Despite causing hurt and offence, the legality of removing a whale fossil from the West Coast remains unclear. So what rules and laws govern amateur fossil hunting, and should they be strengthened?
‘I don’t like the candidates,’ ‘I don’t know enough to make a decision,’ ‘I don’t want to give this election legitimacy’ – an ethicist takes on nonvoters.
There are genuine political disagreements, and then there are time-worn strategies for selling denial to the public. A sociologist breaks down the patterns.
Trisha Tucker, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The US is seeing more campaigns to ‘protect’ children by barring controversial books. But research shows children’s reading experiences are complex and unpredictable, explains a literature professor.
A new study found that the device people used to communicate in a negotiation made a big difference in how likely they were to deceive for personal gain.
As businesses establish themselves in the metaverse, the amount of financial transactions there will increase. This will come with previously unknown risks.
In 1972, justices handed down a decision that attacked discriminatory and capricious death sentences. But it left the door ajar for states to continue the practice.
Adults today may have grown up dreaming they would live to see working jet packs and robot assistants but few people imagined it would be possible to create life without reproductive cells.
The country urgently needs more people who are committed to living decently to undo the systemic humiliation caused by political and economic institutions.
Lower federal court judges follow a formal code of ethics, but this does not apply to Supreme Court justices, leaving potential conflicts of interest unchecked.
Competition between corporations drives innovation and development. But when it comes to artificial intelligence systems, the prevention of harm should be more important.
Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics, Murdoch Children's Research Institute; Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law, University of Melbourne; Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford
Professor of Bioethics & Medicine, Sydney Health Ethics, Haematologist/BMT Physician, Royal North Shore Hospital and Director, Praxis Australia, University of Sydney