Slaves,Fetuses, and Animals

This essay is an exploration in ethical rhetoric, specifically, the ethics of comparing the status of fetuses and animals to enslaved Africans. On the view of those who make such comparisons, the fetus is treated as a slave through abortion, reproductive technologies, and stem cell research, while animals are enslaved through factory farming, experimentation, and as laborers, circus performers, and the like. I explore how the apotheosis of the fetus and the humanization of animals represent the flipside of the subjugation and animalization of black people. At their ethical best, those who compare aborted fetuses and abused animals with enslaved black people have laudable ethical goals. The anti‐abortion right and the animal rights left, respectively, wish to abolish abortion (and associated reproductive technologies that harm prenatal life) and the unethical treatment of animals. They seek, respectively, to reimagine the ethical‐political status of the fetus and to criticize the animalization of animals, the practice of constructing them as beasts. While sympathetic to these goals, I worry about the comparative diminution of the historical, literal enslavement of black people. To what extent, I ask, does the comparative ethical rhetoric of fetal slaves and animal slaves affect historical constructions of black people as beastly and disposable?     

Reflective Writing: Enhancing Students Cognitive Complexity Through Ethics Education

ABSTRACT

Counselors will inevitably encounter ethical dilemmas. Since they are expected to practice within the code of ethics, the skills to make an appropriate decision are necessary. It is generally agreed that the best place to start this training is in graduate school. More than a standard didactic approach is desired to address student attitudes, values, and beliefs while developing cognitive complexity. Creative approaches can address the specialized goals inherent in ethics education. This article reviews the use of a reflective writing assignment to guide students’ exploration of their values and beliefs when confronted with a value based ethical dilemma. The students’ writings demonstrate an increase in cognitive complexity because of this assignment.     

And who thinks on the baby? Thoughts on the method of infant observation

Abstract

After the method of infant observation, as developed by Esther Bick, and its significance for psychoanalytic training have been outlined, the method is critically assessed. The suggestion is then made that infant observation should be supplemented by video-analytic infant observation. Finally, thoughts on modifications of the process of infant observation are presented.     

A visionary and transformational APA Ethics Code: comment on O’Donohue (2019)

ABSTRACT

We contend that many of the criticisms of the American Psychological Association’s current Ethics Code are based on faulty assumptions and insufficient information. While the APA Ethics Committee values commentary on perceived shortcomings of the current Ethics Code as an important aspect of the current revision process, O’Donohue’s article contains inaccuracies that should be addressed. We clarify the functioning of the Ethics Code and the APA adjudication system, including explaining changes made to adjudication in light of the Commission on Ethics Processes. We also explain the transparent, open process the APA has already undertaken to create a revised Ethics Code that is visionary and transformational.     

ETHICAL SELF-MAKING,MORAL EXPERIMENTATION,AND HUMANITARIAN ENCOUNTER: Interdisciplinary Engagement with the Anthropology of Ethics

The interdisciplinary group of authors featured in this focus issue contribute to conversations at the intersection of anthropology and ethics by exploring ethical self-making and moral experimentation among faith-based actors in a range of humanitarian settings. Kari Henquinet describes the genealogies of American evangelical humanitarianism by focusing on the ethical self-formation of early World Vision leaders. Rachel Schneider and Sara Williams each explore practices by which relatively privileged individuals seek to cultivate virtue by engaging with those on the margins, in poor, urban neighborhoods in South Africa, and through packaged tours in Israel/Palestine, respectively. Sarah Tobin describes projects of Islamic self-making among displaced refugee women in Jordan. Although they examine a wide range of subjects and settings, they explore a common set of themes, two of which I discuss here: moral experimentation, and engagements with suffering, poverty, and inequality.