Category: Ethics

The incredible tale of irresponsible chocolate milk research at the University of Maryland

February 21, 2016

“Academic press offices are known to overhype their own research. But the University of Maryland recently took this to appalling new heights — trumpeting an incredibly shoddy study on chocolate milk and concussions that happened to benefit a corporate partner.

“It’s a cautionary tale of just how badly science can go awry as universities increasingly partner with corporations to conduct research.”

http://www.vox.com/2016/1/16/10777050/university-of-maryland-chocolate-milk?mc_cid=84d899c964&mc_eid=34e2887073

 

The moral dark side of reporting on the dark net

February 21, 2016

“A free society best functions with a free press (and free citizens) that seek to expose, understand, explain what’s really happening in its darkest corners. But for good reason, there isn’t a public interest defence for everything. For instance, journalists have asked me if weapons and assassinations are also available on the dark net. I’m sure they are, but I’m not willing to try to find out. There’s a strong public interest in knowing, I think, but I’m not prepared to risk it.  ”

http://ideas.ted.com/the-moral-dark-side-of-reporting-on-the-dark-net/?utm_campaign=social&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=t.co&utm_content=ideas-blog&utm_term=technology

Presidential candidates compete over their embrace of torture

February 21, 2016

“Waterboarding is sometimes described as giving victims the sensation of drowning. Those who have been subjected to the technique say it’s no facsimile. Six years ago, the late Christopher Hitchens voluntarily subjected himself to waterboarding so that he might report what it’s like. “You feel that you are drowning because you are drowning”, hewrote, “or, rather, being drowned, albeit slowly and under controlled conditions and at the mercy (or otherwise) of those who are applying the pressure”. Mr Hitchens lasted only seconds before he ended the session: “Unable to determine whether I was breathing in or out, and flooded more with sheer panic than with mere water, I triggered the pre-arranged signal and felt the unbelievable relief of being pulled upright and having the soaking and stifling layers pulled off me”, he wrote. “Believe me, it’s torture”.”

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2016/02/republicans-and-waterboarding

Belief in all-knowing, punitive gods aided the growth of human societies, study says

February 11, 2016

“Belief in moral-watching, all-knowing, punitive gods might have helped human societies grow far beyond small, close-knit groups, a new study shows. Researchers who ran an experiment with a total of 591 people in eight different small-scale societies around the world found that people who believed their deity of choice knew about their misdeeds and would punish them were more likely to play fairly in a game where money was on the line.”

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-gods-punishment-society-spread-20160210-story.html

 

The Ethics of Watching Football

February 5, 2016

1. Room for Debate: Is It Wrong to Watch Football?

This first link is from the New York Times’ Room for Debate series. Here, four experts discuss the question about whether it is ethical to watch football.

“How can fans enjoy watching a game that helps ruin players’ lives?”

2. The Ethicist: Is it Wrong to Watch Football

From the New York Times’ series, The Ethicist. 

“What you are concerned about involves one disquieting aspect of one specific sport. You want to know if it’s ethically acceptable to watch a game that is dangerous to the athletes who participate. And the answer to that query is yes.”

3. Aaron Hernandez suffered from most severe CTE ever found in a person his age

From the Washington Post, an article that details that brain damage suffered by a young and prominent NFL star who was also convicted of murder. If this type of brain damage is possible from playing the sport, should it be legal? If it legal, with the consent and full information of those playing, is it ethical to watch this sport?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/aaron-hernandez-suffered-from-most-severe-cte-ever-found-in-a-person-his-age/2017/11/09/fa7cd204-c57b-11e7-afe9-4f60b5a6c4a0_story.html?utm_term=.7057ec9558d2

4. The Federalist: Now That We Know Football Hurts Athletes, Should We Keep Watching?

“It’s time for football fans to consider the morality of a sport that turns young athletes into middle-aged corpses, racked by dementia and disabilities.”

“How long can an activity that may carry with it the likelihood of an awful life-shortening ailment continue to hold the imagination of the country? Those who believe football is too big and too popular to ever be cast aside should remember that only 80 years ago, boxing reigned alongside baseball as the country’s only true national sport. Even a half century ago, when Muhammad Ali was heavyweight champion, boxing was still immensely popular even if, unlike in previous generations, the percentage of youngsters who boxed was tiny. Today, it still exists and manages to hold a niche of the sports market, but it is a marginal endeavor derided for its brutality that increasingly few American care about.”

http://thefederalist.com/2017/08/03/now-know-football-hurts-athletes-keep-watching/

5. Reason Magazine: Is Watching Football Unethical?

From a Libertarian perspective, how should we view the ethics of watching football?

http://reason.com/blog/2015/01/07/ethics-of-watching-football

6. I’m the Wife of a Former N.F.L. Player. Football Destroyed His Mind.
He chose the sport, but he did not choose brain damage.

 

Ethicists approve ‘3 parent’ embryos to stop diseases, but congressional ban remains

February 4, 2016

“But panel members said that they took the philosophical issues seriously, noting that someone with genetic material from two different maternal bloodlines would potentially have to wrestle with questions about identity, kinship and ancestry.

“They also countenanced the possibility that people would want to use this new technique to create babies that are enhanced in some way intellectually or physically. They said that is not a major concern at the moment because the feasibility of such enhancements remains speculative.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/02/03/to-prevent-disease-ethicists-approve-creation-of-embryos-with-three-genetic-parents/?wpisrc=nl_draw2

Another article about the application of the technique.

Designing babies or saving lives in Mexico?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37505751?utm_source=Premium+TOK+newsletter+subscribers&utm_campaign=7cdac1f063-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_11_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f031581d64-7cdac1f063-98485421&mc_cid=7cdac1f063&mc_eid=34e2887073

Scientists, Give Up Your Emails

January 18, 2016

“Last August, a colleague and I wrote an article on the importance of transparency in science for one of the blogs of the science journal publisher PLOS. The argument was fairly simple: When research is paid for by the public, the public has a right to demand transparency and to have access to documents related to the research. This might strike most people as reasonable.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/opinion/sunday/scientists-give-up-your-emails.html?_r=0

Addicted to the Lottery: Why People Buy False Hope and Lottery Tickets

January 18, 2016

“States spend millions on promoting the lottery. In 2011, Oregon’s ad budget was $26.6 million over a two year period; in Ohio, the state used to time advertisements for its Super Lotto game to coincide with the delivery of Social Security and government benefit checks. Poor people are the primary targets of these campaigns—a fact that has made some of my interactions with lottery players uneasy. Multiple customers have told that they spend around $3,000 each year on the lottery and never win. Each person said they continue to play ‘because it’s fun.'”

http://www.vice.com/read/addicted-to-the-lottery-why-people-buy-false-hope-and-lottery-tickets-511?utm_source=vicetwitterus