Suggested readings, 24 January 2021

Here are some interesting articles I've read over the past week I think are worth checking out.

Sam Bowman, “The eight biggest Covid-sceptic myths – and why they’re wrong.” 21 Jan, New Statesman.

"There has been a huge amount of misinformation during the pandemic. Much of it was unavoidable, especially at the start as we dealt with a new virus, but some myths are persisting a year into the pandemic."

Tom Chivers, “What Covid tests can we trust?” 20 Jan, UnHerd.

"One group of scientists thinks the widespread use of lateral-flow testing is the answer, and believe it can save lives and reboot society. The other thinks that it is little short of recklessness, that it could kill many more people that it saves."

Peter Singer, “The Ethics of Prioritizing COVID-19 Vaccination.” 19 Jan, Project Syndicate.

"Now that COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out, policymakers are wrestling with the question of how to distribute them quickly and equitably. There has been wide agreement that health workers should be vaccinated first, because they are needed to save the lives of those who are ill because of the virus. But deciding who should come next has spurred considerable debate."

Julian Savulescu, “It is unethical to keep those who have immunity locked down.” 22 Jan, Daily Telegraph.

"Endlessly repeating an outdated slogan is unforgivable now that the science has moved on. Airborne transmission isn’t an afterthought -- it might even be the main way the virus spreads. It’s time to break the inertia, and change the message altogether."

Julian Baggini, “Trump’s boast reveals the complexities of war ethics.” 20 Jan, The Philosophical Inquirer.

"Trump may not have started any wars but he’s lit more fuses than any president in living memory. Has everyone forgotten how, before his ill-fated bromance with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, the world was waking up every day scared to hear that he had triggered a nuclear conflict on the Korean peninsula? Or how he repeatedly asked his military advisors why he couldn’t use nuclear weapons to swiftly take out enemies? His bombing of Iran nearly started another war."

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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 ...

A Critique of Abortion and Infanticide

Not many ethical issues are as vigorously fought over as abortion these days. Unsurprisingly, the standpoint of the different sides—put simply, those who are in favour of abortion and those that are against it—have not achieved much in shifting the beliefs of their opponents. Abortion was illegal in almost all western states until the late 1960s; in 1967 Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) changed its laws to permit abortion on broad social grounds. In the Row v Wade 1973 case, the United States Supreme Court held that women have a constitutional right to abortion in the first six months of pregnancy. Many other western nations like France and Italy have subsequently liberated their abortion laws. Ireland and Northern Ireland, however, have held out in opposition to this movement. Abortion in Ireland remains illegal under the 1861 Offences against the Person Act and in 1983 an amendment to Ireland's constitution states that an embryo, from the p...

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