Thomas More Institute

Category Archives: Conscience

Published on
7 August 2015

Is ‘Sex Work’ a Human Right?

Posted in Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Human Rights, Marriage & Family

At Amnesty International’s International Conference Meeting (ICM) in Dublin this month delegates will debate the proposition that there is a human right to engage in prostitution, or “sex work”. Amnesty International has previously called for decriminalisation of prostitution and has asserted that sex workers face various forms of discrimination from the State and stigmatisation by society […]

Published on
24 July 2014

Whence a Right to Die? Whither may it Lead?

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Euthanasia, Human Life, Human Rights, Liberty, Moral Philosophy, Morality in Public

As a right to die becomes the subject of yet another House of Lords debate it may be worth revisiting a matter upon which this blog has commented before here and here. The writer has recently seen a film about Virginia Woolf, and it may be of value to shape the discussion with reference to […]

Published on
11 March 2014

Physician-Assisted Suicide is an Affront to Human Liberty

Posted in British Politics, Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Ethics Online, Euthanasia, Freedom, Human Life, Legal Affairs, Liberty, Moral Philosophy, Morality in Public

Liberty is a premise upon which physician-assisted suicide is routinely advanced. Some of those suffering from serious and incurable illness or distress seek to argue the case that their suffering is a bondage from which only death can free them. Such suffering is, of course, naturally subjective in the sense that what one person might […]

Published on
3 March 2014

Religious Slaughter and the Rights of Chickens in Denmark

Posted in Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Ethics in the Media, Human Rights, Liberty, Moral Philosophy, Morality in Public, Public Policy, Religion

To the delight of secularists and ‘animal rights’ activists the Danish parliament last week passed a law banning Kosher and Halal methods of slaughter on the grounds that these violate the rights of animals. Dan Jørgensen, the Danish minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries told Denmark’s TV2 that ‘animal rights come before religion’. Unsurprisingly, Jewish […]

Published on
14 January 2014

Discussing Sex in Public in 2014

Posted in Civil Liberties, Conscience, Culture, Marriage & Family, Morality in Public, Same-Sex Marriage

Into another year the Jimmy Savile inquiry rumbles on. Today The Guardian runs a front-page article about a lawyer representing around sixty victims who is calling for a judge-led inquiry that should have access to evidence collected by other investigations. The extent of this scandal in particular, and the more widespread, even routine, sexual abuse […]

Published on
18 November 2013

The Excessive Simplicity of Legal Positivism and of Multiculturalism

Posted in Conscience, Culture, Human Life, Human Rights, Legal Affairs, Moral Philosophy, Morality in Public, Virtue

‘In any legal system, whether a given norm is legally valid, and hence whether it forms part of the law of that system, depends on its sources, not its merits.’This working definition of ‘legal positivism’ has a certain notoriety, even while it provokes disagreement. This legal tradition is popularly understood, and with some rationale, to […]

Published on
28 October 2013

What Good is Religion in Public Life?

Posted in British Politics, Christianity, Conscience, Culture, Legal Affairs, Moral Philosophy, Morality in Public, Philosophy, Religion, Social Commentary

‘We don’t do God’ said Alastair Campbell. In an increasingly secularised world the idea that religion might play any constructive role in public life is ever more considered a relic of the past. Religious institutions are considered at best well-meaning repositories of old thoughts in beautiful buildings the like of which we shall simply not […]