The importance of “follow up” in research ethics
Over on the Ethox blog, Ignacio Mastroleo writes about the Nuremberg code and post-trial obligations of researchers My intention in this post is to highlight that relevance of the term “follow up” in research ethics, in particular, what has…
Read MoreHowick on What Counts as a Placebo
The use of placebos in medicine raises a large number of serious ethical issues. Do they involve deceiving patients, or violating their autonomy in some way? Are they harmful to certain patients, in research trials where the actual treatmen…
Read MoreTelling porkies
by Dominic Wilkinson (@Neonatalethics) One of my registrars asked an interesting question this morning. A commonly used life-saving medicine in newborn intensive care is derived from animal products; should parents be told?
Read MoreTwo Tales of Marshmallows and their Implications for Free Will
Patricia Churchland, a prominent Neurophilosopher, just published a book on neuroscience and its ethical implications which led to a rather nasty exchange in the New York Review of Books with fellow philosopher Colin McGinn. His pointed, t…
Read MoreReading in a connected age
There is no doubt that the internet has transformed our lives in multiple ways. Here I will focus on the ways in which it has transformed our cognitive environment. I’m writing these words in Australia; as soon as I press “publish” they wil…
Read MoreNot cricket? Law, convention, ethics, and that run-out
Sporting contests are philosophically interesting, as well as enjoyable, because sports and games are full of rules and conventions, which inevitably raise issues of interpretation and give rise to passion about ethics and the spirit of the…
Read MoreShould the NHS fund Weight Watchers schemes?
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recently recommended that the NHS should learn from commercial weight loss programmes such as Weight Watchers, Rosemary Conley and Slimming World. The NICE guidelines suggested th…
Read MoreEssendon, Doping and Bad Arguments
By Julian Savulescu. @juliansavulescu The Australian newspaper ‘The Sunday Age’ reports today that “The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority has built a ”non-presence” drug case against 34 Essendon footballers, adopting…
Read MoreMorality, science, and Belgium’s child euthanasia law
Originally posted on the OUP blog. Reposted with the permission of the author Tony Hope is a Uehiro fellow, Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics at the University of Oxford and the author of Medical Ethics: A Very Short Introduction. Scienc…
Read More“Puppy Farm” or “Commercial Breeder”?
As the diverse range of topics on this blog testifies, philosophical questions concerning practical ethics crop up every day, in a variety of circumstances. Today, I had my own ethical dilemma – this time regarding puppies. Having just move…
Read More