By Kannan Sridharan & Gowri Sivaramakrishnan. Artificial intelligence is widely being used in recent years in the health care industry. These systems learn to perform tasks that are commonly associated with human cognitive functions such as identifying patterns. Typically, these systems process massive amounts of data and look for patterns to model in their own […]
Latest articles
Martha’s rule: rebalancing power dynamics between patients or families and clinicians to improve patient outcomes
By Ilaria Bertini. UK media outlets have reported the upcoming implementation of Martha’s Rule within NHS foundation trusts, starting from April 2024. This rule will enable swift second medical opinions for patients, healthcare practitioners, or families who express concerns regarding the patient’s response to care provided. This new pathway takes its name from a 13-year-old […]
Musings on artificial intelligence, fairness and conceptions of justice to help with implementation considerations
By Michal Pruski. I am currently undertaking a mixed-methods project which is looking at barriers and facilitators to the adoption of machine learning in Wales with respect to value-based healthcare – focusing on the potential application of artificial intelligence (AI) to patient reported outcome measures (often known as PROMs). The project is in the early […]
Queering the genome: epigenome editing for biological lesbian motherhood
By Adrian Villalba. In the thrilling frontier of reproductive technologies, a ground-breaking approach aims to shake the foundations of conventional norms – it’s called epigenome editing. Imagine a world where same-sex couples can have genetically related children without the traditional genetic hurdles. Welcome to the era of “queering the genome”. This revolutionary technique bypasses the […]
Voicing the realities of patient consent to unplanned obstetric interventions
By Frances Hand*, Morganne Wilbourne*, Sophie McAllister, Louise Print-Lyons, and Meena Bhatia. Approximately 46% of primiparous women using NHS facilities undergo an obstetric intervention during their labour. For women with a planned intervention (usually a caesarean birth) conversations regarding consent are mostly straightforward and occur during the pregnancy. Where an intervention is unplanned, current practice […]
Trumping rights?
By Ezio Di Nucci. Our team just finished another round of the ethics course at Copenhagen’s medical school, and we are now grading exams, which this semester included the following case study: A 32-year-old woman is in early labor. Tests indicate fetal hypoxia, i.e., that the fetus lacks sufficient oxygen. Various attempts are made to […]
Should we use AI to detect doping?
By Sebastian Jon Holmen, Thomas Søbirk Petersen and Jesper Ryberg. Artificial intelligence (AI) is now widely employed by both private and state actors to aid them in attaining their goals more efficiently. AI is, for example, already being employed to catch tax evaders and to identify persons at risk of developing certain types of cancer, […]
Combating anti-drug sentiments in the deployment of psychedelic therapies
By Anshul Rao. Psychedelics have recently been gaining traction as alternative, potent therapies in a variety of mental health conditions. The enthusiasm regarding the effectiveness of these treatments is unmistakable. Researchers at Johns Hopkins found that participants had stable rates of response to the treatment and remission of symptoms throughout the follow-up period, with 75% […]
Curb your enthusiasm: how to use large language models in medical ethics?
By Andrea Ferrario and Nikola Biller-Andorno. A technology enthusiast (TE) and a medical ethicist (ME) walk into a bar. Over a few rounds of drinks, their discussion shifts to the topic of large language models (LLMs) and their use in medical ethics. TE: Have you seen the latest? Technology using LLM, like OpenAI’s GPT-4, is […]
Is pregnancy a disease?
By Joona Räsänen. Pregnancy shares many similarities with conditions we classify as diseases. In our new paper, “Is Pregnancy a Disease? A Normative Approach,” published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, we suggest that there are several reasons why pregnancy should be classified as a disease. Like other diseases, pregnancy causes a wide range of […]