The moral status of the human embryo is still a controversial problem, regarding medical, philosophically and religious context. The embryo is considered as the principal element of the human biotechnology and his ontological status is essential for our attitude towards embryos in case of abortion, prenatal diagnosis, in vitro fertilization, embryo manipulation, therapeutic cloning, artificial ...

A large body of empirical studies shows that religion often serves as a factor promoting positive, healthy outcomes in the lives of American adolescents. Yet existing theoretical explanations for these religious effects remain largely disjointed and fragmented. This article attempts to formulate a more systematic, integrated, and coherent account of religion's constructive influence in the live...

Theory and research point to different ways moral conviction and religiosity connect to trust in political authorities to decide controversial issues of the day. Specifically, we predicted that stronger moral convictions would be associated with greater distrust in authorities such as the U.S. Supreme Court making the ‘‘right’’ decisions regarding controversial issues. Conversely, we predicted ...

this article concerns the contradiction between holly religious scripts and the knowledge system of modern world. this contradiction can be studied into two levels: first the contradiction between new scientific theories and the ontological verses in holly scripts; the second one is the contradiction between moral statements based on celestial verses and modern ethical system. this article stud...

Given the increasing influence of religious fundamentalism on politics (e.g. the Christian right in the United States or the Muslim fundamentalism associated with Al Qaeda), the question of how we can conceive of law and order, or society itself, without employing repressive ideals becomes more urgent. We need a way of conceptualizing the origin and process of idealization (which is necessary f...

Literature morality relation has remained a point of vital critical debate since the ancient civilization. In the twentieth Century this question has continued ton inspire critical debate despite phenomenal decline in religious and moral aspect of life. But literature and morality relationship is complex and oscillates between complete interdependence to dissociation of such a relation. The stu...

The aim of the Journal of Medical Ethics is to provide a forum for the reasoned discussion of moral issues arising from the provision of medical care. It will hold no brief for one particular professional, political, or religious viewpoint. The articles it publishes will identify current problems, present factual information, and clarify different moral assumptions. To fulfil these aims the Edi...

Recent research has shown that religious individuals are much more resistant to utilitarian modes of thinking than their less religious counterparts, but the reason for this is not clear. We propose that a meta-ethical belief that morality is rooted in inviolable divine commands (i.e., endorsement of Divine Command Theory) may help explain this finding. We present a novel 20-item scale measurin...

Self inflicted injury to the eyes including self-enucleation is a rare phenomenon. The authors describe a case of bilateral self-enucleation in a patient with paranoid schizophrenia. A review of literature shows that self-enucleation is correlated with moral, religious and psychodynamic paradigms and various unconscious mechanisms have been proposed to explain this unusual behaviour.

This issue's "Legal Briefing" column covers legal developments pertaining to conscience clauses and conscientious refusal. Not only has this topic been the subject of recent articles in this journal, but it has also been the subject of numerous public and professional discussions. Over the past several months, conscientious refusal disputes have had an unusually high profile not only in courtho...