> Issue Briefs

Google and Violating Patients’ Privacy: It’s Worse Than It Appears

Posted: November 27, 2019
By: R. J. Snell, Ph.D.

Even though the phrase “do no harm” doesn’t actually appear in the Hippocratic Oath, there’s something Hippocratic about Google’s “unofficial motto” and corporate conduct code, “don’t be evil.” Or, at least, until Google jettisoned the phrase from its code in … Read

The Immorality of Happiness?

Posted: November 21, 2019
By: R. J. Snell, Ph.D.

Many of the debates in bioethics are really about competing visions of happiness. For example, if happiness is a mental-emotional state of good-feeling, then negative or bad feelings are tantamount to unhappiness, and an ethical system which forbids actions which … Read

Alternative Aims of Science: How Agendas Harm the Suffering

Posted: October 1, 2019
By: Frank J. Moncher, Ph.D.

When a scientific journal of a vaunted organization such as the American Medical Association (AMA) publishes research, there is a natural tendency to consider the findings to be reliable, valid and worthy of one’s attention and consideration. But as in … Read

Does Climate Change Justify Engineering a New Type of Person?

Posted: September 11, 2019
By: R. J. Snell, Ph.D.

Out of concerns for the environment, and especially due to climate, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle recently announced their intention to have no more than two children. Some believe this is not sufficient and have committed to “BirthStrike,” that is, … Read

Protecting the Body: Principles for the Future

Posted: September 3, 2019
By: R. J. Snell, Ph.D.

“There’s a war going on over our bodies,” argues a recent essay by Susie Orbach, a noted therapist. She speaks not of overt violence, but rather the alluring “promise of trouble-free, almost body-free existence as we move towards futures constituted … Read

More Hope for the Trans-confused (and Their Healthcare Providers)

Posted: August 20, 2019
By: Frank J. Moncher, Ph.D.

Following on the Texas court ruling in 2016 which challenged the federal regulation that required doctors (even against their conscience or medical objection) to perform gender-transition procedures on children, there is now more encouraging news of efforts to both protect … Read

Freedom, Equality, and Abortion

Posted: May 23, 2019
By: Steve Soukup

The principal argument underpinning the Pro-Choice position is that abortion is not about babies or death or anything else so unpleasant but about freedom. Indeed, the label “Pro-Choice” is a nod to the criticality of this argument. Women should be … Read

Lost In Trans–lation: The Enormous Problem of Agenda-Driven Research

Posted: May 16, 2019
By: Frank J. Moncher, Ph.D.

A law professor in Canada recently published a piece expressing concern regarding the current standard practice of requiring persons to obtain a psychological assessment prior receiving hormone replacement therapy (“HRT”) or genital surgery. This practice has been one of the … Read

“Not Really Asking.” Representative Sims and the Threat to Reason

Posted: May 10, 2019
By: R. J. Snell, Ph.D.

Over the last several days, videos of Pennsylvania State Representative Brian Sims accosting protestors quietly praying outside of a Philadelphia-area Planned Parenthood clinic have received wide notice and commentary. In one video, Sims appears to offer a financial reward to … Read

Parental Rights and the Duties of Conscience

Posted: April 30, 2019
By: R. J. Snell, Ph.D.

Children are no small matter. We don’t simply have offspring or produce another member of the species, for children are persons endowed with intrinsic and unalienable dignity. To have a child is to become responsible for a being of incalculable … Read

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