By Gabriel Watts and Ainsley J. Newson. Data obtained from genomic sequencing has an interesting quality. Unlike most other kinds of health results, the stored information remains accurate over time, because it reflects a largely stable property of our bodies: our DNA. Of course, during this time, sequencing methods themselves are likely to have advanced […]
Latest articles
Does our preoccupation with resilience mean we must tolerate the morally intolerable?
By Rebecca Farrington, Louise Tomkow, Gabrielle Prager, and Kitty Worthing. Healthcare professionals are increasingly expected to be hardy and ‘suck it up’ to survive in complex and demoralising workplaces. As NHS clinicians, we saw staffing shortages and limited resources firsthand during the COVID-19 pandemic. These experiences magnified our scepticism about the onus on us, as […]
Sodium valproate: an “essential medicine”, but for whom?
By Rachel Arkell. On 2nd May 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a statement on “the risks associated with valproic acid in women and girls of childbearing potential”, alerting stakeholders to its revised guidance. It states valproic acid should not be prescribed to this cohort of patients due to associated risks of “birth defects […]
Should AI allocate livers for transplant?
By Max Drezga-Kleiminger, Joanna Demaree-Cotton, Julian Koplin, Julian Savulescu, and Dominic Wilkinson. The field of artificial intelligence (AI) is moving rapidly. In the (recent) past, we could hide behind the knowledge that much of the ethical discourse around AI was in hypothetical terms – we were discussing what we should do in case technology progressed […]
Pig hearts and paediatrics: how children will require distinctive ethical approaches when xenotransplantation becomes a reality
By Anthony Merlocco Due to the ongoing struggle to obtain organs for those in need, and the resulting morbidity and mortality while awaiting organs, renewed efforts to study transplantation between species, or xenotransplantation (XTx), have emerged. Gene editing has been used to enhance human graft survival or to make animal organs better suited for a […]
China’s National Health Commission bans single women from freezing eggs: with or without legal and ethical justifications?
By Hao Wang. Theresa Xu, ‘the first Chinese single woman to sue for her right to freeze eggs,’ lost her lawsuit last year. In 2020, Xu, then 30, sought to freeze eggs in a hospital in Beijing. Xu was not ready to be a mother then, but thought she might want to be one in the future. Therefore, she […]
EU’s compulsory licensing proposals, patents and crisis preparedness – Some steps in the right direction but more to do for future pandemic preparedness
By Aisling McMahon. Patents are intellectual property rights (IPRs) which allow rightsholders to stop others using the patented technology – e.g. a medicine – without the rightsholders permission (via a license) for the patent term (usually 20 years). Rightsholders can develop an income stream from the technology, as licenses are granted in return for compensation. […]
Decision-making in injustice: MAiD in Canada after Bill C-7
By Kayla Wiebe and Amy Mullin. In February, 2022, a Canadian citizen with a severe case of multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) requested and subsequently received medical assistance in dying (MAiD). The decision to request MAiD was made after a two-year fight to access housing that would have made living with their condition tolerable. This kind of […]
Is it ethical for nurses and junior doctors to strike?
By Philip Berry. As the impact of strikes begins to be felt, political messaging becomes stronger and, inevitably, more vitriolic. Edwina Currie (a former Conservative Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health) Tweeted that every doctor on the picket line has left a patient in pain on the wards. This comment encapsulates the ethical argument against striking – […]
Meet the elite couples who miss the point entirely!
By Richard B. Gibson. As many may have seen, the Telegraph recently featured an article on pronatalism. Simply put, pronatalism is the idea that our future – family groups, specific sectors of society, iterations of our global civilisation, or our very species – depends on people having enough children to ensure a growing population. Without […]