By Katherine Valde. FWIW, I had an abortion last year. I did not get my abortion because my life was in danger – as far as I know I could have carried a baby to full term with nothing other than the normal side effects. I did not get my abortion because I couldn’t afford […]
Latest articles
The secret house: the ethics of research with imminently dying patients
By Nicholas Murphy, Charles Weijer, Marat Slessarev, Teneille Gofton Suppose you need to answer an important scientific question, but the only way to do so is through a research study enrolling critically ill patients who have only hours or minutes left to live. What do you do? Is such a study feasible? It is even […]
Is neoliberalism bad for our health?
By Kate Lyle, Susie Weller, Gabby Samuel, Anneke Lucassen Neoliberalism promotes the rights and responsibilities of individuals to make their own choices and manage their own risks, and as a political approach dominates Western societies. As such, neoliberalism has driven a preoccupation with quantifying and managing risks within society; the idea being that clarifying the […]
The right to pursue happiness on a healthy planet is a fundamental right
By Eric C Ip and Trevor T W Wan. Happiness and health determine what, why, and how we do what we do. There is a profound relationship between the two. The Constitution of the World Health Organization, a multi-lateral international treaty, proclaims in its preamble that health is ‘basic to the happiness’ of all peoples. Healthier […]
We need to eliminate ethics-washing
By Paola Buedo and Marcin Waligora. All of us have heard about ethics scandals in science: big conflict of interests from high level universities, selective reporting in clinical trials, researchers working with potentially dangerous techniques without any regulatory control, retracted scientific articles, and so on. These scandals have an enormous impact on how society perceives […]
Are we still allowed to teach abortion?
By Ezio Di Nucci. Something “funny” happened to me recently (this was soon after the SCOTUS leak): in reviewing possible changes to our medical ethics curriculum with the team, I made what I thought was the innocent suggestion of including an abortion case study (so far, the only abortion we have been teaching has been […]
Modern bioethical principles – a colonialist holdover or universally applicable?
By Max Ying Hao Lim Are contemporary bioethical practices unequivocally, unconditionally and absolutely universal? Or is the very notion of universality a holdover from a Western-centric colonial ideology seeking to impose ‘best practices’ onto the Global South and other third-world countries? This ‘colonialist’ dilemma is as time-worn as it is fundamental to the modern conception […]
Should doctors be held to higher moral standards than others?
By Daniel Sokol In a highly publicised case, Dr Arora – a general practitioner – was suspended for a month after the Medical Practitioners Tribunal deemed her dishonest for telling a medical colleague that she had been promised a laptop when no such promise had been made. The Tribunal noted that Dr Arora’s exaggeration brought […]
Mandating flu jab, but not COVID-19 jab, ethically justified for healthcare staff
Press release Few side effects; cuts infection risks; minimises staff shortages and presenteeism And professional obligations to patients trump personal freedom, argue ethicists Mandating the flu jab for healthcare staff is ethically justified, but the same can’t be said of the COVID-19 jab, argue leading ethicists in an extended essay published online in the Journal of […]
Too much or too little? A summary of the forum on financial incentives to participants in health and breastfeeding research
By Rasita Vinay and Annina Bauer. On 13th April 2022, the third webinar for the Forum of Global Health Ethics webinar series took place, focusing on the issue of offering financial incentives to participants in health and breastfeeding research. Offering financial incentives to research participants is a common practice in health research; however, its use […]