Practically Prompted #1: Should We Screen the Womb? Ethical Questions Raised by the New Miscarriage-Risk Test
This is the first in a trial blog series called “Practically Prompted” – an experiment in using large language models to independently select a recent, ethically rich news story and then write a Practical Ethics blog-style post about it. Th…
Read MorePractically Prompted: Introducing an experiment in LLM-generated blog posts
This post introduces a trial blog series called “Practically Prompted” – an experiment in using large language models (LLMs) to write a Practical Ethics blog-style post, with some light human commentary about the output. So, why try this? T…
Read MoreEthics in the Age of AI
A free, online summer programme open to all. This 9-week programme, part of the UOI’s Bitesize Ethics series, provides a short introduction to ethical issues directly related to Artificial Intelligence, beginning with a general introd…
Read MorePress Replay on Ethics: How AI Debate Panels Surface Hidden Value-Trade-Offs
TL;DR High-stake policy decisions often involve conflict between values, like fairness versus efficiency, or individual rights versus the common good. The various committees (like hospital ethics boards or policy advisory groups) tasked wit…
Read MoreOn plans to extend use of chemical castration for sex offenders in England
Secretary of State for Justice Shabana Mahmood is reportedly looking into a potential ‘national rollout of voluntary chemical castration for sex offenders’. The proposal is one of the recommendations outlined in the recently published Indep…
Read MoreProfiting from Misery: Is There Something Different About Healthcare Data?
By Dr Jeremy Gauntlett-Gilbert – student on the MSt Practical Ethics programme The advent of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence has opened up new possibilities for health research. Specifically, these techniques could be let loose…
Read MoreDire Wolves and Deep Prompts: Language Models in Applied Ethics
You might have seen the headlines: Colossal Biosciences claims to have brought back the dire wolf. Except, it’s not quite a direct resurrection. What Colossal actually created are genetically engineered proxies: grey wolves modified t…
Read MoreUterus Transplants – Ethical and Legal Challenges in the Mexican Context
Author: Dr César Palacios-Gonzalez Discussions about maternal health and rights in Mexico tend to focus on health outcomes and access to healthcare. Academics and activists have long campaigned for the government to invest more re…
Read MorePractical Ethics Schools Day 2025
This year, we hosted the sixth edition of our annual Practical Ethics and Responsibility Competition (PERC). We received 42 entries to the video competition, and though we had many great entries, four finalists emerged as our winning teams,…
Read More‘Global health’: a problematic concept?
What makes health ‘global’? This is the question I have addressed in a recent article in the journal Developing World Bioethics. I am afraid, however, that I don’t have an answer. Nor was answering the aim of the article. After all, many de…
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