Ethics

Some people said the word "practical" has widely know definitions that don't require philosophy to be understood while some people asserted that anything and everything is philosophical. I look at this in two points -- the definition of the word didn't just appear in nature. Secondly, it's not the definition but the application of the word. Is abortion practical? Science cannot tell us. Nor can the dictionary. What are your thoughts on this?

Society usually defines a criminal act as imposing either injury on another person or being reckless with respect to imposing a injury on another person, as in criminal negligence. Especially if you owe someone a duty of care, you can be found guilty of a crime by acting so as to endanger them. From these principles, it would seem that parents who know that there is a high risk that they will pass on to their children a serious genetic disease should be punished as criminals or criticized as immoral for deciding to have children. Someone might object that the parents give the children a precious gift of life along with the serious risk of inheriting the genes for a …

I'm probably as controversial or more so than anyone I've met on this forum. Perhaps I have a death wish to be thrown off? Not sure? Question is, why such disagreement and controversy? All of us have our druthers! Me?, I would much rather be rich than poor. A lot more healthy as opposed to being ill. A lot smarter? Well! The internet logon below will give you something to think about for the rest of your life. I honestly don't believe Jon was painting anything to disparage our present day leader, but morally; something politicians have been destroying for years. So, when history judges us, what will they think of our successes? It's easy for a man who has absolutely not…

Is this the mentality we need today to save us? http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1925/shaw-bio.html

Wussy? maybe so! This kid is twenty nine years old and hoping by next August to be home with his family. Don't know him personally; just his folks. Read the message. Give me your thoughts. Hi Guys and Gals, Greetings from Kandahar, Afghanistan. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoyed their summer. It has been quiet here the last few weeks. Time is going by quickly and I hope to soon be back with Gen and the girls. I've had the opportunity to do some traveling to other bases. In August, I went to Kabul, the capital, and to Maz-er-Sharif, a city in the northern part of the country. There we met and trained Afghanai Army soldiers. Traveling with me are GIs I am respo…

Although multi-headed teratomas are much more common among sheep than humans, occasionally some humans are born with a vestigial extra head embedded on the side of their normal head. These so-called 'satellite heads' are usually about the size of a human fist and located on the back or side of the primary head, and they are also neurologically linked to the rest of the head, moving their lips or batting their eyes when the primary head makes the corresponding movements. The first reported case was in England in the 12th century, when Edward Mordrake was born with a head having a female appearance growing out of the back of his own head. Improvements in surgical te…

I came across this article, and found it disturbing... Article Anybody with an IQ below 70 may not be executed, but this woman with an IQ of 72 was...in fact she was the alleged "mastermind" behind the crime . What do you guys think?

We may never know even one of these young people's names, yet, isn't it comforting that; "They are there"? Or do we need them at all? Are we right or wrong, using them as a shield? If so, 'against what'? http://www.af.mil/news/video/index.asp?cid=422&sid=15358

Should freedom of speech extend as far as those deluding populations into pandemic, or are some messages so dangerous that they must be stopped at all costs? Re: "condoms are evil" in AIDS ridden countries

THE ISSUE OF GAMBLING Recently, he feels increasingly speak of "Scratch & Win" and derivatives ... but why?The answer is simple: any individual to whom it is proposed to get (have not used the word "earn" precisely because it is considered that this is the more appropriate term) of money by spending just a few Euros/Pounds/Dollars, inevitably runs into the temptation to say: "Why not? So much goes wrong than if I spent only one Euro/Pound/Dollar. But, as we know, people do not stop When you buy one "Scratch & Win": generally the mentality of the players of this kind is that specified above, but since "losing" is a term not popular with everyone,…

News footage of the 9/11 disaster shows some people jumping to their death from a burning building, since they obviously preferred to die a minute sooner by hitting the ground rather than living a minute longer at the price of experiencing the horror of burning to death. If we all recognize those actions as a rational choice those people had the right to make, then we have already accepted in principle that suicide can be a reasonable choice people should make for themselves. Other cases of suicide differ from this example only in degree, since longer periods of potential future life are given up, or lesser horrors are avoided, but in principle the issue is the same: P…

For those of you, who are not familiar, about one month ago, the French government took the decision to demolish a number of illegal gypsy camps, and deport their inhabitants back to their home countries. This has brought much controversy among the EU politicians, with the EU Justice Commissioner Reding urging the European Commission to take legal action against France, calling the France position a "disgrace" and comparing it with the Hitler's regime in WW2. This has all grown into astonishing lump of rhetorics between various countries and political parties. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11338112 I must say I am puzzled with the behavior and attit…

Many small children are familiar with the story of Jimminy Cricket who tells Pinocchio always to let his conscience be his guide. The wisdom of this advice hits people as they grow older. So "What is your conscience?"

Things we should all remember from time to time. https://news.simpletruths.com/servlet/cc6?kpuitLQSTCAQTVIuHjkSRAxILttkhmloQgLlVaVR Are these not jewels of wisdom?

People suffer terribly while waiting on dialysis for a kidney transplant, and thousands die waiting. Because only a tiny percentage of people die in circumstances which allow a kidney to be used for transplant, cadaver-source kidneys can never meet the demand for replacement organs. A healthy person can donate one kidney with no damage to health or reduction of life expectancy, but few people are generous enough to donate a kidney for free. To reduce the terrible human suffering and high death rate in the dialysis population, some have proposed that we permit a government regulated kidney market to operate, in which healthy donors would be allowed to give one kidney fo…

Suppose one of the Siamese twins, without the cooperation of the other, murdered someone in a jurisdiction where the punishment for murder was life imprisonment. Since there is no way to imprison just the guilty twin without also imprisoning the innocent one (since they were medically inseparable when they lived, in the 19th century,) it would seem that the state would have a legal problem in trying to impose a just sentence. Since the requirement that the murderer be imprisoned for life is only based on a statutory authority, while the rule that no innocent person can be imprisoned is a sacred constitutional right ultimately deriving from habeas corpus, I guess the solu…

What are the ethics involved in The Truman Show? What do you think is the probability of something like this happening? I can remember being touched by the movie when I was younger, but now I am disgusted. I think the idea is an ourtrage. Any thoughts?

This thread is for people to post ethics dilemmas or answers to others' dilemmas. Just for fun, although it might be interesting to see how people believe and how close answers are. I suggest if you post several scenarios you number them first with your post number, then a dot and then a list number. 1.1) A mad philosopher ties 5 people to one track and 1 person to another track, and sets a train going toward the 5. You are at a location where you can switch the train from the track leading toward the 5 to the track leading toward the 1, but will be unable to save everyone. Do you switch the train towards the 1 person? (this and others are the Trolley Problem, or base…

Given the opportunity (people living in poverty without access to learning resources can be exempt from this) is there an ethical drive beyond ones own personal gain to learn about the natural world, other cultures, their own historical roots etc? People who manage to 'live in a bubble' may be annoying, but are doing anything wrong?

Is it ever justifiable to cheat on work assigned to you in school? Is it more justifiable in public school than in college? Are tests different than other assignments when it comes to cheating? Are some methods of cheating more justifiable than others?

I've read that there has been a study involving South African women with a Vaginal anti-HIV gel. Does anyone else see a ethical problem with a clinical trial with a medicine that does not 100% protect against HIV? Not only that, in the study placebos were given to some women, basically leaving them to get infected with HIV. What are your opinions on this issue?

Just read this on Kottke http://kottke.org/10/04/dna-vs-adoption I know someone who adopted a baby and they have never told her that she's adopted and don't plan to (she's now in her 20s). When DNA testing becomes commonplace in another 5-15 years, I wonder how long that secret will last and what her reaction will be. Is it ethical to not tell someone that they are not genetically related to you, and that the answers to "Does X run in your family?" has to be either "I don't know" or provided by the people involved in the adoption process. I think not telling is a selfish act on the part of the parents.

The abortion debate has been largely centered about whether or not a fetus has all the rights of a fully-grown human being. Recently, I heard an argument from the pro-choice camp regarding rape victims even given that those rights are in fact secured to that fetus, which is what makes it interesting. It basically argues that even if the baby were a fully-grown human being, it would still be morally acceptable to abort in the case of a forced pregnancy. [disclaimer: please don't get offended, this is not intended to be politically charged at all, and the characters are in no way intended to reflect upon the practices of real people whose relationship therewith may be c…

So, there's a perpetual debate on whether there really are mental differences between the genders, or whether those differences are merely psychological or a result of cultural restrictions. That's not at all what I want to debate here. We can talk about what the case really is in another thread. Instead, I'd like to pose a question. What if it was demonstrated that women and men have significant fundamental mental differences, with men being better at certain tasks and women better at others? Suppose, for example, it turns out that men really do have a biological predisposition towards science and mathematics, while women have a predisposition towards verbal …

To my knowledge, we mostly follow the ancient Roman tradition that ignorance of the law is no excuse. There do seem to be a few exceptions however. Even so, the amount of laws we have is tremendous, and no one could possibly in their lifetime know all the laws. Every last one of us is ignorant of the law, from lawyers to judges to the very people writing the laws -- some of whom seem to be voting on laws they haven't even bothered to read. Oh, and us regular civilians too. Back in the day, there weren't all that many laws, and it wasn't crazy to expect people to know the law. But now that's not even possible. Is it really ethical to expect the impossible from people? …