By Simon E. Kolstoe, Tony Lockett and Hugh Davies Reliable information is essential for good decision making. This is particularly true when complex medical situations are combined with political and social ramifications, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. The last two years have been revealing from the perspective of seeing how societies rely upon, but […]
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Heritable human genome editing: Who decides? Science or society?
By Françoise Baylis Many describe the move from bench to bedside (from basic science to therapeutic or preventive applications) as a sprint – a short quick race. Others suggest that the race (such as it is) is more like hurdles given the many obstacles that must be overcome. Still others prefer to think of the […]
Delaying COVID-19 Boosters: the Duty to Vaccinate the World
By Nancy S. Jecker The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) has urged a temporary halt to COVID-19 boosters to enable 10% of the people of every nation to be vaccinated. Despite solid ethical backing for this stance, a spate of countries has gone full steam ahead with booster shots. Israel was the first, […]
Why we can’t use opt-out to harvest organs
By Mustafa Qurashi The Organ Donation Act 2019 changed UK deceased organ donation policy: since May 2020, anyone who dies without opting out of the organ donor register may have their organs harvested for transplantation. The one-year buffer was designated to ensure high levels of public awareness of the change and of the option to […]
Will vaccine passports make skies friendly?
By Nancy S. Jecker Should we use vaccine passports for global or domestic travel? Before answering, ask yourself this: Do we have fair, equitable access to vaccines? Until we can say yes, arguments in support of vaccine passports fail the test. For international travel, we have a long way to go. Just 85% of shots […]
Is it okay to abort just one of the twin fetuses?
By Joona Räsänen Many people believe abortion is morally permissible. Yet many of the same people also believe that if the woman is pregnant with healthy twins, it is morally wrong for her to abort only one of the fetuses. But since we should choose morally permissible acts instead of impermissible ones, it implies that […]
Commercial DNA databases and criminal investigations: Why the customer should not be king
By Nina de Groot In a colorful envelop, tens of millions of people around the world have sent their cheek swabs to a commercial company with the same colors on its facade. By taking a DNA test, they hope to find out about long-lost relatives, their genetic susceptibility for breast cancer, athletic performance capabilities, or […]
The irresponsibility of “personal responsibility”
By Franklin G. Miller. In the face of another surge in infections, hospitalizations, and deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S., 9 of 10 states with the highest number of cases per capita voted Republican in the 2020 presidential election and are headed by Republican governors. A common refrain of Republican politicians and those on the […]
Does the public think age matters in COVID-19 triage?
By Margot N I Kuylen On what basis should we allocate resources when resources are scarce? The COVID-19 pandemic has made this complex ethical question extremely salient, as newspapers reported at various points that critical care units across the world were reaching, or even exceeding, their capacity. A wealth of triage guidance has been published […]
The prisoner’s dilemma: The role of medical professionals in executions
By L. Elisabeth Armstrong A March 2021 Op-Ed in Washington Post asserts that Capital Punishment is ending in America. With twenty-three states abolishing the practice, another three institutionalizing moratoriums, and serious debate surrounding a moratorium on federal executions, it might seem that this is the case. However, much of the country continues to advance the […]