Philosophy & Ethics

Australian guidelines for the ethical use of IVF allow selecting a child’s sex for medical reasons. But draft guidelines that are now open for public submissions raise the possibility of extending this and allowing the choice for social reasons. The draft guidelines recognize that sex selection is a controversial practice; it’s banned in several states of the United States, in Europe, New Zealand and in parts of Asia. It acknowledges that it can reinforce gender stereotyping and that legalizing the selection of a child’s sex could open up the way for choosing a range of other non-disease…

Based on the furor currently engulfing the US, you might imagine that the use of fetal tissue is illegal. But in fact the collection and use of cells obtained from a human fetus following miscarriage or abortion has a long history in medical science. However, the US has a very long and established tradition of collecting and using human fetal tissue for scientific purposes. The Carnegie Collection, founded in 1914, contains thousands of human fetuses and gives its name to the Carnegie stages that chart fetal development. It is legal in the US to use fetal tissue for research, something…

For children with autism, early intervention is critical. Therapies and education – especially in the first two years of life – can facilitate a child’s social development, reduce familial stress and ultimately improve quality of life. But while we can reliably diagnose autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at 24 months, most children are diagnosed much later. This is largely due to a lack of resources, poor adherence to screening guidelines and the fact that primary care physicians are often uncomfortable talking about autism risk to parents. But what if we could use a simple, routine test to…

Globalized data shows hardliners on all sides losing, and points to emergence of open-minded pro-science, pro-spiritual outlook * THE WORLD IS TURNING ATHEIST, the media tells us. Europe is already dominated by non-believers and plummeting church attendance figures elsewhere indicate that religion itself could disappear within a generation. Christianity is shrinking fast, extremism has soured Islam, and the fastest growing belief-system is to have no beliefs, which could lead to the world becoming a peaceful, atheist utopia. So says conventional wisdom in some quarters.1 * Are there figures…

Keeping the Gate is the first to announce that an anonymous complaint addressed to the New York Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) has been made against famed O.J. Simpson defense attorneys Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, who are the cofounders of the Innocence Project at Yeshiva University in Manhattan.  Scheck and Neufeld are both outspoken members of the New York Commission on Forensic Science where they have been known to use their seats to publicly disparage forensic experts and bring criticism to perfectly acceptable methods utilized in America's forensic science…

In this short note physiological terms of unconditioned and conditioned reflexes are suggested for description of the sensitive active reflexive feature of quantum reality related to the impact of observational device. Those new in quantum physics terms intend to emphasize the active feature of quantum reality in combination with its temporary psi-memory of state that is outlined on the background of the passive classical physics. The quantum phenomenon of reflexive activity and temporary psi-memory of quantum reality is pointing to analogy with the known phenomenon of unconditioned reflexes…

I’m a philosopher, working in logic and related issues. This means that I spend a lot of my time working with words and arguments. And sometimes, when I’m not feeling so good about things, it can seem like it doesn’t matter, that it’s all just words. Arguments about ethics, about issues in metaphysics or epistemology—on a bad day, at least—can seem to be nothing more than pointless hot air. Here’s an illustration of the point, due to the American Pragmatist philosopher William James. Here’s the scene—a man walks rapidly around a tree, while a squirrel moves on the tree trunk. Both the man…

Northern Ireland recently changed the law to criminalize the act of paying for sex. This follows a trend set in Sweden, where selling sex is legal but buying it is criminalized. This so-called Nordic model is being considered in other parts of the world too. In England, for example, many feminist organizations are calling for the criminalization of clients rather than sex workers. The European Parliament backs such a move and Ireland and Belgium are said to be considering it too. Arguments on this issue often focus on whether or not the Nordic model protects those who sell sex or makes them…

It was recently revealed that the University of Wollongong has spent around A$20,000 over the past five years on lunches and dinners with politicians, including several fundraising events for the Liberal Party. Usually only one person attended these functions – probably someone at the top, though we don’t know for sure – but the donations themselves were made in the name of the university, thus making the university a sponsor of the Liberal Party. Governments affect universities, so why not the reverse? The remark by a University of Wollongong (UoW) spokesperson that many Australian…

I have a wife, three children, three dogs, seven cats. I’m not a Franz Kafka, sitting alone and suffering. So wrote Stanley Kubrick in 1972. And indeed, Kafka and Kubrick may not seem to have a whole lot in common. Kafka is Czech, Kubrick American. But watch The Shining after reading this and you may find that the Czech author haunts The Overlook Hotel just as much, if not more, than any of its regular spectral figures. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, as well as the 35th year of Stanley Kubrick’s film version of The Shining. So…