{"id":711,"date":"2010-10-27T12:36:21","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T11:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=711"},"modified":"2010-10-28T10:54:19","modified_gmt":"2010-10-28T09:54:19","slug":"odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/27\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\/","title":{"rendered":"Odone and the CPS: Scaremongering about Euthanasia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Centre for Policy Studies has recently published a report on euthanasia, authored by Cristina Odone.\u00a0 It&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cps.org.uk\/cps_catalog\/assisted%20suicide.pdf\">available to download here<\/a>, though it would seem that you can also buy a paper version for a tenner.\u00a0 It&#8217;s amazing for the sheer poverty of the argument; I might never have thought that so much specious nonsense could be crammed into 60 pages had I not seen it.\u00a0 Indeed, there&#8217;s a\u00a0good part of me that finds the whole thing hilarious &#8211; and it would be, were it not so dispiriting.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s barely a paragraph that doesn&#8217;t have some objection; but I&#8217;m aware that I sometimes go on a bit, so I&#8217;m going to limit myself to highlighting a few particular highlights.\u00a0 But, really, if you&#8217;ve a spare moment, it shouldn&#8217;t be hard to find other howlers.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s begin on p\u00a02, where Odone asserts that<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[t]he legalisation of assisted suicide and voluntary euthansia was once thought unthinkable in this country, where it was associated with the Nazis&#8217; secret euthanasia programme.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Wow.\u00a0 This has to be one of the fastest ever <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reductio_ad_Hitlerum\">Godwins<\/a>.\u00a0 Naturally, there&#8217;s no evidence that euthanasia was ever associated with Nazism by anyone, whether there&#8217;s any justification for any such association, or whether what the Nazis got up to really was euthanasia (and cf p 23, where she goes along with the Nazi euphemism that dressed murder up as euthanasia).\u00a0 There&#8217;s no examination of the difference between asking for help to die because you don&#8217;t want to live, and being ordered to die because someone else doesn&#8217;t want you to.\u00a0 There&#8217;s no comprehension of the fact that, if euthansia is wrong, it&#8217;s got nothing to do with Nazism (or of the fact that not everything done by Nazis is <em>de facto<\/em> wrong: Nazis also wore shoes, walked the dog, and gave each other birthday presents, all of which are OK <em>even though they were done by dispicable people who did vile stuff at other times<\/em>).\u00a0 Because that&#8217;d undermine the rhetorical point.<\/p>\n<p>While an appeal to bare facts is never going to amount to an ethical argument, it&#8217;s good to note that Odone says that the debate about euthanasia and assisted dying should be approached &#8220;on the basis of facts&#8221; (p 4).\u00a0 Admirably, she manages to sustain her appeal to facts for a whole 37 words before her spirit breaks and she has to resort to speculation and &#8211; frankly &#8211; her imagination.\u00a0 The giveaway is the phrase &#8220;[t]he danger is&#8221; (p 5), which serves as a smokescreen behind which all kinds of stuff can be smuggled in &#8211; to wit: the claims about second-class humans, claims about &#8220;Doctor Death&#8221;, claims about an &#8220;all-powerful death squad&#8221; (seriously &#8211; this is a group of people &#8220;who would again and again send people to their death&#8221; (p 48)), and claims about a slippery slope (yawn).\u00a0 In respect of this last point, Odone speaks with utter certainty:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Once assisted suicide becomes legal, it <strong>will<\/strong> slide into voluntary euthanasia which in turn <strong>will<\/strong> lead to involuntary euthanasia. [p 6; emphasis mine]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course, there&#8217;s no evidence, empirical or argumentative, offered for this assertion.\u00a0 You weren&#8217;t expecting it, were you?<\/p>\n<p>The canard about second class people and some poeple not being of equal value to others is repeated throughout the pamphlet, and it&#8217;s twinned with another: that assisted death is supported mainly by the &#8220;chattering classes&#8221;, who&#8217;re sophisticated enough to defend themselves from it:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Above all, the disadvantaged, fearful of authorities and lost in bureaucracy, may not know how to manipulate the system and may, in comparison to the confident members of the choice-obsessed consumerist \u00e9lite, be more subject to manipulation by others. (p 2)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This \u00e9lite pops up in several places, too; and it&#8217;s always presented in terms of middle-class people who&#8217;d kill their aunts as soon as look at them, but who&#8217;re capable of manipulating the system to avoid being bumped off themselves.\u00a0 And it&#8217;s interesting that things are always this way around: the threat is always there, with only a privileged group able to avoid it.\u00a0 At the same time, it&#8217;s an &#8220;educated \u00e9lite&#8230; in charge of assisted suicide&#8221; (p 49).\u00a0 We&#8217;ve seen this obsequious, Uriah-Heap-ish ever so &#8216;umble, fawning, and false distinction between the alien \u00e9lite\u00a0and poor little put-upon you elsewhere, of course: it&#8217;s the bread-and-butter of right-wing populist blather, whether in the mouth of\u00a0Peter Hitchens or Sarah Palin.<\/p>\n<p>Odone devotes a whole chapter to palliative care, apparently believing that the lack of palliative care is the <em>only<\/em> reason why people might seek assisted death, and that they wouldn&#8217;t seek it if PC were there.\u00a0 She trots out the claim that palliative care isn&#8217;t available in the Netherlands, quoting Ilora Finlay&#8217;s claim that &#8220;[s]pecialist palliative care does not exist [there]&#8221; &#8211; which <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eapcnet.org\/download\/forInsight\/EJPC163_Insight.pdf\">must come as a surprise to those working in Holland&#8217;s growing state-funded hospice sector<\/a>.\u00a0 If you believe Odone, places like Oregon and the Netherlands are now much less safe places to live, especially\u00a0if you happen to be socially vulnerable.\u00a0 It&#8217;s just a shame that <a href=\"http:\/\/jme.bmj.com\/content\/33\/10\/591.full.pdf?sid=c015687d-bacc-4c9f-a3d6-8ab5a92e5350\">the evidence suggests otherwise<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Odone seems also to get herself into a terrible muddle in other ways.\u00a0 On one hand, she invokes Shipman (and the\u00a0<em>argumentum ad shipmanum<\/em> must be gaining ground on the <em>argumentum ad hitlerum<\/em> in these circles) to suggest that legalising some forms of assisted dying brings with it a potential for abuse (p 40) &#8211; and, while we&#8217;re here,\u00a0notice the elision of murder and assisted death, and the apparent failure to notice that illegality didn&#8217;t do much to stop Shipman anyway.\u00a0 On the other, she quotes a Dutch doctor who has carried out euthanasia several times as saying that &#8220;[t]he idea that each case gets easier and easier is just rubbish&#8221; (p 44).\u00a0 So which is it?\u00a0 Is it the case that there&#8217;re doctors who&#8217;re dying to kill, and yet are somehow held back by the gossamer chains of the law?\u00a0 Or is it that &#8211; as is suggested by the interview with, er, a doctor &#8211; they&#8217;re thoughtful and anxious about these things, and care deeply about the justification for each instance of assistance?<\/p>\n<p>I could go on.\u00a0 Like I said, it&#8217;s a 60-page document; my print-off is replete with marginalia along the lines of &#8220;This is false&#8221;, &#8220;Stop scaremongering&#8221; and &#8220;Don&#8217;t you undermine your own point here?&#8221;, and I could go on for ages.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve not even begun on the &#8220;big society&#8221; claim &#8211; you know, the Tory idea that&#8217;s going to see public services privatised and social care cauterised.\u00a0 But there&#8217;s one more thing that is worth raising.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s this: Odone&#8217;s pamphlet expresses sympathy with the fears of the vulnerable about what assisted dying might mean for them.\u00a0 But what she doesn&#8217;t do is engage with those fears and ask whether they&#8217;re well-founded.\u00a0 Instead, she amplifies them.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve never seen any piece of legislation on assisted dying that isn&#8217;t heavily circumscribed.\u00a0 One of the strongest objections to the current Bill in Scotland is that &#8220;assistance&#8221; doesn&#8217;t clearly differentiate killing and assistance &#8211; but I fully expect that to be remedied by the second reading.\u00a0 But even then, advocates of assisted dying are painstaking to be clear that what they&#8217;re proposing is <em>not<\/em> about forcing people to die.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the myth persists.\u00a0 And it persists, I&#8217;d suggest, because of documents like this, which lazily throw in allusions to Shipman and Mengele, and which overlook the obvious moral, logical and legal distinction between voluntary and involuntary death.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s allow that there are members of vulnerable groups who are scared by assisted dying.\u00a0 Much of this fear, I&#8217;d suggest, is caused by the speculations and downright paranoia of some of assisted dying&#8217;s most vocal opponents.<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Centre for Policy Studies has recently published a report on euthanasia, authored by Cristina Odone.\u00a0 It&#8217;s available to download here, though it would seem that you can also buy a paper version for a tenner.\u00a0 It&#8217;s amazing for the sheer poverty of the argument; I might never have thought that so much specious nonsense [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/27\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[591,577,1241],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-and-death","category-resource","category-tinfoil-hat"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Odone and the CPS: Scaremongering about Euthanasia - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/27\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Odone and the CPS: Scaremongering about Euthanasia - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Centre for Policy Studies has recently published a report on euthanasia, authored by Cristina Odone.\u00a0 It&#8217;s available to download here, though it would seem that you can also buy a paper version for a tenner.\u00a0 It&#8217;s amazing for the sheer poverty of the argument; I might never have thought that so much specious nonsense [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/27\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-27T11:36:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-10-28T09:54:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/27\\\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/27\\\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Odone and the CPS: Scaremongering about Euthanasia\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-27T11:36:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-10-28T09:54:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/27\\\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1333,\"commentCount\":7,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Life and Death\",\"Resource\",\"Tinfoil Hat\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/27\\\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/27\\\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/27\\\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\\\/\",\"name\":\"Odone and the CPS: Scaremongering about Euthanasia - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-27T11:36:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-10-28T09:54:19+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/27\\\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/27\\\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/10\\\/27\\\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Odone and the CPS: Scaremongering about Euthanasia\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/\",\"name\":\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\",\"description\":\"A blog to discuss the ethics of medicine in its many guises and formats.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/files\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/jme-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/files\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/jme-logo.png\",\"width\":200,\"height\":50,\"caption\":\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\",\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"BMJ\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Odone and the CPS: Scaremongering about Euthanasia - Journal of Medical Ethics blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/27\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Odone and the CPS: Scaremongering about Euthanasia - Journal of Medical Ethics blog","og_description":"The Centre for Policy Studies has recently published a report on euthanasia, authored by Cristina Odone.\u00a0 It&#8217;s available to download here, though it would seem that you can also buy a paper version for a tenner.\u00a0 It&#8217;s amazing for the sheer poverty of the argument; I might never have thought that so much specious nonsense [...]Read More...","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/27\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\/","og_site_name":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog","article_published_time":"2010-10-27T11:36:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2010-10-28T09:54:19+00:00","author":"BMJ","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"BMJ","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/27\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/27\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\/"},"author":{"name":"BMJ","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/person\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe"},"headline":"Odone and the CPS: Scaremongering about Euthanasia","datePublished":"2010-10-27T11:36:21+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-28T09:54:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/27\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\/"},"wordCount":1333,"commentCount":7,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Life and Death","Resource","Tinfoil Hat"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/27\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/27\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/27\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\/","name":"Odone and the CPS: Scaremongering about Euthanasia - Journal of Medical Ethics blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-10-27T11:36:21+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-28T09:54:19+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/27\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/27\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/10\/27\/odone-and-the-cps-scaremongering-about-euthanasia\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Odone and the CPS: Scaremongering about Euthanasia"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/","name":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog","description":"A blog to discuss the ethics of medicine in its many guises and formats.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#organization","name":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/files\/2026\/04\/jme-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/files\/2026\/04\/jme-logo.png","width":200,"height":50,"caption":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/person\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe","name":"BMJ","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"BMJ"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}