Guest Post by Carolyn Johnston How interested are medical students in learning ethics and law? I have met students who have a genuine interest in the issues, who are engaged in teaching sessions and may go on to intercalate in ethics and law. On the other hand some consider that ethics is “just common sense”. […]
Category: Guest Post
Making the Jump to a Medico-Legal Career
Guest Post by Daniel Sokol On a number of occasions, I have been asked by early career ethicists about the move from ethics to law, or the wisdom of seeking a legal qualification to supplement their ethical knowledge. In the UK, this can be achieved remarkably quickly. This blog post is an answer to those […]
The Legal and Moral Significance of Implantation
Guest post by Sally Sheldon We tend to talk about contraception and abortion as if they were two separate and readily distinguishable practices, the former preventing pregnancy and the latter ending it. This understanding has a very important effect in current British law, where a relatively permissive approach to the availability of contraception stands in […]
What should Investigators be Doing with Unexpected Findings in Brain Imaging Research?
Guest Post by Caitlin Cole Incidental findings in brain imaging research are common. Investigators can discover these unexpected findings of potential medical significance in up to 70% of their research scans. However, there are no standards to guide investigators as to whether they should actively search for these findings or which, if any, they should […]
The Moral Desirability of Early Fatherhood
Guest Post by Kevin Smith It is well known that the risk of disorders resulting from chromosomal abnormalities, such as Down’s syndrome, correlates with advancing maternal age. Less widely known is the correlation between the age of fathers and an increased risk of a range of disorders in their resultant offspring, the most prominent of […]
Re-Engineering Shared Decision-Making
Guest post by Muriel R. Gillick When physician-law-professor, Jay Katz, published The Silent World of Doctor and Patient in 1984, shortly after I completed my medical residency, I felt he was speaking directly to me. He was telling me what kind of physician to be – not the old-school, paternalistic physician who told patients what treatment was best, […]
We should not Prevent Some Depressed People from Access to Assisted Dying
Guest post by Udo Schuklenk We should not prevent some depressed people from access to assisted dying. Deborah E Gray, whose depression is (according to her account) successfully managed today, describes vividly on her website the impact depression had on her. She writes: you don’t feel hopeful or happy about anything in your life. You’re crying a […]
Is Age a Determinant Variable in Forgoing Treatment Decisions at the End of Life?
Guest post by Sandra Martins Pereira, Roeline Pasman and Bregje Onwuteaka-Philipsen Decisions to forgo treatment are embedded in clinical, socio-cultural, philosophical, religious, legal and ethical contexts and beliefs, and they cannot be considered as representing good or poor quality care. Particularly for older people, it is sometimes argued that treatment is aggressive, and that there may […]
Child Euthanasia: Should We Just not Talk about It?
Guest Post by Luc Bovens In 2014 Belgium passed a law that extends its euthanasia legislation to minors. There were strong parliamentary majorities in favour of this law but nonetheless a scream of “Murderers!” was heard in the public galleries of the Chamber of Representatives. What is the opposition like in Belgium? Euthanasia for adults has […]
The Talking Cure Taboo
Guest post by C Blease Talking cures have never been so accessible. Since 2007 the UK government has invested £300 million launching its Improved Access to Psychological Treatments scheme. The goal is to train up to 4000 therapists in a particular branch of psychotherapy – cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). CBT is the most widely researched […]