By Abie Rohrig and David Manheim In a recent blog post, Nix and Weijer argue that living kidney donation and volunteering for a COVID-19 challenge trial are disanalogous, and that “advocates of SARS-CoV-2 challenge studies must look elsewhere to justify the level of risk in these studies.” They offer three arguments to support this view: […]
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Vaccines and ventilators: need, outcome, or a right to a fair go?
By Julian Savulescu and Jonathan Pugh. The current UK approach to allocating limited life-saving resources is on the basis of need. Guidance issued by The General Medical Council states that all doctors must “Make sure that decisions about setting priorities that affect patients are fair and based on clinical need and the likely effectiveness of […]
Response to Nix and Weijer: Close Eneph? SARS-CoV-2 challenge studies and altruistic kidney donation
By Abie Rohrig and David Manheim. In a recent blog post, Nix and Weijer argue that living kidney donation and volunteering for a COVID-19 challenge trial are disanalogous, and that “advocates of SARS-CoV-2 challenge studies must look elsewhere to justify the level of risk in these studies.” They offer three arguments to support this view: adverse effects […]
Open future or an informed present? Cancer predispositions testing in children
By Sapna Mehta, Dennis John Kuo. Teenagers, and indeed all children to various extents, live in a world that does not recognize their independence fully. In various situations, they find their rights being exercised by and interests being defined by parents as well as other authorities such as physicians, teachers and the state to a […]
Bell v Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust: Considering the potential impact on children’s consent to all medical treatment?
By Rebecca Limb and Liz James On 1st December 2020, the Tavistock judgment was published. The legal issue concerning the court was identifying the circumstances where a child, under the age of 18 diagnosed with Gender Dysphoria (GD), is competent to give valid consent to the administration of puberty blockers (PB). The judgment has made […]
“Healthcare heroes”: The danger of military metaphors
By Zahra H. Khan, Yoshiko Iwai, Sayantani DasGupta Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the “Healthcare Hero” metaphor has gained tremendous popularity, generating praise for healthcare workers as well as caution against the metaphor’s potentially negative consequences. In her recent article, Dr. Caitríona L Cox explains that, when heroized, healthcare workers face unfair expectations of personal sacrifice […]
Vulnerable adults can be autonomous. Assuming that they are not is wrong and harmful.
By Jonathan Lewis. With the establishment of the Mental Capacity Act (“MCA”) 2005 in England and Wales, the days of court interventions into the lives of adults with mental capacity seemed numbered. If you were an adult with capacity, then you were legally recognised as able to give genuine consent to care and medical treatments. […]
Using moral case deliberation as an analysis tool for exploring decision-making around admission to intensive care, in research before and during COVID-19
By Mia Svantesson, Bert Molewijk and Anne-Marie Slowther This raises the question of what is or should be established good practice in this decision-making process, which is often complex, grounded in uncertainty, and taking place in a time pressured environment. It is important that in the heat of a pandemic we do not lose sight […]
Are prolifers hypocritical?
By Bruce P. Blackshaw. There has been a swathe of academic papers in recent years accusing opponents of abortion (described as ‘prolife’) of hypocrisy. It’s a popular theme outside academia as well. The argument goes along the lines of ‘if prolifers care so much about fetuses, why don’t they do something about X’, where X […]
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 […]