Ethics in life

SOUL FOOD

A couple of weeks ago, the headline of “Column One,” a front-page

feature of the Los Angeles Times, caught my eye as I was getting

ready to head to Fort Walton Beach, Fla. for a weekend seminar called

“Ethics and Excellence in Column Writing.”

“A Matter of Life, Ethics,” is how the headline summed up the

story. The first sentence of the jump line below it asked: Is it

right to create one child to save another?

The column, written by Aaron Zitner, unfolded the predicament of

the Whitakers, a British family with a son named Charlie, whose body

cannot make red blood cells. Charlie’s body needs blood-making cells,

and the very best source of them would be a sibling.

Charlie’s parents would , with the help of doctors, mix their eggs

and sperm to create embryos.

Then, when the embryos were three days old, doctors would screen

them to select the one most likely to grow into a child who would be

a good donor of the cells Charlie needs.

This kind of life-saving medical intervention has already been

used in the U.S. to treat another grave blood disease in a child. But

in Britain, Charlie’s family has been barred from pursuing this

course of treatment.

One of the questions raised in the story is whether the United

States should, or could, impose a ban on this kind of innovative

medical treatment.

As we wade into the 21st century, ethical dilemmas that seem

nearly beyond the pale of our human reasoning -- as well as timeworn

temptations that might seem they should be well within our grasp of

simple common sense challenge and, sometimes, defeat us.

The fabric of our social trust has been frayed by revelations of

dubious business practices in high places, of plagiarism in

universities, high schools and newsrooms, and of sex scandals in our

churches, our schools and our government offices -- among other falls

from grace.

Most grievously to many a columnist, came the fall from grace and

resignation of longtime and revered columnist Bob Greene, who

confessed to having had a sexual liaison with an 18-year-old woman, a

student he met through his position at the Chicago Tribune.

So on the first weekend of November, 30 columnists gathered in

sunny Florida to consider the ethical responsibilities that come with

their jobs. They met -- as Mike Leonard, president of the National

Society of Newspaper Columnists, which sponsored the seminar, put it

-- to “sort through the ethical minefields and come out on the other

side a little wiser and more wary.”

Under the lengthening shadow of so many ethical failings in so

many sectors of our lives, maybe -- just maybe -- we are learning

that ethics are not an option.

To re-phrase the headline of “Column One”: Ethics are a matter of

life.