By Max Buckler Headlines over the last two weeks featured a strange-sounding claim linking newborn circumcision to autism. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the controversial US secretary of health and human services, claimed at a White House cabinet meeting that “two studies” show circumcised boys are twice as likely to develop autism or autism spectrum disorder […]
Latest articles
Weaponized beneficence: Decision-making capacity challenges as instruments of medical hegemony
By Omar F. Mirza, Yekaterina Angelova, Marie S. Thearle, Gregg A Robbins-Welty, and Stephanie Cheung Informed consent is part of the bedrock of clinical ethics. Composed of voluntariness, disclosure, and capacity, informed consent is designed to center the patient in their own care amidst an asymmetric power dyad that can easily overpower individual choice. Despite […]
M3GAN 2.0: A case study in AI ethics and policy
By Ambria Williams, Lisa Kearns, and Kellie Owens This piece contains spoilers for the films “M3GAN” and “M3GAN 2.0”. Imagine a science fiction horror movie with an ethicist as the protagonist. As improbable as that seems, it’s the case in M3GAN 2.0, the sequel to the 2023 box-office hit M3GAN, in which an AI tech […]
“What my hand does, my heart does”: Conscience and assisted dying
By Helen Watt The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would permit assisted suicide in England and Wales for mentally capable adults reasonably expected to die within 6 months. Progress on the Bill has met a roadblock: we now wait as the House of Lords begins committee-stage consideration. After vigorous debate in the Lords, […]
Examining norms in medical & scientific communications amid rapidly advancing technologies
By Rafael Escandon A recent social media posting got my attention for a couple of reasons. First, because it is quite unusual and second, because the detail behind the headline tells a different story than the headline suggests. This was the first posting since the advent of social media where I have seen a company […]
Should we still quote Osler?
by Daniel Sokol In a BMJ article of 19 August 2025, Dr Helen Salisbury wrote: ‘I hesitate to quote Osler given his views on race, but he was right about this.’ The next day, Dr Ikenna Ogbu, a GP, wrote in a Rapid Response: ‘I must admit that I also feel guilty agreeing with Osler, but we would […]
Global bioethics and global health in the context of a new antidemocratic era
by Gabriela Arguedas-Ramírez Five years ago, I wrote an editorial arguing that authoritarian and right-wing populism were a threat to global health and bioethics. Early this year, with colleagues from the US and the UK, we published a piece about pandemics, bioethics and populism. Since then, the global scenario has become dreadfully worse. What began […]
Does pediatric healthcare need department-specific ethicists?
By Brianne Helfrich Pediatric healthcare is different — parental involvement in decision-making, the heightened pressure to “save a child”, and the emerging voices of pediatric patients make this field uniquely challenging. From an ethics perspective, these cases can be complex and emotionally charged. Clinicians often delicately balance the wishes of the families, patients and organizational […]
Uproar over the UK Supreme Court’s ruling on sex and gender: Why broad consultation matters
By Shalom Chalson and Julian Savulescu On April 16, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled that when interpreting the UK’s Equality Act (2010)—which details legal protections against discrimination—the terms ‘man’, ‘woman’, and ‘sex’ refer to biological sex, and not gender identity. Some have argued that the Court’s judgement represents a “significant […]
The 2025 Tennessee Medical Ethics Defense Act is leading to unethical healthcare
By Brianne Helfrich and Joseph Bertino Not all lifestyles or beliefs align perfectly, but in a healthcare system that ought to prioritize just practices, moral or spiritual objections should never impede a patient’s access to necessary care. Across the United States, healthcare workers’ right to conscientious objection—refusing participation in certain procedures that conflict with their […]