Thinking Ethics

Genetically modified plants

Wether you are for or against genetically modified plants is sometimes an issue of culture (Europe against mostly, America for). And funding - as the producers usually give a lot of help in the implementation. Genetically modified cotton is now coming to Africa - a summit in June organised by the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation has resulted in an announcement that 8 African countries are going to benefit from a private public partnership and a mutualization of means. The 8 countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Tchad, Cameroun, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Togo. The current yields are so poor that farmers often sell their product below cost. This should help the cotton producers in the region.

Upholding the code of ethics

The Tour de France, the main cycling event, is going to have to continue without most of the top contenders. The code of ethics adopted last year by the cycling federation stipulates that athletes investigated for performance enhancing drug usage would be eliminated from the competition, and it is being enforced. Drug usage in cycling is a real problem, especially with the amateurs, but has not been in the forefront of the news. Some say as many as 50% of the athletes competing might be doing something illegal to enhance their performance. more... and more...

Contamination of Science by Religion

There are calls in the Roman Catholic Church to excommunicate researchers who use embryos in their stem cell research. Although I have heard many people active in the science and medical communities call for a convergence of science and the humanities, in order to bring an ethics dimension into the decision process, I don't think this is quite what they had in mind.  This article entitled "Excommunication is sought for stem cell researcher " by Elisabeth Rosenthal in the New York Times talks about the issues. We have disconnected science and religion in the last 300 years or so (remember when Copernick had to swear the sun moved around the earth...), and science has been able to move forward at an incredible rate. We are now reaching the limits of this single minded approach, and the use, or rather misuse, of innovations and discoveries needs to be taken into account. But an interference of the Roman Catholic Church with an edict on what can or cannot be done under threat of excommunication smacks of sanctions of a bygone era.