oxford University Press 2024). It’s not as arcane a topic as it might at first appear. It shows up in new legislation and think tanks. At Amazon, we learn, for example, “In 2021, he led a review for the UK government that shaped the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022. In 2022-23, he was part of a working group that investigated the question of sentience in AI.” And as Birch told Marc Bekoff at Psychology Today, I’m probably best-known for my work on invertebrate sentience, which is one part Read More ›
Basta! Italy’s Bioethics Committee Urges Blocking Puberty Blockers
It's becoming a trend and the United States may well follow suit
NYT Column: Factory Farms Are Good for People and the Planet
Journalist Michael Grunwald points out that factory farming means fewer natural spaces are cleared for farmland than would otherwise be the case
Questionable Study on Assisted Suicide and Suicide Correlation
Bioethicists find a way to make suicides "disappear" from a study
The Media Still Can’t Get Facts about Terri Schiavo Right
The Terri Schiavo case tipped this country’s morality. Before her death, people couldn’t believe we dehydrate cognitively disabled people to death. Afterward, a majority supported it
West Virginia: Constitutional Amendment Bans Assisted Suicide
I just wish my mentor on this issue, Rita Marker, had lived to see it
Rita Marker, the Great Anti-Assisted-Suicide Champion, Dead at 83
I am convinced that in her time, Rita was the most effective anti-assisted-suicide/euthanasia champion in the world
Canada’s Euthanasia Horrors Are Accelerating
Should ‘Experts’ Decide the Morality of Making ‘Humanized Animals’?
A major new article discusses implanting functional human brain tissue into animals, which could enhance their mental capacities
Cancel Culture Dissected by One of Its Victims
Researchers are beginning to study the sociology of Woke mobs demanding the firing or silencing of whoever vexes them — with some interesting results
Do Animals Really “Take Revenge”? Another Look…
Four animal behavior specialists offered some thoughts at Gizmodo
Bioethicists Push Psychedelics to Make Life ‘Interesting’
The dangers of taking such drugs aside, their proposal reflects the reductionism of our time
Silicon Valley’s Trendy Ethic: Effective Altruism
How effective is it really? Does the underlying utilitarianism leave out some important things?
Death by Nitrogen: Cruel or Death with Dignity?
We are told that suicide by nitrogen in the suicide pod is peaceful and dignified.
Canada’s Residential Schools: A Saga of Journalistic Wrongdoing
Even as the story is collapsing for lack of evidence, there is a move afoot to criminalize doubt about what happened (denialism).
Medical Journal Pushes Conjoining Euthanasia and Organ Harvesting
Conjoining organ harvesting with euthanasia is now deemed so respectable it is even boosted at the highest levels of the medical establishment
The ‘Suicide Capsule’ Claims Its First Victim
A photographer was present to record the death — meaning to create images for suicide proselytizing