In the middle of the wonderful, bright, flashy displays that I see while walking the streets of New York, I struggle. I want to find a place within myself to enjoy that which I see without forgetting the other part of my life, the one grounded in serving Christ in a faraway place where we don’t have enough of anything, much less the extra needed to decorate lavishly.
The Vatican released a striking bioethics document today that condemns not only embryonic stem cell research, human-animal hybrids, and human cloning, but also the commonplace practice of in vitro fertilization that many couples depend on to have children.
To protect the welfare of living donors, the Ministry of Health is proposing that these donors be compensated for direct costs incurred as a result of the donation, and indirect losses such as lost earnings and future expenses due to the donation.
How is death defined in other religions? Usually, the same way it has traditionally been defined in all cultures: by a lack of vital signs. Most world religions lack a clear doctrinal statement that certifies when, exactly, the moment of death can be said to have occurred.
The current financial crisis is also a moral and ethical crisis. Michael Smith says the current crisis is a result of separating capitalism from conscience.
The Economist has a fascinating essay on whether it makes sense to allow the sale of transplant organs. Would this increase the supply of donated organs? Would it save more lives? Or would it cause the exploitation of the very poor?
People tend to discuss safe subjects at work. (And perhaps in general.) This leads to a “false consensus bias” where individuals project their values onto
More than you intend.
Jesus said that we should give alms in private rather than when others are watching. A substantial body of current psychological research points against Jesus’ advice. One of the most significant factors determining whether people give to charity is their beliefs about what others are doing. Those who make it known that they give to charity increase the likelihood that others will do the same.
The problem is that “dignity” is a squishy, subjective notion, hardly up to the heavyweight moral demands assigned to it. In a 2003, editorial, “Dignity is a Useless Concept”, bioethicist Ruth Macklin argued that bioethics has done just fine with the principle of personal autonomy–the idea that, because all humans have the same minimum capacity to suffer, prosper, reason, and choose, no human has the right to impinge on the life, body, or freedom of another.