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Guest Post: What Is The Case For Virtual Schooling?
Written by Thomas Moller-Nielsen News that children in England were to switch to online schooling as part of the country’s third national lockdown in response to the Covid-19 global pandemic was met with widespread support in the British press. Doctors, public health specialists, and even teaching unions similarly applauded the decision. (Nurseries, which have remained open…
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The UK Should Share The Vaccine With The Other Countries – But Only After All The Vulnerable Have Been Vaccinated
Written by Alberto Giubilini, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford Cross posted with The Conversation “We are all in this together”, except that we are not. One of the most widely used slogans of the pandemic might need to be adjusted. Maybe: “We are all in this together, until there is a way…
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Reminder: 7th Annual Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics – Entries Due By Tuesday 9th February
A reminder that the closing date for entries to the 7th Annual Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics is fast approaching. Graduate and undergraduate students currently enrolled at the University of Oxford in any subject are invited to enter the Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics by submitting an essay of up to 2000 words…
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The Ethics of Age-Selective Restrictions for COVID-19 Control
Written by: Bridget Williams1,2, James Cameron3, James Trauer2, Ben Marais4, Romain Ragonnet2, Julian Savulescu1,3 Cross-posted with the Journal of Medical Ethics blog One of the major controversies of the COVID-19 pandemic has been disagreement about whether age-selective measures should be introduced, with greater focus on preventing infection in older people but tolerance of some transmission…
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Who You Really Are And Why It Matters
By Charles Foster [This is a review of The Flip: Who you really are, and why it matters, by Jeffrey J. Kripal. Penguin, 2020] A few years ago I dislocated my shoulder. I went off to hospital, and breathed nitrous oxide while they tried to put it back. Something very strange yet very common happened.…
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Current Lockdown Is Ageist (Against The Young)
Written by Alberto Giubilini Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities University of Oxford Former UK supreme court justice and historian Lord Jonathan Sumption recently made the following claim: “I don’t accept that all lives are of equal value. My children’s and my grandchildren’s life is worth much…
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Are Immunity Passports a Human Rights Issue?
Written by Julian Savulescu A shorter version of this post appears in The Telegraph Imagine you are about to board a plane (remember that…) Authorities have reason to believe you are carrying a loaded gun. They are entitled to detain you. But they are obliged to investigate whether you have a gun. And if you…
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Ethical Considerations For The Second Phase Of Vaccine Prioritisation
By Jonathan Pugh and Julian Savulescu As the first phase of vaccine distribution continues to proceed, a heated debate has begun about the second phase of vaccine prioritisation, particularly with respect to the question of whether certain occupations, such as teachers and police officers amongst others, should be prioritised in the second phase. Indeed,…
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Vaccines and Ventilators: Need, Outcome or a Right to a Fair Go?
Written by Julian Savulescu and Jonathan Pugh The current UK approach to allocating limited life-saving resources is on the basis of need. Guidance issued by The General Medical Council states that all doctors must “Make sure that decisions about setting priorities that affect patients are fair and based on clinical need and the likely effectiveness…
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Pandemic Ethics: Saving Lives and Replaceability
Written by Roger Crisp Imagine two worlds quite different from our own. In Non-intervention, if a person becomes ill with some life-threatening condition, though their pain may be alleviated, no attempt is made to save their lives. In Maximal-intervention, everything possible is done to save the lives of those with life-threatening conditions.