By David Albert Jones ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ My article in the Journal of Medical Ethics is […]
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Am I standing in the way of my own philosophy?
By Peter Singer. Karl Marx wrote, with Hegel in mind: “if a philosopher really has compromised, it is the job of his followers to use the inner core of his thought to illuminate his own superficial expressions of it.” That expresses well the attitude of the Young Hegelians, of whom Marx was one, and who, […]
Is that what I think like?
By Sankalpa Ghose. What does it mean for a philosopher, or really anyone, to be represented by an artificial intelligence? In creating PSai (available now at www.petersinger.ai), this naturally arises as a curiosity and a consideration. As related in “A Representative Interview with Peter Singer AI” – just published in Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics […]
Up the creek without a paddle? We can help navigate the consent river in pragmatic cluster randomized trials.
By Cory E. Goldstein, Stephanie N. Dixon, Monica Taljaard, Charles Weijer. As bioethicists and statisticians, we are occasionally invited to consult with a research team planning a pragmatic clinical trial after the research question and a basic outline of objectives and methods have been developed. When the proposed design is a cluster randomized design (in […]
Should liberal states permit the social use of mitochondrial replacement technique? The answer is yes.
By Marco Tang. What is mitochondrial replacement technique (MRT)? It involves obtaining a donor egg, removing the nDNA from the donor egg, transferring the legal mother’s nDNA into the donor egg and fertilizing it with the legal father’s sperm. This procedure enables women with mitochondrial disease to have children without it. What is unique is […]
Do philosophers stand in the way of their own philosophy?
By Matti Häyry. I recently interviewed Peter Singer AI – that is to say, philosopher Peter Singer’s digital representation petersinger.ai, created by Sankalpa Ghose and available online. After the interview with the bot, I asked Peter Singer himself what he thought about the answers. His response revealed an interesting tension. For me, the experience was […]
The GMC must re-evaluate its treatment of climate protesters
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 […]
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 […]