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Sex and the minimally conscious state

Sex and the minimally conscious state

An interesting case is reported in the most recent issue of the Hastings Center Report.  Mrs Z, is a 29 year-old woman who was released into her husband’s carefollowing a traumatic brain injury. She is in a minimally conscious state (MCI), a state of severely impaired consciousness. MCI cases cover a range of cognitive deficits; Mrs Z seems to be at the lower end of cognitive functioning. She is unable to speak and requires 24 hour care, provided by her husband (who is also the guardian of their 4 year-old twins).

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Goodbye to Josè Saramago, genius, novelist and (sometimes) a bioethicist

 

The very sad news of the day is the death
of Portuguese writer José Saramago. Saramago was a true genius and one of my
favourite authors ever, so I thought it could be a good idea  to show how this great man was able not
only to write books where every single sentence is so beautiful to take the breathe away, but also to stimulate interesting  thoughts about moral 
issues.

Novels and bioethics don’t usually mingle
but when I first read “Death with interruptions”
(published in 2005) I couldn’t help but think about the debate about
euthanasia.

Read More »Goodbye to Josè Saramago, genius, novelist and (sometimes) a bioethicist

How wrong may we be?

By Nicholas Shackel

Consider these propositions:

  1. Mandatory licensing of professional services increases the prices of those services.
  2. Overall, the standard of living is higher today than it was 30 years ago
  3. Rent control leads to housing shortages.
  4. Third World workers working for American companies overseas are not exploited.
  5. Free trade does not lead to unemployment
  6.  Minimum wage laws raise unemployment

Do you think they are true or false?

Read More »How wrong may we be?

The Cost of Non-Cash Incentives for Organs

The Times newspaper featured an editorial proposing changes in the organ procurement system last week by Sally Satel, a scholar from the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. I thought the first few lines were especially revealing about Satel’s attitude to market transactions – she reports that she desperately needed a kidney herself, but dreaded “the constricting obligation that would surely come with accepting” an altruistic donation. She therefore “wished [she] could buy a kidney just to avert the emotional debt.”

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A costly separation between withdrawing and withholding treatment

by Dominic Wilkinson

Television child star Gary Coleman died recently following a severe brain haemorrhage. He was taken to an intensive care unit, but the next day was taken off life support because of the severity of his brain injury.

Decisions like the one made by Gary Coleman’s doctors are common in intensive care. Many deaths follow decisions to stop intensive treatment because it is believed to have no chance of succeeding or because of the burden of illness even if the treatment does work. One question raised about cases like these is about the importance (or risks) of living wills. A separate question (and one that was raised during the critical care grand round earlier today) is about the difference between stopping treatment and failing to start treatment.

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Against Equality

by Julian Savulescu

Equality is an ideal born of the vice of envy, one of the seven deadly sins. But equality has no intrinsic value and panders to our vicious nature to be envious of others. Levelling down is absurd. And why level up if we can raise everyone, improving all of their lives instead of just some? To reduce people’s envy of others, when their own lives are good and better? That is no reason.

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Critical Care ethics grand round

by Dominic Wilkinson

Today I gave a talk at the John Radcliffe Medical Grand Round on Advance Directives and treatment withdrawal decisions in intensive care – based on a case I was involved in last year.

A middle-aged patient presents with acute respiratory failure, and is intubated and transferred to the intensive care unit. After admission he improves, but it transpires that he has a progressive neurodegenerative disorder and has previously expressed a wish not to have intensive life support measures provided.

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Drugs in sport debate: Proposer’s update

by Julian Savulescu

So far, there has been no debate. I agree entirely with nearly all John William’s points.

The topic is “Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Be Allowed in Sport.” It is not “All Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Be Allowed in Sport.” I have argued that some should according to certain criteria, including being consistent with the spirit of that particular sport.

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Religion, Tolerance and Intolerance Conference resources available online

The AHRC-Funded 'Science and Religious Conflict' Project team here at Oxford (www.src.ox.ac.uk) is pleased to announce that resources from our recent conference on 'Religion, Tolerance and Intolerance', held at Oxford  17-19 May are now available online at http://www.bep.ox.ac.uk/archive_events_data/religion_and_tolerance_conference_may_2010 This includes audio files of all talks, and several PowerPoint presentations.The audio files are also available as podcasts from… Read More »Religion, Tolerance and Intolerance Conference resources available online