Development Ethics

International Development Ethics Association (IDEA)

• IDEA promotes ethical discussion of development: the nature of ethically desirable development, ethical means for achieving development, and ethical dilemmas arising in the practice of development. IDEA members include researchers and students from a range of academic disciplines pertaining to development, along with practitioners working with a variety of development NGOs, agencies, and institutions.

The Life You Can Save

• If we could easily save the life of a child, we would. For example, if we saw a child in danger of drowning in a shallow pond, and all we had to do to save the child was wade into the pond, and pull him out, we would do so. The fact that we would get wet, or ruin a good pair of shoes, doesn’t really count when it comes to saving a child’s life. UNICEF, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, estimates that about 24,000 children die every day from preventable, poverty-related causes. Yet at the same time almost a billion people live very comfortable lives, with money to spare for many things that are not at all necessary. (You are not sure if you are in that category? When did you last spend money on something to drink, when drinkable water was available for nothing? If the answer is “within the past week” then you are spending money on luxuries while children die from malnutrition or diseases that we know how to prevent or cure.) The Life You Can Save seeks to change this. If everyone who can afford to contribute to reducing extreme poverty were to give a modest proportion of their income to effective organizations fighting extreme poverty, the problem could be solved. It wouldn’t take a huge sacrifice. Site is related to the book of the same title by philosopher and ethicist, Peter Singer.

The Garrett Hardin Society

• The Garrett Hardin Society is dedicated to the preservation of the writings and ideas of Garrett James Hardin. A common thread throughout his work is an interest in bioethics. Trained as an ecologist and microbiologist and a Professor of Human Ecology at the University of California for more than thirty years, he is best known for his 1968 essay, The Tragedy of the Commons.