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Regulating The Untapped Trove Of Brain Data
Written by Stephen Rainey and Christoph Bublitz Increasing use of brain data, either from research contexts, medical device use, or in the growing consumer brain-tech sector raises privacy concerns. Some already call for international regulation, especially as consumer neurotech is about to enter the market more widely. In this post, we wish to look at…
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Shamima Begum and the Public Good
Written by Steve Clarke,Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities and Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford, & School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Charles Sturt University Shamima Begum, who left the UK in 2015 at age 15, to join the Islamic State, has been the subject of consistent media attention since she…
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Cross Post: Ten Ethical Flaws in the Caster Semenya Decision on Intersex in Sport
Written by Julian Savulescu, University of Oxford Caster Semenya is legally female, was from birth raised as female and identifies as a female. Jon Connell on flickr , CC BY-NC Middle-distance runner Caster Semenya will need to take hormone-lowering agents, or have surgery, if she wishes to continue her career in her chosen athletic events. The…
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Caster Semenya, What’s Next?
Guest Post: Torbjörn Tännsjö, Kristian Claëson Emeritus Professor of Practical Philosophy Statistically speaking, women perform less well than men in most sports. Their top results are 10-12 % worse than those of men. If they are to have a chance to compete at the top level, they need a protected space. At least, this has been…
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Arbitrariness as an Ethical Criticism
Written by Ben Davies We recently saw a legal challenge to the current UK law that compels fertility clinics to destroy frozen eggs after a decade. According to campaigners, the ten-year limit may have had a rationale when it was instituted, but advances in freezing technology have rendered the limit “arbitrary”. Appeals to arbitrariness often…
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In Praise Of Dementia
By Charles Foster Statistically there is a good chance that I will ultimately develop dementia. It is one of the most feared conditions, but bring it on, I say. It will strip me of some of my precious memories and some of my cognitive function, but it will also strip me of many of the…
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Press Release: In Defence of Intersex Athletes
Julian Savulescu The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has announced that multiple Olympic and World Champion runner Caster Semenya and other athletes with disorders of sex (DSD) conditions will have to take testosterone lowering agents in order to be able to compete in her events. Reducing the testosterone levels of existing intersex female athletes is…
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Neurointerventions, Disrespectful Messages, and the Right to be Listened to
Written by Gabriel De Marco Neurointerventions can be roughly described as treatments or procedures that act directly on the physical properties of the brain in order to affect the subject’s psychological characteristics. The ethics of using neurointerventions can be quite complicated, and much of the discussion has revolved around the use of neurointerventions to improve…
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Should Religious Homophobia be a Firing Offence?
By Doug McConnell It looks as if Isreal Folau will lose his job as a professional rugby player for expressing his apparently genuine religious belief that drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists, and idolators are all going to hell. Morgan Begg, a research fellow at the Australian conservative think-tank, the Institute of Public Affairs,…
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Should Meat Be Excluded From the UK’s Value Added Tax?
The idea of using a meat tax to improve human health and protect the environment has been getting a fair amount of attention from prominent scientists in the media. Professor Mike Rayner was quoted last year as saying, “I would like to see a tax on red meat and meat products. We need incentives to…