Religion and Business Ethics
- play show:
Date: 20 May 2010
Lessons From the Oil Spill
What would Confucius say about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, huge salaries on Wall Street, and the tainted milk in China? Two scholars of religion and business ethics—one Confucian, one Judeo-Christian— weigh in on whether moral rules were broken in recent corporate embarrassments.
Pictured: A duck covered in oil after the 2007 San Francisco Bay oil spill
Thomas O'Brien, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Depaul University
Daryl Koehn, Executive Director of the Center for Business Ethics at the University of St. Thomas
Fifty Years of The Pill
Begins at 22 min 30 sec
Fifty years ago this month, the FDA approved one of the best-selling drugs in history: the birth control pill. For many, the birth of the pill evokes visions of free love and sexual immorality. But Elaine Tyler May says that is simply not true - prescriptions don't change principles. She joins us to discuss the past fifty years of religion, revolution, and the pill.
Elaine Tyler May, author of America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation
Contraception and the Koran
Begins at 43 min 16 sec
While many Judeo-Christian conservatives disapprove of contraception in the United States, that connection doesn't necessarily translate to Muslim countries. So says Douglas Huber, a reproductive health expert who has worked to promote family planning in countries like Afghanistan. What he says about Islam and fertility control may surprise you -- from Iran's status as a global leader in increasing contraceptive use, to the fact that Muhammed advocated birth spacing 1,400 years before Western biomedicine.
Pictured: A family planning clinic in Malaysia, where Islam is the state religion.
Douglas Huber, Reproductive Health Expert
