Tag: Bioethics

Topics

Books

Where Babies Come From

– First Things, October 1990.
Excerpt: Recent reports from a French laboratory contain some good news and some bad news for the prochoice movement. The good news is that abortion is not the taking of human life. Studies… More

Conscience and the Public Person

– In Russell E. Smith (ed.), Catholic Conscience: Foundation and Formation (Pope John XXIII Medical-Moral Research Center, 1991).

Conservative Heavyweight

– Anne Morse, Crisis Magazine, September 1, 2003.
Excerpt: Professor Robert P. George is pacing around a Princeton auditorium before 200-plus undergraduates, preparing to wage an intellectual shock-and-awe campaign against illogical… More

Human Cloning and Embryo Research

– Journal of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 25:1 (2004).
Abstract: The author, a member of the U.S.President’s Council on Bioethics, discusses ethical issues raised by human cloning, whether for purposes of bringing babies to birth or for… More

Acorns and Embryos

– With Patrick Lee. The New Atlantis, Fall 2004 - Winter 2005.
Excerpt: The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) recently invited two members of the President’s Council on Bioethics to reflect on the ethics of using embryonic stem cells… More

Dualistic Delusions

– First Things, February 2005, with Patrick Lee.
Disputes about metaphysical issues rarely make the newspapers. The ancient argument about the nature and identity of the human person, however, turns out to be highly relevant to issues… More

The Moral Status of the Human Embryo

– Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 48:2 (Spring 2005), with Alfonso Gómez-Lobo. First published as "Statement of Professor George" in Leon R. Kass (ed.), Human Cloning and Human Dignity: The Report of the President's Council On Bioethics (Public Affairs, 2002), pp. 294-306; and Human Cloning and Human Dignity:  An Ethical Inquiry (The President’s Council on Bioethics, 2002).
The subject matter of Human Cloning and Human Dignity (President’s Council 2002) is the production of a human embryo by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or similar… More

The Wrong of Abortion

– In Andrew I. Cohen and Christopher H. Wellman (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics (Blackwell Publishers, 2005), with Patrick Lee. Reprinted in Carol Levine (ed.), Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Bioethical Issues, 11th edition (McGraw-Hill Publishers, 2006).
Much of the public debate about abortion concerns the question whether deliberate feticide ought to be unlawful, at least in most circumstances. We will lay that question aside here in… More

Creative Sciece Will Resolve Stem Cell Issues

– Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2005, with Markus Grompe. Reprinted in Human Life Review 31:2 (Spring 2005).
The House of Representatives recently passed legislation to loosen President Bush’s restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. The president has promised to veto… More

Fetal Attraction

– The Weekly Standard, October 3, 2005. Reprinted in Human Life Review 31:4 (Fall 2005); in Spanish translation as “Fabricas de Organos,” La Gaceta de los Negocios (October 2, 2006); and in Rafael Domingo et al. (eds.) Hacia Un Derecho Global (Thomson Publishing Co., 2007).
THE JOURNAL Science late last month published the results of research conducted at Harvard proving that embryonic stem cells can be produced by a method that does not involve creating or… More

A Distinct Human Organism

– National Public Radio, November 22, 2005.
The key question in the debate over stem cell research that involves the destruction of human embryos is: When does the life of a human being begin? To answer this question is to decide… More

The First Fourteen Days of Human Life

– With Patrick Lee. The New Atlantis, Summer 2006.
Excerpt: In the debate about the moral standing of human embryos, some defenders of embryo-destructive research have claimed that human embryos are not human beings until implantation… More

Stem Cells without Moral Corruption

– Washington Post, July 6, 2006, with Eric Cohen.
For the past few years many of the world’s leading scientists have promoted so-called therapeutic cloning as the most promising way to produce clinically useful, genetically tailored,… More

Six Stem Cell Facts

– Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2007, with Rev. Thomas V. Berg, L.C. Reprinted in Spanish translation as “Seis Verdades Innegables,” La Gaceta de los Negocias, April 13, 2007.
Americans are divided over the question of whether it is morally acceptable to authorize by law, and fund with taxpayer dollars, research in which human embryos are destroyed. Stating that… More

Embryo: A Defense of Human Life

– With Christopher Tollefsen. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008. Reprinted by The Witherspoon Institute, 2011.
Description from Publisher: The bitter national debates over abortion, euthanasia, and stem cell research have created an unbridgeable gap between religious groups and those who insist that… More

Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics

– With Patrick Lee. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Description from Publisher: This book treats the question of what a human person is and the ethical and political controversies of abortion, hedonism and drug-taking, euthanasia, and sex… More

The President Politicizes Stem Cell Research

– Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2009, with Eric Cohen.
Yesterday President Barack Obama issued an executive order that authorizes expanded federal funding for research using stem cells produced by destroying human embryos. The announcement was… More

The Clash of Orthodoxies

– Manhattan Forum Lecture at the St. Anthony of Padua Institute, August 25, 2010, YouTube.
In this lecture, the eighth in the Manhattan Forum series, Dr. Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, tackles the issues at the heart of the… More

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis

– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical… More

The Sanctity of Life, Even in a Test Tube

– Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2013.
Sir Robert Edwards, the Nobel Prize-winning British “test tube baby” pioneer who died last week at age 87, devoted his career to developing in vitro fertilization as a technique… More

Infanticide and madness

– Journal of Medical Ethics 39:5 (May 2013).
I am, of course, aware that infanticide was accepted and practiced in ancient Greece and Rome, and is still practiced (usually secretly, with winks and nods from public authorities, and… More

Is the Pro-Choice Position on Infanticide “Madness”?

– Journal of Medical Ethics 39:5 (May 2013).
As Charles Camosy observes, he and I agree more than we disagree. He believes with no less conviction than I do that deliberately killing infant children is profoundly morally wrong and a… More

A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics

– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.
Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political… More

The Ontological Status of Embryos: A Reply to Jason Morris

– Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 39:5 (2014), with Patrick Lee and Christopher Tollefsen.
Abstract: In various places we have defended the position that a new human organism, that is, an individual member of the human species, comes to be at fertilization, the union of the… More

Essays

Where Babies Come From

– First Things, October 1990.
Excerpt: Recent reports from a French laboratory contain some good news and some bad news for the prochoice movement. The good news is that abortion is not the taking of human life. Studies… More

Conscience and the Public Person

– In Russell E. Smith (ed.), Catholic Conscience: Foundation and Formation (Pope John XXIII Medical-Moral Research Center, 1991).

Conservative Heavyweight

– Anne Morse, Crisis Magazine, September 1, 2003.
Excerpt: Professor Robert P. George is pacing around a Princeton auditorium before 200-plus undergraduates, preparing to wage an intellectual shock-and-awe campaign against illogical… More

Human Cloning and Embryo Research

– Journal of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 25:1 (2004).
Abstract: The author, a member of the U.S.President’s Council on Bioethics, discusses ethical issues raised by human cloning, whether for purposes of bringing babies to birth or for… More

Acorns and Embryos

– With Patrick Lee. The New Atlantis, Fall 2004 - Winter 2005.
Excerpt: The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) recently invited two members of the President’s Council on Bioethics to reflect on the ethics of using embryonic stem cells… More

Dualistic Delusions

– First Things, February 2005, with Patrick Lee.
Disputes about metaphysical issues rarely make the newspapers. The ancient argument about the nature and identity of the human person, however, turns out to be highly relevant to issues… More

The Moral Status of the Human Embryo

– Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 48:2 (Spring 2005), with Alfonso Gómez-Lobo. First published as "Statement of Professor George" in Leon R. Kass (ed.), Human Cloning and Human Dignity: The Report of the President's Council On Bioethics (Public Affairs, 2002), pp. 294-306; and Human Cloning and Human Dignity:  An Ethical Inquiry (The President’s Council on Bioethics, 2002).
The subject matter of Human Cloning and Human Dignity (President’s Council 2002) is the production of a human embryo by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or similar… More

The Wrong of Abortion

– In Andrew I. Cohen and Christopher H. Wellman (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics (Blackwell Publishers, 2005), with Patrick Lee. Reprinted in Carol Levine (ed.), Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Bioethical Issues, 11th edition (McGraw-Hill Publishers, 2006).
Much of the public debate about abortion concerns the question whether deliberate feticide ought to be unlawful, at least in most circumstances. We will lay that question aside here in… More

Creative Sciece Will Resolve Stem Cell Issues

– Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2005, with Markus Grompe. Reprinted in Human Life Review 31:2 (Spring 2005).
The House of Representatives recently passed legislation to loosen President Bush’s restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. The president has promised to veto… More

Fetal Attraction

– The Weekly Standard, October 3, 2005. Reprinted in Human Life Review 31:4 (Fall 2005); in Spanish translation as “Fabricas de Organos,” La Gaceta de los Negocios (October 2, 2006); and in Rafael Domingo et al. (eds.) Hacia Un Derecho Global (Thomson Publishing Co., 2007).
THE JOURNAL Science late last month published the results of research conducted at Harvard proving that embryonic stem cells can be produced by a method that does not involve creating or… More

A Distinct Human Organism

– National Public Radio, November 22, 2005.
The key question in the debate over stem cell research that involves the destruction of human embryos is: When does the life of a human being begin? To answer this question is to decide… More

The First Fourteen Days of Human Life

– With Patrick Lee. The New Atlantis, Summer 2006.
Excerpt: In the debate about the moral standing of human embryos, some defenders of embryo-destructive research have claimed that human embryos are not human beings until implantation… More

Stem Cells without Moral Corruption

– Washington Post, July 6, 2006, with Eric Cohen.
For the past few years many of the world’s leading scientists have promoted so-called therapeutic cloning as the most promising way to produce clinically useful, genetically tailored,… More

Six Stem Cell Facts

– Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2007, with Rev. Thomas V. Berg, L.C. Reprinted in Spanish translation as “Seis Verdades Innegables,” La Gaceta de los Negocias, April 13, 2007.
Americans are divided over the question of whether it is morally acceptable to authorize by law, and fund with taxpayer dollars, research in which human embryos are destroyed. Stating that… More

Embryo: A Defense of Human Life

– With Christopher Tollefsen. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008. Reprinted by The Witherspoon Institute, 2011.
Description from Publisher: The bitter national debates over abortion, euthanasia, and stem cell research have created an unbridgeable gap between religious groups and those who insist that… More

Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics

– With Patrick Lee. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Description from Publisher: This book treats the question of what a human person is and the ethical and political controversies of abortion, hedonism and drug-taking, euthanasia, and sex… More

The President Politicizes Stem Cell Research

– Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2009, with Eric Cohen.
Yesterday President Barack Obama issued an executive order that authorizes expanded federal funding for research using stem cells produced by destroying human embryos. The announcement was… More

The Clash of Orthodoxies

– Manhattan Forum Lecture at the St. Anthony of Padua Institute, August 25, 2010, YouTube.
In this lecture, the eighth in the Manhattan Forum series, Dr. Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, tackles the issues at the heart of the… More

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis

– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical… More

The Sanctity of Life, Even in a Test Tube

– Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2013.
Sir Robert Edwards, the Nobel Prize-winning British “test tube baby” pioneer who died last week at age 87, devoted his career to developing in vitro fertilization as a technique… More

Infanticide and madness

– Journal of Medical Ethics 39:5 (May 2013).
I am, of course, aware that infanticide was accepted and practiced in ancient Greece and Rome, and is still practiced (usually secretly, with winks and nods from public authorities, and… More

Is the Pro-Choice Position on Infanticide “Madness”?

– Journal of Medical Ethics 39:5 (May 2013).
As Charles Camosy observes, he and I agree more than we disagree. He believes with no less conviction than I do that deliberately killing infant children is profoundly morally wrong and a… More

A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics

– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.
Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political… More

The Ontological Status of Embryos: A Reply to Jason Morris

– Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 39:5 (2014), with Patrick Lee and Christopher Tollefsen.
Abstract: In various places we have defended the position that a new human organism, that is, an individual member of the human species, comes to be at fertilization, the union of the… More

Commentary

Where Babies Come From

– First Things, October 1990.
Excerpt: Recent reports from a French laboratory contain some good news and some bad news for the prochoice movement. The good news is that abortion is not the taking of human life. Studies… More

Conscience and the Public Person

– In Russell E. Smith (ed.), Catholic Conscience: Foundation and Formation (Pope John XXIII Medical-Moral Research Center, 1991).

Conservative Heavyweight

– Anne Morse, Crisis Magazine, September 1, 2003.
Excerpt: Professor Robert P. George is pacing around a Princeton auditorium before 200-plus undergraduates, preparing to wage an intellectual shock-and-awe campaign against illogical… More

Human Cloning and Embryo Research

– Journal of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 25:1 (2004).
Abstract: The author, a member of the U.S.President’s Council on Bioethics, discusses ethical issues raised by human cloning, whether for purposes of bringing babies to birth or for… More

Acorns and Embryos

– With Patrick Lee. The New Atlantis, Fall 2004 - Winter 2005.
Excerpt: The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) recently invited two members of the President’s Council on Bioethics to reflect on the ethics of using embryonic stem cells… More

Dualistic Delusions

– First Things, February 2005, with Patrick Lee.
Disputes about metaphysical issues rarely make the newspapers. The ancient argument about the nature and identity of the human person, however, turns out to be highly relevant to issues… More

The Moral Status of the Human Embryo

– Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 48:2 (Spring 2005), with Alfonso Gómez-Lobo. First published as "Statement of Professor George" in Leon R. Kass (ed.), Human Cloning and Human Dignity: The Report of the President's Council On Bioethics (Public Affairs, 2002), pp. 294-306; and Human Cloning and Human Dignity:  An Ethical Inquiry (The President’s Council on Bioethics, 2002).
The subject matter of Human Cloning and Human Dignity (President’s Council 2002) is the production of a human embryo by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or similar… More

The Wrong of Abortion

– In Andrew I. Cohen and Christopher H. Wellman (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics (Blackwell Publishers, 2005), with Patrick Lee. Reprinted in Carol Levine (ed.), Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Bioethical Issues, 11th edition (McGraw-Hill Publishers, 2006).
Much of the public debate about abortion concerns the question whether deliberate feticide ought to be unlawful, at least in most circumstances. We will lay that question aside here in… More

Creative Sciece Will Resolve Stem Cell Issues

– Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2005, with Markus Grompe. Reprinted in Human Life Review 31:2 (Spring 2005).
The House of Representatives recently passed legislation to loosen President Bush’s restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. The president has promised to veto… More

Fetal Attraction

– The Weekly Standard, October 3, 2005. Reprinted in Human Life Review 31:4 (Fall 2005); in Spanish translation as “Fabricas de Organos,” La Gaceta de los Negocios (October 2, 2006); and in Rafael Domingo et al. (eds.) Hacia Un Derecho Global (Thomson Publishing Co., 2007).
THE JOURNAL Science late last month published the results of research conducted at Harvard proving that embryonic stem cells can be produced by a method that does not involve creating or… More

A Distinct Human Organism

– National Public Radio, November 22, 2005.
The key question in the debate over stem cell research that involves the destruction of human embryos is: When does the life of a human being begin? To answer this question is to decide… More

The First Fourteen Days of Human Life

– With Patrick Lee. The New Atlantis, Summer 2006.
Excerpt: In the debate about the moral standing of human embryos, some defenders of embryo-destructive research have claimed that human embryos are not human beings until implantation… More

Stem Cells without Moral Corruption

– Washington Post, July 6, 2006, with Eric Cohen.
For the past few years many of the world’s leading scientists have promoted so-called therapeutic cloning as the most promising way to produce clinically useful, genetically tailored,… More

Six Stem Cell Facts

– Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2007, with Rev. Thomas V. Berg, L.C. Reprinted in Spanish translation as “Seis Verdades Innegables,” La Gaceta de los Negocias, April 13, 2007.
Americans are divided over the question of whether it is morally acceptable to authorize by law, and fund with taxpayer dollars, research in which human embryos are destroyed. Stating that… More

Embryo: A Defense of Human Life

– With Christopher Tollefsen. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008. Reprinted by The Witherspoon Institute, 2011.
Description from Publisher: The bitter national debates over abortion, euthanasia, and stem cell research have created an unbridgeable gap between religious groups and those who insist that… More

Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics

– With Patrick Lee. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Description from Publisher: This book treats the question of what a human person is and the ethical and political controversies of abortion, hedonism and drug-taking, euthanasia, and sex… More

The President Politicizes Stem Cell Research

– Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2009, with Eric Cohen.
Yesterday President Barack Obama issued an executive order that authorizes expanded federal funding for research using stem cells produced by destroying human embryos. The announcement was… More

The Clash of Orthodoxies

– Manhattan Forum Lecture at the St. Anthony of Padua Institute, August 25, 2010, YouTube.
In this lecture, the eighth in the Manhattan Forum series, Dr. Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, tackles the issues at the heart of the… More

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis

– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical… More

The Sanctity of Life, Even in a Test Tube

– Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2013.
Sir Robert Edwards, the Nobel Prize-winning British “test tube baby” pioneer who died last week at age 87, devoted his career to developing in vitro fertilization as a technique… More

Infanticide and madness

– Journal of Medical Ethics 39:5 (May 2013).
I am, of course, aware that infanticide was accepted and practiced in ancient Greece and Rome, and is still practiced (usually secretly, with winks and nods from public authorities, and… More

Is the Pro-Choice Position on Infanticide “Madness”?

– Journal of Medical Ethics 39:5 (May 2013).
As Charles Camosy observes, he and I agree more than we disagree. He believes with no less conviction than I do that deliberately killing infant children is profoundly morally wrong and a… More

A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics

– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.
Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political… More

The Ontological Status of Embryos: A Reply to Jason Morris

– Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 39:5 (2014), with Patrick Lee and Christopher Tollefsen.
Abstract: In various places we have defended the position that a new human organism, that is, an individual member of the human species, comes to be at fertilization, the union of the… More

Multimedia

Where Babies Come From

– First Things, October 1990.
Excerpt: Recent reports from a French laboratory contain some good news and some bad news for the prochoice movement. The good news is that abortion is not the taking of human life. Studies… More

Conscience and the Public Person

– In Russell E. Smith (ed.), Catholic Conscience: Foundation and Formation (Pope John XXIII Medical-Moral Research Center, 1991).

Conservative Heavyweight

– Anne Morse, Crisis Magazine, September 1, 2003.
Excerpt: Professor Robert P. George is pacing around a Princeton auditorium before 200-plus undergraduates, preparing to wage an intellectual shock-and-awe campaign against illogical… More

Human Cloning and Embryo Research

– Journal of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 25:1 (2004).
Abstract: The author, a member of the U.S.President’s Council on Bioethics, discusses ethical issues raised by human cloning, whether for purposes of bringing babies to birth or for… More

Acorns and Embryos

– With Patrick Lee. The New Atlantis, Fall 2004 - Winter 2005.
Excerpt: The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) recently invited two members of the President’s Council on Bioethics to reflect on the ethics of using embryonic stem cells… More

Dualistic Delusions

– First Things, February 2005, with Patrick Lee.
Disputes about metaphysical issues rarely make the newspapers. The ancient argument about the nature and identity of the human person, however, turns out to be highly relevant to issues… More

The Moral Status of the Human Embryo

– Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 48:2 (Spring 2005), with Alfonso Gómez-Lobo. First published as "Statement of Professor George" in Leon R. Kass (ed.), Human Cloning and Human Dignity: The Report of the President's Council On Bioethics (Public Affairs, 2002), pp. 294-306; and Human Cloning and Human Dignity:  An Ethical Inquiry (The President’s Council on Bioethics, 2002).
The subject matter of Human Cloning and Human Dignity (President’s Council 2002) is the production of a human embryo by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or similar… More

The Wrong of Abortion

– In Andrew I. Cohen and Christopher H. Wellman (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics (Blackwell Publishers, 2005), with Patrick Lee. Reprinted in Carol Levine (ed.), Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Bioethical Issues, 11th edition (McGraw-Hill Publishers, 2006).
Much of the public debate about abortion concerns the question whether deliberate feticide ought to be unlawful, at least in most circumstances. We will lay that question aside here in… More

Creative Sciece Will Resolve Stem Cell Issues

– Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2005, with Markus Grompe. Reprinted in Human Life Review 31:2 (Spring 2005).
The House of Representatives recently passed legislation to loosen President Bush’s restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. The president has promised to veto… More

Fetal Attraction

– The Weekly Standard, October 3, 2005. Reprinted in Human Life Review 31:4 (Fall 2005); in Spanish translation as “Fabricas de Organos,” La Gaceta de los Negocios (October 2, 2006); and in Rafael Domingo et al. (eds.) Hacia Un Derecho Global (Thomson Publishing Co., 2007).
THE JOURNAL Science late last month published the results of research conducted at Harvard proving that embryonic stem cells can be produced by a method that does not involve creating or… More

A Distinct Human Organism

– National Public Radio, November 22, 2005.
The key question in the debate over stem cell research that involves the destruction of human embryos is: When does the life of a human being begin? To answer this question is to decide… More

The First Fourteen Days of Human Life

– With Patrick Lee. The New Atlantis, Summer 2006.
Excerpt: In the debate about the moral standing of human embryos, some defenders of embryo-destructive research have claimed that human embryos are not human beings until implantation… More

Stem Cells without Moral Corruption

– Washington Post, July 6, 2006, with Eric Cohen.
For the past few years many of the world’s leading scientists have promoted so-called therapeutic cloning as the most promising way to produce clinically useful, genetically tailored,… More

Six Stem Cell Facts

– Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2007, with Rev. Thomas V. Berg, L.C. Reprinted in Spanish translation as “Seis Verdades Innegables,” La Gaceta de los Negocias, April 13, 2007.
Americans are divided over the question of whether it is morally acceptable to authorize by law, and fund with taxpayer dollars, research in which human embryos are destroyed. Stating that… More

Embryo: A Defense of Human Life

– With Christopher Tollefsen. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008. Reprinted by The Witherspoon Institute, 2011.
Description from Publisher: The bitter national debates over abortion, euthanasia, and stem cell research have created an unbridgeable gap between religious groups and those who insist that… More

Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics

– With Patrick Lee. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Description from Publisher: This book treats the question of what a human person is and the ethical and political controversies of abortion, hedonism and drug-taking, euthanasia, and sex… More

The President Politicizes Stem Cell Research

– Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2009, with Eric Cohen.
Yesterday President Barack Obama issued an executive order that authorizes expanded federal funding for research using stem cells produced by destroying human embryos. The announcement was… More

The Clash of Orthodoxies

– Manhattan Forum Lecture at the St. Anthony of Padua Institute, August 25, 2010, YouTube.
In this lecture, the eighth in the Manhattan Forum series, Dr. Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, tackles the issues at the heart of the… More

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis

– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical… More

The Sanctity of Life, Even in a Test Tube

– Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2013.
Sir Robert Edwards, the Nobel Prize-winning British “test tube baby” pioneer who died last week at age 87, devoted his career to developing in vitro fertilization as a technique… More

Infanticide and madness

– Journal of Medical Ethics 39:5 (May 2013).
I am, of course, aware that infanticide was accepted and practiced in ancient Greece and Rome, and is still practiced (usually secretly, with winks and nods from public authorities, and… More

Is the Pro-Choice Position on Infanticide “Madness”?

– Journal of Medical Ethics 39:5 (May 2013).
As Charles Camosy observes, he and I agree more than we disagree. He believes with no less conviction than I do that deliberately killing infant children is profoundly morally wrong and a… More

A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics

– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.
Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political… More

The Ontological Status of Embryos: A Reply to Jason Morris

– Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 39:5 (2014), with Patrick Lee and Christopher Tollefsen.
Abstract: In various places we have defended the position that a new human organism, that is, an individual member of the human species, comes to be at fertilization, the union of the… More

Teaching

Where Babies Come From

– First Things, October 1990.
Excerpt: Recent reports from a French laboratory contain some good news and some bad news for the prochoice movement. The good news is that abortion is not the taking of human life. Studies… More

Conscience and the Public Person

– In Russell E. Smith (ed.), Catholic Conscience: Foundation and Formation (Pope John XXIII Medical-Moral Research Center, 1991).

Conservative Heavyweight

– Anne Morse, Crisis Magazine, September 1, 2003.
Excerpt: Professor Robert P. George is pacing around a Princeton auditorium before 200-plus undergraduates, preparing to wage an intellectual shock-and-awe campaign against illogical… More

Human Cloning and Embryo Research

– Journal of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 25:1 (2004).
Abstract: The author, a member of the U.S.President’s Council on Bioethics, discusses ethical issues raised by human cloning, whether for purposes of bringing babies to birth or for… More

Acorns and Embryos

– With Patrick Lee. The New Atlantis, Fall 2004 - Winter 2005.
Excerpt: The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) recently invited two members of the President’s Council on Bioethics to reflect on the ethics of using embryonic stem cells… More

Dualistic Delusions

– First Things, February 2005, with Patrick Lee.
Disputes about metaphysical issues rarely make the newspapers. The ancient argument about the nature and identity of the human person, however, turns out to be highly relevant to issues… More

The Moral Status of the Human Embryo

– Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 48:2 (Spring 2005), with Alfonso Gómez-Lobo. First published as "Statement of Professor George" in Leon R. Kass (ed.), Human Cloning and Human Dignity: The Report of the President's Council On Bioethics (Public Affairs, 2002), pp. 294-306; and Human Cloning and Human Dignity:  An Ethical Inquiry (The President’s Council on Bioethics, 2002).
The subject matter of Human Cloning and Human Dignity (President’s Council 2002) is the production of a human embryo by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or similar… More

The Wrong of Abortion

– In Andrew I. Cohen and Christopher H. Wellman (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics (Blackwell Publishers, 2005), with Patrick Lee. Reprinted in Carol Levine (ed.), Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Bioethical Issues, 11th edition (McGraw-Hill Publishers, 2006).
Much of the public debate about abortion concerns the question whether deliberate feticide ought to be unlawful, at least in most circumstances. We will lay that question aside here in… More

Creative Sciece Will Resolve Stem Cell Issues

– Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2005, with Markus Grompe. Reprinted in Human Life Review 31:2 (Spring 2005).
The House of Representatives recently passed legislation to loosen President Bush’s restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. The president has promised to veto… More

Fetal Attraction

– The Weekly Standard, October 3, 2005. Reprinted in Human Life Review 31:4 (Fall 2005); in Spanish translation as “Fabricas de Organos,” La Gaceta de los Negocios (October 2, 2006); and in Rafael Domingo et al. (eds.) Hacia Un Derecho Global (Thomson Publishing Co., 2007).
THE JOURNAL Science late last month published the results of research conducted at Harvard proving that embryonic stem cells can be produced by a method that does not involve creating or… More

A Distinct Human Organism

– National Public Radio, November 22, 2005.
The key question in the debate over stem cell research that involves the destruction of human embryos is: When does the life of a human being begin? To answer this question is to decide… More

The First Fourteen Days of Human Life

– With Patrick Lee. The New Atlantis, Summer 2006.
Excerpt: In the debate about the moral standing of human embryos, some defenders of embryo-destructive research have claimed that human embryos are not human beings until implantation… More

Stem Cells without Moral Corruption

– Washington Post, July 6, 2006, with Eric Cohen.
For the past few years many of the world’s leading scientists have promoted so-called therapeutic cloning as the most promising way to produce clinically useful, genetically tailored,… More

Six Stem Cell Facts

– Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2007, with Rev. Thomas V. Berg, L.C. Reprinted in Spanish translation as “Seis Verdades Innegables,” La Gaceta de los Negocias, April 13, 2007.
Americans are divided over the question of whether it is morally acceptable to authorize by law, and fund with taxpayer dollars, research in which human embryos are destroyed. Stating that… More

Embryo: A Defense of Human Life

– With Christopher Tollefsen. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008. Reprinted by The Witherspoon Institute, 2011.
Description from Publisher: The bitter national debates over abortion, euthanasia, and stem cell research have created an unbridgeable gap between religious groups and those who insist that… More

Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics

– With Patrick Lee. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Description from Publisher: This book treats the question of what a human person is and the ethical and political controversies of abortion, hedonism and drug-taking, euthanasia, and sex… More

The President Politicizes Stem Cell Research

– Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2009, with Eric Cohen.
Yesterday President Barack Obama issued an executive order that authorizes expanded federal funding for research using stem cells produced by destroying human embryos. The announcement was… More

The Clash of Orthodoxies

– Manhattan Forum Lecture at the St. Anthony of Padua Institute, August 25, 2010, YouTube.
In this lecture, the eighth in the Manhattan Forum series, Dr. Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, tackles the issues at the heart of the… More

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis

– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical… More

The Sanctity of Life, Even in a Test Tube

– Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2013.
Sir Robert Edwards, the Nobel Prize-winning British “test tube baby” pioneer who died last week at age 87, devoted his career to developing in vitro fertilization as a technique… More

Infanticide and madness

– Journal of Medical Ethics 39:5 (May 2013).
I am, of course, aware that infanticide was accepted and practiced in ancient Greece and Rome, and is still practiced (usually secretly, with winks and nods from public authorities, and… More

Is the Pro-Choice Position on Infanticide “Madness”?

– Journal of Medical Ethics 39:5 (May 2013).
As Charles Camosy observes, he and I agree more than we disagree. He believes with no less conviction than I do that deliberately killing infant children is profoundly morally wrong and a… More

A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics

– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.
Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political… More

The Ontological Status of Embryos: A Reply to Jason Morris

– Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 39:5 (2014), with Patrick Lee and Christopher Tollefsen.
Abstract: In various places we have defended the position that a new human organism, that is, an individual member of the human species, comes to be at fertilization, the union of the… More