23 December 2009

distilled list of public ethical positions thus far

Iraq: no
Afghanistan: no
Terrorism: yes and no
Torture: no
Public funding: yes
Public administration: no
Indefinite detention: no
Just war theory: not applicable
Bans on abortion: no
Bans on contraception: no
Carbon tax: yes
Cap and Trade: yes, but no
Religious litmus tests for authority: no
Required submission to authority (ie, police): no
Death penalty: no, but
War: yes
Charity: yes
Home ownership rate: not important
Social safety net: yes, but
Judicial "activism": yes
FISA/surveillance state: no
DUI checkpoints: no
Forfeiture clauses: no
Meat: yes, but
Censorship: no
Immigration: more please
Walls: no
Kidney exchanges/for sale: yes
Legalization: yes, yes, and yes (for drugs, gambling, prostitution)

If there's a pattern there, it should be obvious by now.

The only field I've noticed I'm sort of loathe to make a position on is human cloning. Robotic ethics are also sort of a questionable element (because how would we improve them while still leaving the original operating system intact from tampering). Neither is all that soon a problem yet that I must get to work on the issue.

No comments: