December 19, 2015

Abortion Rights

In an earlier article I have argued for a woman’s absolute right to abort her embryo or foetus. This was based on the fundamental principle that the origin of rights is not a human shape or a human genome, but the possession of a thinking mind. The same reasoning implies that […]
July 30, 2011

Stem Cell Victory

Good news on the stem cell front, a US judge has finally ruled that federal funding for research with human embryonic stem cells (hESC) is legal. Two scientists, of all people, had sued on the grounds that funding the research violated an earlier federal law prohibiting federal funding when a […]
October 11, 2010

Legal and Moral Clarity

An interesting statement in a recent post in The Scientist on human embryonic stem cell (“ESC”) rules in the USA: “Other countries have laws that provide researchers with legal and moral clarity.” The assumption that laws can provide any kind of “moral clarity” is a fascinating one. In terms of […]
October 3, 2010

Smokin’

My attention was recently brought to The Tobacco Files, a fearless expose of how the tobacco giants are daring to fund ads in Australia opposing the government’s push for “plain packaging” of cigarettes, the latest in the government’s ceaseless and noble campaign against everything smoking-related (except of course the revenue they […]