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POPSPremature baby 'left to die' by doctors after birth at 21 wk 'When he was born, he put out his arms and legs and pushed himself over,' said Miss Capewell. 'A midwife said he was breathing and had a strong heartbeat and described him as a "little fighter". 'I kept asking for the doctors but the midwife said, "They won't come and help, sweetie. Make the best of the time you have with him."' Miss Capewell said she had to argue her right to receive birth and death certificates which meant she could have a proper funeral. The medical guidance for NHS hospitals, limiting care of the most premature babies, was drawn up by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics in 2006. The guidelines are clear: no baby below 22 weeks gestation should be resuscitated.
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POPSPhilosophical Weblogs This is a list of weblogs that are devoted to topics in and around analytic philosophy, or that are by analytic philosophers
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POPSDr. Michael W. Fox, holistic, self-described "feral" veterinarian More: In modern parlance, we say what's good for the Earth is good for us because when we harm the Earth we ultimately harm ourselves, as we also do when we violate the Golden Rule by not treating other living beings as we would have them treat us…Earthcare is therefore one of the beatitudes of a humane, caring and loving community. It is also integral to achieving holistic health care: Healthcare = Peoplecare and Animalcare and Earthcare. The health and wealth of the people (Peoplecare) is dependent upon a healthy environment (Earthcare) and upon the healthy wild and domestic animal population (Animalcare). The essence of holistic health care, therefore, is to give equal and just consideration to human interests, animal rights, environmental ethics and the greater good.
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POPSYour Money or Your Wife This kind of story is something you really have to hear from both sides, but... For me, what he requests sounds very fair. I mean you have his kidney, but you don't let your kids see their dad? Unless he is very abusive?
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POPSEnhancing evolution If it is right to save life, Harris says, then it should also be right to postpone death by stemming the flow of diseases that carry us to the grave. And we should make any such technology available as soon as we can, even if it means there will be some “haves” and “have-nots”
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POPSWhen Do We Become Human? Human life is semi-sacred. It would be nice (in a perfect world) if as much dignity were provided for our animal counterparts were so protected as well. Once again I bemoan the fact that this article is much larger and the space allotted is so little. If you are truly interested, you can always go the the provided link.
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POPSExperts Say Humans Can Live to 1,000 Leon Kass, the former head of Bush's Council on Bioethics, insists that “the finitude of human life is a blessing for every human individual”. Bioethicist Daniel Callahan of the Garrison, New York-based Hastings Centre, agrees: “There is no known social good coming from the conquest of death.” Maybe they’re right, but then why do we as humans strive so hard to prolong our lives in the first place? Maybe growing old, getting sick and dying is just a natural, inevitable part of the circle of life, and we may as well accept it. "But it's not inevitable, that's the point," One wonders what Methuselah would say about all this.
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POPSMcCain Equates Embryos and Fetuses in Stem Cell Statement "In scientific terms, embryos and fetuses are different and mutually exclusive entities. Equating them fits within a pro-life framework defining abortion at any stage as murder. "If you call the creation of an embryo for research 'fetal farming,' that clearly conflates embryos, at whatever stage, with fetuses," said Thomas Murray, director of the Hastings Center, a nonpartisan bioethics think tank. "It would seem to equate a five-day-old embryo with a fetus one day before delivery.""
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POPSAre You REALLY A Woman? "The tests never unmasked a man posing as a woman, but they did turn up several athletes who were born with genetic defects that made them appear — according to lab results, at least — to be men. In 1967, the Polish sprinter Ewa Klobukowska was barred from the sport because she failed the chromosomal test, even though she had passed the nude test a year earlier. In the 1980s, the Spanish hurdler Maria José Martínez Patino was disqualified because the test revealed, to her surprise, that she was born with a Y chromosome. Her eligibility was reinstated in 1988. The practice came under increasing criticism in the 1990s by doctors, scientists and athletes who argued that the tests were not just invasive, but were also bad science."
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POPSThe End of Aging - Still a Controvertial Vision Leon Kass and his friends are contemporary incarnations of an Orwellian nightmare. Besides "War is Peace", I hear also "Death is Life". Of course there are no known social good coming from the conquest of death, we never lived in a social system that conquered death. How could we possibly know? But Kass and his friends, seem to have some privileged knowledge we do not possess, and they already decided for us as individuals and as a society. Well, in time, I believe, they will have the choice to walk their talk. All I want is a chance to walk mine.
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POPSBritish lawmakers back animal-human embryos for research "I believe that we owe it to ourselves and future generations to introduce these measures and in particular to give our unequivocal backing, within the right framework of rules and standards, to stem cell research," Brown wrote in the Observer.
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POPSGenetically modified human embryo stirs criticism It is definitely unacceptable to try it when it is unsafe. It is definitely worth trying when it will be safe. It will be safe eventually, our job meanwhile is to create an adequate ethical framework that will allow the harnessing of this future technology to the benefit of all humans and other beings.
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POPSI am a transhumanist, thanks I say, fear not. If you have clearly transhumanist beliefs, like the notion that human enhancement is coming in the next few decades and will be a big deal, then don’t be afraid to call yourself one. As Dr. Wittgenstein, one of my favorite philosophers ever, used to argue, words are just labels we fill with our own content. To think that a word has any inherent meaning aside from its use in language is absurd.
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POPSMoral Philosopher Questions Memory Manipulation Hurley says while the real threat of developing PTSD might be a good enough reason to use beta-blockers as a preventative measure, she also wants policy makers to consider the ramifications of what such a treatment may mean to a person’s moral well-being. “Beta-blockers do not cause amnesia. Rather they make memories less vivid, detailed and arousing,” explains Hurley, who specializes in bioethics. “They lessen the emotional impact when someone is recalling upsetting events.”
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POPSDo we want a truly liberal society? A liberal society embraces pluralism, in the sense that it does not seek to impose any one vision of what it means to be virtuous or to lead a good life. Within such a society, approval is commonly expressed for John Stuart Mill’s view that “experiments in living” should not be merely tolerated, but actually welcomed and celebrated (Mill 1974: 120). As Max Charlesworth writes, “In a liberal society personal autonomy, the right to choose one’s own way of life for oneself, is the supreme value.” He adds that this includes what he calls ethical pluralism: members of the society are free to hold a wide range of moral, religious, and non-religious positions, with no core values or public morality that it is the law’s business to enforce (Charlesworth 1993: 1). Accordingly, a liberal society makes a sharp distinction between the sphere of personal moral views and that of the law; no one can use the law to impose their beliefs on others (16-20).
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