By Sally Barker and Zoë Fritz The Westminster Parliament is currently considering Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which would make doctors both gatekeepers and facilitators of an assisted death for eligible terminally ill adults. The legislation proposes that doctors are involved at several stages of the process. Firstly, they must listen […]
Latest articles
The New Gatekeepers: the role of the UK High Court in the oversight of medical assistance in dying
By Sean R. Riley After decades of unsuccessful attempts by advocates, in November 2024, the United Kingdom House of Commons passed a second reading of a bill permitting medical assistance-in-dying (MAiD). The bill still faces a long legislative road before royal assent, but MAiD may very well be a reality for English and Welsh terminally […]
‘Assisted dying’ is assisted suicide and/or euthanasia
By David Albert Jones ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ My article in the Journal of Medical Ethics is […]
Am I standing in the way of my own philosophy?
By Peter Singer. Karl Marx wrote, with Hegel in mind: “if a philosopher really has compromised, it is the job of his followers to use the inner core of his thought to illuminate his own superficial expressions of it.” That expresses well the attitude of the Young Hegelians, of whom Marx was one, and who, […]
Is that what I think like?
By Sankalpa Ghose. What does it mean for a philosopher, or really anyone, to be represented by an artificial intelligence? In creating PSai (available now at www.petersinger.ai), this naturally arises as a curiosity and a consideration. As related in “A Representative Interview with Peter Singer AI” – just published in Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics […]
Up the creek without a paddle? We can help navigate the consent river in pragmatic cluster randomized trials.
By Cory E. Goldstein, Stephanie N. Dixon, Monica Taljaard, Charles Weijer. As bioethicists and statisticians, we are occasionally invited to consult with a research team planning a pragmatic clinical trial after the research question and a basic outline of objectives and methods have been developed. When the proposed design is a cluster randomized design (in […]
Should liberal states permit the social use of mitochondrial replacement technique? The answer is yes.
By Marco Tang. What is mitochondrial replacement technique (MRT)? It involves obtaining a donor egg, removing the nDNA from the donor egg, transferring the legal mother’s nDNA into the donor egg and fertilizing it with the legal father’s sperm. This procedure enables women with mitochondrial disease to have children without it. What is unique is […]
Do philosophers stand in the way of their own philosophy?
By Matti Häyry. I recently interviewed Peter Singer AI – that is to say, philosopher Peter Singer’s digital representation petersinger.ai, created by Sankalpa Ghose and available online. After the interview with the bot, I asked Peter Singer himself what he thought about the answers. His response revealed an interesting tension. For me, the experience was […]
The GMC must re-evaluate its treatment of climate protesters
By Rammina Yassaie. On 7 January this year, Bristol GP Patrick Hart, was jailed for 12 months for damaging petrol pump screens, which he describes as “an act of care” in protest against continued fossil fuel extraction; the environmental consequences of which are considered to be the greatest health threat of the 21st century. Hart’s […]
The Assisted Dying Debate and the Questions We Aren’t Asking
By Christina Lamb and Daniel Wainstock Judith Butler once wrote, “Precisely because a living being may die, it is necessary to care for that being so that it may live. Only under conditions in which the loss would matter does the value of the life appear.” As the Assisted Dying (AD) debate progresses following its […]