Should the state pay for you to have kids?

Emily McTernan argues against the state funding of infertility treatmen

Moral Character, Liberal States, and Civic Education

Ensuring a functioning and stable liberal society requires a variety of behaviours and attitudes from individual citizens, from paying taxes to tolerating diversity. Political philosophers largely accept that these cannot be achieved through the arrangement of institutions alone, and so propose the cultivation of civic virtues. Meanwhile, in moral philosophy, much has been written about the challenging implications of psychology for theories of moral virtue. This chapter examines what political philosophers might draw from the findings of psychology. I begin by presenting the challenge from psychology to the traditional model of civic education. However, this chapter’s focus is on what political philosophers have to gain from psychological research: namely, a set of empirically superior alternatives to civic education as usual. I will outline three such alternatives—local traits, situational factors, and social norms—sketching their relative merits and the significant changes to civic education as usual that they would require.</p

Against visitor bans: Freedom of association, Covid-19, and the hospital ward

To ban or significantly restrict visitors for patients in hospital could seem to be simply a sensible and easy precaution to take during a pandemic: a policy that is unpopular, perhaps, and even unfortunate, but not something that wrongs anyone. However, I argue that in fact such restrictions on visitors infringe upon a fundamental right, to freedom of association. Whilst there may still be permissible restrictions on visitors, making the case for these becomes highly demanding. One common way to understand the purpose of the fundamental liberties is as protecting us from interference in a core set of freedoms, even when such interference would be to our benefit or would promote the general good. This reframing of the importance of visitors in terms of a right also has implications for how to run hospitals beyond the pandemic era: it supports a rapid expansion of visitor access and suggests that any decision to significantly restrict visitors ought not be left in the hospital, or hospital trust’s, hands

Taking Offense with Emily McTernan

Overview & Shownotes Imagine sitting in a staff meeting where one of your co-workers makes a joke about people with disabilities. You’re offended, so you roll your eyes and cross your arms in front of your chest for the rest of the meeting. You might worry that your reaction was pretty insignificant, and didn’t really do any good. My guest, philosopher Emily McTernan, argues that taking offense and showing disapproval, even in small ways, can actually be a force for social good. For the episode transcript, download a copy or read it below. Contact us at [email protected] Links to people and ideas mentioned in the show Emily McTernan, On Taking Offence Amy Olberding, The Wrong of Rudeness: Learning Modern Civility from Ancient Chinese Philosophy Sarah Buss, “Appearing Respectful: The Moral Significance of Manners“ Cheshire Calhoun, “The Virtue of Civility“ Joel Feinberg, Offense to Others Credits Thanks to Evelyn Brosius for our logo. Music featured in the show: “Funk and Flash” by Blue Dot Sessions “Rambling” by Blue Dot SessionsOverview & Shownote

Heckling, Free Speech, and Freedom of Association

People sometimes use speech to interfere with other people’s speech, as in the case of a heckler sabotaging a lecture with constant interjections. Some people claim that such interference infringes upon free speech. Against this view, we argue that where competing speakers in a public forum both have an interest in speaking, free speech principles should not automatically give priority to the ‘official’ speaker. Given the ideals underlying free speech, heckling speech sometimes deserves priority. But what can we say, then, about situations in which heckling clearly seems to infringe upon people’s civil liberties, in a way that intuitively justifies intervention? In such cases, we argue, heckling infringes upon people’s associative freedom. We present and defend an ethical framework for the institutional management of ‘Speech Fights’, geared around this insight

Does Reproductive Justice Demand Insurance Coverage for IVF?

This paper comes out of a panel honoring the work of Anne Donchin (1940-2014), which took place at the 2016 Congress of the International Network on Feminist Approaches to Bioethics (FAB) in Edinburgh. My general aim is to highlight the contributions Anne made to feminist bioethics, and to feminist reproductive ethics in particular. My more specific aim, however, is to have a kind of conversation with Anne, through her work, about whether reproductive justice could demand insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization. I quote liberally from Anne’s work for this purpose, but also to shower the reader with her words, reminding those of us who knew her well what a wonderful colleague she was

Listening to fathers in STEM

To write this article, Emily Draper and Jennifer Leigh from the International Women in Supramolecular Chemistry (WISC) network again joined forces with David Smith and asked dads working within the field of supramolecular chemistry to share experiences around parental leave. When we think about the career impact of having a family, or how to manage the practicalities of parenting as a chemist (or scientist), the conversation has historically tended to focus on the mother, maternity rights, and a mother’s need to balance family life with the scientific life. But what about fathers