Knowledge is power, but is owning it responsible? That’s one of the questions at the core of a recent federal lawsuit challenging the right of a company to patent—in effect to own—human genes.... Read full article

Resume inflation—with its over-written under-achievements—has long set the workplace standard for autobiographical unacceptability. But is resume deflation, like hiding advanced degrees and changing too-lofty titles, just as irresponsible?... Read full article

Michael Vick was released from federal prison recently after serving time for his role in running a dog fighting ring. His new role—campaigning to end dog fights—unleashed a torrent of public skepticism. He did the time, so should he be forgiven?... Read full article

Directed by Michael Apted, Party Guest takes a sly look inside a dinner party where a man and a woman meet, flirt, and are drawn into a game of calibrating their moral compasses. What happens when we judge others, but we’re not sure of all the facts?... Read full article

The book is a classic. The movie was a blockbuster. But are we ready for scientists to clone a real-life Jurassic Park? Significant genomic accomplishments in the past year have increased the possibility, but is cloning the extinct responsible?... Read full article

One by one, people have been supposedly sorry for brazen bonuses, Ponzi ploys, steroid secrets, bloodying their girlfriends, and other assorted blunders of judgment. But does apologizing now mean you never have to accept responsibility?... Read full article

When parents act irresponsibly, should they get a time-out? A group of soccer parents in Bethesda, Maryland was recently punished for “unsportsmanlike” conduct on the sidelines of a match.... Read full article

Going viral after going ballistic isn’t on most mom’s to-do lists , but the story of the fed-up New York lawyer/mother who kicked her bickering daughters out of the car spread faster than flu. Were her actions irresponsible, irresistible, or something else?... Read full article

“Boomerangers” — adult offspring who return to live with their parents — have been the stuff of sitcoms and punch lines. But the freeloader image may become a casualty of the recession, which is reshaping what it means to be a responsible American family in an era of mounting crises.... Read full article

Dowdy spinster. Ugly duckling. Hairy angel. Those stinging public assessments of Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle resurrected one of the oldest rules of responsibility—Don’t judge a book by its cover—and set off an ongoing debate about what judging others reveals about ourselves.... Read full article