Should We Give Nature “Rights”? A Premier Science Journal Says Yes

algae, Culture & Ethics, duties, earthquake faults, ecosystem services, Evolution, experts, glaciers, human beings, ideologues, lawsuits, legal standing, legislatures, lion prides, Moon, nature, nature rights, oceans, ownership, right to evolve, rights, rock outcroppings, Science (journal), science journals, scientists, swamps, wokeness
The text is too long to present here, so I will give one example: the “right to evolve.” The authors note that “evolution” has many meanings. Source
Read More

A Christmas Nightmare for the COVID Era

authoritarianism, C.S. Lewis, Camille Griffin, Christmas, Christmas carols, COVID-19, Culture & Ethics, Davida McKenzie, experts, government, Great Britain, Greta Thunberg, House Beautiful, Keira Knightley, Lily-Rose Depp, Matthew Goode, Medicine, movies, pandemic, profanity, Republicans, Roman Griffin Davis, Russia, scientists, Secularism, Silent Night, Sope Dirisu, spoilers, The Abolition of Man
The new Christmas horror-comedy Silent Night offers a shrewd indictment of both mindless secularism and authoritarian science. Source
Read More

The COVID Crisis and Our Healthcare System

borders, boroughs of New York, China, COVID-19, elderly people, Europe, experts, government planners, healthcare, Iran, Italy, Manhattan, mass transit, Medicine, mortality, New York City, nursing homes, officials, pandemic, patients, prisons, Queens, socialism, Staten Island, statism, United States, Venezuela, Wuhan, xenophobia
An essay by a pair of economists in Foreign Policy magazine pins the blame for our pandemic crisis on deficiencies in our health care system. It recommends a variety of interventions, each of which (predictably) entails more government control of health care by experts like… the authors of the essay. To see the COVID response as signifying a failure of the healthcare system is an insult to the brave and skilled people who responded so effectively to this virus, including colleagues at my own hospital on New York’s corona frontline. The authors, and others who think similarly, misunderstand the roots of the crisis and misunderstand the role the health care system has played. More importantly, they misunderstand the role of statism in generating this pandemic.  Retooled Overnight Given the unexpected…
Read More

Balancing Lives, Economics, and Public Policy in This Plague

borders, calculus, Congress, constitutional rights, coronavirus, COVID-19, Culture & Ethics, Economics, elderly, epidemiology, ethics, euthanasia, experts, governors, health, incubation period, Medicine, neurosurgeon, polis, Politics, President, Principle of Double Effect, probabilities, psychology, public policy, scientists, Senate, social distancing, sociology, Thomas Aquinas, triage, ventilators
I am a physician, and while I don’t treat coronavirus patients personally (I’m a neurosurgeon), I work in a regional coronavirus center and have first-hand knowledge of the medical impact of this pandemic. The danger the virus poses to life is substantial — in vulnerable people, it causes severe pulmonary compromise, often requiring the patient to be placed on a ventilator, and a substantial portion of these ventilated patients will die. The virus is highly contagious, and has a rather long incubation period, which helps it spread — people who have it continue to walk around and spread it for quite a while before they become sick and realize that they are contagious.  A Framework for the Wisest Decisions For a variety of reasons, the coronavirus plague is devastating to…
Read More