Ethics in the real world : 82 brief essays on things that matter

Table of contents
Introduction ix Acknowledgments xv Big Questions The Value of a Pale Blue Dot 3 Does Anything Matter? 6 Is There Moral Progress? 9 God and Suffering, Again 12 Godless Morality (with Marc Hauser) 15 Are We Ready for a "Morality Pill"? (with Agata Sagan) 19 The Quality of Mercy 23 Thinking about the Dead 27 Should This Be the Last Generation? 31 Philosophy on Top 35 Animals Europe's Ethical Eggs 41 If Fish Could Scream 44 Cultural Bias against Whaling? 47 A Case for Veganism 50 Consider the Turkey: Thoughts for Thanksgiving 55 In Vitro Meat 60 Chimpanzees Are People, Too 63 The Cow Who ... 66 Beyond the Ethic of the Sanctity of Life The Real Abortion Tragedy 73 Treating (or Not) the Tiniest Babies 77 Pulling Back the Curtain on the Mercy Killing of Newborns 81 No Diseases for Old Men 85 When Doctors Kill 89 Choosing Death 93 Dying in Court 97 Bioethics and Public Health The Human Genome and the Genetic Supermarket 103 The Year of the Clone? 106 Kidneys for Sale? 110 The Many Crises of Health Care 114 Public Health versus Private Freedom? 118 Weigh More, Pay More 122 Should We Live to 1,000? 125 Population and the Pope 129 Sex and Gender Should Adult Sibling Incest Be a Crime? 135 Homosexuality Is Not Immoral 139 Virtual Vices 142 A Private Affair? 146 How Much Should Sex Matter? (with Agata Sagan) 150 God and Woman in Iran 154 Doing Good The One- Percent Solution 159 Holding Charities Accountable 163 Blatant Benevolence 167 Good Charity, Bad Charity 171 Heartwarming Causes Are Nice, But Let's Give to Charity with Our Heads 175 The Ethical Cost of High-Price Art 179 Preventing Human Extinction (with Nick Beckstead and Matt Wage) 182 Happiness Happiness, Money, and Giving It Away 191 Can We Increase Gross National Happiness? 195 The High Cost of Feeling Low 199 No Smile Limit 202 Happy, Nevertheless 205 Politics Bentham's Fallacies, Then and Now 211 The Founding Fathers' Fiscal Crisis 215 Why Vote? 219 Free Speech, Muhammad, and the Holocaust 222 The Use and Abuse of Religious Freedom 225 An Honest Man? 229 Is Citizenship a Right? 232 The Spying Game 236 A Statue for Stalin? 239 Should We Honor Racists? 243 Global Governance Escaping the Refugee Crisis 249 Is Open Diplomacy Possible? 253 The Ethics of Big Food 257 Fairness and Climate Change (with Teng Fei) 260 Will the Polluters Pay for Climate Change? 264 Why Are They Serving Meat at a Climate Change Conference? (with Frances Kissling) 268 Dethroning King Coal 273 Paris and the Fate of the Earth 277 Science and Technology A Clear Case for Golden Rice 283 Life Made to Order 287 Rights for Robots? (with Agata Sagan) 291 A Dream for the Digital Age 295 A Universal Library 298 The Tragic Cost of Being Unscientific 302 Living, Playing, Working How to Keep a New Year's Resolution 307 Why Pay More? 310 Tiger Mothers or Elephant Mothers? 313 Volkswagen and the Future of Honesty 317 Is Doping Wrong? 321 Is It OK to Cheat at Football? 324 A Surfing Reflection 328 Index 331