Guest Post: Derick T Wade Article: Using best interests meetings for people in a prolonged disorder of consciousness to improve clinical and ethical management One year ago I wrote the first of two articles on improving the management of people with a prolonged disorder of consciousness. That article was the result of about 18 months […]
Category: clinical ethics
Charlie Gard: An Ethical Analysis of a Legal Non-Problem
By Iain Brassington (Cross-posted from EJIL: Talk!) For those with an internet connection and an interest in current affairs, the story of Charlie Gard been hard to avoid recently. A decent précis is available here; but it’s worth rehearsing. Shortly after his birth, Charlie’s health began to deteriorate, and he was diagnosed with a terminal and […]
Pain After Cancer: A New Model for Pain Psychology?
Guest Post by Lauren Heathcote What if every headache, every slight twinge in your back, was potentially life threatening? What if you couldn’t tell a brain tumour from coffee-withdrawal? These can be constant, niggling worries for many people who have survived cancer, and we think their experiences can tell us something important about pain. If […]
Can We Trust Research in Science and Medicine?
By Brian D. Earp (@briandavidearp) Readers of the JME Blog might be interested in this series of short videos in which I discuss some of the major ongoing problems with research ethics and publication integrity in science and medicine. How much of the published literature is trustworthy? Why is peer review such a poor quality control mechanism? How can we judge […]
Guest Post: Withdrawing Life-Prolonging Treatment in the Patient’s Best Interests: The Implications of Briggs
Guest Post: Jenny Kitzinger, Celia Kitzinger and Jakki Cowley Paper: When ‘Sanctity of Life’ and ‘Self-Determination’ clash In a recent landmark judgment in the Court of Protection (Briggs v Briggs [2016] EWCOP 53), a judge authorised withdrawal of life-prolonging treatment from a minimally conscious patient with potential for further recovery. Our article in the Journal of […]
Never Let an Ill Child Go to Waste
By Iain Brassington The Charlie Gard saga is one about which I’ve been reluctant to say anything, not least because plenty of other people have said plenty elsewhere. Sometimes they add heat, and sometimes they add light. Beneath everything, the story is fairly simple: a small child is terribly ill; it is agreed by medical opinion […]
Not Just About Consent: The Ethical Dimensions of Research Methodology Knowledge in IRBs
Guest Post: Sarah Wieten The recent article, “Some Social Scientists Are Tired of Asking for Permission” in the New York Times inspired a great deal of debate about the role of institutional research ethics board (IRB) oversight in social science, which some argue is in most cases unlikely to involve significant harm to participants. While […]
What’s the Point of Professional Ethical Codes?
For a few reasons, I’ve been thinking a bit over the last few months about professionalism and professional codes. In fact, that’s the topic that’s attracted most of my attention here since… oooh, ages ago. I find the idea of a code of professional ethics troubling in many ways, but also fascinating. And one of […]
Debate: The Fiction of an Interest in Death? Justice for Charlie Gard
Julian Savulescu Dominic Wilkinson’s Response A judge ruled last week that baby Charlie Gard will have his treatment withdrawn, against the wishes of his parents. His doctors argued that the rare mitochondrial disease (MDDS) he was born with was causing him unbearable suffering. His parents had raised funds to take him to the US […]
Debate Reponse: Charlie Gard, Interests and Justice – an alternative view
Dominic Wilkinson Responding to Julian Savulescu The sad and difficult case of Charlie Gard, which featured in the media last week, is the latest in a series of High Court and Family court cases when parents and doctors have disagreed about medical treatment for a child. Doctors regard the treatment as “futile” or “potentially inappropriate”. […]