Suggested readings, 6 September 2020

Here are a small number of interesting articles I’ve read over the past week that I think are worth checking out.

Daniel McConnell, “Dignity law would have allowed Marie Fleming die in peace.” 5 Sep, Irish Examiner.

Ireland should introduce legalised assistance in dying: "The time has come to extend that debate to consider allowing people to determine how they leave this earth with a meaningful degree of dignity. We can no longer bury our heads in the sand".

Barry J Whyte, Aaron Rogan and Killian Woods, “Mask hysteria.” 30 Aug, Business Post.

Very good piece on what can happen when extremist movements and conspiracy theories move into the political mainstream during a pandemic.

Emily Oster, “How the media has us thinking all wrong about the coronavirus.” 25 Aug, Washington Post.

Economist and author Emily Oster argues that in evaluating the risk of Covid-19 spreading, we should follow the trend lines, not the headlines. She also reminds us of our common cognitive biases, including the negativity bias and the availability heuristic.

David P. Barash, “Just Because It’s Natural Doesn’t Mean It’s Good.” 19 Aug, Nautilus.

"Given a choice, most people gravitate toward the natural over the artificial. After all, natural environments are preferable to garbage dumps, natural foods are nearly always healthier than stuff concocted in a chemistry lab. Yet it needs to be said loud and clear: Just because something is natural doesn’t mean it’s good. 'Smallpox is natural,' Ogden Nash noted. 'Vaccine ain’t.' Gangrene, acne, hurricanes, earthquakes, COVID-19 -- all bona fide natural".

Peter Singer and Joanna Masel, “How (Not) to Fight COVID-19.” 3 Sep, Project Syndicate.

Philosopher Peter Singer and biologist Joanna Masel argue that more flexible rules and the use of new technologies can help us reduce the spread of the virus.

Tom Chivers, “Let’s all meet up in the year 3000.” 2 Sep, UnHerd.

Science writer Tom Chivers makes the bold claim that aging may not be inevitable, and in the future could be curable like other diseases and illnesses. If we could slow down the aging process in humans and live to be, say, 1,000 years old,

is that something we'd personally want, and is it socially practicable?

For a more philosophical discussion, you can listen to Francesca Minerva talk about the ethics of cryonics and life extension here.

Comments

Should We Use Neuroenhancement Drugs to Improve Relationships?

A version of this article was printed in Humanism Ireland , July-August, Vol. 147 (2014) L ove, it is fair to say, is probably the strongest emotion we can experience. It can come in many different forms: love of one’s parent, sibling, or child. Though most people consider romantic relationships—which include companionship, sexual passion, intimacy, warmth, procreation and child-rearing—as the most significant component of one’s life; and it is probably the thing we find discussed more than anything else in novels, films and music. Committed romantic relationships tend to occur within the institution of marriage—something that is ubiquitous to most, if not all, cultures. Indeed, relationships today, which are primarily love-driven, are not just confined to marriages, as many couples sustain relationships outside of wedlock. Being in a love-driven relationship is considered important for most people, as it contributes to happiness—something we a...

Is Adult Incest Wrong?

An version of this article was printed in Humanism Ireland , March-April, Vol. 151 (2015) Incest is something most people find morally objectionable and it's one of the most common of all cultural taboos. The British Medical Association’s Complete Family Health Encyclopaedia (1990) defines incest as “ intercourse between close relatives,” that usually includes “intercourse with a parent, a son or daughter, a brother or sister, an uncle or aunt, a nephew or niece, a grandparent or grandchild.” The Oxford English Dictionary ’s definition is a little broader: it doesn’t confine incest to just intercourse, but to “sexual relations between people classified as being too closely related to marry each other.” Most countries have some kind of law against incest—though consensual adult incest is not a crime in France, Spain, Russia the Netherlands, and a host of countries in South America. In England and Wales, however, t he Sexual Offences Act 2003 ...

The ethics of high-tech “conversion” therapy

An edited version of this article was printed in Humanism Ireland , September-October, Vol. 148 (2014) I n an earlier post I discussed the imminent prospect of biological manipulating our different love systems and some of the ethical implications that might follow from it. This topic originally appeared in an article published in 2008 by Oxford ethicists Julian Savulescu and Anders Sandberg, who argue that it might be possible, in the next number of decades or so, to biologically manipulate and enhance our quality of love. They propose that we could supplement our relationship counselling sessions with prescription ‘love drugs’—ones with the purpose of improving intimacy and commitment between partners. With emerging biotechnologies like this, which includes recent work in neuroscience, psychopharmacology and other related areas, it will also be possible to consider the prospect of using them to manipulate brain systems to diminish and alter the capacity fr...

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