Writing in the English Catholic weekly The Tablet , Catholic bioethicist David Albert Jones discusses the U.K.’s General Medical Council’s new guidelines for treating dying patients. He notes that: A Catholic understanding of good end-of-life care is “both-and”: . . . . Continue Reading »
The current First Things (June/July 2010) has an important article by Eric Cohen and Yuval Levin—both of whom were staffers on the President’s Council on Bioethics under Leon Kass. They note that President Obama has profoundly downplayed bioethics in his presidency so far—other . . . . Continue Reading »
Unto His Own Image God becomes man: Venter creates synthetic life , reads one headline. One among many, many such boomings of the news about scientist Craig Venter’s synthesis of a new bacterium. A correspondent of Megan McArdle’s observes: I am getting bombarded with the Venter . . . . Continue Reading »
The Dalai Lama says , “Still I am a Marxist,” on his arrival in New York. It’s true that “Millions of people’s living standards improved” in China because of capitalism, but Marxism has “moral ethics, whereas capitalism is only how to make profits.” . . . . Continue Reading »
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms claims to guarantee all Canadians certain fundamental freedoms, including “freedom of conscience and religion” and “freedom of association.” However, following American precedent this country’s courts have tended to interpret religious . . . . Continue Reading »
The Wall Street Journal reports today that several theaters in Manhattan are charging moviegoers $20 per adult ticket to see Shrek Forever After in 3-D. The jury is still out on whether 3-D is the way of film’s future or just another gimmick (Armond White has much to say on the subject in the . . . . Continue Reading »
In Excommunicating Intentions , today’s second On the Square article, Michael Liccione examines the controversy over the Bishop of Phoenix’s declaration that a nun who had approved an abortion had excommunicated herself. It is not, he suggests, so simple a matter of controversialists on . . . . Continue Reading »
Prior to the great crisis of 2007, the governments of the European Community (according to its official statistical service Eurostat) spent 47 percent of GDP, against 19 percent for the US federal government. Including state and local government spending, the US total rises to 36 percent (of which . . . . Continue Reading »
Arakawa, the architect and artist whose buildings were supposed to help one live forever, has died . His wife and long-time collaborator, Madeline Gins comments: “This mortality thing is bad news,” Ms. Gins said by phone from her studio on Houston Street. She said she would redouble her . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
