David Bennett and the first porcine xenotransplantation

By Christopher Gyngell and Julian Savulescu. At 57, David Bennett was dying. He had a decades long history of heart disease. Prior treatments, including surgery, had proved ineffective. In November 2021, he was diagnosed with uncontrollable arrhythmia and was admitted to the University of Maryland Medical Centre. Despite the best efforts of clinicians, his condition […]

Read More…

Respecting autonomy in altered states: Navigating ethical quandaries in psychedelic therapy

By Hannah McLane, Courtney Hutchison, Daniel Wikler, Timothy Howell, & Emma Knighton. Research into psychedelic-assisted therapy has grown in the past ten years as non-profits, academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and even venture capitalists race to develop protocols for using MDMA, psilocybin, ketamine, and other psychedelic substances to treat mental illness. Already, dozens of ketamine clinics […]

Read More…

How to apply the MCA capacity criteria more transparently and reliably

By Scott Kim, Nuala Kane, Alex Ruck Keene, Gareth Owen. A lot is at stake in a mental capacity evaluation. An error can lead to a capacitous adult’s decision being ignored or even overruled, or to a vulnerable, incapacitous person being abandoned to their ‘rights.’ Unfortunately, there is no simple formula that generates the right […]

Read More…

Ethics guidance for biobanking practice in low-and middle-income-countries during COVID-19

By Shenuka Singh, Rosemary Jean Cadigan and Keymanthri Moodley Biobanking has the potential to make valuable contributions to health research through the collection, storage and sharing of human samples and data for research purposes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, storing samples for future research is a public health imperative. There are, however, several ethical concerns. These […]

Read More…

Informed consent and medical device registries

By Daniel B. Kramer, Elizabeth Roe and Efthimios Parasidis. Regulators charged with evaluating new medical devices face several unenviable trade-offs. Extensive pre-market evaluation may delay market entry for useful technology, but a rushed assessment may fail to identify important safety concerns. Rigorous post-market studies may help balance these competing concerns, but must also weigh the […]

Read More…

Who should get to choose their surrogates?

By Mark Christopher Navin, Jason Adam Wasserman, Devan Stahl, and Tom Tomlinson, Clinical ethics consultants regularly witness something like the following progression: A patient is determined to lack decision-making capacity (DMC). In the absence of an Advanced Care Planning document that names a surrogate decision maker (e.g. a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care), […]

Read More…

Altered vaccination schedules and informed consent

By Jennifer O’Neill. According to the General Medical Council (GMC) publication Good Medical Practice, medical treatments should be provided “…based on the best available evidence” with a favourable balance between benefit and risk. Legal principles of informed consent and shared decision-making recognise the patient’s right to be informed of the risk-benefit profile of a treatment […]

Read More…