Today, on the Sunday before the new year, the New York Times Magazine has its annual issue of brief profiles of famous, important, and not-so-famous-but-still-important people who breathed their last in the past twelve months. It is always a fascinating collection; for me, the exercise is a slap in the face, focusing my wandering attention upon how many remarkable lives and achievements have escaped my awareness and proper appreciation—and this is only a small, random collection. The last of the profiles, however, was about a life I knew a lot about: Ted Kennedy. In my view, the piece fails an ethical imperative. It doesn’t mention Mary-Jo Kopechne. Continue reading
responsibility
Punishing Pregnant Soldiers
The outrage expressed by women’s groups over the Army’s announced intention to discipline and even court-martial female soldiers who become pregnant in war zones was as predictable as a sunrise. It also carries political firepower, and public appeal.
The complaints are, however, ethically nonsensical. Continue reading
Ethics Alarms and the Brooklyn EMTs
The astounding indifference to both human life and their duties displayed by the EMTs in yesterday’s incident in Brooklyn relates directly to the title of this blog. Why…why…didn’t their ethics alarms go off when they knew that a young, pregnant woman was fighting for her life a few yards away? What could have dulled their senses of duty and humanity, disabled them, to this extent? Continue reading
Rep. Alan Grayson: “How Dare You Imitate Me?”
Florida Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson is what is clinically called “a piece of work.” He yields to no one in his defiance of basic civility in discourse, not even Rep. Joe “You Lie!” Wilson. Grayson is the Congressman whose explanation of the GOP position on health care was that “they want you to die.” He said that Dick Cheney speaks with “blood dripping from his teeth.” His mode of debate and persuasion, in other words, is insult and hyperbole. Respect for opposing views: zilch. Civility grade: F. Continue reading
Ethics Quote of the Week
“Nice try, Ted Alvin Klaudt, of Walker, S.D.”
The South Dakota Daily Republic, in an editorial commenting on former state lawmaker Ted Klaudt’s warning to South Dakota’s media this week that they cannot use his name without his prior authorization.
Klaudt claimed that he name was protected by his recent copyright of it, a transparent attempt to avoid news media mention of Klaudt’s 2007 sentencing to 44 years in prison for four counts of second-degree rape. The ex-legislator was convicted of touching the breasts and genitals of his two foster daughters while conducting phony examinations on the girls on the premise that he would help them sell their reproductive eggs.
He apparently wants to have the sole legal right to call such conduct “Klaudting.”
Ethics Alarms salutes the Daily Republic for having the courage and wit to immediately challenge Klaudt’s efforts to muzzle the press.
“Operation Chokehold” and the Protest Ethics Checklist
Some disgruntled iPhone users are trying to organize a protest by paralyzing the ATT network with a flood of data this Friday. The mastermind is the so-called “fake Steve Jobs,” Dan Lyons, who calls his protest “Operation Chokehold.”
Blogger Lauren Weinstein [special thanks to Gabe Goldberg for the tip] has effectively identified this juvenile plan for what it is, namely “childish, stupid, irresponsible, and potentially extremely dangerous.” Continue reading
Protest Ethics: Christmas, the ACLU, and Ignorance
A silly e-mail is circulating again, as it has this time of year since 2005, encouraging recipients to engage in a pointless and ignorant protest against the American Civil Liberties Union.
It reads: Continue reading
The Savage Saga: Wrong Embryo Ethics Unresolved
The disturbing story of Carolyn and Sean Savage’s pregnancy was a hot topic in September, but it is barely remembered now. I am hoping that bioethicists and legal specialists are still cogitating over it, however, because the ethical and legal issues aren’t going away. They are probably just around the corner. Continue reading
Breaking Promises to the Dying and the Dead
"Bye, Marilyn...it was nice lying over you."
My Dad detested wakes and viewings, and used to say that after he died, he wanted to be exhibited sitting up, eyes open, with a tape recording that would be triggered every time anyone stood in front of him. The recording would be of my father saying, “Hello! Thanks for coming! Hope to see you at my funeral!” Luckily, Dad didn’t make me promise to do anything that bizarre, although it would not have been out of character for him to do so. His recent death caused me to wonder: what if he had? Would I be obligated to keep my promise? Would I be justified in making such a promise, if I knew it wouldn’t be kept? Continue reading
Abortion Debate in the Senate: Inconvenient Ethics
It will be major irony if the Senate health care reform bill, an irresponsible, cynical, dishonest piece of legislation (any legislation that is 2000 pages, unreadable, and largely unread by those voting for it is, by definition, irresponsible, cynical and dishonest), fails because of its position on abortion. The bill is an abomination and deserves to fail, but not because of that. Continue reading
