Skip to content

Human Identity and Biotechnologies: special issue just published

Human Identity and Biotechnologies: special issue just published

Alberto Giubilini, Andrew Moeller Crossposted from the TORCH Medical Humanities blog In 2024, the TORCH Medical Humanities Hub, in collaboration with the Stanford Boundaries of Humanity project and the Uehiro Oxford Institute, organized a conference on Biotechnology and Human Identity.  The conference inspired a special issue of the journal Bioethics edited by the conference co-organizers… Read More »Human Identity and Biotechnologies: special issue just published

When Should we Argue?

  • by

by Professor Neil Levy; Cross-posted from Blog of the APA Don’t feed the trolls arguments. When someone is wrong—on the Internet or in the coffee shop—the temptation to engage can be strong, even though it often seems futile. While it can be satisfying and illuminating to argue with friends and some other people with whom… Read More »When Should we Argue?

Community Iftar

  • by

Blog post by professor Roger Crisp On 12th March, I was delighted to be invited to attend the  4th Ramadan Community Iftar organized by the Dialogue Society in partnership with The Oxford Academy. The event involved a wonderfully diverse group of participants, including civic leaders, community and faith representatives, charity members, students, academics, parents, and… Read More »Community Iftar

Some reflections on Elena Conis’ lecture “Contextualising the Modern Era of Vaccination”

By Alberto Giubilini (Cross-posted from the TORCH Medical Humanities blogpost) It was a pleasure to host Professor Elena Conis (UC Berkeley) to deliver the inaugural lecture of the Medical Humanities program “Immunity and the Humanities”, supported by the Uehiro Oxford Institute. Elena Conis is one of the most prominent historians of medicine and the author, among other things, of Vaccine Nation.… Read More »Some reflections on Elena Conis’ lecture “Contextualising the Modern Era of Vaccination”

Can Pornography be Feminist in a Mass Market Economy?

  • by

Undergraduate Highly Commended paper in the 2026 National Uehiro Oxford Essay Prize in Practical Ethics. By Leela Kainth. Mainstream pornography refers to conventional, mass-marketed, sexually explicit material produced at commercial scale, typically for consumers to masturbate to. This is distinct from so-called ‘feminist pornography’, which self-consciously aims to resist these norms through alternative representations and… Read More »Can Pornography be Feminist in a Mass Market Economy?

Is Prostitution Just a Job?

  • by

Undergraduate Finalist paper in the 2026 National Uehiro Oxford Essay Prize in Practical Ethics. By Ethan Beri. Despite being the “oldest profession”, prostitution is still hotly debated, both in the academy and in public discourse. Prostitution is often considered worse than other jobs, in part because it wrongs the prostitute: a woman who sells sex… Read More »Is Prostitution Just a Job?

Photo by James Forsdyke.

‘It’s Physical, Not Intellectual’: The Ethics of Correcting Assumptions About Disability

  • by

Graduate Highly Commended paper in the 2026 National Uehiro Oxford Essay Prize in Practical Ethics. By James Forsdyke. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2446-4586 In this paper, I will discuss ethical considerations when it comes to correcting assumptions about people with physical disabilities. In particular, I will discuss the assumption some individuals make that physical disabilities are necessarily accompanied… Read More »‘It’s Physical, Not Intellectual’: The Ethics of Correcting Assumptions About Disability

New Book: Protecting Minds – The Right Against Mental Interference

If your doctor injects you with a vaccine without your consent, or a stranger strokes the back of your neck on a packed train, we would think that they have wronged you, morally speaking. And we might capture this wrong by saying that they have trespassed on your body or infringed your right against bodily… Read More »New Book: Protecting Minds – The Right Against Mental Interference

Three speakers sit spotlighted around a round white table, with a purple background.

Rethinking the Ethics and Politics of the Global Campaign Against Female Genital Cutting

  • by

Reflections on a recent Antitheses Project conversation In a recent ANTITHESES Project podcast, Dominic Wilkinson (Uehiro Oxford Institute), Brian D. Earp (National University of Singapore), and Zainab Nur (Hidden Voices UK) discuss an extended essay published in the Journal of Medical Ethics (2025) examining the unintended harms of the dominant global campaign against female genital… Read More »Rethinking the Ethics and Politics of the Global Campaign Against Female Genital Cutting

Mental Health Chatbots: on Truth and Bullshit

  • by

By Dr Jeremy Gauntlett-Gilbert; Consultant Psychologist and student, MSt Practical Ethics Chatbots are increasingly being used to deliver an AI version of psychological therapy. Internationally, there is pressure on mental health services and a shortage of human therapists. Mental health providers have a keen interest in such AI technological solutions that might offer treatment “at… Read More »Mental Health Chatbots: on Truth and Bullshit