Sunday, June 1, 2008

Human rights and the body

A lecture on Human Rights at the London School of Economics (LSE podcast, UChannel Podcast) gave some food for thought on a long quest of mine - reported here on the blog as well. There is no definitive answer, but on the quest for insights in bioethics, the LSE lecture by Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury), we come to understand the necessity of connecting human dignity to the body.

The title of the talk is Religious Faith and Human Rights and this gives, in my humble opinion, much less indication of what is to come. It is about human rights all right and Williams applies his faith in order to establish the connection with the human body. However, his argument is lucid and rational enough to be a strong point, regardless of what faith one follows, if any at all. If human rights are about dignity and integrity, this must be applied to the physical part (or whole, if you will) of the human being.

What is the essence of humanity? Is it rationality, ethics, aesthetics, emotions, free will, faith, spirituality? Is it the soul or in so many words, is it in his higher qualities and not in whatever beastly likeness he has to animals? Williams shows the danger of disconnecting the human from his body. before you know it, you open the road for making distinctions among humans, between those who have and those who do not have the higher qualities, whether soul, spirit, ethics, rationality and such. Williams proposes to make human rights, or in other words human dignity (and I might add human integrity) indivisible from the physical presence. When there is a body, there is a human endowed with full rights. transcript of the lecture

Such an approach may give some guidance in issues of capital punishment, abortion, euthanasia, bio-engineering and more.

More LSE:
Nuts and bolts of empire,
Islam and Europe,
Beyond the genome.

More bioethics:
Life and bio-engineering - podcast review,
Bioethics without Christ, please,
A useful map into Bio-Ethics,
Stem Cell Research: Science, Ethics, and Prospects.

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138 Podcasts Reviewed

UPDATE: we now have 217 podcasts reviewed. (link)

It is the first of the month again and so I post in alphabetical order all podcasts I reviewed linked to the last post:
  1. 12 Byzantine Rulers
  2. Africa (Stanford Travel)
  3. Africa Past and Present
  4. American Environmental and Cultural History (Berkeley ESPM 160AC)
  5. American History before 1870
  6. Ancient and Medieval Podcast
  7. Are we alone?
  8. Arizona, University of: Introduction to Language
  9. BBC History Magazine
  10. Bike Radar
  11. Binge Thinking History
  12. Bioethics podcast
  13. the Biography Show (TPN)
  14. Biota Podcast
  15. Bommel Hoorspel
  16. British History 101
  17. Car Talk
  18. CATS 2 Culture and Technology Studies (UCSD)
  19. Celtic Myth Podshow
  20. CFR Podcast
  21. Chronicles Radio Dispatches
  22. Dan Carlin's Common Sense
  23. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
  24. David Kalivas' World History
  25. Distillations
  26. the Economist
  27. Engines of our Ingenuity
  28. English 117S (Berkeley)
  29. Everything Lincoln
  30. Existentialism in Literature and Film (Phil 7 - Berkeley)
  31. Exploring Environmental History
  32. F1Cast
  33. Fresh Air (NPR)
  34. From our own Correspondent (BBC)
  35. Geography 130 (Berkeley)
  36. Geography of World Cultures (Stanford)
  37. Global Geopolitics (Stanford)
  38. Hank's History Hour
  39. Hannibal (Stanford)
  40. Haring Podcast
  41. Historical Jesus (Stanford)
  42. History 106B (Berkeley)
  43. History 167B (Berkeley)
  44. History 181B (Berkeley)
  45. History 2311 (Temple College)
  46. History 2312 (Temple College)
  47. History 4A (Berkeley)
  48. History 5 (Anderson - Berkeley)
  49. History 5 (Laqueur - Berkeley)
  50. History 7B (Berkeley)
  51. History according to Bob
  52. History Network
  53. History of Holland (Librivox)
  54. History of Rome
  55. History of the International System (Stanford)
  56. History Podcast
  57. Historypod
  58. Historyzine
  59. ICT Update
  60. In Our Time (BBC)
  61. In the Media (WNYC)
  62. Inspired Minds (Deutsche Welle)
  63. Interview Vrijdag (VPRO)
  64. Introduction to German Politics (Oxford)
  65. Irving Poetry podcast
  66. ITV
  67. Jung Podcast
  68. KMTT
  69. KQED Forum
  70. Language (UCSD)
  71. LSE Podcast
  72. Marathon Interview (VPRO)
  73. Matt's Today In History
  74. Medieval & Renaissance Studies Events (Virginia Tech)
  75. Medieval Podcast
  76. Midwest Writer
  77. Military History Podcast
  78. Missing Link
  79. MMW 3, the medieval heritage (Chamberlain - UCSD)
  80. MMW 3, the medieval heritage (Herbst - UCSD)
  81. Muscular Judaism
  82. My Three Shrinks
  83. Napoleon 1O1 (TPN)
  84. National Archives Podcast
  85. Nonviolence (Berkeley PACS 164A)
  86. Nonviolence today (Berkeley PACS 164B)
  87. NRC FM
  88. Only in America
  89. Open Source
  90. OVT (VPRO)
  91. Oy Mendele!
  92. Parnell's History Podcast
  93. Peopletalk's Podcast
  94. Physics for future Presidents (Berkeley)
  95. Philosophy 103
  96. Philosophy 7 (Berkeley)
  97. Philosophy Bites
  98. the Philosophy Podcast
  99. Podcasts on Medieval Texts (Virginia Tech)
  100. Podwatch
  101. Prosperity show
  102. Radiolab (WNYC)
  103. Rav Dovid's
  104. Redborne History
  105. Religion and Law in the US (UCSD HIUS 155A)
  106. Religion and Law in the US (UCSD HIUS 155B)
  107. Rhetoric 10 (Berkeley)
  108. Rpgmp3
  109. Sex History Podcast
  110. Shrink Rap Radio
  111. Šimek 's Nachts (RVU)
  112. the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
  113. Social Innovation Conversations
  114. Sonic Society
  115. Speaking of Faith (APM)
  116. Stanford U History
  117. Sunday Sundown
  118. Talking Robots
  119. TdF London
  120. Teaching American History
  121. TED Talks
  122. That Podcast Show
  123. Times Talks
  124. Tudorcast
  125. UCLA Israel Studies
  126. University Channel Podcast (aka UChannel Podcast)
  127. Volkskrant Podcasts
  128. We the People Stories
  129. What is Judaism?
  130. Wise Counsel
  131. the Word Nerds
  132. the Writing Show
  133. Wynyfryd's meditation room
  134. the Your History Podcast
  135. Your Purpose Centered Life
  136. zencast
  137. zoem
  138. האוניברסיטה המשודרת
If you know of interesting podcasts that you think should be reviewed, please let me know through the comments page. Or send me mail...
Thanks in advance,
Anne Frid de Vries (in one word)
AT
Yahoo DOT co DOT uk

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