bioethics Especially sensitive
Euthanasia Whether, and under what conditions, it can be right to bring about the death of a suffering person — at their request — or to allow them to die. The debate turns on the weight of self-determination against the idea that innocent human life is inviolable, on whether killing and letting die differ morally, and on what legalization would do to the vulnerable in practice.
autonomy suffering sanctity-of-life end-of-life
bioethics Especially sensitive
Abortion Whether, and when, abortion is morally permissible — a debate that turns on the moral status of the unborn, the weight of bodily autonomy, and the proper reach of law in a society that disagrees.
bioethics personhood autonomy rights
gender-sexuality-family Especially sensitive
Pornography and Sexual Formation Whether pornography harms individuals, relationships, and society, and how those harms \u2014 if real \u2014 should be weighed against claims of free expression and personal liberty. Feminist, religious, libertarian, and public-health perspectives each reach different conclusions.
pornography sexual-formation free-expression exploitation
criminal justice Especially sensitive
Capital Punishment Whether the state may justly put criminals to death — a debate that turns on what the gravest crimes deserve, whether execution deters, the inviolability of human life even in the guilty, and the risk of killing the innocent in a fallible system.
retribution deterrence human-dignity state-power
ethics & society Especially sensitive
Feminism & Gender roles A neutral exploration of how to think about the equal dignity of women and men alongside long-running debates over rights, roles, and the sources of observed differences. Feminism is itself plural (liberal, difference, care, intersectional), and traditional or complementarian views are plural too; this issue maps several reasonable positions without naming a winner.
equality gender-roles complementarity feminism
ethics & society Especially sensitive
Gender identity How should the relationship between biological sex and gender identity be understood, and how should institutions — healthcare, sport, single-sex spaces, data, and law — adjudicate when claims grounded in autonomy and well-being meet claims grounded in sex as a category? Thoughtful, good-faith people, including transgender people, gender-critical feminists, clinicians, and religious believers, disagree, and each of those groups holds a range of views.
sex-and-gender identity autonomy single-sex-spaces
political philosophy Especially sensitive
Immigration How open or closed should borders be? Reasonable people disagree about whether people have a strong right to move across borders, whether political communities may decide who joins them, what is owed to those fleeing persecution, and how to weigh social cohesion and the rule of law. This issue maps several thoughtful positions without declaring a winner.
borders freedom-of-movement refugees citizenship
gender-sexuality-family Sensitive
Marriage and Divorce What marriage is for, whether it is fundamentally a permanent covenant or a civil contract that can be dissolved, and what justice requires toward spouses and children when marriages end. Thoughtful people disagree across religious, philosophical, and legal lines.
marriage divorce covenant family
justice & society Especially sensitive
Racism Why racism is wrong is a near-universal moral baseline; the live, reasonable disagreements are about what racism fundamentally is (individual prejudice vs. structural pattern), how pervasive structural racism remains today, and what justice requires as a remedy (race-neutral/colorblind treatment vs. race-conscious measures). This issue steelmans those debates while assuming the equal dignity of every racial group.
justice equality structural-racism colorblindness
ethics & sexuality Especially sensitive
Same-sex relationships A structured inquiry into the ethics and recognition of same-sex relationships and marriage. It presents the most thoughtful defenders of several reasonable positions — the equal-dignity/affirming view, the conjugal/natural-law view, the liberal-neutrality view, and a conscience-and-pluralism view — without declaring a winner, treating religions and philosophies as source contexts rather than trump cards.
marriage sexuality equality natural-law
gender-sexuality-family Sensitive
Sexual Ethics Before Marriage What makes sexual intimacy morally permissible or impermissible, and whether consent alone is sufficient or whether commitment, love, or marriage are also required. Reasonable people disagree across religious, philosophical, and cultural traditions.
sexuality consent chastity intimacy
political philosophy Especially sensitive
War When, if ever, is organized political violence morally permissible — and once it begins, what constraints govern it? This issue gathers four thoughtful positions on the ethics of war, from those who hold it can be justified under strict conditions to those who deny it can almost ever be, and asks students to weigh causes, constraints, consequences, and the demands of justice and mercy.
just-war pacifism realism humanitarian-intervention