Practical Ethics

A Second Human Singularity?

New Scientist reports this week claims that the reason human cognitive powers are so superior to those of other animals has to do not with biology alone, but also with our ability to interact with others and with the world.

A Pipeline to Truth? Fighting Absenteeism with Voice Analysis

The Daily Mail warns that bosses want to use over-the-phone lie detectors to catch out workers pulling a sickie. The issue is the new generation of voice analysis software that listens in when someone calls in sick, and prompts the person talking the call on whether the person is suspiciously stressed. Yet another step towards 1984, a great way of saving money and improving the truthfulness of people, or a double deceit?

Looking for Biopolitical Trouble

Researchers at Cornell university have developed a genetically modified human embryo expressing a green fluorescent protein. This is a technology already demonstrated in animals (and plants), including monkeys. But the news that it had been done to a human embryo has stirred up reactions worrying about designer babies. Are we already in a brave new world of designer babies? And how should we handle the biopolitical debate?

Lesbians and male role models

In Britain, the Conservative Party has challenged the government to block lesbian couples from receiving IVF treatment unless they can provide a 'male role model' for their child. This is part of a proposed amendment to the human fertilisation and embryology bill which is currently before the parliament. Such a change would be a very bad idea.

Kissing Cousins

Robin McKie, the science editor for The Observer on Sunday is predicting a major row later this month when scientists and health experts in the United Kingdom hold two key meetings to debate the issue of cousin marriage and its impact on health in Britain. (See http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/11/genetics.medicalresearch?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront). This is not the first time that the issue of cousin marriage has hit the headlines in the United Kingdom. In February this year The Guardian reported that government minister Phil Woolas spoke out about the health risks involved when cousins have children together. His comments were seconded by Ann Cryer, the Labour MP for Keighley, who has been a long term critic of cousin marriage and had earlier called for the tradition of first cousin marriages to be stopped. Marriage between first cousins raises the probability of a severe genetic illness from a base rate of about 2 percent to approximately 4 percent. Second cousin marriages raised the probability of a severe genetic illness to about 3 percent.

Hunger is the best spice

Ghrelin is a hormone produced in the stomach that appears to stimulate appetite. A recent paper in Cell Metabolism shows that giving ghrelin to volunteers made their brains respond more strongly to food images, reward systems in the brain became more active and they rated their level of hunger higher. An immediate reaction in the blogosphere was to consider the practical applications: Stomach hormone turns hungry people into junkies (New Scientist), Fast Food Joints Add Hormone to Food That Makes You Want to Eat More (Io9). Are we moving towards a future where food will be literally addictive?

The viability of fetuses and the abortion debate

A paper has been published online in the British medical journal today suggesting that survival of extremely premature infants (less than 24 weeks gestation) has not improved in the last decade. This comes less than a week before a debate in the House of Commons on the Human Fertilisation and Embryo Authority bill. It has been claimed that this paper “completely blows out of the water” the arguments of anti-abortion MPs who hope next week to push for a reduction in the cut-off for legal abortion (currently 24 weeks).

Global Warming and the Hidden Costs of Aviation

A recent study reveals that aviation might pump 20% more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by 2025 as previously estimated. Vexing is not the possibly underestimated figure; but the fact that this study was only recently uncovered: As covered by The Independent or Spiegel Online, the British environmental association Aviation Environmental Federation now presents the study on their webpage although it was already presented last summer at an international conference in Barcelona. Jeff Gazzard, a spokesman for the Aviation Environmental Federation, is convinced that this omission to make the report publicly available was deliberate. The study contains alarming piece of evidence that challenges the rather liberal approach to aviation of the Kyoto Protocol: Only domestic aviation emissions are accounted for in a countries’ emissions totals, while emissions from international aviation are omitted (see Kyoto Protocol, Decision 2/CP3).

Towards Ethical Foie Gras?

Often the source of our worries about eating animals and the basis of arguments against it seems to turn on the pain and suffering of the animal in question. With advances in biotechnology such as cloning and genetic manipulation it may at some point be possible to engineer animals that do not feel pain or suffer but still produce meat of the kind that we are accustomed to eating. Producing such animals on a large scale would significantly reduce the total amount of suffering and may enable us to eat meat with a clear conscience.

Sleeping policemen and garden sheds

Big Brother, it seems, has been asleep on the job.  Even though it is said that we in the UK are more subject to surveillance than any other society, peered at by cameras wherever we go about our innocent business, today’s headlines tell us that this intrusion is not even fulfilling its purpose of catching the people whose business is not so innocent.   The police apparently don’t like watching miles of boring video (and who can blame them?), so they don’t do it much,  and the massive investment in equipment has brought street crime in London down by only 3%.  Perhaps that is some consolation to people whose objections to surveillance are not just those of cost.  Even if the cameras are there, at least nobody is bothering to watch us.