Read This: The Ethical Imagination: Journeys of the Human Spirit
Non-fiction by Margaret Somerville (House of Anansi Press)
REVIEW BY Nicholas Bradley
The Ethical Imagination is at once a forward-looking and deeply conservative book. Some of Margaret Somerville’s views have previously caused considerable offence—notably her opposition to same-sex marriage, founded on the belief that a child has the right to be raised by a mother and a father, and preferably by its biological parents. In this book Somerville discusses same-sex marriage, among other ethical concerns, including the rights of disabled people and the terminally ill, that are provoked by developments in genetic and reproductive technology. Her thoughtful treatise, guided by a respect for nature and a sense of “the secular sacred,” contains value even for those who, as I do, disagree fervently with many of its assumptions and conclusions.
Unfortunately, Somerville’s desire to preserve what appears to be the “natural” way of things leads her to many illiberal positions that run counter to her belief that we are linked by “common humanity and universal responsibility.”
