Science Can Make Morality Better - Fiery Cushman

An age old lopsided "debate" is getting even day by day - here:

"Both biological and cultural evolution attempt to explain morality in terms of adaptive design principles, but another line of research illustrates how sophisticated moral principles can rest on accidents of cognitive architecture. Consider the distinction between actions and omissions. Most people think it is worse to actively harm than to passively allow a harm to occur.

For instance, the US Supreme Court and the American Medical Association prohibit active euthanasia, such as administering morphine, but allow passive euthanasia, such as terminating dialysis. But the patient is just as dead either way, so why make this distinction?

When I and a team of neuroscientists used fMRI to investigate such judgements, we found that a large network of brain regions exhibits greater activity when judging omissions than when judging actions. Many of these regions are associated with deliberate, effortful, logical thinking. The more activity a person exhibited in these regions, the more likely they were to say that harm by omission is morally wrong. In short, it looks like judging a harmful action is relatively easy, while judging a harmful omission is hard work. This may reflect the fact that causal responsibility is much more obvious in the active cases - a feature of the brain's design with major consequences for law and policy.

All the studies I have described share a common view: moral rules are born in human minds. For many, this is deeply threatening. Moral rules must be immutable and eternal, they say, like the speed of light or the mass of a proton. Otherwise, why should we obey them?

As we come to a scientific understanding of morality, society is not going to descend into anarchy. Instead, we may be able to shape our moral thinking towards nobler ends. Which norms of fairness foster economic prosperity? What are the appropriate limits on assisting a patient's end-of-life decisions? By recognising morality as a property of the mind, we gain a magical power of control over its future."