ethics in the real world

Here is a link to an article that discusses the possibility of implementing population control and what that may entail for the future - https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23531331-300-the-ethics-issue-should-we-impose-population-controls/. I found this article interesting because it rose some valid points in my own mind regarding how there is only a finite amount of resources in the world and how there are some countries that have already implemented such a rule, like China, asserting that its citizens are permitted to only have one child per family. The obvious issue regarding such a policy is that each individual has the right to life and the right to procreate and to deny any individual of such a right would at a first glance seem ethically wrong, but I argue that a point could be made that by limiting the number of babies per family, we are minimizing the harm on the planet itself and thus maximizing happiness for many more years to come for all the people of Earth. ...

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The aim of this blog is to encourage discussion of ethical issues raised by the world as we find it.   As you know, our inquiries in class and in the readings occur at a rather high level of abstraction.   The natural move is from ethical understanding to its application to real-world issues.   I think that’s important, but it’s also important for ethics to be approached from the other direction: starting with awareness of some challenging real-world situation, and exploring it in hopes of finding ethical insight.   My aim in creating this blog, and opening it up for you to use as you like, is to encourage that sort of thinking.   So the idea is that you’ll start by describing some real-world situation about which guidance might be sought.   You might end there (perhaps with a word or two about why you think guidance is needed, if it isn’t obvious).   Or you might anticipate guidance which might be offered, or which you have in fact considered...