Category: Ethics

Where does our sense or right and wrong come from?

Where does our sense of right and wrong come from? Most people think it is a gift from God, who revealed His laws and elevates us with His love. A smaller number think that we figure the rules out for ourselves, using our capacity to reason and choosing a philosophical system to live by.

Moral naturalists, on the other hand, believe that we have moral sentiments that have emerged from a long history of relationships. To learn about morality, you don’t rely upon revelation or metaphysics; you observe people as they live.

Catholic investment agency said to invest in companies that profit from pornography

No Porn BBC Northern Ireland presenter William Crawley has a blog post about Hardcore Profits, a BBC documentary about the pornography industry, has been looking into those organisations who have investments, directly or indirectly, with in the adult entertainment business.”

Crawley says following a change in ethical policy guidelines the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops in 2003, Christian Brothers Investment Services now have investments of tens of millions of dollars in companies that make sizeable profits from commercial pornography. The Bishops’ guidelines permit these investments because the new rules allow the church to do business with a company as long as income from pornography does not represent “a significant portion of its revenues”.

A Pastor on Health Care: What Would Jesus Do?

“I was a little surprised on Sunday when my pastor took his customary sermon spot in front of the altar, holding the Scripture in one hand and a newspaper in the other.

In that day’s Gospel, Jesus healed a deaf and mute man (Mark 7: 31-37), and in that day’s paper, how to best heal the sick was a headline issue.”

Red Cross: America practiced torture

US human rights violations The International Committee of the Red Cross concluded in a secret report that the Bush administration’s treatment of al-Qaeda captives “constituted torture,” a finding that strongly implied that CIA interrogation methods violated international law, according to newly published excerpts from the long-concealed 2007 document.

The report, an account alleging physical and psychological brutality inside CIA “black site” prisons, also states that some U.S. practices amounted to “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.” Such maltreatment of detainees is expressly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.

Ireland: Laws urged on right to refuse care

The right to refuse medical care People should be able to refuse in advance medical treatment in the event of their becoming incapacitated by serious accident or illness, according to the Law Reform Commission in Ireland.

The commission also provisionally recommends that refusal of treatment on religious grounds in advance care directives be permitted. This issue has been explored by the courts recently in relation to Jehovah’s Witnesses, who, on religious grounds, do not accept blood transfusions.