Did you hear the programme about syphilis on Radio 3 on Sunday? If not, you can catch up on it here – and I’d thoroughly recommend doing so: it was superb. One bit in particular caught my attention; it had to do with the use of penicillin to treat the illness during World War II. […]
Latest articles
Say twenty hail Autonomy’s and reflect on what you have done – bioethicists as having some, but not priestly authority.
By David Hunter Nathan Emmerich, occasional commentator here at the JME blog has recently published an interesting piece in the Guardian which argues against us taking bioethicists as having a particular type of expertise. While I enjoyed and agree with much of what he argues I do have a couple of quibbles – in particular […]
The kindest cut?
By John McMillan It goes without saying that castrating sex offenders in order to control their behaviour is highly controversial. Likewise, describing something that damages a person physically as ‘treatment’ is problematic for many. That’s partly because of the image, reinforced even by publications as prominent as Time, that castration involves excising a man’s testicles […]
Is the NIMH Turning its Back on DSM-V?
Thanks to Brian Earp for bringing this release from the US’ National Institute of Mental Health to my attention; it concerns the Institute’s decision to move away from DSM as its diagnostic tool. DSM has been enormously successful – in terms of having established itself at the centre of psychiatry – but it has been […]
JME Special Edition on Infanticide and “After-Birth Abortion”
It’s going to be a little while before regular blogging resumes here – I’m aiming to get back up to speed in the next 10 days or so – but, in the meantime, the special edition of the JME devoted to The Paper Of Which We Do Not Speak is now out and available here. […]
Conference: Compassion Fatigue: Changing Culture in the NHS
26-28 June, Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, Birmingham (via Andrew Edgar) Can the language of compassion capture the moral problems confronted by the NHS, or might it obfuscate and distract us from more subtle and demanding issues? Through a series of plenary addresses, workshops, panels and shared opportunities for discussion, “Compassion Fatigue” will provide an opportunity […]
Cigarettes and Plain Packs: The Ad Campaign
Blogging here has been light for a little while, and probably will be for a little while longer because of Stuff and Things – but something caught my eye in Sunday’s Indy* that struck me as worth comment. It was a full-page advert placed by JTI, which describes itself in the small print as “a leading […]
Cutting Class: Thinking about Self-Harm without Disgust
Guest Post by Kerry Gutridge* and A.M. Calladine Imagine you are a doctor, nurse or teacher and someone in your care asks for a razor. The person you look after wants to slice into their own skin and draw blood. They are compelled to hurt themselves. They have an overwhelming urge to feel a momentary […]
A bit more on Circumcision
Maybe he should have been invited to contribute to the special edition: Somegreybloke seems to have the debate wrapped up perfectly… […]
Are Biomedical Ethics Journals Institutionally Racist?
So there’s this letter published in the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry that moots the idea that the top biomedical ethics journals might be institutionally racist. In it, Subrata Chattopadhyay, Catherine Myser and Raymond De Vries point out that the editorial boards of a good number of journals are dominated by members who are located in the global North – countries officially listed as […]