People who are pregnant or planning to be should be as clear as possible about their wishes for end-of-life care during pregnancy.
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Laws such as Alabama’s controversial ruling that gives personhood rights to frozen embryos will have ripple effects on how advance directives are interpreted by doctors and the courts.
It’s tempting to envision orcas attacking yachts as the forward troops in an animal uprising.
Jackson Roberts/iStock via Getty Images Plus
A few marine mammals in apparent revolt pushed meme-makers into overdrive. But a scholar who thinks about justice and human-animal relations suggests something deeper is behind the schadenfreude.
Americans have come to expect abundant clean water, but there are many stressors on water quality and availability.
Jessica/flickr
A webinar hosted by The Conversation brings together experts in law, health, policy and Indigenous affairs to explain some of the most pressing problems related to water in the US.
International human rights mechanisms alone cannot offer reliable solutions to racism, including racism affecting racialized migrants. Protestors support migrant worker rights in front of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, in Toronto, in August 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov
Dignity is at the centre of many rights-based declarations, but to eradicate racist policy and practices, we must commit to noticing each other’s personhood in new ways.
Anti-abortion protesters demonstrate in front of the Supreme Court in 1985, the 12th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.
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Looking at the underlying philosophical and moral questions involved in abortion debates can help explain why it’s such an intensely divisive issue.
Shamans from the organization Tengeri conduct an offering ritual in 2013 to Bukhe Bator, the spirit master of the Selenga River, Republic of Buryatia, Russian Federation.
Roberto Quijada
Scholars explain why many see abortion access as a religious freedom issue and what the views of different faiths are on ‘ensoulment,’ the point at which the soul is believed to enter the fetus.
Attendees pray during a worship service at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Anaheim, California, on June 14, 2022.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
A scholar writes about how the Southern Baptist Convention’s views on abortion changed during the 1980s, when a more conservative wing seized control of the denomination.
A man holds a sign that reads ‘Hands Off Roe!!!’ as abortion rights advocates and anti-abortion protesters demonstrate in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in December 2021.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
50 years ago, a noted U.S. philosopher argued that banning abortion forces women to go above and beyond to help an unborn fetus. What other individual rights are at stake if Roe v Wade is overturned?
Will Justices give a green light to states to decide on abortion?
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Arguments in a case that could fundamentally alter a woman’s right to abortion were heard at the Supreme Court. Justices’ questions suggest that Roe v. Wade is on shaky ground.
The Supreme Court hears a case on Dec. 1, 2021, regarding a Mississippi abortion law that poses a legal challenge to Roe v. Wade.
(Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images
The upcoming debate at the Supreme Court is less about the existence of the right to abortion and more about how that right is limited by the emerging personhood of a fetus.
In February, the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit and the Minganie Regional County Municipality declared the Muteshekau Shipu (Magpie River) a legal person, a move that may provide greater certainty for this majestic river’s future.
(Boreal River)
A recent declaration of a river as a legal person in Canada recognizes Indigenous laws and governance, and champions people as the guardians of nature.
Jean Vanier, founder of L'Arche communities, poses for a photograph after he received the Templeton Prize at St. Martins-in-the-Fields church in London, U.K., in May 2015.
(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
Jean Vanier, Catholic founder of L'Arche International, allegedly had abusive sexual relationships. Religious tolerance for the veneration of male leaders may be partly to blame.
The death of Harambe the gorilla has sparked outrage and raised questions over the adequacy of zoos, but protecting some animals through legal personhood is flawed and dangerous, says legal scholar.
The more academics fear being involved in media storms, the less they feel free to explore topics they consider important.
Tim Ellis/Flickr
Public engagement of academics has increased enormously in recent decades. But this new level of engagement is producing problems and conflicts for which many academics are ill-prepared.
Prop 91 - just one of three ballot initiatives on marijuana decriminalization
Steve Dipaola/Reuters
Editor’s note: There were 146 state-wide ballot measures up for consideration by voters in this week’s midterm elections, covering all manner of controversial issues – from abortion and guns to minimum…