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Diet, Changing Desires, and Dementia
Written by Ben Davies Last week saw the launch of a campaign (run by the group Vegetarian For Life) that seeks to ensure that older people in care who have ethical commitments to a particular diet are not given food that violates those commitments. This is, as the campaign makes clear, a particularly pressing issue…
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Tafida Raqeeb and Charlie’s Law
by Dominic Wilkinson Disputes between parents and doctors are back in the media. This morning, in the case of Tafida Raqeeb, the court concluded that her parents should be allowed to take her to Italy for continuing intensive care. In Tafida’s case, the court found in favour of her parents and against the doctors treating…
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Press Release: Tafida Raqeeb: Right Outcome, Wrong Reasons
Written by Professor Julian Savulescu Dominic Wilkinson describes well the decision to allow a severely brain damaged girl, Tafida Raqeeb, to travel to Italy to continue to be kept alive with artificial ventilation. This is the right outcome. It appears as if Tafida is insensate or unconscious. If Tafida is vegetative, continuing treatment won’t cause…
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Guest Post: Introducing Charlie’s Law, Bambos Charalambous MP (Labour, Enfield Southgate)
Bambos Charalambous MP (Labour, Enfield Southgate) The tragic case of Charlie Gard, who sadly died in 2017 following a serious and protracted illness, attracted significant global attention because of the harrowing dilemmas that it highlighted. Charlie’s story, was fraught with high tensions and unfurled very much in the public eye as a result of the…
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Press Release: Tafida Raqeeb
Professor Dominic Wilkinson, Professor of Medical Ethics, University of Oxford. Consultant Neonatologist This morning, the High Court judgement around medical treatment for five-year old Tafida Raqeeb was published. Tafida sustained severe brain damage from bleeding in the brain eight months ago. Her parents wish to take her to a hospital in Italy to continue…
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Cross Post: Is Mandatory Vaccination the Best Way to Tackle Falling Rates of Childhood Immunisation?
Written by Dr Alberto Giubilini and Dr Samantha Vanderslott This article was originally published on the Oxford Martin School website. Following the publication of figures showing UK childhood vaccination rates have fallen for the fifth year in a row, researchers from the Oxford Martin Programme on Collective Responsibility for Infectious Disease discuss possible responses. Alberto Giubilini: Yes, “we…
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The Doctor-Knows-Best NHS Foundation Trust: a Business Proposal for the Health Secretary
By Charles Foster Informed consent, in practice, is a bad joke. It’s a notion created by lawyers, and like many such notions it bears little relationship to the concerns that real humans have when they’re left to themselves, but it creates many artificial, lucrative, and expensive concerns. Of course there are a few clinical situations…
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Video Interview: Jesper Ryberg on Neurointerventions, Crime and Punishment
Should neurotechnologies that affect emotional regulation, empathy and moral judgment, be used to prevent offenders from reoffending? Is it morally acceptable to offer more lenient sentences to offenders in return for participation in neuroscientific treatment programs? Or would this amount too coercion? Is it possible to administer neurointerventions as a type of punishment? Is it…
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Press Release: Tafida Raqeeb, International Disagreement and Controversial Decisions About Life Support
by Dominic Wilkinson @Neonatalethics This week the legal case around medical treatment for five-year old Tafida Raqeeb has begun in the High Court. She sustained severe brain damage from bleeding in the brain seven months ago. Her parents wish to take her to a hospital in Italy for further treatment, while the doctors at…