Readers, Due to a combination of the holidays and time-sensitive professional work, I will not be able to update the blog this week. Look for new posts on Monday, Jan. 2. Best, Michael.
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A blog exploring morality, politics, and religion.
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In response to proposed personhood ballot measures in states like Mississippi and Nevada — and the religious right’s broader battle against reproductive rights — Jim Fetzer has written a letter to the Wisconsin State Journal clarifying the very important difference between “human life” and “personhood”: Those who believe human life begins at conception are correct about their biology, but wrong about morality. Personhood requires recognition through legislation and enforcement. Life and personhood are not the same. If pregnancy entailed personhood, every pregnant woman qualifies not as one but as two persons. We would need morality police to maintain vigilant coverage of sexually active women to make sure that, should they become pregnant, the rights of those persons are upheld. An entity that cannot sustain…
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Tagged: abortion, ethics, life, morality, personhood, reproductive rights
Many people think that women who have second-trimester abortions are “willfully irresponsible,” but most women in such a position face social challenges that make it tougher to secure an earlier abortion, according to a new study from the Guttmacher Institute. The study revealed that women who receive second-trimester abortions are more likely to be teenagers and minorities; to not have a high school degree or health insurance; and to have experienced a “disruptive event” in the past year. As Susan Schewel, executive director of the Women’s Medical Fund, told Salon.com: “The women who call our help line are instead women who often are trying to be responsible, but their lives are so difficult. They have so many balls in the air, and more pressing…
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A district judge ruled earlier this week that a fetal personhood ballot measure in Nevada — similar to the one that failed in Mississippi — provides “inadequate” information on its potential effects on access to birth control, in-vitro fertilization, treatment for ectopic pregnancies, and stem cell research. Nevada District Judge James E. Wilson ordered sponsors of the measure to add the following language before attempting to collect the 72,352 signatures needed to get on next year’s ballot: The initiative would protect a prenatal person regardless of whether or not the prenatal person would live, grow, or develop in the womb or survive birth; prevent all abortions even in the case of rape, incest, or serious threats to the woman’s health or life, or when a…
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Tagged: abortion, ethics, judge, law, morality, nevada, personhood, Politics, reproductive rights, women
Many people believe that obesity is caused by a lack of moral fiber. That is, those who are overweight are in their situation because they lack the willpower necessary to keep in shape. If only they had a stronger backbone, they’d be fit. But this is simply not the case, says Zoe Williams in the Guardian. There is a widespread underestimation, or blank refusal to admit, how much cheaper cheap food really is. It became a mantra of the mainstream, as obesity started to define the pathology of this century, that the problem was not poverty, it was education. This was based on two facts. The first was that everybody, except affluent women, was getting fatter. So it couldn’t be related to poverty, since…
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China is instituting moral instruction for its civil servants, and has categorized the training sessions as “highly important,” according to the Chinese newspaper the People’s Daily. The training is divided into three broad sections: basic knowledge, case studies, and four duties (loyalty to the country, a readiness to serve the people, a sense of obligation, and persistence in fairness and honesty). The goal? … it is hoped the spirit of impartial and fair decision-making can be instilled in government work and prevent corrupt actions from occurring in the first place. Sounds … completely reasonable. I wonder: how would similar training go over in the U.S.?
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Christopher Hitchens: a man who fought totalitarianism in all its forms
Michael De Dora
Posted on December 16, 2011
Famed orator, author, and journalist Christopher Hitchens died Thursday night from pneumonia, a complication of the oesophageal cancer he was fighting. He was 62. There’s nothing substantive I feel I can say right now about so large and complex a public figure. My thoughts are probably best summed up by Slate’s Jacob Weisberg: “Here’s what I learned from Christopher Hitchens in the 25 years I knew him. Don’t let anyone else do your thinking for you. Follow your principles to the end. Don’t flinch from the truth. Repeat until the last ounce of strength drains from your body.” Two suggestions: Read the New York Times’ obituary here. Read Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter’s remembrance here.
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Tagged: christopher hitchens, god, religion
Consider these two hypothetical situations: 1) A competitive figure skater loosens the skate blade of a rival to aid her chances of winning; 2) A competitive skater notices that her rival’s blade is loose and fails to warn anyone, which aids her chances of winning. In both cases, the rival skater is seriously injured and loses. Whether due to the competitive skater’s action or a willful failure to act, the same amount of harm is done. Many people differentiate between these two situations: in the first case, the skater created and enacted a deliberate plan to cause harm, whereas in the second case, she simply failed to prevent foreseeable harm. And surely, many people say, causing harm is worse than failing to prevent it.…
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As you might recall, European Court of Justice on October 18 banned the patenting of inventions involving human embryonic stem cells and characterized research and other procedures using new or previously derived human embryonic stem cells as “immoral.” The court’s ruling cannot be appealed and applies to all 27 member states of the European Union. Now, nearly two months later, the prominent Alliance of German Scientific Organizations has publicly slammed the court for stepping beyond its bounds of protecting intellectual property. From Nature: “The European Court of Justice is neither the proper place to decide on patent rights nor to impose a general moral order on the whole of Europe,” the alliance said in its statement. Its statement, released on 7 December, says that…
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A record 64 percent of Americans consider the honesty and ethical standards of members of Congress “low” or “very low,” according to a new survey from Gallup. The result matches the poll’s record “low”/”very low” rating, received by lobbyists in 2008. Gallup has measured the public’s perception of ethical standards in various profession since 1976. To help put this finding into context with other professions, take a look at this chart: And to help put the lawmakers’ rating in historical perspective, take a look at this:
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THE MORAL PERSPECTIVE 