Tag: Children

Projection NOT Promotion: Why the Violence of Sports is Ethical in Society

April 6, 2017
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STUDENT VOICES

By Maria Trivelpiece

It is quite difficult to get through a day without hearing or seeing some mention of sports or athletics in our world. They practically dominate society. Professional athletes are some of the highest paid people on the planet. They are the epitome of what children aspire to be, fans fawn over and television networks profit from. Yet, in the midst of all the glory of these games, the evident violence that accompanies them seems to be conveniently overlooked. But is it okay to simply ignore that the most watched event on television is a game of grown men tackling each other, beating each other and then celebrating the fact that they physically harmed another human being? Is it ethical to teach our children that the most exciting moment in ice hockey is when the defensemen drop their gloves and fist fight? I am here to say that it is. The violence of sports, in technicality, is ethical because sports are not promoting violence, but rather mimicking and projecting the society that we live in.

We want to rationalize and determine if an action is ethical. Just recently we have seen Colin Kaepernick kneel during the national anthem and cannot imagine why anyone would even condemn him for expressing his freedom of speech. But then, we see the war veteran without legs who so bravely defended our country and does not have the privilege to stand for the flag he fought for and our ‘ethical’ minds question, what is right and what is wrong?

The same dilemma happens in sports; however, we fail to see both sides. We see the violence of football, boxing and ice hockey, and automatically determine that this is affecting us, our children and the way our society functions. On the contrary, we do not look at the violence already in society and in some way see how it reflects itself and impacts sports.

Violence in the sporting arena has been around longer than historians may even know. Gladiators fought until the death and 20,000 people encouraged the fighters to slaughter each other. In 1930, Maximillian Adelbert Baer killed a man in the boxing ring and spectators cheered until they realized his opponent was not moving. It seems that we as fans love this ferocity. We watch in awe and anticipation, and almost thrive off of the viciousness within the arena.

But why does the violence make us feel invigorated, even happy? I believe the answer lies deep within the human soul. We all have our own opponents. Every single day we wake up there are obstacles we have to face, problems looking to crush us and the unstableness of life. This instability causes anxiety. It causes anger. We cannot always understand why bad events tend to happen. We cannot understand why they happen in general, not only to us, but to humanity. When evil attacks, our response is to fight it. We do not welcome it with open arms into our lives, but rather, we wish to eradicate it from ever coming near the people and things that we so love.

So we wrestle with the malevolence; we stand up for ourselves, we protest, we fight for our beliefs just as the gladiators looked to defend themselves and the defensive lineman looks to tackle the running back charging towards him. In sports the opponent is the evil, trying to invade our basket, our end zone, our goal line, which at that moment is the most valuable piece of life. When we defeat the challenger and win the passing of a particular job or make the game-winning basket, then, we feel alive. We have defeated that invasion, rising victorious.

The violence of sports is a projection of society, not a promotion of actions. Sports respond to the way that human beings act. Charles Darwin theorized about survival of the fittest in 1859. The animal, the human being, the plant, that knows how to adapt, knows how to defeat the other to survive. We cannot blame sports for influencing violence in the world, when there is an inherent desire to demolish the competition within all creatures of this earth. Sports project this tendency that already exists. If we are unhappy with the climate of the sporting arena then the only way to change it would be to change the climate of life.

So, in the most literal and figurative way, the ball is in your court to decide if this violence is ethical or not. But before you decide, look at the world around you. See the wickedness that occurs every day in many different ways and then determine whether this is because of sports or if sports are simply a slightly more manageable way of projecting this wickedness in ways that are more controlled than most acts of vice in the society of our time.

Maria Trivelpiece ’19 is a student at Fordham College Rose Hill. She is double majoring in psychology and journalism. 

First Baby Born Via ‘3-Parent IVF’ Raises Ethical Questions

September 28, 2016
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On Tuesday it was reported that the first live birth resulting from mitochondrial donation was born in New York to a Jordanian couple. According to The New York Times, the fertility procedure – also referred to as “3-parent IVF” – was performed at a Mexican clinic and the baby is a healthy boy.

The purpose of a donor for this couple was to “overcome flaws in a parent’s mitochondria that can cause grave illnesses in babies.” Thus, the DNA from the egg of the healthy mother who has the mutation, is placed in the egg of a healthy donor after her nuclear DNA is removed. It is important to understand that the mitochondria of a cell are completely separate entities from DNA that determines inheritance.

The Jordanian couple took their chances with the procedure as they had lost two other children to the disease, one at age 6 and the other at 8 months. Dr. John Zhang performed the procedure at the New Hope Fertility Center’s clinic in Mexico as it is “effectively banned” in the United States, though it has been legal in the United Kingdom since last year.

The child is now 5 months old and healthy with normal mitochondria, as was first reported by New Scientist magazine.

Continue reading “First Baby Born Via ‘3-Parent IVF’ Raises Ethical Questions”

NIH’s New Definition of “Children” Finally Gets it Right: A Welcome Change for Children’s Health Equity

October 19, 2015

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By Celia B. Fisher, Ph.D.

Under current federal research regulations, a “child” is defined as an individual younger than 21 years of age – a policy that has produced inequities in health research for youth younger than 18 years of age.

Beginning January 25th, 2016, that will change: the age of a child will be defined as an individual less than 18 years old. This is a welcome change that can begin to address the urgent need for age- and population-targeted research to avoid the use of treatments tested in young adult populations that may be unsuited for adolescents and children.

Continue reading “NIH’s New Definition of “Children” Finally Gets it Right: A Welcome Change for Children’s Health Equity”

Buy Buy Baby? The Ethics of Crowdfunding Babies

January 20, 2015

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By: Elizabeth Yuko, Ph.D.

Between adoption and advancing reproductive technologies, there are ever-increasing options for individuals and families who wish to have a baby. Recent reports indicate that the high costs associated with these processes have resulted in some using crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter.com and GoFundMe.com to raise money for fees associated with adoption, surrogacy, and assisted reproductive techniques such as in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Indeed, certain forms of assisted reproduction raise ethical questions in and of themselves, but in this case, our concern is whether it matters how funds for these processes are raised, and who provides the funding. In other words, is utilizing a crowdfunding website an ethically acceptable way to raise funds for adoption, IVF, and surrogacy? If so, is it significant who pays for these processes? Is anything owed to the people who contribute?

Continue reading “Buy Buy Baby? The Ethics of Crowdfunding Babies”

The ethics of panhandling children: deciding whether to give

November 18, 2014
A screenshot from NBC 4 New York's recent report.
A screenshot from NBC 4 New York’s recent report.

Last week, NBC reported on the increasing use of babies and children by adults panhandling in New York City. The particular group of 9 women investigated appeared to be working in tandem, and are reportedly not homeless and have repeatedly refused shelter and services.

Residents of New York and other cities where this is occurring are faced with the daily decision of whether or not to give money to those who ask for it. What are the ethical implications of making contributions?

Continue reading “The ethics of panhandling children: deciding whether to give”

Dr. Celia B. Fisher & Co-PI awarded $1.9 million grant to examine the ethics in HIV prevention research involving LGBT youth

September 26, 2014
Dr. Celia B. Fisher, Director of the Center for Ethics Education
Dr. Celia B. Fisher, Director of the Center for Ethics Education

For more information, please visit & “like” RELAY: Resources & Education for LGBT & Allied Youth: www.facebook.com/lgbtrelay

Fordham University Center for Ethics Education Director Dr. Celia B. Fisher and her co-PI Dr. Brian Mustanski (Northwestern University) have received a 4-year grant for $1,918,206.00 from the National Institute on Minority Health Disparities (NIMHD) on Ethics in HIV Prevention Research Involving LGBT Youth (1R01MD009561-01).

Continue reading “Dr. Celia B. Fisher & Co-PI awarded $1.9 million grant to examine the ethics in HIV prevention research involving LGBT youth”

Can a racist grandfather raise a biracial child? ‘The Root’ asks Dr. Celia B. Fisher to weigh in

September 18, 2013

Can a racist grandfather raise a biracial child?

A reader of The Root — a website that bills itself as a source for “Black News, Opinion, Politics and Culture” — wrote in seeking advice on what to do about his father, who, along with his mother, is raising his biracial niece. While he notes that his father is a great father and grandfather, he also tends to make racist comments around his niece, which he believes she is picking up on.

Fordham University Center for Ethics Education Director Dr. Celia B. Fisher was quoted in the article, saying that negative racial stereotypes cause harm through “micro aggressions.” Fisher defines micro aggressions as “the everyday racially insulting and demeaning language and actions that white people may not be aware they are inflicting.” She is concerned that this will lead to feelings of anxiety, low self-esteem and a sense of personal inferiority that will affect the writer’s niece in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

To read the rest of the article, please click here.

To read a piece by CNN on the adoption of African American children by families in the Netherlands, please click here.