Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryEthics

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Hallucinogenic mushrooms grow in a natural environment. Mushrooms containing psilocybin.

Bioethicists Push Psychedelics to Make Life ‘Interesting’

The dangers of taking such drugs aside, their proposal reflects the reductionism of our time
What many people are really craving isn’t “interesting” experiences but meaning. But sources of meaning like faith, family, community, country, have decayed. Read More ›
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Underwater empty swimming pool background with copy space

Silicon Valley’s Trendy Ethic: Effective Altruism

How effective is it really? Does the underlying utilitarianism leave out some important things?
Effective altruism is a kind of therapy, a type of self-help for the angst-ridden techno-elites trying to grapple with human suffering and limitations. Read More ›
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Representation of the nitrogen molecule with the n2 symbol. Generative AI

Death by Nitrogen: Cruel or Death with Dignity?

We are told that suicide by nitrogen in the suicide pod is peaceful and dignified.
Execution by nitrogen inhalation is another example of what I call cruel and unusual death with dignity. Read More ›
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Small orange flags places in grass in memory of the thousands of Indigenous children that died in Canada's residential school system. Wide view.

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).
Could it happen in the United States? Of course. It can happen anywhere where people are willing to ignore the demands of evidence in favor of private truth. Read More ›
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Human internal organs on metal plate ready for organ transplant.

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
Organ harvesting as the means of euthanasia has already been proposed in a major bioethics journal. Read More ›
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Top view of a caucasian hand with one blue MDMA, Amphetamine, Army Skull, Ecstasy, XTC pill.

The ‘Suicide Capsule’ Claims Its First Victim

A photographer was present to record the death — meaning to create images for suicide proselytizing
I would be surprised if anything came of it. Authorities rarely have the gumption to seriously punish suicide assistance unless in involves a teenager. Read More ›
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grandma crying moment during a wedding

In Canada? Don’t Say You Don’t Feel Well…

In his new book, Historian Richard Weikart discussed the rampant and rapid growth of euthanasia in the Western world
Weikart: The circle of people deemed eligible for euthanasia or assisted suicide keeps widening, because a culture of death will tend to spread… Read More ›
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A young woman holding the hand of an old woman in a hospital bed, black and white

Delaware Governor Vetoes Assisted Suicide Legalization

Both a Democrat and a Republican governor have vetoed the practice. Opposition to the practice is culturally and religiously diverse
The longer the euthanasia movement is held at bay, the more likely that America can avoid becoming a culture of death like that in Canada. Read More ›
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Human kidney and money. Buy and sell human organ, healthcare, medical expenses concept

Falun Gong Member Whose Organs Were Harvested Proves China’s Guilt

Prisoners like the Uyghurs or Falun Gong are valued for organ transplants on account of their clean living lifestyles, unlike common criminals
China has denied the accusation repeatedly, but multiple international studies and exposés have substantiated the brutality with strong circumstantial evidence. Read More ›
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Pediatrician checking throat of a girl

Who Speaks at Top Children’s Doctors’ Conference?

The keynote speaker at this year’s American Academy of Pediatrics meet are very far from where most parents might expect
Choosing Rachel Levine and Seema Yasmin as keynoters reveals how one-sidedly ideological the AAP has become on issues of great cultural importance. Read More ›
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sad lonely old woman look next to  window allone depressed abandoned coronavirus stay home

Bioethicist Peter Singer Devalues Human Life, Supports Euthanasia

One of the big problems with Singer’s philosophy is that he never provides any reason why rationality, self-consciousness, and the ability to plan the future have any value
In our debate I pressed Singer on this issue, asking why he chose those particular capacities, and I was stunned that he could not provide an answer. Read More ›
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Beauty injection concept. Syringe with violet liquid for hypodermic injection.

‘Nonmedical’ Assisted Suicide This Way Comes

Some assisted suicide advocates promote a model where no medical personnel need be involved
Germany’s highest court declared a fundamental right to commit or assist in a suicide for any reason, possibly excepting children. Read More ›
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surgical instruments in operation room.

The ‘Gender-Industrial Complex’ Makes Billions Annually

A new report produced recently by the American Principles Project sheds light on financial incentives
The report discusses long-term health risks and malpractice issues, demonstrating how the conjoining of big profits and radical ideology is a toxic mix. Read More ›
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Medical syringe with a needle at the end of the drop

Boosters of Assisted Suicide Want It To Be Much More Common

Activists want assisted suicide normalized well beyond the terminally ill so that we become euthanasia enthusiasts
Almost every state that legalized assisted suicide has already liberalized their laws. It’s NOT just a teensy change in medical ethics. Read More ›
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Intensive care emergency room with artificial lung ventilation monitor in the intensive care unit. Ventilation of the lungs with oxygen

Medical Journal Pushes Training for Doctors on How to Kill

Chillingly, most of the doctors who participated in a small study on assisted suicide, and who prescribe poison as part of their job, like it.
The push to increase assisted-suicide residency programs is designed to overcome most doctors' reluctance to kill their patients. Read More ›
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Female elderly professor giving a lecture

Blessed are the Peacemakers, for They Shall Be Called Bioethicists

War is too serious and consequential an issue for the raging dilettantism that the Hastings Center displays
I think the ultimate goal is to boost employment in the bioethics field. The more issues are deemed bioethical, the greater need for bioethics professors. Read More ›
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beautiful red tulip on the background of forget me nots

When Deep Forgetfulness Was a Death Sentence…

Memory care specialist Stephen Post reminds us of that dark but recent era, in conversation with Michael Egnor
The use of people with dementia in cruel experiments during the Nazi era illustrates the thesis of Richard Weikart’s new book, Unnatural Death. Read More ›
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Woman with an eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, in kitchen

At Least 60 People with Eating Disorders Euthanized or Assisted in Suicide since 2012

Most had other mental illnesses. How might those mental disorders have affected these poor people’s ability to “choose” to be killed or kill themselves?
Once the legalization train leaves the station, it is no longer containable or controllable. The category of “killables” never stops expanding. Read More ›
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Comatose male patient in hospital.

Heart attack doctor asks, is death now reversible?

If new findings in resuscitation techniques hold up, says Sam Parnia in his new book, brain conditions now deemed irreversible may be reversible

Resuscitation specialist Sam Parnia, reflects in his new book, Lucid Dying (Hachette, August 6, 2024), on the recent discovery that brains can be resuscitated hours after death. From the sample pages offered at the book’s Amazon site, we learn that in 2019, a writer at prominent science journal Nature sent Parnia a copy of the embargoed results of a study of pig brains from a slaughterhouse, kept alive for hours after death. “I was left totally stunned and speechless” he recounts: For at least a decade, I had tried to draw attention to the fact that our concept of life and death should be redefined. Death should no longer be viewed as a specific black-and-white moment. Instead, it should be Read More ›

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Euthanasia Medical Intervention

Canadian Death Doctor Has Euthanized Hundreds of Patients

Ellen Wiebe kills the sick, the disabled, the elderly, and unwanted fetuses
To her credit, reporter Sharon Kirkey at least provides a brief counterpoint to the pro-euthanasia narrative, something often entirely missing in many media. Read More ›