'General' Category
Do We Have Free Will?
Now wait a minute, you may say. That’s a silly question. Of course we have free will — we all make choices, and we are all accountable for our actions.
Hmm, not so fast. Some claim that only physical and naturalistic forces are at work in the universe. What we perceive as free will is merely [...]A Christian Call to Action
As we begin the New Year, I have mixed feelings about the ethical direction of American society – a curious combination of unease and hope. Unease, because it appears that Congress and the courts are increasing their efforts to devalue human life and to attack the family. But I also have hope, in the growing [...]
Cleaning House
The President’s Council on Bioethics has been disbanded. The White House has told the members last week that their services are no longer required.
Appointed in November, 2001 by the Bush Administration, the Council has provided valuable input on some of the most difficult ethical issues in our modern culture. New technologies, both at the beginning [...]Who is to Blame?
Ellen Goodman is an op-ed columnist for the Boston Globe. Her nationally-syndicated column is usually thoughtful, well-written and balanced. As a liberal, she often critiques social conservative positions. I usually disagree with her, but she always gives me something to think about.
That is why I am troubled by her June 5th piece, “The Myth of [...]Courage Takes Many Forms
Prestigious scholar Mary Ann Glendon is the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard, and former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican. She was informed last December that she was to receive Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal at the university’s annual Commencement exercises, a great honor that she was looking forward to.
Then came the news that the [...]On Oprah, No Less!
Sometimes the truth has a way of getting out. On March 29th, Michael J. Fox and Dr. Oz were guests on the Oprah show. The topic, of course, was stem cell research. The medical expert used a real preserved brain to show the area of the midbrain affected by Parkinson’s Disease, called the substantia nigra. [...]
The Elephant in the Room
On March 9th, President Obama followed through on a campaign promise and issued an executive order. His signature overturned the ban, established in August, 2001, on government funding of embryo-destructive research. His speech at the signing ceremony was remarkable, not for his action (which was expected), but for what he didn’t say. Here’s an excerpt:
Today, [...]The Neuhaus Legacy
Father Richard John Neuhaus died recently at the age of 72. It would be hard to overestimate the influence of this godly man and gifted academic.
Fr. Neuhaus, a Lutheran pastor for 30 years, converted to Roman Catholicism in 1990, and was ordained a Catholic priest one year later by New York Cardinal John O’Connor. As [...]The End of an Era
Sometimes it takes a person from outside our society to be its most honest critic. On August 3, 2008, one such voice became silent.
Alexandr Solzhenitsyn died at the age of 89 of a heart ailment. This once unknown Russian high school teacher published his first book, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, [...]Who Am I?
In our ongoing academic debates over reproductive technologies, it is perhaps all too easy to forget the real issue: we are talking about how we treat human persons, created in God’s image, who have incalculable worth. Sometimes it is good to step back and put a face on the special children whose lives are in [...]
