Guest Post: Neil Levy Full Article: Nudges in a Post-Truth World Human beings are motivated reasoners. We find ways to believe what we want to believe, sometimes even in the face of strong evidence to the contrary. This fact helps to explain why so many political issues are intractable, and why so many of us […]
Latest articles
How Different are Female, Male and Intersex Genital Cutting?
By Brian D. Earp (@briandavidearp), with Rebecca Steinfeld, Goldsmiths, University of London Three members of the Dawoodi Bohra sect of Islam were recently indicted on charges of “female genital mutilation” (FGM) in the US state of Michigan. In Norway, meanwhile, one of the major political parties has backed a measure to ban childhood male circumcision. Fearing that objections to […]
The Unusual Case of Ian Paterson and Criminally Harmful Surgery
Guest post by Alex Mullock, University of Manchester On 28th April 2017 in the case of breast surgeon, Ian Paterson, the jury in Nottingham Crown Court agreed that in carrying out unnecessary and mutilating surgery the defendant had done what no reasonable surgeon would do. Paterson was convicted of seventeen counts of wounding with intent […]
Gene Editing For A Long Life – A No Brainer?
Guest Post: Isabelle L Robertson Paper: Student Essay- Designing Methuselah: an ethical argument against germline genetic modification to prolong human longevity I am 16 years old. I am at the start of my life and looking towards my future, deciding on universities, career options and how I want my life to be. At the moment […]
Debate: The Fiction of an Interest in Death? Justice for Charlie Gard
Julian Savulescu Dominic Wilkinson’s Response A judge ruled last week that baby Charlie Gard will have his treatment withdrawn, against the wishes of his parents. His doctors argued that the rare mitochondrial disease (MDDS) he was born with was causing him unbearable suffering. His parents had raised funds to take him to the US […]
Debate Reponse: Charlie Gard, Interests and Justice – an alternative view
Dominic Wilkinson Responding to Julian Savulescu The sad and difficult case of Charlie Gard, which featured in the media last week, is the latest in a series of High Court and Family court cases when parents and doctors have disagreed about medical treatment for a child. Doctors regard the treatment as “futile” or “potentially inappropriate”. […]
The Implications of Libertarianism for Compulsory Vaccination
Guest Post: Justin Bernstein Paper: The Case Against Libertarian Arguments for Compulsory Vaccination In a recent political controversy, libertarian Senator Rand Paul articulated his opposition to a policy of compulsory vaccination, stating that he was “all for [vaccines],” but that he was “also for freedom.” U.S. opponents of vaccines often object to compulsory vaccination on […]
Breakthrough Immunotherapies Seem Like a Dream Come True for Children with Leukemia
Guest Post: Nancy Jecker, Aaron Wightman, Abby Rosenberg, Doug Diekema Paper: From protection to entitlement: selecting research subjects for early phase clinical trials involving breakthrough therapies A breakthrough therapy to cure cancer in children suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a dream for many families. New immunotherapies appear to make this dream a reality. Such […]
The Moral Bioenhancement of Psychopaths
Guest Post: Elvio Baccarini and Luca Malatesti Paper: The Moral Bioenhancement of Psychopaths We argue that the prescription of mandatory moral bioenhancement (from now on MB) of psychopaths is justified because it satisfies the requirement of public reason as elaborated in political philosophy. This is the requirement that a moral or political prescription should be […]
Donald Trump’s Mental Health (again)
The speculation about Donald Trump’s mental health that was doing the rounds earlier in the year seems to have died down a bit. That’s to be expected; like it or not, his Presidency is now part of normal life. But I’ve been lagging in my blogging here, and so it’s only now that I’ve got […]