By Rammina Yassaie. On 7 January this year, Bristol GP Patrick Hart, was jailed for 12 months for damaging petrol pump screens, which he describes as “an act of care” in protest against continued fossil fuel extraction; the environmental consequences of which are considered to be the greatest health threat of the 21st century. Hart’s […]
Latest articles
The Assisted Dying Debate and the Questions We Aren’t Asking
By Christina Lamb and Daniel Wainstock Judith Butler once wrote, “Precisely because a living being may die, it is necessary to care for that being so that it may live. Only under conditions in which the loss would matter does the value of the life appear.” As the Assisted Dying (AD) debate progresses following its […]
Ethics is the key to demographic change
By J.Y. Lee In the Global North, the fact that aging populations are increasing while birth rates are decreasing has become a point of great alarm in recent years. The average total fertility rate (TFR) across the globe stands at 2.3 births per woman today, compared to 4.9 back in 1950. However, some countries are […]
Do ecological preferences belong to patient autonomy? The answer is yes
By Sabine Salloch Healthcare is being increasingly recognized as a major emitter of greenhouse gases in industrialized societies. It accounts for approximately 5 percent of national carbon budgets. Whereas some countries already adopted national climate strategies targeting at a net-zero healthcare other governments still struggle with finding appropriate pathways. This is not surprising as, on […]
Clinical ethics: looking backwards, thinking forwards
By R Mohindra, S Louw Our paper is primarily an audit of the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Clinical Ethics Advisory Group (CEAG). But it has several threads including: The nature of the workflow for the clinical ethics committee including volume and complexity over time; The impact of the relatively recent changes, including principles of approach, […]
Should artificial intelligence guide surrogate decisions in healthcare?
By Marco Annoni. Artificial intelligence (AI) may soon be able to predict which treatments a patient would prefer to receive—or refuse. Among the many applications of AI in healthcare, one of the most promising is its potential to support substitute decision-making. Substitute decisions are required when patients lack the capacity to make informed decisions for […]
To succeed as an innovation hub, we need ground rules for ethical use of AI tools
By Sebastian Porsdam Mann, Brian D Earp and Julian Savulescu. Republished with permission from the Straits Times After a severe bout of Covid-19, a colleague, Sumeeta, found herself facing an unexpected challenge. Despite her intact verbal intelligence and reasoning skills, she suddenly struggled with the mechanics of writing. Constructing grammatical sentences and coherent paragraphs now […]
Unravelling the ethics of synthetic DNA
By Adrian Villalba, Anna Smajdor, Iain Brassington and Daniela Cutas In our paper, we outline the ethical landscape surrounding the synthesis of human DNA. Only small genomes such as those of bacteria and yeast have been synthesized so far, but the creation of full human genomes in the lab is plausible. The idea of crafting […]
New threats to LGBTQ+ healthcare and medical education
By Rachelle Monteau, Alexis Dickerson and Katherine Mendis. Recent political developments in the United States have raised alarm that health inequity between LGBTQ+ patients and the general population—already a pressing problem—might worsen. Some initiatives specifically limit the provision of medical care to LGBTQ+ patients, while those that undermine social equality are also likely to contribute […]
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: Many challenges ahead
By Ilaria Bertini. Finally last week, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill drafted by Kim Leadbeater MP has been published ahead of the Second Reading debate and vote on 29 November 2024. The proposed law on physician assisted dying (PAD) is mooted as being one of the strictest in the world in ensuring […]