Science

The vaccine debate is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore: there is an article published on the topic almost daily, and it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t have an opinion on the subject. But for all the discussion, it seems that we are making very little progress towards resolving the issue: vaccination rates continue to … Continue reading "The Vaccine Debate: Where Do We Go From Here?"

Every week, the Prindle Intern team weighs in on an ethical issue together. Each intern is challenged to keep their response to five sentences – Ethics in 5. Click on an intern’s name to check out their previous posts on The Prindle Post! This week’s question: Vaccinations The anti-vaccination movement has been gaining momentum over the … Continue reading "Ethics in 5: Printerns on Vaccinations"

The term “designer babies” is becoming more and more common around the world today as genetic engineering continues to revolutionize how we think about human development.  China has some of the most in depth research on genetic engineering, which is putting its researchers under scrutiny from those who question the ethical implications of this field … Continue reading "The Present Status of Genetic Engineering"

This post was written by Ayo Animashaun, a 2014 graduate of DePauw University. Ayo was an Economics major, Management Fellow, and Bonner Scholar. This article details his post-grad experience integrating sustainability and business with Earthships Biotecture Academy as well as his ambitions to bring the Earthship model to his home country of Ghana. Graduating presented me with the … Continue reading "Discovering Biotecture: What are Earthships and Why Should We Care?"

Doctor Sergio Canavero has been interested in performing head transplants since learning about Doctor Robert White’s experiment in 1970, which involved switching the heads of two different monkeys. 45 years later,  Canavero is ready to emulate the experiment using two humans instead. The procedure planned for 2017 is called head anastomosis venture, or HEAVEN and involves … Continue reading "Head Transplants: HEAVEN or Hell?"

“Apps track users once every three minutes, “ Emily Dwoskin reports in The Wall Street Journal. Personally, this was a shocking, and quite alarming statistic considering how many apps I currently have on my phone. To make matters worse, I am the person who readily accepts the message, allowing sites like Google to “find my … Continue reading "Where are you now?"

Pfizer, a drug-making company that manufactures many well-known and commonly used drugs such as Lyrica, Viagra, Lipitor, and Zoloft  in court over the controversy stemming from the drug Zoloft.  It is a drug designed to treat depression, which costs an estimated $30.4 billion a year and debilitates 17.5 million Americans with feelings of worthlessness and self-loathing, … Continue reading "Depressed about Zoloft?"

The introduction of vaccines was one of the biggest leaps in medical history.  To think that one could be permanently immune to a specific disease was incredibly enticing to the population at large.  There has been recent controversy, however, on whether or not vaccines are the best option for protecting individuals against disease, especially in young … Continue reading "The Necessity of Vaccination"

The conflict in Syria is a humanitarian catastrophe on a massive scale, with hundreds of thousands dead and millions of others forced to flee their homes. Recently, the BBC has attempted to expand the impact of the Syrian narrative by tapping into an intimate intersection between humans and technology: the video game. Journalist Mamdouh Akbiek … Continue reading "Electronic Empathy: Video Games as Media"

According to a recent report by The Guardian,  John Hopkins University is being accused of carrying out lethal experiments on over 800 Guatemalan research participants in the 1940s and 1950s. Claimants are now suing the university for over a billion dollars in damages. Allegedly, the John Hopkins School of Medicine intentionally selected highly vulnerable research participants, … Continue reading "Fatal realities of medical experimentation: the case of Guatemala"

This post by Dr. Jeff McCall was originally published in The Indy Star on April 3, 2015. The good news is that nearly 90 percent of recently surveyed millennials say they get news off Facebook. The bad news is that most of those social media users stumble into the “news” only when they go to the … Continue reading "What Millennials Consume on Facebook"

The Prindle Institute is excited to announce the winners of the first annual High School Ethics Essay Contest! Over 100 high school students responded to the prompt “Should we impose a travel ban on countries with Ebola?” The five winners received a cash prize of $300. Excerpts from the five winning essays are featured below.

Every week, the Prindle Intern team weighs in on an ethical issue together. Each intern is challenged to keep their response to five sentences – Ethics in 5. Click on an intern’s name to check out their previous posts on The Prindle Post! This week’s question: Social Networking Ethics Comments regarding employers or coworkers posted … Continue reading "Ethics in 5: Printerns on Social Networking Ethics"

As cancer becomes increasingly prevalent in our society, cancer screening and treatment have developed into some of the most expensive and important facets of the medical world.  More and more women are faced with unfavorable results from routine mammograms.  Or so they are told. In his article on breast cancer overtreatment, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar discusses the … Continue reading "Moral Concerns About Breast Cancer Treatment"

Nothing in life is free. It’s an old, possibly overused adage, but one that rings ever more true on the Internet. We expect free access to everything on the Internet. Our music on Spotify is free, Facebook, Twitter and all the social media accounts we use to distract us from the drudge of life are … Continue reading "Don’t use ad blocking software for the greater good"

The new Steve Jobs bio says Disney CEO kept Jobs’ cancer remission a secret, which he learned about just an hour before Disney announced its acquisition of Pixar. The deal made Steve Jobs the largest shareholder, and gave him a seat on the board. At first, one might think this is no big deal. Jobs … Continue reading "Disney CEO kept Steve Jobs Cancer Secret"

The science fair is a common part of the elementary and middle school education; students create a project, like a baking soda and vinegar volcano, and present it with a poster at the school with dozens of other students. In theory, it is a competition amongst students to see who produced the best experiment and … Continue reading "The Fairness of Science Fairs"

Breast cancer and the push for finding “the cure” for cancer are not new. We race for the cure, walk for the cure, bike for the cure, and do just about anything you can think of to raise money to fund cancer research; the one way society as a whole works to combat this disease. … Continue reading "The Ethics of a “One-Cure” Solution"

The social media world is a crazy world, indeed, sparking firestorms over petty things, such as the color of some dress in Scotland. Most social media postings connect people to ideas, news, fun and each other. There is, however, a dark and demented corner of social media where posters threaten and scare individuals. This leaves … Continue reading "Threats on Social Media are Still Threats"

When your name remains detached from something, most of the repercussions from saying certain things seem to disappear. The issue of anonymity online is nothing new – people have been sending hateful comments to people from behind a computer screen for years. Cyberbullying is a hot topic and a major issue among children, teens, and … Continue reading "Ethics of Anonymity Online"