…meaning, signature significance because only an ethics-challenged fool who shouldn’t be trusted to keep sharp objects away from children would be unable to answer it correctly in a nanosecond.

Once again, I wonder what criteria Kwame Anthony Appiah uses to pick which questions to answer. With this one, for example, does he assume NYT readers are so dense and ethics-free that many of them need this guidance?

Hmmm. Considering the comments on the Axis’s favorite paper’s usual propaganda, he may be right.

The question from “Name Withheld” is, in sum: “My grandmother is 94 and has dementia. Her short-term memory is very limited, though some recent events, like the death of a cousin, have stayed with her and still upset her….her daughter [ the writer’s mother] has died. The news could cause her real anguish and possibly affect her physical health [or] she might forget and then have to learn, and grieve, the loss repeatedly. At the same time, despite their estrangement, it feels as if she has a right to know.”

Gee, tough one! What to do? Let the poor woman fade away in peace and in a blissful state of ignorance regarding a loss that can’t possibly make her feel anything but worse (the inquirer even says that there isn’t going to be a memorial service or a funeral), or, in the alternative, risk traumatizing her when she is in a vulnerable state because of an imaginary “right” that doesn’t apply to such extreme circumstances. Wow, we need a real professional to solve this one!