By Hayden P. Nix and Charles Weijer. Human challenge studies are clinical trials in which researchers intentionally infect research participants with a pathogen. The UK government has announced plans to conduct SARS-CoV-2 challenge studies beginning in January 2021. SARS-CoV-2 human challenge studies are controversial because of the risks they pose to participants. In order to […]
Latest articles
Why England’s new opt-out won’t help BAME communities
By Aileen Editha. In May 2020, an opt-out framework for deceased organ donations came into force in England. This means that, unless an adult individual has opted out, her organs could be donated after her death. This is otherwise known as ‘deemed consent’. This was enacted as an effort to solve the prominent organ scarcity […]
Is insisting on prospective consent in paediatric critical care research throwing the baby out with the bathwater?
By Rebecca Doyle. Robust, research evidence informs best practice and facilitates medical care that is both current and of the highest quality. In an effort to protect children and families who may be exposed to sources of vulnerability in the paediatric critical care environment, is the Australian National Statement jeopardising advancements to critical care research […]
Corona solidarity: Beware! It may not be what you think
By Matti Häyry Already during the early weeks and months of the COVID-19 pandemic, many media outlets started to talk about “corona solidarity”. We are facing a crisis, they said, but we are pulling through with miraculous mutual support and everybody chipping in for the common good. I found this narrative suspect from the outset, […]
The current call for a (fresh) inquiry on assisted suicide
By Nataly Papadopoulou. As a society and as individuals, we face challenges in dealing with debilitating, horrible diseases causing suffering, indignity, and loss of autonomy. With increased emphasis on individual autonomy in a clinical but also in a legal setting, some patients wish to control the end of their lives. Perhaps one of the most […]
NICE’s wrong turns: opportunity costs and missed opportunities
By Jonathan Michaels. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is consulting on its methods for health technology evaluation, seeking ‘public’ views on over two thousand pages of highly technical supporting material. NICE was established to promote “clinical and cost-effectiveness through guidance and audit” and address ‘postcode prescribing’ and has led the world […]
Futile treatments and the Covid-19 pandemic: An underplayed ethical issue in non-ICU wards
By Francois-Xavier Goudot and Sandrine Bretonnière. It is still too early to predict how long and how many phases we are going to experience with the Covid-19 pandemic. In the wake of 2020, the rapid and massive worldwide dissemination of the virus induced physicians, ethicists and public health authorities – each at their national level […]
Why do we need to distinguish ‘valid’ and ‘informed’ consent to medical treatment?
By Emma Cave. Common law and ethics require that consent is voluntary, that it is made by a person with capacity and that it is sufficiently informed. But it does not follow that consent that is insufficiently informed will necessarily be considered in law to be invalid. Since Montgomery in 2015, the requirement of informed […]
Refusal redux: Revisiting debate about adolescent refusal of treatment
By Dominic Wilkinson. Last month, in an emergency hearing, the High court in London heard a case that characterises a familiar problem in medical ethics. A 15 year old adolescent (known as ‘X’) with a long-standing medical condition, sickle cell disease, had a very low blood count and required an urgent blood transfusion. However, X […]
Financing the Covid-19 Health Response: Resource Allocation, Accountability & Social Bonds
By Edana Richardson & Aisling McMahon. Adequate financing of healthcare infrastructure, supplies and personnel is a crucial element of pandemic preparedness. It is key to limiting the need for healthcare rationing, to achieving global health justice and ultimately to saving lives. In a Covid-19 context, issues have arisen around public sector obligations to provide funding […]