Big Moral Issue News Today

Require. in other words, if it passes on tuesday, as is expected, its headed directly to the supreme court. can you bet if its successful we will see it on the ballot on a number of other states, too. i wanted to talk to you, peter, because its something you have written a lot about. lets go to the absolute sort of base -- get right to the nub of the issue, which is how do you understand personhood. the radical thing being proposed is that four cells constituted a person. do you think thats righ...

When we cant even comply with what is on the books. so by pushing more regulations, i think in some ways is causing more problems. >> but this is also part of the problem with austerity politics, in that they starve the system and make the system ineffective, and then use it as an argument as to why systemic answers are not possible. you are arguing saying regulations are not the problem, but the enforcement is the problem, so is what we need is a beefed up epa? >> you need some regulation, and ...

Issue, just as gay marriage was for jornl bush in 2004. these could be really, really important players. >> you think were going to see -- you think success on tuesday, augers that this will be replicated in more states despite the fact that parts of the main line, pro life movement are -- >> theyve already started. theyve passed already the first hurdle for getting it on the ohio ballot. they dont really -- they kind of know that theyre not going to be successful on it in these places but they ...

Begins is rather more extreme than mine. >> well, thats a different question as to whether or not it should be taken out of the hands of the legislators. >> well, its not. weather not -- again, i go back to the analogy of donating a kidney. whether or not a certain class of person should be forced to donate kidneys is not something we put up to a vote. we have bedrock rights that are not put up to a vote, and why would this be different. >> i think the court goes too far in trying to invent a ri...

And the other main spokes people for the yes on 26 movement in mississippi, is an obgyn talking about it. >> science confirms a person is a human being at the moment of fertilization. at that moment we are fully human and fully alive. its a moral issue because it doesnt matter if you come from a family that is rich or poor, black or white, or even if your father was a rapist. >> this is -- dr. freda busch is a perfect spokesperson for this. >> this is a culmination on the movement to point abort...

Same time. and this will turn into another litigation and the cleanup doesnt get done and people are still being harmed, and -- >> but absent regulations or litigation, what other way is there to enforce transparency? companies will not do it as of the goodness of their hearts? >> litigation is used as a tool to get them to do the right thing. you have to have some regulations otherwise they continue to do the things that harm the public. and we need to sometimes create an advisory board with th...

Creation. okay, and lets just accept that. what can the president do and ben bernanke, what can they do if we take as a given congress will give us no help? >> i think what obama can do is go directly at the issue, which is the huge buildup of mortgage debt that can never be repaid, and he can do that principally through fannie mae and freddie mac, allowing people to do refis, and cutting down the principle that will never be repaid because the homes were never worth it to begin with. and bernan...

Our guests are back to tell us what they think you should know this week. what this week -- >> whats hot in ethics this week? >> obviously, the mississippi -- has made that a hot topic. i mean, theres a lot of issue still around that dont get talked about. i mentioned climate change and the question i wanted to ask jon huntsman. i think thats a moral issue. foreign aid is another thing. when people are talking about budget cuts, they team so imagine that foreign aid is a large proportion of the ...

Autism, where people felt like they saw a causal relationship, and there was early science that said there seemed to be, and that has been detracted, and do you worry about producing a kind of similar situation of unsubstantiated fear about causation where it may turn out there is a bunch of people that have cancer for no discernible reason. >> yeah, thats a good point. sometimes that could be true. its not designed to create a fear. but here is the other side of the issue. often times we might ...

And wealth is being jeopardized. i get tens of thousands of e-mails every month. >> sounds daunting. >> it is. i have been plotting because so many people have been coming to me in and around contaminated zones where there is excess disease and illness, and theres a map that i plotted has sites reporting to me what appears to them 12 kids on one block with cancer, or different types of diseases in the community. it has become so alarming i have been in discussion with google on how we can create...