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Insert Comma • A Portfolio of Leigh E. Rich
Categories: Editorials, Ethics, Film, Health, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on Eating people is wrong

Or how we decide morally what to eat By Michael A. Ashby and Leigh E. Rich Though from opposite sides of the world and of different genders, religious backgrounds, and professional disciplines (but not necessarily scholarly orientations), we both grew up being fed tales of cannibalism. For one of us (LER), born and raised in […]

Categories: Editorials, Ethics, Health, Social Science, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on From personal misfortune to public liability

The ethics, limits, and politics of public health saving ourselves from ourselves By Leigh E. Rich and Michael A. Ashby The tension between a notion of the “common good” and individual liberty is one that political theory knows well. Indeed much of human political history is written around this central theme. In health matters, for […]

Categories: Feminism, Media, Philosophy, Social Science, Television, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on Feminism ain’t funny

Woman as “fun-killer,” mother as monster in the American sitcom By Jack Simmons and Leigh E. Rich Whether America has realized President Herbert Hoover’s 20th-century vision of a “chicken in every pot,” there is a television in nearly every home. Powerful and accessible, television programs, whether explicitly, convey values and messages to viewers and, thus, […]

Categories: Books, History, Politics, Religion, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on Scientology as case study

What the ethical and legal history of Scientology can teach us about religion By Leigh E. Rich Though in many ways still shrouded in secrecy, Scientology could be said to be one of the most “accessible” religions in the world—that is, in terms of documenting and understanding its origins. Part of this has to do with its young age, […]

Categories: Editorials, Ethics, Health, Social Science, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on Cases and culture

The benefits and risks of narrating “life as lived” By Michael A. Ashby and Leigh E. Rich In Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill wrote that “[t]here exists no moral system under which there do not arise unequivocal cases of conflicting obligation” (1957, ¶2.25). This is what makes the practice—as well as the teaching—of bioethics so difficult […]

Categories: Editorials, Ethics, Feminism, Politics, Social Science, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on Real dialogue needed on rape

Rep. Todd Akin’s comments a missed opportunity for cultural and ethical debate By Leigh E. Rich These days, one has to feel some sympathy for politicians, political candidates, celebrities and others in the public eye. Modern media technologies and the proliferation of communication channels have created something of a Panopticon, where the relative ease of […]

Categories: Editorials, Ethics, Feminism, Film, Health, Media, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on Today’s “Sexmission”

Editorial for the 9(3) issue of the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry By Leigh E. Rich and Michael A. Ashby The Polish film Seksmisja (Sexmission) opens with a quote from playwright and author Sławomir Mrożek: “Jutro to dziś—tyle, że jutro,” which is translated in the film’s subtitles as “Tomorrow is today—but a day away.” A popular […]

Categories: Editorials, Ethics, Health, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on Signposts in a familiar land?

Editorial for the 9(2) issue of the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry By Michael A. Ashby and Leigh E. Rich In comedy and humor it is often said that we laugh at what we find most difficult: sex and death and social taboos. In bioethics, we struggle to control—or at least order and contain—ultimately that over […]

Categories: Ethics, Feminism, Film, Law, Science, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on ‘Eggsploitation’

Oocyte (egg) donation is riddled with issues that have few, if any, solutions By Leigh E. Rich In one sense, so-called “third-party reproduction” that uses gametes contributed by anonymous (or known) “donors” is no longer novel (Murphy 2009; Sargent 2007; Sauer 2001; Mastroianni 2001), but the highly profitable IVF industry (now sometimes called “ART” for “artificial reproductive techniques”) is still in […]

Categories: Editorials, Ethics, Health, Law, Science, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on Rethinking the body and its boundaries

Editorial for the 9(1) issue of the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry By Leigh E. Rich, Michael A. Ashby, and Pierre-Olivier Méthot Until recently, the idea that the nature of the body is a contested matter may have seemed to many people, whether inside or beyond the ivory tower, as but another sign of the silliness […]

Categories: Editorials, Ethics, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on Discussing difference and dealing with desolation and despair

Editorial for the 8(4) issue of the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry By Michael A. Ashby and Leigh E. Rich The Journal of Bioethical Inquiry (JBI) sets out to be a respected and respectful forum for the exchange of ideas, where moral issues we encounter in health care, biology, and the broader life and social sciences […]

Categories: Editorials, Ethics, Media, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on On peer review

Editorial for the 8(3) issue of the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry By Leigh E. Rich and Michael A. Ashby Every January, the American Dialect Society (ADS) votes on the “word(s) of the year,” reflecting a word or phrase that has inordinately affected a culture and its citizens (obviously, primarily those in the United States). In […]