Bioethics, literature, and method By Michael A. Ashby and Leigh E. Rich Why do we listen to songs and watch soap operas, and some of us even try to read poetry? Why do we love stories, joke about serious issues, and listen in on other people’s conversations? Why are we sad when a good book […]
03.01.2014
Categories: Editorials, Ethics, Film, History, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on Two Deaths and a Birth
Reminiscing and rehashing principles in biomedical ethics By Michael A. Ashby and Leigh E. Rich Two anniversaries and one notable death have been observed in the last two months of 2013: the 50th anniversary of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, the centenary of the birth of French Algerian Nobel Prize-winning author and […]
12.01.2013
Categories: Editorials, Ethics, Theater, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on “As flies to wanton boys”
Dilemmas and dodging in the field of nonhuman animal ethics By Michael A. Ashby and Leigh E. Rich On a daily basis, one of us (MA) drives around the Australian state of Tasmania where the “roadkill” bodies of native animals can be found everywhere, adding up to hundreds of thousands every year. Clearly, if these […]
09.01.2013
Categories: Editorials, Ethics, Feminism, Health, Media, Theater, Utrinque Paratus | Comments Off on “Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say”
Moral distress and bioethics By Leigh E. Rich and Michael A. Ashby At the tragic end of Shakespeare’s King Lear, Edgar, the son of the Earl of Gloucester, clearly sides with the emotions as he laments the state of the king and his kingdom: “The weight of this sad time we must obey,/Speak what we […]
06.01.2013
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 […]
09.01.2012
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 […]
06.01.2012
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 […]
03.01.2012
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 […]
12.01.2011
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 […]
