Guest post by Douwe Verkuyl The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) Committee for the Ethical Aspects of Human Reproduction and Women’s Health believes that there is never an indication for a tubal occlusion (TO) to be performed at the time of caesarean section or following a vaginal delivery in cases where this sterilisation has […]
Category: Life and Death
Legal Comment on Nicklinson, Lamb and AM Appeals
Guest post by Alexandra Mullock, University of Manchester The Supreme Court, in the long awaited verdict in the Nicklinson appeals, essentially delivered both good news and bad news for all concerned. The appeals by Jane Nicklinson (continuing her late husband’s battle), Paul Lamb and AM (known as Martin) were all rejected. The DPP won her appeal […]
Nicklinson Loses Right-to-Die Case
No surprises at the result, but the ruling itself looks like it might make for interesting reading. Analysis to follow… […]
Intentionally Exposing Patients to HIV: When Might it be Ethical?
Guest Post by Bram Wispelwey, Ari Zivotofsky, and Alan Jotkowitz Much has been made of the fact that over the last two decades HIV has transformed from an inevitable, agonising killer into a controllable chronic disease. But have we reached a point where infecting someone with HIV in order to avoid other, potentially worse health outcomes […]
How Not to Argue against a Proposed Law
Yes, yes: it’s tedious and internecine, but it’s almost a year since I had a pop at Kevin Yuill’s book on assisted dying; how about an update? Well, conveniently, there’s this, in which he tries “to convince my fellow liberal minded atheists to reconsider their support for legalized assisted dying”. OK, then. First up, this isn’t […]
Their Poor Little Heads might Explode
There’s a nice little piece by Martin Robbins in this week’s Guardian in which he talks about the fact that women seem to be less supportive of abortion than men. That does seem counterintuitive, given that… well, given the obvious physiological facts and the relative burden of risks related to pregnancy. So there’s an interesting little anthropological […]
Resurrectionism at Easter
There’s a provocative piece in a recent New Scientist about what happens to unclaimed bodies after death – about, specifically, the practice of coopting them for research purposes. Gareth Jones, who wrote it, points out that the practice has been going on for centuries – but that a consequence of the way it’s done is that it tends […]
Oh, and while we’re talking about media hype…
… there’s this, from last week’s Independent: Thousands of unborn foetuses incinerated to heat UK hospitals The bodies of more than 15,000 unborn foetuses have been incinerated in the UK, an investigation has found, with some treated as “clinical waste” and others burned to heat hospitals. The practice was carried out by 27 NHS trusts, […]
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 […]
Sex-Selection and Abortion: Is there a Problem?
This is just a quick post, and it’s mainly to draw your attention to a couple of other posts worth reading elsewhere. A little background: there’s been a minor fuss* in the media over the last few days concerning sex-specific abortion**, after The Independent reported that [t]he practice of sex-selective abortion is now so commonplace that […]