There’s an interesting story on the front page of the Manchester Evening News about an 11-year-old who has asked that her right leg be removed so that she has a better chance of becoming a paralympian. […]
Latest articles
Procedural Proportionality of Ethical Review
By David Hunter In an excellent paper published in the most recent edition of the Journal of Medical Ethics Gefenas et al make the point that types of research which impose similar burdens of risks and harms appear to be being regulated disproportionately at the moment in the Baltic States. […]
Final Call for Participants: Research Ethics in the EU, Keele University 20-21st July
On the 20th of July the Centre for Professional Ethics at Keele is holding a full day conference focusing on the topic of Research ethics in Europe – what is done and how it could be done better On the 21st of July will be a half day workshop on the Role of Autonomy & […]
Ooooh, Matron!
Right: so I understand that hospitals sometimes feel the need to raise revenue, and I understand the idea that resources shouldn’t be left idle – an unused ward represents wasted money. I also fully understand that hospital wards have provided a rich source of smut over the years, some of which has been almost entertaining. […]
SAP Conference 2010
Since spending the weekend at the Society for Applied Philosophy’s conference in Oxford, I’ve been mulling over the ways in which a couple of the papers I head have implications for bioethics (if, indeed, they have any). […]
German Court Rules on Withdrawal of Treatment
German courts have today ruled that it is legal to withdraw lifesaving treatment with consent. According to Deutsche Welle, Germany’s highest criminal court has ruled that passive assisted suicide is legal if the patient has explicitly decreed his or her wish that treatment used to keep the patient alive should be terminated. “Turning off a […]
The Complexity of Non-Voluntary Euthanasia
Dr Howard Martin has been in the news recently for having told the Telegraph that he intentionally shortened the life of a number of his patients. On the face of it, his actions seem to be fairly straightforward, and to lend some kind of support to the fears of those who think that any easing […]
Oxford Online Debate: The Use of Drugs in Sport
I’d like to draw your attention to this: the latest in a series of online debates hosted by Oxford University. In this round, Julian Savulescu and John-William Devine are, respectively, proposing and opposing the motion “Performance enhancing drugs should be allowed in sport”. Roger Crisp is moderating. For the sake of keeping to the spirit […]
Pharmaceutical Prohibition: as Successful as Ever
An item on Sky news the other day caught my attention. It concerned a new wave of legal highs being manufactured in China. The thrust of the report is that, in the wake of mephedrone having been banned a few weeks ago, enterprising Chinese chemists are working on a new set of chemicals designed to […]
Assistance and Force: Different Things
Imagine a world in which egg sandwiches are illegal. Given that I really don’t like eggs and that I particularly hate the smell of them, I have no desire ever to eat one; this world is fine by me. However, I’m aware that some people might, on occasion, express a desire for egg sandwiches. Some might […]