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Hometown: Crawfordsville, IN Major: Political Science Year: 2017 (Sophomore)

In honor of tonight’s “Motherhood in Prison” panel discussion at Prindle, as well as my own mother’s birthday later this week, it seems fitting to discuss the one code of ethics that most individuals seem to have in common: The “Mom Test.” Often manifested in the question “Would your mother approve?”, this test reveals a hidden … Continue reading "The “Mom Test”"

I am very happy to announce the beginning of the annual Prindle Institute High School Essay Contest. Each year, the Prindle Institute will award high school students for the best essays on a topic of ethical concern. This year, we will award five (5) high school students $300 each for the best essays on this year’s … Continue reading "Announcing the Prindle Institute High School Essay Contest"

Should one be allowed to choose his or her death date? Bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel’s recent post in The Atlantic explains why he hopes to die at what many would consider the young age of 75: an age he has chosen to refuse medical treatments meant for prolonging life unnaturally. Openly opposed to legalizing euthanasia and … Continue reading "The Mortal Code Paradox"

Is it ever alright to take elements of a culture that is not your own and apply it to yourself? Be that in music, fashion, food, or events – is it ever okay to take those elements and incorporate them into your life? Should you be allowed to wear clothing influenced by foreign customs, use … Continue reading "The Ethics of Cultural Appropriation Event Recap"

Renee, a sophomore at DePauw, came home to Mason Hall last Tuesday to find a sign harshly warning residents: “CAMERA INSTALLED. DO NOT PLACE FOOD OF ANY KIND (INCLUDING SOUP) IN THIS SINK!” However, the message did not end there. Below the first sign, a poor translation of the message into Mandarin, likely using the … Continue reading "A Message Left for Mason Hall Residents…"

Rape is a serious crime that today’s world is trying to combat. Especially prevalent on college campuses, the hook-up culture of Millennials seems to becoming a wide-spread controversy.  But what if there was something in between rape and a consensual hook up?  If you didn’t want sex, but had it and did not necessarily feel … Continue reading "Gen Y’s Hookup Culture: Is There Something Between Consensual Sex and Rape?"

No More Deaths is a Tucson, AZ based humanitarian aid organization working to prevent the deaths of migrants crossing the Mexico-US border. According to Kate Morgan-Olsen, a long-term aid worker with No More Deaths, “The organization provides food, water, and medical support to migrants crossing through the Tucson sector of the border; documents and exposes … Continue reading "No More Deaths: Fatal realities of border militarization"

Comment on a Prindle Post article and we’ll send you a free sticker of this image featuring Rio, who’s become something of a mascot for the Prindle Post as of lately. Here are some very brief ground rules: General Guidelines 1. The comment has to engage with the post content in some way. 2. The … Continue reading "Want a Prindle pup sticker?"

Wayne Hsiung, co-founder of Direct Action Everywhere, spoke at DePauw University this past Wednesday, September 10. Wayne Hsiung calls himself a “Journeyman”. He advised Depauw students that you learn a whole lot about yourself and the world through diverging from a path with which you are not happy or satisfied. After studying law and working … Continue reading "Wayne Hsiung of DxE Inspires Student Activism"

Consent may be important in the dating world, but not so much to online dating site, OkCupid. Christian Rudder, CEO of OkCupid, admitted in a blog post that the site had run several experiments on its users over previous months, without their knowledge. Perhaps the most controversial of these experiments was one in which the site … Continue reading "Social Media Experiments: Where Should We Draw the Line?"

This article raises interesting questions about mobile health apps. It asks us to consider whether we should trust them, and to consider whether they should be regulated by the FDA. It’s interesting that both the side favoring regulation and the side arguing against regulation think that their position is the best path to innovation in the … Continue reading "Should You Trust Health Apps on Your Phone?"

The internet is blurring the boundaries between paid sponsorship and product review, and this is most apparent in the world of video game reviews. A recent article, over at Gamasutra discusses the an interesing ethical issue with video game YouTubers, people who record themselves playing video games while typically commenting on the gameplay. Is it ethical for … Continue reading "Paying YouTubers to Post Footage of Your Video Game"

“Choose a job that you like, and you will never have to work a day in your life”-Confucius How many times have you heard this advice? I grew up thinking that the only career path I should pursue is one where I love the work that I am doing. While I still strive to find … Continue reading "Finding the Value of Work"

Jacquelyn Stephens became a Graduate Fellow after graduating from DePauw in 2014 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in French. Jacquelyn was a Prindle intern during her senior year. She initiated the Popcorn and Pop Culture ethics series and served as the Lead Intern for the Undergraduate Ethics Symposium. She is interested in … Continue reading "The 2014-2015 Graduate Fellows: Jacquelyn Stephens and Camille Veri"

During my time at DePauw University, I have listened to lectures from esteemed guests such as Leymah Gbowee, Bill Clinton and Ron Paul. But this week, I heard a speech more critical than any other that I have heard on this campus: a speech from 87-year-old activist Harry Belafonte. Belafonte comes from a time when … Continue reading "Belafonte’s speech powerful, no one there to hear it"

In January of this year, activist and world-renowned computer genius Aaron Swartz took his own life. At the time of his death, Swartz, an instrumental figure in the invention of the RSS feed and the online community Reddit, was facing 35 years in prison and exorbitant fines for downloading millions of articles from MIT’s academic … Continue reading "Who Owns Knowledge? Examining Open Access Policies"

Over the last year or so, the word divestment has taken on new meaning. Until recently, this term popularly referred to the movement in the 1970s and 80s to remove all investments from South Africa. The goal was to retract financial support for companies participating in Apartheid. Divestment now refers primarily to fossil fuel divestment: … Continue reading "Fossil Fuel Divestment is a Moral Issue"

The Prindle Institute for Ethics is a proud and excited host of “Cool Talk about a Hot Topic: The Ethics of Communicating about Climate Change,” a three-day symposium from Tuesday to Thursday of this week that will “explore how scientific climate change findings are reaching the public, how policy uncertainties are driven by the changes … Continue reading "Cool Talk About a Hot Topic: A Preview of This Week’s Events on the Ethics of Communicating about Climate Change"