There seems to be general agreement among those to whom I’ve spoken, or who’re on Twitter, that this years IAB in Rotterdam was one of the best, if not the best. Granted, the parallel sessions were very short – there’s not much you can do in 8 minutes – but the organisation was superb, and […]
Month: June 2012
Why philosophical theorising about distributive justice in health care (mostly) doesn’t work
By David Hunter I had the pleasure yesterday at the IAB 2012 to see Daniel Wikler run a symposium on population level bioethics – which primarily focused on prioritisation decisions. This was useful for me since it helped me coalesce why I think many if not all attempts to give a philosophical account of distributive […]
Circumcision in Germany: The Courts Speak
I’m writing this while listening to Mary Warnock talking at the IAB, so it’ll be unusually short and to the point: a court in Germany has ruled that male circumcision for religious reasons “amounts to bodily harm”. In a decision that has caused outrage among Jewish and Muslim groups, the court said that a child’s […]
Oh, and since we’re talking about assisted dying…
… read this from Current Oncology – “Pereira’s Attack on Legalizing Euthanasia or Assisted Suicide: Smoke and Mirrors” – if you haven’t already. (via the Bioethics International FB group… and a million others.) […]
Canadian Ban on Assisted Suicide “Unconstitutional”
A Court in British Columbia has ruled that the law against assisted suicide (AS) in Canada cannot be reconciled with the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms – notably item 7 – Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with […]
Treating the Sex Offender
This is an interesting story picked up by the BBC: drugs are being used to “suppress sexual thoughts and urges” among sex offenders in an experiment at HMP Whatton. It is early days, and the number taking part is small – so far fewer than 60 – but the graphs illustrating such measures as prisoners’ […]
Congratulations, Peter Singer
Just a quick post to note that Peter Singer has been made a Companion of the Order of Australia – which is, apparently, the Aussie equivalent of a KBE. The right-wing press ain’t happy – but irrespective of whether or not you agree with his claims, or his methods, Singer’s contribution to bioethics (and ethics more […]
Well, Consider my Jaw Dropped.
I know it’s not long since I last posted about the Christian Medical Fellowship’s blog, and I would ordinarily leave it a bit longer… but I’m about to go off on one. Forgive me. I’ve had a hard week marking exam scripts, and I’m tired and stressed and cranky, and this is just… well… Look: […]