The search for a Covid-19 vaccine highlights a massive dilemma for many ethical investors; any vaccine will be tested on animals and so violate the rights of those animals as sentient beings. Ethical investors often don’t want to invest in companies that test on animals. But many of these same people (including me) will willingly Read more
Tracing those who have been exposed to Covid-19 is an important step in winding down socially and economically crippling lockdowns. Manual tracing is resource-intensive and ineffective. A number of countries, including Singapore and Australia, have adopted smartphone apps using Bluetooth. New Zealand seems likely to follow a similar path. These apps vary in detail but Read more
Pope Francis is urging Silicon Valley giants to be careful when they’re developing new technologies. He’s not alone in his concern. Tech leaders like Elon Musk and Bill Gates are also taking a second look and reporting their concerns. Speaking at a Vatican conference on technology last week, Francis told his audience to make sure Read more
A volunteer ethics teacher in Australia has been stood down for telling students the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Stolen Generations were taken from their families because of poor parenting. The volunteer allegedly told the primary school age children that what they had been taught about why the children were removed was false. The real Read more
Clinicians are calling for an urgent national inquiry into the safety and ethics of giving unproven hormone drug treatment to ever younger children who are confused about sex and gender. A detailed submission, arguing that risks including infertility and lifelong regret outweigh the benefits to trans children and teenagers, was sent yesterday to Health Minister Read more
Microsoft’s President Brad Smith met Pope Francis on Wednesday to discuss the ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI). He also discussed ways to bridge the digital divide between rich and poor nations. Read more
Giving the Best of Yourself – is the first-ever Vatican document on sports. The document addresses a number of matters, including highly competitive children’s sports, putting political and economic pressures on athletes to win “at all costs”, playing sport on Sundays and unsportsmanlike or violent behaviour. The document, which speaks out about sports-related corruption, over-commercialisation, Read more
A new book “Ethics and Practice of Conservation: Manual for the conservation of ethnographic and multi-material assets” has been released from the Vatican museums. The ethics and practice of conservation is the result of nearly a century of experience at the Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum. Read more
Aboard the Golfo Azzurro — an urgent plea woke the ship’s doctor, John Vallentine, at 6:30 a.m. He was needed on the bridge. The rescue ship was steaming south in the Mediterranean Sea in a race to reach a deflating rubber dinghy packed with migrants. Italy’s coast guard had transmitted the coordinates, along with a Read more
Biologists in Oregon have edited the DNA of viable human embryos using the revolutionary genome-editing technique CRISPR-Cas9. Their work went beyond previous experiments using CRISPR to alter the DNA of human embryos, all of which were conducted in China,as it edited the genomes of many more embryos and targeted a gene associated with a significant Read more