By Lydia Tsiakiri and Andreas Albertsen Six years ago, the WHO officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak to be a pandemic. This declaration triggered lockdowns, rapid vaccine development, and a wide range of emergency public health measures. Yet the pandemic also revealed how unprepared societies were to address its practical and ethical aspects. On the practical […]
Latest articles
Hoping for MAiD
By Maya Ishikura Last March, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) released a report illustrating their concerns with Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) law. Committee Expert, Rosemary Kayess, explained that Canadians with disabilities were seeking MAiD due to unjust social conditions that the state should be addressing. Directing […]
No person is an island: Incidental findings in a world of relationships
By Max Tretter One of my favorite TV series of all time is Breaking Bad. Most people probably know the show—and if you don’t, it is well worth watching. Early in the series, the protagonist Walter White, a quiet high school chemistry teacher and father, receives devastating news: he has advanced lung cancer. Confronted with […]
If we cannot be sure about fetal pain, what should we do?
By Stuart WG Derbyshire For more than thirty years I have written about fetal pain. And for almost as long I have been asked the same question: “But can you be sure?” For a long time I was sure. Neuroscience had seemingly established the cortex as necessary for conscious experience, and the cortex does not […]
Two ears, one standard: Why and how bilateral cochlear implantation should be routine care for adults
By Wendy J. Huinck, Simone Naber, Stef Groenewoud and Adriana L. Smit Cochlear implantation (CI) is an effective treatment for severe hearing loss with major benefits for quality of life. Untreated hearing loss has far‑reaching consequences: children with congenital deafness show altered development with long‑term effects on language and speech, while adults who lose hearing […]
When harm reduction becomes hope: An ethics consult in pediatric innovation
By Alex Gariti Clinical ethics consultation lives at the intersection of medicine and moral uncertainty. It is where abstract principles meet real families, real risks, and real consequences. Sometimes the work is quiet. Sometimes it is wrenching. And sometimes, it is astonishing. Recently, we published a case about a 9-month-old infant with cystic fibrosis (CF) […]
The trip is not the transformation
By Chiara Caporuscio The first time I read patient testimonies from psilocybin trials, I found them startling. Someone who had been drinking since the age of seventeen described how, after a single session, alcohol had become simply “irrelevant” to him. Something that had been part of his life for decades now felt beside the point, […]
When IVF goes wrong: why time should matter in deciding parenthood
By Dr. Johnny Sakr Imagine discovering that the child you are raising is not genetically yours. Now imagine discovering that the embryo created for you, your last viable chance at having a biological child, was mistakenly implanted into someone else. These are not philosophical thought experiments. They are real events that have occurred in IVF […]
When doctors disagree: Integrating traditional medicines and bifurcations in beneficence
By Kathryn Muyskens Interest in integrating traditional medicine with biomedicine is growing worldwide. From policy endorsements by the World Health Organization to national healthcare reforms, “integrative medicine” is increasingly framed as a pragmatic and culturally sensitive response to how patients actually seek care. Rather than choosing between medical traditions, many patients move fluidly between them. […]
Appetite apocalypse
By Professor Ed Jesudason We seem to spend a lot of time these days thinking about undue influence: scams perpetrated against the elderly or people looking for love; the possibility of coercion in assisted dying; our democracy undermined by money and sex scandal; society enraged and misled by social media algorithms. If alcohol is a […]