Authors: Kristine Husøy Onarheim, Ole Frithjof Norheim, Ingrid Miljeteig Papers: Newborn health benefits or financial risk protection? An ethical analysis of a real-life dilemma in setting without universal health coverage. Imagine a two-day-old baby falling sick with a severe infection. Then imagine that the parents have no savings available, and cannot afford the necessary medical […]
Latest articles
Guest Post: Getting Sex Rights Wrong: Improving our Conversations about Sexual Exclusion and Disability
Author: Dr. Alida Liberman, University of Indianapolis Paper: Disability, Sex Rights, and the Scope of Sexual Exclusion People who have disabilities are often sexually excluded or marginalized: positive portrayals of disabled sexuality in fiction or news media are rare, and people with disabilities are often seen as asexual or disregarded as viable sexual (for example, a […]
Protection by Exclusion? Capacity as a Gatekeeper to Research
Authors: Victoria Shepherd, Richard Griffith, Mark Sheehan, Fiona Wood, Kerenza Hood Paper: Healthcare professionals’ understanding of the legislation governing research involving adults lacking mental capacity in England and Wales: a national survey People who lack capacity to provide informed consent are often excluded from medical research, leading to concerns that there is an evidence-bias in the […]
“An intermittent safeguard for health”
Guest post by Matteo Winkler, École des hautes études commerciales de Paris I thought I’d drop you a few lines to explain how I view the Italian intervention on the case of Alfie Evans. On 24 April, the Italian government, acting upon a proposal presented by the Minister of Interior Marco Minniti, resolved to grant Alfie […]
Alfie Evans: Please, just stop.
By Iain Brassington Last summer, as the Charlie Gard saga was unfolding, was a slightly strange time to be a bioethicist. Perhaps fortuitously, I was out of the country as matters began to gather pace; I was able to post a couple of blog posts (like this and this), but could generally keep my head down […]
Should Iceland Ban Circumcision? A Legal and Ethical Analysis
By Lauren Notini and Brian D. Earp *Note: this article also appears on the Practical Ethics Blog, and a condensed version titled “Iceland’s Proposed Circumcision Ban” is being cross-published at Pursuit. For a small country, Iceland has had a big impact on global media coverage recently, following its proposed ban on male circumcision before […]
Guest Post: Information Disclosure Post-Montgomery: Are English Courts Likely to use Causation as a “Control mechanism” to Limit Liability, like in Australia?
Authors: Malcolm K Smith and Tracey Carver, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Paper: Montgomery, informed consent and causation of harm: lessons from Australia or a uniquely English approach to patient autonomy? The UK Supreme Court decision of Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board [2015] 1 AC 1430 establishes that a […]
Guest Post: Who Calls the Shots? Teens and the HPV Vaccine
Suchi Agrawal Paper: Who calls the shots? The ethics of adolescent self-consent for HPV vaccination During my pediatric hospital medicine rotation, I stopped the team before we entered the room of our sixteen-year-old patient and her parents. “Just a reminder, the patient does not want her parents to know she was tested for gonorrhea and chlamydia.” […]
Guest Post: The Conscientious Objection (Medical Activities) Bill: Some Objections Rebutted
David S. Oderberg, Professor of Philosophy, University of Reading On March 23rd 2018, the House of Lords will enter the Committee Stage of debate on the Conscientious Objection (Medical Activities) Bill, a Private Members’ Bill sponsored by Baroness O’Loan. It will be a time for line-by-line examination, with many amendments expected to be tabled both […]
Guest Post: Philosophical Tradeoffs in Psychotherapy
Authors: Sahanika Ratnayake, David Merry. Paper: Forgetting ourselves: epistemic costs and ethical concerns in mindfulness exercises Unlike pharmaceuticals, psychotherapy is often presented as an effective treatment without any side effects. Mindfulness exercises, popularised by Jon Kabat-Zinn in the 1970s and ‘80s, are seen as particularly gentle. According to Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness is nothing more than ‘paying attention’. […]