By Julian Koplin and Dominic Wilkinson Advances in stem cell science are making it possible to create new kinds of living beings. Using a technique known as interspecies blastocyst complementation, it may soon be possible to grow human organs inside of human-animal chimeras. Most of the tissues of these chimeric animals would be composed of […]
Month: June 2019
Physicians as public servants: why physicians have no business discussing religion with patients
By Jake Greenblum & Ryan Hubbard. It is generally agreed that healthy liberal democracies have a robust separation between church and state. However, controversy arises when interpreting the appropriate place of religion in the public sphere, including the proper role of religion in medicine. Just consider the current political debate in the US on medical […]
Should the more severely ill get priority?
By Daniel M. Hausman. According to surveys most of the population in many countries maintain that health policy should favour treating those who are more severely ill, even if the benefit to them is somewhat less than the benefit the same resources could have provided to those who are less severely ill. Most bioethicists who […]
The Truth Behind Conscientious Objection in Medicine
By Nir Ben-Moshe. Conscientious objection in medicine has become a topic of heated debate in recent years, but answers to the question of what justifies such objections in medicine have proven to be elusive. According to the two primary justifications found in the literature, conscientious objection in medicine is justified either out of respect for […]
Can Rationing Ethics Foster Access to Scarce Specialists?
By Andrew Hantel, Gregory Abel, Mark Siegler Few people would consider rationing to be a positive concept. When confronted with restricted access to something we want or need, we inevitably react with negative feelings. Such a reaction belies the overall concept of allocating a scare resource and distracts from the good that can come from […]
When ideology and physiology don’t align: transwomen in elite women’s sport
By Lynley C. Anderson, Alison Heather, Taryn Knox In recent years there has been a huge amount of media interest in the inclusion of elite transwomen athletes in the women’s division. Reasoned debate focuses on the delicate balance between the inclusion of transwomen based on “a fundamental human right for everyone to be recognized in […]
Building bridges between the global south and north in research ethics
By Cory Goldstein, Tiwonge Mtande, and Charles Weijer. How does successful international collaboration in research ethics happen? We would like to share our experience. Tiwonge Mtande’s Perspective: I am a health researcher working at UNC-Project Malawi in Lilongwe, Malawi. In November 2017, while I was working on my Master’s degree, my supervisor, Prof. Doug Wassenaar, […]
‘Was this on the consent form?’ Can you really consent in a one-off conversation to interventions with uncertain and evolving consequences?
By Rachel Horton, Benjamin Bell, Angela Fenwick, Anneke Lucassen A child conceived with a donated egg has multiple health problems but no unifying diagnosis. Given that testing of biological parents may help make a genetic diagnosis in a child, is it OK to contact the child’s anonymous egg donor to ask if they would provide […]