Nothing as It Seems

In light of the large public support and recent international trends, it seems more likely to be a matter of when, and not if, there will be legislation One topic that has received increasing public discussion in recent years is the issue of voluntary physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and euthanasia. PAS and euthanasia are not limited to contemporary societies: the Athenian poet of the 5th century BC Cratinus referred to euthanasia – roughly translated as ‘good death’ – as a fast, gentle, painless death; the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca thought it was preferable to choose death than to live with excruciating, incurable pain. Christianity, however, viewed voluntary death more negatively. The Catholic Church, for instance, regards suicide as intrinsically wrong. The Christian position on PAS has been the dominant viewpoint for several centuries, but it is no longer universally shared. The Ethics of PAS  The UK public healthcare system, the National Health Service (NHS), defines ...

The article was originally published in Balls.ie  Most fans of sport think that performance-enhancing drugs should be prohibited, and that any athlete who gets caught taking them should be suspended or even banned from competition. Some of the most notorious villains in sport, down through the years, have been involved in high profile drugs scandals: Ben Johnson, Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, and Justin Gatlin. Fans and critics alike have also long suspected that the use of performance enhancing drugs are widespread. A few weeks ago, the Sunday Times and German broadcaster ARD published a joint investigation on doping in athletics, which suggested that around a third of medallists at the Olympic Games and World Championships between 2001 and 2012 have recorded suspicious tests. There are, of course, other reasons to suspect that doping is widespread: of all the podium finishers in the Tour de France between 1996 and 2010, around 80 percent are suspected ...

Earlier this year, the Government announced that they are preparing new laws to regulate surrogacy and the broader area of assisted human reproduction. The draft legislation will contain proposals to regulate surrogacy in Ireland for the first time, and will include an obligation for commissioning parents and surrogate mothers to give their consent and have counselling prior to any arrangement. Yet the legislation is expected to include a ban on commercial surrogacy—an arrangement where the surrogate mother receives a payment for bearing and giving birth to a child, on the condition that she eventually hands over the child, as well as the parental rights and responsibilities, to the commissioning couple. The legislation will only permit non-commercial surrogacy (or altruistic surrogacy), where surrogates receive no financial gain—although a reimbursement of out-of-pocket costs will be permitted. In an interview with RTÉ around the same time as the announcement, the Heal...

Humanists generally agree that we ought to apply reason, free enquiry, and self-reflection when trying to figure out what is right or wrong. Most of us also think that it is unjustifiable to discriminate against someone solely on the basis of their race, sex, age, or whatever other grouping you can think of. Humanists rightly criticise religions when they defend discrimination against certain groups or individuals by means of scripture, revelation, authority, or, in some cases, tradition. Despite the fact that humanists have over time questioned and, indeed, freed themselves from many of these prejudices, is it possible, nevertheless, that many may still latch onto at least one dogmatic relic of an earlier age? Namely, the prejudice of speciesism. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations  estimates that around around 60 billion land animals are killed annually in food production— a large proportion of these come from intensive factory farms....

In February the Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, announced that the Cabinet are preparing new laws to regulate assisted human reproduction and surrogacy. At present there exists a legal vacuum, but the proposed Bill for Assisted Human Reproduction and Stem Cell Research will work towards regulating surrogacy and associated practices for the first time in Ireland. It is understood that legislation will only permit altruistic surrogacy , but not commercial surrogacy . Other countries like Denmark and Britain already permit altruistic surrogacy, but ban commercial surrogacy, while France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal and Italy ban the practice completely. Surrogacy is an arrangement where a woman becomes pregnant with the intention of transferring over the baby to someone else sometime after giving birth. In cases of altruistic surrogacy, it is usually a relative or close friend who volunteers to be the surrogate mother. Generally, infertile couples are the group most li...