cb_reads_reviews's review
3.0
Margaret Somerville’s, “The Ethical Imagination” has to be the most controversial Massey Lecture I have heard. Given her proposal to create a shared ethics, this is no surprise. The 2006 lectures dig into the changing nature of humanity as it becomes increasingly technocratic; suggesting that humans need a shared set of ethics in order to survive. Acknowledging the impossibility of a utopian ideal, she suggests instead that only some values and ethics need be shared.
Where Somerville becomes controversial is in her third and fourth lectures where she argues for a greater definition of the rights of the child - to include the right to know both biological parents - saying that Gay marriage, and implying that single parenthood are therefore unethical. There was no deeper analysis of the tradition and social importance of marriage, and her reasonings for the rights of the child seem unrealistic, and frankly, unnecessary. Many children are raised by adoptive parents, without knowing their biological parentage, and technology makes biological profiles and histories available without ever meeting the parent.
The second slippery slope is with regards to the rights of the embryo. As she points out, the rights of the embryo for use in research and experimentation, are strictly upheld, in order to protect the integrity of ‘the human’. Given the current situation in the US regarding abortion rights, this grey area is one that should be further clarified so that women continue to maintain rights over their own bodies.
Overall, Somerville’s arguments are clear, though not always well supported. A more developed path forward to creating a shared ethics would have made this lecture more profound.
Where Somerville becomes controversial is in her third and fourth lectures where she argues for a greater definition of the rights of the child - to include the right to know both biological parents - saying that Gay marriage, and implying that single parenthood are therefore unethical. There was no deeper analysis of the tradition and social importance of marriage, and her reasonings for the rights of the child seem unrealistic, and frankly, unnecessary. Many children are raised by adoptive parents, without knowing their biological parentage, and technology makes biological profiles and histories available without ever meeting the parent.
The second slippery slope is with regards to the rights of the embryo. As she points out, the rights of the embryo for use in research and experimentation, are strictly upheld, in order to protect the integrity of ‘the human’. Given the current situation in the US regarding abortion rights, this grey area is one that should be further clarified so that women continue to maintain rights over their own bodies.
Overall, Somerville’s arguments are clear, though not always well supported. A more developed path forward to creating a shared ethics would have made this lecture more profound.
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