By Søren Holm. The rise of ‘professionalism’ as the panacea to all of the ills afflicting the medical profession has led to a resurgence of the idea that medical ethics should be professional ethics, and that the content of this professional ethics should be decided by the profession. In my comment “Roles, professions and ethics – […]
Latest articles
Is the “serious” factor in germline modification really relevant? A response to Kleiderman, Ravitsky and Knoppers
By Iñigo de Miguel Beriain Is the “serious” factor in germline modification relevant? This seems a relevant question in the germline gene editing debate. Of course, at first glance, one tends to choose an affirmative answer immediately. It seems common sense to think that sophisticated technology should be used only when we are faced with […]
Public Reason and Physicians’ Duty to Refrain from Religious Discourse
By Jake Greenblum and Ryan Hubbard We recently offered a reply to criticisms of our view that physicians should refrain from deliberating with their patients on religious grounds when helping them make medical decisions. Part of what prompted our research into this topic is recent work discussing appropriate ways of communicating with religious patients who […]
Nanny on the bus: The ethics of banning food on public transport
By David Shaw The last report of the outgoing UK Chief Medical Officer, Dr Sally Davies, is entitled “Time to Solve Childhood Obesity”. It makes many sensible public health recommendations, including increases in the levy on sweet drinks and taxation on snacks, and reducing portion sizes and marketing aimed at children. But a different recommendation […]
The irrelevance and elusiveness of consciousness
By Charles Foster I am aware (as my academic critics will agree) of only a tiny proportion of what I do and what I am. It is not clear what sort of creature I am, but what is clear is that very little of me is visible to myself – let alone to others. We […]
Take care when testing manufactured organs on the deceased
By Laura Kimberly, Brendan Parent Every article about the organ transplant crisis starts something like this: In the United States in 2018, over 116,000 individuals were on the waiting list for an organ transplant. Yet of those on the waiting list, only 36,000 (31%) received a much-needed transplant to treat their end-stage organ failure, and […]
Will you give my kidney back?
By Eisuke Nakazawa and Keiichiro Yamamoto We provide a thought experiment about living donor kidney transplantation. We call this problem ‘organ restitution’. Mr. A offered to be a living related kidney donor for his relative, Mr. B, who developed renal failure. His postoperative course was smooth, and a year went by without any problems. One […]
Unravelling the concept of ‘routinization’ in prenatal screening
By Adriana Kater-Kuipers & Eline M. Bunnik. With the introduction of the non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) the ethical debate about prenatal screening is again in full swing. The new technique for the analysis of cell-free foetal DNA for trisomy 21, 18, and 13, and, in the future, possibly for a range of other abnormalities, requires […]
Should pregnant women pay for non-invasive prenatal testing?
By Eline M. Bunnik & Adriana Kater-Kuipers. Today, pregnant women can use non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in the first trimester of their pregnancy to screen for chromosomal abnormalities. NIPT requires only a blood draw, is more reliable than previous screening modalities, and leads to fewer false positive results, thus saving women from unnecessary invasive follow-up […]
The first prosecution of a Dutch doctor since the Euthanasia Act of 2002: what does the verdict mean?
By Eva C.A. Asscher and Suzanne van de Vathorst. On September 11th 2019, a verdict was reached in the first prosecution of a doctor for carrying out euthanasia in The Netherlands since the 2002 Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act was passed. The case concerned a patient with severe dementia […]