By Robert Wheeler Following the foundation of a Clinical Ethics Committee (CEC) in Southampton in 2002 by Dr Tom Woodcock, we have dealt with a steady trickle of cases posing significant ethical and legal questions concerning management of individual patients. It gradually dawned on us that many less contentious (but nonetheless relevant) enquiries were not […]
Latest articles
Imagination and idealism beyond the disease-control paradigm
By Colin Farrelly The World Health Organization has designated the decade 2021-2030 as the “Decade of Healthy Ageing”. And the United Nations estimates that the 703 million persons aged 65 years or over in 2019 will double by 2050. I believe the aging of humanity is one of the most significant developments of the 21st century. […]
Seeing surgeons to safety
By Edwin Jesudason. Surgeons around the world are videoing their operations to present innovations to their peers at academic meetings. In my paper, I argue that they and their hospitals have an ethical duty to protect patients, which should require the routine videoing of surgery as long as the patient consents. This would provide something […]
Including Black, Indigenous and Latinx communities as partners in the planning and implementation of Long COVID-19 responses: recommendations for enhancing health equity
By Michelle Medeiros, Hillary Edwards, Claudia Baquet. COVID-19 data, where are the holes and what does this mean for Long COVID? As the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic progresses, the impact of persistent, long-term respiratory, functional, and psychological comorbidities becomes more evident in the general population, and particularly within Black, Indigenous and Latinx communities. Black, Indigenous, and […]
Respect for autonomy in medical ethics: it’s more complicated than you think
By Xavier Symons and Susan Pennings. Respect for patient autonomy is perhaps the pre-eminent principle in contemporary bioethics. What else, after all, is more important than respecting the considered preferences of patients and research participants in medicine? Tom Beauchamp once wrote that “[the] moral value of respect for autonomy precedes and is not the product […]
Does money affect the morality of surrogacy?
By J.Y. Lee. Surrogacy is a form of third-party assisted reproduction involving a gestational carrier other than the intended parent(s). There are no globally recognized surrogacy laws, but countries around the world often frame the legality of the surrogacy arrangement in terms of whether it is commercial (paid) or altruistic (unpaid). Of the nations that […]
Public reactions to non-invasive prenatal testing funding in England, France and Germany: The case of Heidi Crowter and Maire Lea-Wilson in England.
By Adeline Perrot and Ruth Horn The introduction of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) into public health systems in recent years has been the subject of controversy in England, France and Germany. In England, for example, the ‘Don’t Screen Us Out’ campaign recently supported the case of Crowter and Lea-Wilson, challenging the UK Secretary of State […]
Why we must resist proposals for routine screening for alcohol in pregnancy
By Rebecca Bennett and Catherine Bowden Since a link was established between alcohol consumption in pregnancy and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) there have been attempts to reduce women’s alcohol consumption during pregnancy. As a result, many jurisdictions, including the UK have taken what is called ‘abstinence only approach’ as the basis for all policies […]
Pandemic political strategy – an impossible comparison?
By Rhea Mittal. One of the greatest assets of a nation is the health of its citizens, and this is inextricably linked with governance. In a COVID-19 era, the impact and diversity of political strategy in relation to health outcomes has been demonstrated on a global level. The 2019 Varsity Medical Ethics Debate was on […]
Should doctors help patients import medicines?
By Narcyz Ghinea. In the mid 2010s, breakthrough medicines that promised to cure hepatitis C came onto the market. The catch was, the pharmaceutical company Gilead set the price of up to £70 000 for a 3-month course of treatment. No government would pay that much given the number of people with hepatitis C. In the […]