The presentations have been very good so far. I think that each individual’s paper will be well put together and informative. A lot of people have chosen topics about lifeboat ethics, which is very controversial and thought-provoking. I think that the lifeboat topic focuses on all options that we have as moral individuals. It is ironic, however, that in lifeboat ethics, the most moral choice results in the least number of survivors and the immoral choice results in the most survivors. This leaves us in a very interesting situation. We have to balance our morality with the will to survive.
Also, the issue of population and overuse of resources are directly related to lifeboat ethics. This brings up the concern about the scarcity of oil and if we should place prolonging human life at the top of our list. I personally believe that human life should be allowed to run its natural course. We need to offer treatments for diseases, but at the same time should not keep people alive by unnatural means. I think that the euthanasia idea will become a major topic of interest in the following years. I am completely against allowing people to purposefully end life by unnatural means. I do not think that that is the right way to approach the issue of population and keeping natural life and population control in balance is critical.
When thinking about those who presented the topics of life ethics, Aldo Leopold’s “Thinking like a Mountain”, and the Gaia hypothesis, the matter of deep versus shallow ecology is a reoccurring one. I think that most people prefer shallow ecology over deep ecology. We would rather “brush off” our ecological problems rather than really focus on our short-comings and what we can do to be pro-active in fixing them. I believe that this is our society’s main problems and if we cannot critique ourselves then things will never change.
I am looking forward to the rest of the panel discussions.
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