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Could vaccine requirements for entering pubs be wrong, while closing pubs altogether is OK?
By Tom Douglas Suppose that, before you could enter a pub, you had to produce a ‘vaccine passport’ showing that you had been vaccinated against the new coronavirus. Vaccine requirements like this are controversial. In the UK, the government has been keen to deny that it is even considering their use. This is in some…
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DNACPR Orders in a Pandemic: Misgivings and Misconceptions.
by Dominic Wilkinson @Neonatalethics This week, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published an interim report into resuscitation decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a number of media outlets, the report found that in the first wave of the crisis inappropriate and possibly unlawful ‘do not resuscitate’ orders were used “without the consent of patients…
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The Libertarian Argument Is the Best Argument Against Immunity Passports. But is it good enough?
Written by Julian Savulescu and Alberto Giubilini The government has reportedly flirted with the introduction of vaccination passports that would afford greater freedoms to people who have been vaccinated for COVID-19. However, the UK’s Minister for the Cabinet Office, Michael Gove, recently announced that vaccination passports are not currently under consideration in the UK. However,…
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Mandatory Morality: When Should Moral Enhancement Be Mandatory?
By Julian Savulescu Together with Tom Douglas and Ingmar Persson, I launched the field of moral bioenhancement. I have often been asked ‘When should moral bioenhancement be mandatory?’ I have often been told that it won’t be effective if it is not mandatory. I have defended the possibility that it could be mandatory. In that…
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Cross post: Pandemic Ethics: Should COVID-19 Vaccines Be mandatory? Two Experts Discuss
Written by Alberto Giubilini (Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and WEH, University of Oxford ) Vageesh Jaini (University College London) (Cross posted with the Conversation) To be properly protective, COVID-19 vaccines need to be given to most people worldwide. Only through widespread vaccination will we reach herd immunity – where enough people are immune to…
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Refusal Redux. Revisiting Debate About Adolescent Refusal of Treatment.
by Prof Dominic Wilkinson @Neonatalethics Last month, in an emergency hearing, the High court in London heard a case that characterises a familiar problem in medical ethics. A 15 year old adolescent (known as ‘X’) with a long-standing medical condition, Sickle Cell disease, had a very low blood count and required an urgent blood transfusion.…
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Legacies
By Stephen Rainey Joe Biden won the recent US election. As yet, the normal concession speech from the losing candidate has not been forthcoming. Donald Trump’s actions since losing the presidency have been, well, Trumpian, prompting Biden to label them an ‘embarrassment.’ He also suggested that The Donald was endangering his legacy in not reacting…
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Antenatal Care During The COVID-19 Pandemic: Couples As Dyads
Written by Rebecca Brown During the pandemic, many healthcare services have been reduced. One instance of this is the antenatal care of expectant mothers. Ordinarily, partners of pregnant women are permitted to attend appointments. This includes the 12 week scan: typically the first opportunity expectant parents get to see the developing foetus, to discover…
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Cross Post: Pandemic Ethics: Vaccine Distribution Ethics: Monotheism or Polytheism?
Written by Alberto Giubilini, Julian Savulescu, Dominic Wilkinson (Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics) (Cross-posted with the Journal of Medical Ethics blog) Pfizer has reported preliminary results that their mRNA COVID vaccine is 90% effective during phase III trials. The hope is to have the first doses available for distribution by the end of the year. Discussion has…
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Invertebrate Ethics
by Roger Crisp In a recent and very interesting paper, Irina Mikhalevich and Russell Powell (MP) argue that the same standards of evidence and risk management that justify policy protections for vertebrates also support extending moral consideration to certain invertebrates. In this blog, I’ll offer two lines of argument broadly supportive of MP’s conclusions. First,…