Ethics of Privacy and Personal Autonomy
Index of Issues and Dilemmas
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Many, if not most, people are concerned about the extent of their privacy and the limits of their personal autonomy. Both the government and large corporations show many signs about wanting to restrict both - either for our own good or for their own good.
These are certainly political issues, but they are also ethical issues because they involve serious social consequences, raise questions about the nature of our duty to one another, and impact social relationships generally.
Problems and Dilemmas
Pregnancy & Privacy
For the most part, people believe that their medical issues are and should remain private. The status of your health is not something that should be made public record or revealed to anyone not involved in your health care (like doctors, nurses, and insurance companies). But does pregnancy qualify as a health matter that should be kept private? Perhaps it should, but there are many who have argued that it does not.Brain Privacy
Our privacy seems to be under siege on all fronts: the government, corporations, our employers, and of course even our neighbors seek to obtain more and more information about our lives, our preferences, our habits, and so on. Sometimes it seems as though our last refuge of privacy and security may be our own minds - but maybe not for long.Brains, Tumors, and Morality
In a bizarre case reported in various news outlets, a man who suffered from sexual urges he didn't understand and couldn't control was 'cured' through brain surgery. After surgery, everything changed for him. Not only was he able to stop making sexual advances on others, but the urges to make those advances in the first place also disappeared. What does this mean for souls, free will, and criminal justice?Sexual Autonomy
Prostitution has long been called the oldest profession in the world, and there is probably good justification for that. It seems likely that humans have always traded whatever they had in exchange for something they needed - and the one thing that a human always has is his or her own body. Everyone trades something about their body for the necessities of living, so why not sexual activity as well?Slavery & Happiness
Most people will agree that they are opposed to slavery - they find slavery to be immoral, inhumane, and perhaps even one of the most evil institutions ever devised by human beings. But what if someone wants to be a slave and is happy being a slave? Is slavery really so wrong that we should intervene and disrupt a person's happiness because we object so strongly to it, or is that just being paternalistic?RFID Tags: The End of Privacy?
Imagine this: you walk into a local store and within seconds the people on duty know your pants size (and how much it fluctuates), that you prefer chocolate ice cream, that you buy a new tube of hemorrhoid cream every three months or so, which stores you usually shop in, your credit rating, and the number of miles currently on all four of your tires - and that's just for starters. Science fiction? No, science fact: the technology is already here. It's just a matter of deploying it.
Legal Issues
-->Privacy Cases
Index of Supreme Court cases either dealing directly with people's right to privacy, or indirectly relating to current debates about the nature of a right to privacy and whether or not such a right is provided for in the Constitution.
