With religion anything goes.

Nita Farahany holds a degree in genetics from Dartmouth College, a master’s degree in biology from Harvard, and a law degree, another master’s, and a Ph.D. in the philosophy of biology from Duke University. (By the time you read this she will have earned another degree!) This scholar is now a recognized authority on the intersection between criminal law, genetics, neuroscience and philosophy. She was appointed to President Obama’s Council on Bioethics to advise the President on matters relating to science, technology and their moral implications. 

So smart.

A lucid, articulate and critical thinker, one would think Dr. Farahany would represent the acme of reason and logic as it applies to morality. 

Far from it. 

What she is most concerned about is rumors that our government might have exposed captured terrorists to aerosols containing the hormone oxytocin in an effort to make them more cooperative. As well, she believes the use of harmless magnetic resonance imaging of the brain for lie detection is a violation of something she calls "cognitive liberty". 

Okay.

When it comes to the slightest perceived encroachment upon personal freedom by science, her beliefs are finely tuned. Yet, when challenged by a colleague regarding the morality of forcing half the women in Afghanistan to live in cloth bags, she blew off the interview with, “That’s just your opinion.” Then, when presented with a hypothetical religion whose holy scriptures ordered followers to pluck out the eyeballs of every third child born, she replied, “You could never say they were wrong.”

Using her logic, Farahany is fine with FGM  or female genital mutilation, practiced worldwide and the United States by orthodox Muslims. FGM is where the clitoris or the clitoris and labia are cut away from little Muslim girls genitals, usually by a family member. This is intended to prevent Muslim females from enjoying sex and "straying" when sexually mature. In extreme cases, the vaginal opening is sewn shut to ensure the girl is a virgin when given away in marriage, usually to an older man chosen by the family. In the United Kingdom alone there is an average of 1500 botched attempts at FGM the end up in emergency rooms each month. This does not count those mutilations that were successful or unreported.

Although a far left-leaning atheist, Professor Farahany draws a hard line between the bioethics of science and religious faith, willing to defend some terrible religious ideas at any cost.

And that itself, Dr. Farahany, is a very bad (and dangerous!) idea.