Bird on an Ethics Wire: Battles about Values in the Culture Wars

Somerville's (The Ethical Imagination) latest collection of essays posits the philosophical divide between "traditional" and "progressive" values as a threat to humanity's survival. Broaching such topics as abortion, euthanasia, and transhumanism, the professor of law and medicine at McGill University in Montreal cautions against advances in these areas, imploring a return to non-secular ways of thinking and a culture that prioritizes the common good over the autonomy of individuals. Somerville's writing is clear, accessible, and meant for a broad audience, but her arguments don't hold up under scrutiny and are sometimes contradictory. She requests people judge her for her ideas and not her faith (Somerville is a Roman Catholic), yet the two are intertwined throughout the book. She advocates against discrimination while simultaneously discriminating against several groups, such as gays and lesbians in her opposition to same-sex marriage. She describes pro-choice advocates as viewing fetuses as parasites. She ignores the plights of individuals until it suits her needs. She writes that she is an "incurable optimist" yet sees only doom and dehumanization in current social and technological trajectories. Most troubling is her treatment of faith and morality as mutually exclusive entities. (Nov.)