Ethics Headlines
                                                                                                                                                              

Volume 1, Number 4                            Saturday, January 29, 2005


Ethics Headlines is an ethics-in-the-news clippling file published each Saturday by Greg Feldmeth, a high school teacher at Polytechnic School in Pasadena, California. It contains news items from the media in the past week that deal with some area of ethical inquiry. You may also visit the ethics course web site.

SUBSCRIBE. You can receive the file via email every Saturday afternoon with links to the original articles. Just email your address here and put Ethics Headlines in the subject line. If you know of others who would be interested, please forward the page to them.

This Week's Headlines--click on the headline to read the full article
  • Quotas for Asian-Americans? Yes and no. Asian American applicants to selective colleges appear to be at a disadvantage. Nationally, they have the highest average SAT scores, and yet many African American and Hispanic students with lower scores and grades are accepted to Ivy Leagues schools while high-performing Asian American students are rejected even when their families are similarly poor and undereducated. Is that fair?
  • High school journalist faces firing. When Fullerton senior Ann Long sent a recent edition of her school's newspaper to the printer, she hoped her profile of three gay students would generate some discussion in the hallways. But she didn't expect to be punished for writing the article.
  • With women powerless, AIDS reigns. In Swaziland, the traditional dominance of men has contributed to the world's highest rate of HIV infection, a UNICEF official says.
  • ACLU shuts down coach's prayers. Under threat of an ACLU lawsuit, a high-school wrestling coach in Michigan was ordered to stop leading prayers with team members after practices and before meets.
  • Spongebob part of a gay plot? A number of conservative Christians want to warn Americans that a music video being sent to 61,000 U.S. schools in March featuring SpongeBob and promoting a message of tolerance is really a surreptitious attempt to turn straights into gays.
  • Blogger influence raises ethical concerns. The growing influence of blogs is raising questions about whether they are becoming a new form of journalism and in need of more formal ethical guidelines or codes of conduct.
  • Church holds ceremony for aborted fetuses. A Catholic church plans to bury the ashes of as many as 1,000 aborted fetuses Sunday, raising a storm of protest from those who accuse it of exploiting the pain and grief of women for political purposes.
  • Photographer puts focus on privacy debate. Student's provocative pictures of dorm life lead to his eviction and fuel discussion over a photojournalist's rights and responsibilities.
  • Villagers furious with Christian missionaries. Rage and fury has gripped this tsunami-hit tiny Hindu village in India's southern Tamil Nadu after a group of Christian missionaries allegedly refused them aid for not agreeing to follow their religion.
  • Louisiana jury frees man 44 years after murder conviction. The jurors who freed a renowned prison journalist after 44 years behind bars opted for leniency because they believed the defendant was in "panic mode" and not his normal frame of mind when he killed a bank teller, the jury foreman said Wednesday.
    • Rideau case renews doubts about capital punishment. Wilbert Rideau, a convicted killer, was spared the electric chair thanks to a 1972 Supreme Court decision invalidating capital punishment as it was applied then. His release this week will strengthen support for capital punishment by demonstrating that the alternative can't be trusted.
  • Utah lawmaker defends polygamy. A Republican state lawmaker countered a Senate colleague's dispersal of an anti-polygamy book by passing out materials to fellow legislators defending the practice as natural and not necessarily harmful.
  • Bible breaks at public schools face challenges. For 65 years, weekday Bible classes have been part of the fabric of growing up in rural Virginia. But now, the practice is being challenged by a group of parents who have asked the School Board to end or modify weekday religious education.
  • Abortion foes stage protest of Roe vs. Wade. President Bush told abortion foes on Monday he shared their support for ``a culture of life'' and claimed progress in passing legislation to protect the vulnerable.
  • Florida loses appeal in right-to-die-case.  The Supreme Court refused Monday to reinstate a Florida law passed to keep a severely brain-damaged woman hooked to a feeding tube, clearing the way for it to be removed. How soon that would happen, however, was unclear.
Previous Weeks' Headlines