You are browsing: Human Rights & Ethics

  • Circumcision: time to cut it out?

    The religious culture wars have a new battleground. Is male circumcision a harmless ethnic signifier or the infliction of genuine harm on a child? Toby Lichtig reports

  • The case for assisted dying

    Acting in the name of religion, a small and unrepresentative number of believers are inflicting needless suffering on others. Raymond Tallis, Chair of Healthcare Professionals for Assisted Dying, on why the law must be changed

  • Forced marriage must not be tolerated

    The murder of Shafilea Ahmed has thrown the spotlight on the scandal of forced marriage in Britain. It's time we ended it, says Sarah Ditum

  • True crime

    Campaigning death row lawyer Clive Stafford Smith’s latest book is a gripping real-life thriller, but the ending remains a mystery. Caspar Melville meets him

  • Still reaching: New Humanist interviews John Amaechi

    He’s played basketball at the highest level and was the first major league sportsman in America to come out as gay. Now he’s a psychologist, an OBE and an outspoken atheist. Musa Okwonga gets the measure of John Amaechi

  • Pantomime polemic

    When he was invited to debate David Starkey on the subject of Britishness, Musa Okwonga looked forward to the opportunity to challenge the historian's controversial views on race and multiculturalism. But a clash between Starkey and the columnist Laurie Penny saw the event quickly descend into farce

  • Moral compass: a guide to religious freedom

    Is it legitimate to ban the burqa? Should an employee be allowed to wear a cross at work? Should gay marriage be legalised? Find your way through the ethical thicket with Kenan Malik's step-by-step guide to the logic of tolerance

  • Book review: Breaking Their Will by Janet Heimlich

    Richard Wilson on an important exposé of religious abuse

  • Book review: Guilt by Ferdinand von Schirach

    Stephen Sedley judges the memoirs of a jaded lawyer

  • Editorial: Marketplace of outrage

    An inclination to censor is supplanting the free flow of ideas