Authors: Anna Smajdor, Daniela Cutas and Tuija Takala Article: Artificial gametes, the unnatural and the artefactual Increasingly, science offers new ways for human beings to design, create and control living organisms. Among other avenues of research, work towards the creation of ‘artificial’ (or, as they used to be called, ‘synthetic’) gametes has attracted considerable media attention […]
Category: JME
Why the Parents of Both Charlie Gard and More Recently Alfie Evans Should Have Been Allowed to Decide About Their Sons’ Best Interests
Guest post by Raanan Gillon Re: Why the parents of Charlie Gard should have been allowed to decide on his best interests. This blog briefly summarises and adds to my paper due to appear in the JME’s forthcoming symposium on the case of Charlie Gard[1]. Because of the widespread unpopularity of my views amongst doctors, […]
Guest Post: Saving the baby, or the family?
Authors: Kristine Husøy Onarheim, Ole Frithjof Norheim, Ingrid Miljeteig Papers: Newborn health benefits or financial risk protection? An ethical analysis of a real-life dilemma in setting without universal health coverage. Imagine a two-day-old baby falling sick with a severe infection. Then imagine that the parents have no savings available, and cannot afford the necessary medical […]
Guest Post: Getting Sex Rights Wrong: Improving our Conversations about Sexual Exclusion and Disability
Author: Dr. Alida Liberman, University of Indianapolis Paper: Disability, Sex Rights, and the Scope of Sexual Exclusion People who have disabilities are often sexually excluded or marginalized: positive portrayals of disabled sexuality in fiction or news media are rare, and people with disabilities are often seen as asexual or disregarded as viable sexual (for example, a […]
Guest Post: Information Disclosure Post-Montgomery: Are English Courts Likely to use Causation as a “Control mechanism” to Limit Liability, like in Australia?
Authors: Malcolm K Smith and Tracey Carver, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Paper: Montgomery, informed consent and causation of harm: lessons from Australia or a uniquely English approach to patient autonomy? The UK Supreme Court decision of Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board [2015] 1 AC 1430 establishes that a […]
Guest Post: Who Calls the Shots? Teens and the HPV Vaccine
Suchi Agrawal Paper: Who calls the shots? The ethics of adolescent self-consent for HPV vaccination During my pediatric hospital medicine rotation, I stopped the team before we entered the room of our sixteen-year-old patient and her parents. “Just a reminder, the patient does not want her parents to know she was tested for gonorrhea and chlamydia.” […]
Guest Post: Philosophical Tradeoffs in Psychotherapy
Authors: Sahanika Ratnayake, David Merry. Paper: Forgetting ourselves: epistemic costs and ethical concerns in mindfulness exercises Unlike pharmaceuticals, psychotherapy is often presented as an effective treatment without any side effects. Mindfulness exercises, popularised by Jon Kabat-Zinn in the 1970s and ‘80s, are seen as particularly gentle. According to Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness is nothing more than ‘paying attention’. […]
Moving Towards a New Ethical Governance Framework for Research-Clinical Hybrid Genomic Medicine
Authors: Gabrielle Samuel, Sandi Dheensa, Anneke Lucassen, Bobbie Farsides Paper: Towards a national genomics medicine service: the challenges facing clinical-research hybrid practices and the case of the 100 000 genomes project [OPEN ACCESS] The Chief Medical Officers’ 2017 report Generation Genome calls for a move towards integrated research and clinical practice in genomic medicine (i.e., research-clinical […]
Advance Euthanasia Directives in the Spotlight
Guest Post: David Gibbes Miller, Rebecca Dresser, Scott Y H Kim Paper: Advance euthanasia directives: a controversial case and its ethical implications Dutch law allows advance directives to authorize euthanasia for people who can no longer make a voluntary and well-considered choice to end their lives. People make advance euthanasia directives (AEDs) with the goal of protecting themselves from […]
Guest Post: Lesbian Motherhood and Mitochondrial Replacement Techniques: Reproductive Freedom and Genetic Kinship
Authors Giulia Cavaliere, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, King’s College London César Palacios-González, Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, Dickson Poon School od Law, King’s College London Full Paper: Lesbian Motherhood and Mitochondrial Replacement Techniques: Reproductive Freedom and Genetic Kinship [open access] Since the UK parliamentary vote that led to their approval in February […]