Video Series: Why Parental Status Matters When Allocating Scarce Medical Resources
Which patients should we treat, if we can’t treat them all? The Covid-19 pandemic has brought questions about how to allocate scarce medical resources to the forefront. In this Thinking Out Loud interview with Katrien Devolder, Philos…
Read MorePandemic Ethics: Moral Reasoning in a Pandemic [Guest Post]
Cross-Posted with The Boston Review By Professor Frances Kamm, Harvard University Policy discussions during the pandemic have raised concerns for me, as a moral philosopher, about how policy analysts and policy makers are thinking about dea…
Read MoreThe Urge to Destroy is Also a Creative Urge
Written by Neil Levy Statues are the latest front in our ongoing culture wars. Symbolism (as all sides agree) is not the be all and end all of politics, but it does matter. Those who want the statues to fall argue that they are harmful, be…
Read MoreRhodes Must Fall: Oxford’s Institutional Response
Written by Ben Davies I recently watched an excellent panel discussion, ‘Statues, Slavery and the Struggle for Equality’ with Labour MP Dawn Butler, historian David Olusoga, philosopher Susan Neiman, chaired by writer Yassmin Abdel-Magied. …
Read MoreThe Utilitarian Truth-Seeker
Written by Stefan Schubert Utilitarianism is often associated with two psychological features. First, acceptance of instrumental harm for the greater good. The utilitarian is famously willing to kill one to save five in the trolley problem.…
Read MoreVideo Series: (Un)fair Access to Covid-19 Treatment in Mexico?
Widespread corruption and racism in Mexico created extra hurdles for the development of Mexico’s recently published federal guidelines for deciding who gets to access scarce medical resources (e.g. ventilators in the case of Covid-19)…
Read MorePodcast and Event Summary: New St Cross Special Ethics Seminar: Medically Assisted Dying in Canada: from where we’ve come; to where we’re heading, presented by Professor Arthur Schafer (Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics, University of Manitoba)
Written by: Dr Amna Whiston In this seminar (available on podcast), Professor Arthur Schafer discussed the ethical challenges involved in the Canadian euthanasia debate at the New St Cross Special Ethics Seminar (online). Professor Schafer,…
Read MoreVideo Series: Which Non-Covid-19 Patients Should Get Treatment First?
In the UK we’re past the peak of the coronavirus pandemic but new ethical issues are arising: the healthcare system is now under enormous pressure – it’s working less efficiently than before (because of precautions to prot…
Read MorePandemic Ethics: Utilitarianism and the Lockdown
by Roger Crisp Utilitarianism is in the news. It was widely believed that the UK government’s so-called ‘herd immunity’ strategy, which involved sacrificing the important interests of a relative few for the sake of benefits for the many, wa…
Read MoreWe’re All Vitalists Now
By Charles Foster It has been a terrible few months for moral philosophers – and for utilitarians in particular. Their relevance to public discourse has never been greater, but never have their analyses been so humiliatingly sidelined by po…
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