A sharp-shooter for honest ethical reflection
Date: December 6, 2006
Time: 5:15am est

Yuval Levin is an extremely articulate and dedicated apostle of the culture of life, and I am grateful to call him a friend. After serving as Associate Director of the Domestic Policy Council at the White House (and prior to that, as executive director of the President's Council on Bioethics), he is currently a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and senior editor of a journal I would recommend you take a look at, The New Atlantis . read more>>>

Why too many scientists steer clear of ethics
Date: December 6, 2006
Time: 4:47am est

If you want to jumpstart your own thoughts on the tricky subject of scientific endeavor vs. ethical restraint on research, I recommend this surprisingly candid critique by University of Pennsylvania sociologist and bioethicist Paul Root Wolpe. Entitled " Reasons Scientists Avoid Thinking about Ethics ," it appeared in the journal Cell last June. In it, Wolpe explores eight reasons scientists themselves have given-in moments of candor-for avoiding ethical reflection (or at least ethical debate in the public square), everything from "I am not a trained ethicist" to "ethics impedes scientific progress."
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How to read Pope Benedict-and how not to
Date: December 4, 2006
Time: 9:17am est

Some commentators of things Catholic are interpreting Pope Benedict’s trip to Turkey as the emergence of the Pope-politician-diplomat. This is what I got from Ian Fisher’s New York Time’s piece on Sunday. I’m glad Ian found some of my quotes useful, and I often like Ian’s reporting, but I found this story to be way too thick on interpretation: Has the Pope gone wobbly? Has his grip on certainty slipped? Is he still recognizable to his previous supporters after praying in the Blue Mosque? read more>>>

Benedict XVI and Islam: Where do they stand?
Date: November 30, 2006
Time: 2:20pm est

Since last September at the University of Regensburg, Pope Benedict has been trying to jumpstart a dialogue on two fronts: dialogue with Islam, but also dialogue with the largely secularized, anti-religious West. And what we have heard from him in Turkey this week is in lockstep with what he said then. He reiterated his esteem for Muslims, and his insistence that Islam and Christianity have a common ground in pointing "to the truth of the sacred character and dignity of the person." Now as then, he is saying that the secularized West restricts and impoverishes the notion of reason to the exclusion of religion, and that some extremist forms of religion (militant Islam) exalt religion to the exclusion of reason.
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Pope Gives Nod to Turkey's Entry into EU
Date: November 28, 2006
Time: 09:06pm est

Benedict had two surprises today, day 1 of his pastoral journey to Turkey. The first was the graciousness-even sweetness-of his remarks made at his meeting with Ali Bardakoglu, Turkey's president of Religious Affairs, and initially one of the most outspoken critics of Benedict's September 12 Regensburg speech. read more>>>

Science vs. Religion -
Time to Take the Gloves Off?
Date: November 27, 2006
Time: 11:10pm est

Richard Dawkins is a British evolutionary scientist. He holds the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. Dawkins has expended many years of his life trying to convince people that the real enemy of human progress is religion. With the publication of his most recent, best-selling book The God Delusion -any doubts about the book's central thesis?-Dawkins has become the poster-boy and spokesperson for a new, trendy and much more vociferous form of anti-religious scientism. read more>>>

Pope Benedict, the Church and the Modern World
Date: November 25, 2006
Time: 10:45pm est

The Wall Street Journal weekend edition showcased a front page story on Pope Benedict. The story was occasioned by the Pontiff's imminent trip to Turkey (he arrives on Tuesday), a trip that will have the world watching. On September 12, the Pope Benedict delivered a speech during his trip to Germany and the University of Regensburg which rocked the Islamic world, provoking anti-Christian violence and even the murder of a Catholic nun. read more>>>

Romney and same-sex unions in Massachusetts
Date: November 20, 2006
Time: 10:30pm est

Three years ago, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules that same-sex unions (referred to by some as "marriages") were legal in the State. Yesterday, Gov. Mitt Romney announced he would ask the State's highest court to put a question banning same-sex "marriage" onto the ballot if the state legislature fails to take up the question by Jan. 2, final day of their legislative session. read more>>>

Children of Sperm Donors - What's it Like?!
Date: November 20, 2006
Time: 11:43am est

I would like to alert you to a fascinating new book distributed by the Linacre Center for Healthcare Ethics directed by our good friend Dr. Helen Watt and at the forefront of Catholic bioethics in Great Britain.read more>>>

Why I don't think it's enough to promote only adult stem cell research
Date: November 17, 2006
Time: 09:13pm est

Let me respond to a frequently asked question. The question usually goes something like this: if we know that adult stem cells can do everything that embryonic stem cells can do, why waste time pursuing sources that would supposedly offer the equivalent of human embryonic stem cells? read more>>>

A day at the President's Council on Bioethics
Date: November 16, 2006
Time: 09:13pm est

This morning, I was at the Council meeting held at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza in Washington, D.C. Today the members heard from Dr. Hans Schöler Director for Cell and Developmental Biology at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine. A top-flight stem cell biologist, Sch ö ler was invited t o update the Council on the latest scientific inroads regarding non-embryo destructive stem cell research. read more>>>

Welcome to my e-column !
Date: November 13, 2006
Time: 11:17am est

As I begin, I fear that the title of this e-column - With Good Reason -will come across as rather pretentious. So, why did I choose this title? It will be no secret to most of you that American public discourse-on virtually any topic-is more often than not burdened by poor reasoning. read more>>>