[Project.diverse] Re: Bioethics

Those are excellent points Dr. Eslami. Richard John Neuhaus, a Lutheran pastor who later became a Catholic priest and bioethics advisor to George Bush the sr. said “Culture shapes politics, and religion is at the root of culture” Jim Kauffman and the late Gary Sasso (was Dean at University of Iowa) and passed away 2 years ago from cancer- wrote this piece and critiqued whole language, "radical multiculturalism," and facilitated communication in 2010. Of the three- cultural relativism and multi-culturalism are what people are going to have to figure out right now- and the difference between “universals and particulars” and what the “sweet spot” is… I think about the situation of Afghan refugee families, particularly those with disabled children, and the cultural dilemmas they face. There is a prevailing Western Enlightenment view rooted in the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle that is now seen as outdated. This view presupposes some sort of universal elements within the human condition, hence terms like "humanism" and "Christian Humanism." However, we are moving away from universal concepts in education. The current multicultural conception, particularly its radical or hard form, focuses on hardening identity and traditions within groups. And tradition is conservative by necessity, as they help to define individual identity. For example, consider what might occur when an Afghan family, having fled their home country, and their faith and community is the only thing keeping them afloat—and religiosity by the way is a known protective factor in prevention science literature for those reasons. But what happens when their child comes home and wants to be referred to with gender pronouns like "they"? There is going to be to a clash of civilizations and worldviews- the normative values are too different driving the underlying views. And the current postmodern ideologies in education seem to encourage students with autism and female adolescents into this direction as disproportionate rates than one would expect. And then, the underlying gender ideology rejects empirically-based scientific viewpoints, resists scrutiny and questioning, and operates in a manner akin to religious belief, grounded in its own ideological premises. Outside the West- it is referred to as “Western ideological colonization”…how is that for a term…or “Western Decadence”- and as Neuhaus said- Culture shapes politics, and religion is at the root of culture”- but religion is broadly defined in the sense that- everyone- even the non-religious- have a world view that is informed by something- some ism or ideology that functions and provides some kind of value- based framework- whether they realize it or not- even my secular- materialist friends of whom I have many… As someone who takes pride in being from the South but is committed to its progress or a working toward a new South- I am always the bad guy in the films it seems- I can't help but think that promoting the strict or hard forms of multiculturalism without balanced by universal human experiences will inevitably lead to problems. At the end of the day- this is what you get: https://archive.org/details/takeyourchoice3/mode/2up?utm_source=substack&... The review from 2022 is not very encouraging from whoever wrote it- Pandora's Box has been re/opened. My reflection is not meant to disparage anyone—I come from a time when open inquiry meant that nothing was off-limits for discussion. Which I don’t do with undergrads anymore- but doctoral students have to be anti-fragile. And I've learned that we must distinguish between what "is" from what "ought" to be. We live in a very strange, extremely complicated, and often opaque time right now and it will require many intelligent/smart people with a lot of heterodox thinking to resolve our thorny educational issues- MDB PS- the smart people by the way are all of you…we need help figuring all this out...MDB From: Eslami, Zohreh R. <zeslami(a)tamu.edu&gt; Date: Sunday, April 14, 2024 at 4:20 PM To: Burke, Mack <Mack_Burke(a)baylor.edu&gt;, project.leer(a)lists.it.utsa.edu <project.leer(a)lists.it.utsa.edu&gt;, project.diverse(a)lists.it.utsa.edu <project.diverse(a)lists.it.utsa.edu&gt; Subject: RE: Bioethics Thanks for sharing these thoughtful, debatable, socially and culturally loaded issues and then most important is the role of religion. It gives us lots of research ideas as well.! Which societies would choose one vs the other option? Why? Which individuals? The level of religiosity and its relation to these decisions to be made. Individuality vs collectivism?.... Best Zohreh Dr. Eslami From: Burke, Mack <Mack_Burke(a)baylor.edu&gt; Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2024 5:41 PM To: project.leer(a)lists.it.utsa.edu; project.diverse(a)lists.it.utsa.edu Subject: [Project.diverse] Bioethics Some of you might like- Just got back from judging a Bioethics competition that my dear friend and colleague Dr. Carter got me roped into…it was a great multi-cultural cross section of very smart philosophy students- some the most anti-fragile ZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerStart This Message Is From an External Sender This message came from outside your organization. ZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerEnd Some of you might like- Just got back from judging a Bioethics competition that my dear friend and colleague Dr. Carter got me roped into…it was a great multi-cultural cross section of very smart philosophy students- some the most anti-fragile undergrads I have seen in years- a couple prepping for med school- descend on Baylor from across the country to debate incredibly difficult questions there is no clear answer- like: is it morally ethical for someone with a disability to use germline genetic therapy/genetic editing to remove the genetic basis of their disability and eliminate future suffering for their offspring and for future generations- basically eradicating it. An extension of current logic in many areas. For example, there are no people with Down’s Syndrome for example in Iceland and many Nordic countries. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/down-syndrome-iceland/<https://urldefense... And is a recuring issue in the UK- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/28/mps-bring-bill-to-ban-late-... And likely will see it as a robust issue in the US as there is a strong pro-life disability advocacy group- especially among traditional Catholics and the faith based community which will put the issue of disability and choice on the front burner- who in a related issue- just put out an encyclical letter critiquing gender theory. People forget- social justice is a deeply religious idea- the person who coined the term was Luigi Tapreli- a Jesuit priest in 1848 and serves as the bases of Catholic Social Teaching. In today’s language- it is a cultural appropriation in the way it is currently being used politically. So- expect more cultural conflicts on that front as those of faith reassert its original meanings. https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/vatican-human-dignity-docu... Interestingly- the counter point used in the Bioethics competition was from Elizabeth Barnes- a disability studies professor who is in the Philosophy Department at University of Virginia and the mere difference view. I was looking at some of her views- which are interesting- I had to do my own homework. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/677021?seq=16<https://urldefense.... Reminds me of Jim Kaufman’s piece on Disability Chic- based on the fad going around in the fashion world of “Heroin Chic” at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin_chic<https://urldefense.com/v3/__... https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09362835.2017.1283632<htt... and people giving themselves a disability- which is a mental illness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_integrity_dysphoria<https://urldefe... I think this was circulating some time ago- but not sure about its- veracity- https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-woman-who-put-drain-cleaner-in-her-eye... https://www.snopes.com/news/2015/10/02/jewel-shuping-blind/<https://ur... Strange times/strange issues and debates…MDB Mack D. Burke, Ph.D. Department of Educational Psychology Applied Behavior Analysis and Special Education Programs Behavioral Education & Assessment Research (BEAR Lab) School of Education, Baylor University