While I am wary on this blog talking about what we commonly refer to as “The paper that shall not be named” for fear of inciting yet more criticism, complaint and work for myself and Iain there is a certain amount of schadenfreude to be had at the impact three years on of the controversy […]
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Back(wards) to the Future: The ethics of trading present health care for research
Those outside of Australia are probably at best peripherally aware of the furore that the current budget announced by the new government last week is causing – it is in many ways an unsurprising budget for a broadly rightwing socially conservative government and quite reminiscent of the policies the Con-Dems have brought in the UK […]
Twitter Speaks Truth
I know I should be concentrating on my marking at the moment, but I’ve just seen this at the top of my twitter feed, and… I feel that it vindicates my little break. […]
Who’s the SilLIer?
It’s funny how things come together sometimes. A few months ago, I mentioned a slightly strange JAMA paper that suggested that non-compliance with treatment regimes should be treated as a treatable condition in its own right. The subtext there was fairly clear: that there’s potential scope for what we might term “psychiatric mission-creep”, whereby behaviour gets […]
What should we Think about Belgium’s Child Euthanasia Law?
With any luck, the nuts real-world work schedule of the past few months* will begin to ease in a few days, so I should be able to start blogging more frequently soon; but I thought I’d take a moment out from writing jurisprudence lectures to do some thinking out loud about Belgium’s recent change to […]
From the File Marked “This Can’t End Well”
… and cross-referenced with the file marked “You Wouldn’t Let It Lie”. Francesca Minerva has a paper in Bioethics in which she refers – none-too-obliquely – to the furore surrounding The Paper Of Which We Do Not Speak. Her central claim is that there is a threat to academic freedom posed by modern communications, inasmuch […]
CONF & CFP: 9th International Conference on Clinical Ethics Consultation
From Ralf Jox (Munich) Call for Abstracts: “Clinical ethics: bridging clinical medicine and ethics”. The Ninth International Conference on Clinical Ethics Consultation (ICCEC) 2013 will take place in Munich, Germany. The conference’s intention is to strengthen the bridge between clinical medicine and ethics by providing a forum for the exchange of experience and discussions between clinicians, ethicists and ethics consultants. […]
After-Birth Abortion: Editorial Comment
Rev Prof Ken Boyd, Associate Editor, Journal of Medical Ethics, writes: Coming up to me at a meeting the other day, an ethics colleague waved a paper at me. “Have you seen this ?”she asked, “It’s unbelievable!” The paper was ‘After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?” by two philosophers writing from Australia, Alberto Giubilini […]
Blogging hiatus
Bit quiet around here, isn’t it? Don’t worry (just in case you were): we’ve not gone away; real life has made a temporary intrusion, and I think the same is true for David. We’ll be back soon. […]
MSF Dilemma # 3: Re-Infibulation
This is the third of the dilemmas considered here. To allow childbirth, it is necessary to surgically open an infibulation. After delivery, women (and their husbands) ask for restoration of the infibulation (re-infibulation), which involves re-suturing. MSF opposes re-infibulation and works to ensure that it is not undertaken in its delivery facilities. Although MSF opposes this practice, […]