Recent calls for the widespread use of cognitive enhancements are based on a narrow, mechanistic view of what it means to be human.
Pillar: The Human Person
The Human Person
The first pillar of a decent society is respect for the human person, which recognizes that all individual human beings have dignity simply because of the kind of being they are: animals whose rational faculties allow them to know, love, reason, and communicate. It also recognizes that human beings are persons, members of the human family who flourish in a community that respects their fundamental rights and who long to discover transcendent truths about the nature of reality.
Learn more about the Human Person: get your free eBook today!
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Freedom in Muslim Countries: An Endangered Species
Encouraging peaceful, reformist Muslims requires freedom of speech and religion. Yet U.S. policies in Egypt and elsewhere support governments which actively work against Muslim reformist efforts.
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Politics and Science
The “rightful place” of science is not as obvious as the President thinks.
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Dividing the Child: The Problems with the Saletan Abortion Compromise
William Saletan’s proposals for abortion compromise would do little to relieve the plight of women or save the unborn.
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What Obama Will Give the Left
With political realities preventing Obama from satisfying his left-wing base on economic and foreign policy questions, look for Obama to give the left the barn on social issues. And expect him to do so in significant measure through the courts.
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Sartre Debates an Islamist
The play “Madah-Sartre,” both funny and poignant, provides a glimpse into the contradictions, logical impoverishment, and inhumanity of Islamist ideology, while also offering a dose of basic human decency to parties in a conflict which is more often characterized by violence than civil debate.
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Pro-Life Secularists and the Future of Abortion Politics
If opposition to abortion is not necessarily tied to a religious worldview, pro-life advocates may see victory in the culture wars.
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The Impact of Parental Notification Laws
Professor Michael New writes that, contrary to claims by the Guttmacher Institute, parental involvement laws do have a significant effect in reducing abortions.
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A Diverse Bioethics Council?
President Bush created a council that represented the range of viewpoints held by reasonable and responsible Americans on the most urgent and divisive bioethics questions facing the country. Will President Obama do the same?
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Our Struggle for the Soul of our Nation
In remarks delivered yesterday at the Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life, Robert P. George reflected on the history of the pro-life movement and offered advice for its future.
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Hillary Clinton, Public Diplomacy, and the Middle East
America’s public diplomacy should be focused on fostering ideas in our interest that matter in key foreign audiences, not just on pro-America image marketing.
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Islamists Killed Tahar Djaout: We Should Give Life to His Ideas
The Algerian novel The Last Summer of Reason provides a powerful and strangely beautiful reminder of the danger of letting violent ideological fundamentalism fester. We would do well to heed this reminder now, not later.
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An Absolute Liberty of Conscience?
Freedom of conscience is an important, though limited, right. In some cases a state may prevent someone from acting on her conscientious judgments. But in other cases—such as those in which a pro-life doctor is required to perform an abortion—the violation of conscience is intrinsically unjust.
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What We Should Do About Natural Embryo Loss
While abortion opponents decry the deliberate destruction of human embryos, as many as half of all embryos are lost naturally. How should pro-life advocates address this problem?
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Will Islam in Germany lead to Mufti Merkel?
The German government’s attempts to promote moderate Islam may have the opposite effect.
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Aborting Conscience
The advice of a recent report by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists seeks to impose one contested moral view on an entire field of medicine.
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Social Conservatives Cannot Ignore Political Realities
John Haldane has reminded social conservatives in America of important political and moral truths, but he overlooks the necessity of engaging in partisan politics with eyes wide open to political realities.
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A Second Look at Syria
Spend some time traveling in this “Axis of Evil” nation and you’ll meet many people who will challenge conventional wisdom. Understanding the mixed-bag of Syrian social, political, and cultural allegiances will be key for U.S. foreign policy.
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The Reasons for Banning Abortion
One need not be religious to oppose abortion. A simple look at what it does to new human life and what it has done to contemporary society is more than reason enough. New horrors loom on the horizon, but there is reason for hope.
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Reducing Abortions: Responding to Faulty Methodology and Presentation
Michael New's criticism of a recent study has come in for criticism itself. He responds that the study suffers from methodological mistakes and faulty presentation.
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Islam: Obsession Reorientation
As the recent film "Obsession" points out, Islamist radicalism poses a grave threat to the freedoms of constitutional democracies. But "Obsession" largely ignores potential solutions and a host of moderate Islamic voices that have gone unheard.
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Abortion and Public Policy: A Response to Michael New
The author of a recent abortion study answers Michael New's criticisms.
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From Wrongs Abounding, May Good yet More Abound
Social Conservatives in America would do well to consider recent events in the U.K.
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A Letter to the Editor from Charles J. Chaput
Archbishop Chaput writes to the editors of Public Discourse
