Encouraging Ethics

Combining justice & care in practical settings. "In learning morality we learn who we are, to whom we are connected and what matters enough to care about and care for." - Margaret Urban Walker

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Shining a light on forced adoption

A short reflection on the recent national apology for past practices of forced adoption published in the Uniting Church magazine, Journey

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Author: Jeanne A. Howard, Ph.D. Published: 2012 December, New York NY: Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute The first-ever examination of the Internet’s impact on adoption, released today, concludes that social media and other elements of this modern technology are having "transformative" effects – positive and negative – on adoption policy, practice and millions of people’s lives, while raising serious legal, ethical and procedural concerns that have yet to be addressed.

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Will vitamin maker Swisse resort to the hyperbole defence I wonder? 

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This was a time when false pride and the pretensions of good name sometimes counted more than love in even the otherwise best of families.

Terry Sweetman, The Sunday Mail, 4 March 2012 commenting on past attitudes to unwed mothers

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Good to see identity issues being addressed

in the report of the Senate Inquiry into forced adoptions tabled today. 

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America is not the land of the free when it comes to adoption. It’s the land of secrecy and lies. England may have its own troubles, but when it comes to adoption, it supports openness and the civil rights of the adopted person.

Zara Phillips - musician & adoptee rights activist

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This sums up my feelings about not being given my birth father's name. Jean has done a great job with this docu. Adoption is a lifelong issue.

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Flood Inquiry or trial by media?

The reporter in the Australian newspaper covering the Queensland flood Inquiry just referred to 'the four accused Wivenhoe Dam engineers'. Freudian slip or trial by media confirmed? The public deserves better than this.

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That wacky crew Mick Molloy and Channel Ten are at it again. Cheap humour costs dearly; or is that being too intellectual?

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The disconnect between headline and story

in the Australian media is beginning to really annoy me. As is creating a headline out of a partisan quote. Opinion is everywhere, who will try to present the facts?

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Two speed economy and ethics

Strangely, Australia's two-speed economy has not created a renewed demand for ethicists.

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Queensland floods inquiry: are data not facts? Not to a QC!

Seqwater report writer attacked by Inquiry QC for relying on the data (facts) rather than opinions!

If this is all that comes to light I wonder would it be reasonable for News Ltd to pay the costs associated with reconvening the Inquiry at taxpayers expense? For example, it appears that reporter Hedley Thomas's 'uncovered' email was dealt with already in the Inquiry last year.

The quantities actually being released from the dam were logged at the time, though it appears that they were not 'labelled' as one of the strategies. The releases from Saturday morning seem to clearly indicate that the operators were not operating at levels W1 or W2 but at W3. Was the dam being operated at W3 from Saturday morning? It appears so. 

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'The purpose of a corporate ethics program is not to make people ethical but to increase the likelihood that they’ll act ethically. This is definitely achievable.' Josephson Institute