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Insert Comma • A Portfolio of Leigh E. Rich
12.01.2013
“As flies to wanton boys”
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
“Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say”
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
Eating people is wrong
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 […]

03.01.2013
From personal misfortune to public liability
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 […]

03.01.2013
Feminism ain’t funny
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, […]

12.01.2012
Scientology as case study
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, […]

12.01.2012
Cases and culture
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 […]

09.03.2012
Real dialogue needed on rape
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 […]

09.01.2012
Today’s “Sexmission”
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
Signposts in a familiar land?
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
‘Eggsploitation’
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 […]

03.01.2012
Rethinking the body and its boundaries
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 […]