By Nataly Papadopoulou. As a society and as individuals, we face challenges in dealing with debilitating, horrible diseases causing suffering, indignity, and loss of autonomy. With increased emphasis on individual autonomy in a clinical but also in a legal setting, some patients wish to control the end of their lives. Perhaps one of the most […]
Month: November 2020
NICE’s wrong turns: opportunity costs and missed opportunities
By Jonathan Michaels. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is consulting on its methods for health technology evaluation, seeking ‘public’ views on over two thousand pages of highly technical supporting material. NICE was established to promote “clinical and cost-effectiveness through guidance and audit” and address ‘postcode prescribing’ and has led the world […]
Futile treatments and the Covid-19 pandemic: An underplayed ethical issue in non-ICU wards
By Francois-Xavier Goudot and Sandrine Bretonnière. It is still too early to predict how long and how many phases we are going to experience with the Covid-19 pandemic. In the wake of 2020, the rapid and massive worldwide dissemination of the virus induced physicians, ethicists and public health authorities – each at their national level […]
Why do we need to distinguish ‘valid’ and ‘informed’ consent to medical treatment?
By Emma Cave. Common law and ethics require that consent is voluntary, that it is made by a person with capacity and that it is sufficiently informed. But it does not follow that consent that is insufficiently informed will necessarily be considered in law to be invalid. Since Montgomery in 2015, the requirement of informed […]
Refusal redux: Revisiting debate about adolescent refusal of treatment
By Dominic Wilkinson. Last month, in an emergency hearing, the High court in London heard a case that characterises a familiar problem in medical ethics. A 15 year old adolescent (known as ‘X’) with a long-standing medical condition, sickle cell disease, had a very low blood count and required an urgent blood transfusion. However, X […]
Financing the Covid-19 Health Response: Resource Allocation, Accountability & Social Bonds
By Edana Richardson & Aisling McMahon. Adequate financing of healthcare infrastructure, supplies and personnel is a crucial element of pandemic preparedness. It is key to limiting the need for healthcare rationing, to achieving global health justice and ultimately to saving lives. In a Covid-19 context, issues have arisen around public sector obligations to provide funding […]
The COVID-19 vaccine, informed consent and the recruitment of volunteers
By Jennifer O’Neill. Last week, in an announcement which offered hope in a time of growing despondence, Pfizer declared that their COVID-19 vaccine had “outperformed expectations in the crucial phase 3 clinical trials, proving 90% effective in stopping people falling ill.” If approved, Pfizer’s jab will be the first in a new era of vaccines. […]
How to ethically manage the double agency of physicians during a pandemic
By Thibaud Haaser The Covid-19 constitutes a real global crisis, going beyond the sole medical dimension. Medical, socio-economic or educational issues have highlighted the need to identify specific therapeutic or preventive agents as soon as possible. The necessity to build reliable medical knowledge is part of the response to such a crisis. Although the crisis […]
Removing the legal barriers to treating the excruciating pain of cluster headaches
By Jonathan Leighton. There is nothing worse than extreme pain and suffering. Patients experiencing unbearable pain may take their lives to escape it. The highest priority of medicine and of society in general – the issue with the most urgent call to action – is arguably to alleviate such suffering. Although the ethical framework I […]
Why ‘gestaticide’ is morally equivalent to infanticide
By Daniel Rodger, Nicholas Colgrove, Bruce P. Blackshaw Artificial womb technology may one day permit a fetus to be surgically removed from its mother’s body and placed into an artificial environment, mimicking life in utero. Following Elizabeth Chloe Romanis, let’s call the subjects living inside artificial wombs ‘gestatelings.’ An important question that arises is how […]