The National Uehiro Oxford Essay Prize in Practical Ethics is an annual competition held in the spring. It is open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in UK universities and students are invited to enter by submitting an essay of up to 2000 words on any topic relevant to practical ethics. The 2025 Essay Prize final takes place on 18th March 2025 and we are delighted to celebrate the work of the Finalists and Honourable Mentions by sharing their winning papers here on the PE blog over the next few weeks.
Undergraduate Finalists:
Elizabeth McCabe, University of Oxford: Silencing Queer Signals: How cultural misuse prevents the expression of queerness
Rahul Lakhanpaul, University of Edinburgh : Social Media, Epistemic Threats, and the Threat to Autonomy
Graduate Finalists:
Esther Braun, University of Oxford: Are requests for assisted dying motivated by poverty autonomous?
Arjan Heir, University of Cambridge: Promises and Consent: The Moral Permissibility of Accepting a Promise to Perform an Act That Requires Contemporaneous Consent
Honourable Mentions
Undergraduate:
Artur Littner: The Duty to Have Courage: Developing the Theory of Epistemic Injustice
Nicole Chinenyenwa Oboko: Bring Back Shame: Does the Ethical Value of Shame Justify Shaming?
Graduate:
Sasha Arridge: “You nearly killed me!” Casual Contribution and Responsibility For Things That Don’t Happen
Edward Lamb: Justifying exclusion from public sport
Beatrice Marchegiani: An autonomy-based argument for the permissibility of (some) prenatal injuries
To join us for the Final (a hybrid event) you can find more details and register here.