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 […]
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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 […]
Male Circumcision and the Enhancement Debate: Harm Reduction, Not Prohibition
Guest Post by Julian Savulescu Around one third of men worldwide are circumcised. It is probably the most commonly performed surgical procedure. Circumcision is also one of the oldest forms of attempted human enhancement. It is and has been done for religious, social, aesthetic and health reasons. Circumcision has a variety of benefits and risks, […]
Journal of Medical Ethics – Special Issue on Circumcision
Guest Post by Brian Earp The Journal of Medical Ethics is pleased to announce the forthcoming release of a special issue – “The Ethics of Male Circumcision” – to be published in full in the coming days. Selected papers have already been posted Online First and can be seen by clicking here. Contributions cover a […]
Torture and Fitness to Practise
I’m running a bit late with this, but the BMJ reported last week that Mohammed Al-Byati had been suspended from the medical register for 12 months for complicity in torture. So far, the decision hasn’t been uploaded to the list of Fitness to Practise decisions, but the outline of the case is available here, on the […]
CfP: 7th Annual Postgraduate Bioethics Conference: Bioethics in Law and Public Policy
via Isra Black: The convenors of the 7th annual Postgraduate Bioethics Conference invite doctoral students working in any area of bioethics to submit abstracts for this year’s conference, which will take place on 22-24 May 2013 at King’s College London. In accordance with the theme of this year’s conference, we would particularly welcome papers that […]
A storm in an NZ tea cup – or another “controversy” like post-birth abortion
By David Hunter I thought our readers might be interested in this story which is happening in New Zealand as it has echoes of the Post-Birth abortion “debate” that occurred on this blog last year. Then as now academics have argued in an academic journal (in this case the New Zealand Medical Journal) for a […]
Italian Pop Music’s Role in Bioethical Debate
Sadly, the list entitled “Great Moments in Italian Pop” is short; but the entry that must surely be at the top is probably very near the top of the list entitled “Great Moments in All Pop”. It’s a 1972 song by Adriano Celentano. Prisencolinensinainciusol. It’s pure gibberish – a parody of what anglophone pop sounds […]
Gay Conversion “Therapy”: Might the CMF have a point?
Spoiler alert: Almost certainly not. But hear me out for a bit. The Christian Medical Fellowship blog had an article posted yesterday about what it praised as a balanced documentary concerning “sexual orientation change efforts” – gay conversion therapy to you and me – on Radio 4 on Sunday. Actually, it wasn’t a documentary – it was […]