The debate over human “enhancement”, or the biotechnological heightening of human abilities, is prominent in bioethics. The most controversial stance is transhumanism, whose advocates urge us to develop biotechnologies enabling the “radical” elevation of select capacities, above all, rationality. Transhumanists insist that their vision of the radical bioenhancement of human capacities is light-years removed from […]
Should Micheál Martin go to the White House for St Patrick’s Day? VOTE in our poll below and leave your comments here and on social media.
“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft, where we are hard, cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand.” Did F. […]
The very difficult subject of assisted suicide is coming into sharp focus, with the Oireachtas Justice Committee having received written submissions on the somewhat dubiously named Dying with Dignity Bill. There has been fair criticism of the wording of the Bill and the dangers resulting from that wording. The biggest problems with the Bill though […]
Last Thursday, January 28, emergency responders in Gainesville, Georgia, about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta, began to receive 911 calls from Plant 4 of the Foundation Foods Prepared Food Division in that city. One caller reported, “I’ve got two people not breathing.” Another said he had gotten a call from another part of the plant saying that […]
Anyone familiar with the Bible is familiar with the Mark of the Beast: Without this mark, no man may buy or sell. Regardless of one’s religious faith or lack thereof, there is an illustrative case in this biblical story: When one cannot buy or sell, one is metaphorically up the creek. Short of producing […]
Is €292,000 a fair salary for the new Secretary General of the Department of Health? VOTE in our poll below and leave your comments here and on social media.
In July 1534 Thomas FitzGerald, acting Lord Deputy of Ireland and the son of Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, attacked Dublin Castle. Thomas and his followers wore silk fringes on their helmets thus giving this event the name “The Silken Thomas Affair”. The attack on the Castle, the seat of power in Ireland, had […]
On 30th January 1972, British Parachute Regiment shot dead civilians in a civil rights march in Derry city. It sent shockwaves through Britain and Ireland and people south of the border were angry and distraught. The first night 50 people picketed the British embassy, but on Monday morning walkouts took place at factories in Shannon […]
Every once in a while, a bioethics article appears which is so powerful an indictment of injustice that it sends shivers up the spines of its readers. In 1949 Leo Alexander published “Medical Science under Dictatorship” in the New England Journal of Medicine, about Nazi medicine. In 1966 Henry K. Beecher published “Ethics and Clinical Research”, […]
Feast of Saint Brigid of Kildare – Naomh Bríd – (c. 450 – 525) one of Ireland’s patron saints. She was an early Irish Christian nun, abbess, and foundress of several monasteries of nuns, including that of Kildare, which was famous and revered. Her feast day is shared by Dar Lugdach, who tradition says was […]
ON THIS DAY: Bloody Sunday – 14 civilians were shot dead on the streets of Derry by the British Parachute Regiment on 30th January 1972. They had been taking part in a civil rights march against internment without trial. 26 civilians were shot; 13 were killed outright while the death of another man happened four […]