In its ruling on Insite, the Supreme Court used the Charter to implement ethics at an individual case level, while keeping the law intact at the general level.
Margaret Somerville
Director of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics, and Law, McGill University.
Dr. Somerville is Samuel Gale professor of law, professor in the Faculty of Medicine, and founding director of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics, and Law at McGill University in Montreal.
She has an extensive national and international publishing and speaking record, and is a frequent commentator in all forms of media.
She authored The Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit (Penguin, 2000); Death Talk: The Case Against Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide (MQUP, 2002); and The Ethical Imagination: Journeys of the Human Spirit (Anansi, 2006), which she delivered as the nationally broadcast CBC 2006 Massey Lectures. She has also edited Do We Care? Renewing Canada's Commitment to Health (MQUP, 1999); and co-edited Transdisciplinarity: reCreating Integrated Knowledge (MQUP/EOLSS, 2000).
She regularly consults, nationally and internationally, to a wide variety of bodies including governments and NGOs. She has received many honours and awards including the Order of Australia, six honorary doctorates, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2003, she was chosen by an international jury as the first recipient of the UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science.
She has an extensive national and international publishing and speaking record, and is a frequent commentator in all forms of media.
She authored The Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit (Penguin, 2000); Death Talk: The Case Against Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide (MQUP, 2002); and The Ethical Imagination: Journeys of the Human Spirit (Anansi, 2006), which she delivered as the nationally broadcast CBC 2006 Massey Lectures. She has also edited Do We Care? Renewing Canada's Commitment to Health (MQUP, 1999); and co-edited Transdisciplinarity: reCreating Integrated Knowledge (MQUP/EOLSS, 2000).
She regularly consults, nationally and internationally, to a wide variety of bodies including governments and NGOs. She has received many honours and awards including the Order of Australia, six honorary doctorates, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2003, she was chosen by an international jury as the first recipient of the UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science.
‘Win a Baby’ Contest Puts a Price on Life
By putting a baby up as prize to be won, an Ottawa radio station has breached a foundational societal value.
Euthanasia Discussion Sparks Controversy
A Quebec hospital’s decision to censor its newsletter forces us to rethink the ethics of communication.
On Being Transhuman
If technology has been used to enhance life, why shouldn’t it make us immortal?
The Ethics of Reporting on Baby Storm
The media may have made a mistake by identifying the child being raised without a gender.
‘Storm’ in a Tea Cup Raises Larger Concerns
The Torontonians raising a “genderless” child should consider the ethics of experimenting on kids.
The Ethics of Intentional Flooding
Manitoba’s decision to flood 150 homes required balancing ethical and constitutional questions.
Can a Machine Act Ethically?
Making the right decision takes more than rational thought.
When Your Grandma is Also Your Mom
Surrogate parenthood has helped many struggling parents to conceive, but when it comes to ethics, the child’s interests must come first.
Working Out the Ethics of WikiLeaks
For good ethics, we need good facts. In undertaking an ethical analysis of WikiLeaks, which questions do we need to ask?
