The Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit

K.V. Nagarajan is a professor in the Department of Economics at
Laurentian University.

“Health care—its presence or absence, its availability, and the
conditions of its availability—can be regarded as one of the most
important ethical canaries in the societal mineshaft. If the health-care
system canary is sick, we need to be concerned about the viability of
our society, or at least the ethical and moral ‘air’ on which its
well-being depends.” So writes Margaret Somerville, the renowned
medical ethicist at McGill University. She goes on to tackle issues
ranging from new reproductive technologies to end-of-life care.

Her guiding principles are stated clearly: profound respect for human
life and the protection and promotion of the human spirit. Based on
these values, she finds unethical the use of abortions as a form of
contraception, fertilizing eggs from female fetuses, and the selling of
sperm and ova. She advises caution with respect to the adoption of most
new reproductive technologies. She rejects human cloning as well as male
circumcision. And while she endorses end-of-life measures to control
pain and suffering, she is opposed to euthanasia and physician-assisted
suicides.

Somerville supports her views with detailed and careful arguments. As
her excellent book makes abundantly clear, in our postmodern, secular
world we need ethics more than ever.