Ethical AI Kills Too: An Assement of the Lords Report on AI in the UK
Hazem Zohny and Julian Savulescu Cross-posted with the Oxford Martin School Developing AI that does not eventually take over humanity or turn the world into a dystopian nightmare is a challenge. It also has an interesting effect on philosop…
Read MoreShould PREDICTED Smokers Get Transplants?
By Tom Douglas Jack has smoked a packet a day since he was 22. Now, at 52, he needs a heart and lung transplant. Should he be refused a transplant to allow a non-smoker with a similar medical need to receive one? More generally: does his hi…
Read MoreGroundhog Day and Legal Appeals. (What if Alfie Were a Texan?)
By Dominic Wilkinson @Neonatalethics According to media reports, the family of seriously ill infant Alfie Evans have decided to lodge a second appeal to the Supreme Court today. This is the 6th legal appeal mounted since the High Cou…
Read MoreMind Control, Free Will, and Jessica Jones
By Hazem Zohny In the first season of the Netflix show Jessica Jones, our traumatized, alcoholic protagonist is up against a particularly nasty villain: Kilgrave. He is a mind-controller and complete psychopath. A virus he emits compels peo…
Read MoreWhat is ‘Practical’ Ethics?
By Roger Crisp This is an exciting time for practical ethics in Oxford. The University has recently launched a new Masters in Practical Ethics, organized by the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and the Department for Continuing Edu…
Read MoreFacebook, Big Data, and the Trust of the Public
By Mackenzie Graham Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg recently appeared before members of the United States Congress to address his company’s involvement in the harvesting and improper distribution of approximately 87 million Facebook profiles —…
Read MoreScrabbling for Augmentation
By Stephen Rainey Around a decade ago, Facebook users were widely playing a game called ‘Scrabulous’ with one another. It was pretty close to Scrabble, effectively, leading to a few legal issues. Alongside Scrabulous, the popularity …
Read MoreTongue Splitting, Nipple Excision, And Ear Removal: Why Prosecute The Operator But Not The Customer?
By Charles Foster Image: ‘Split tongue: procedure, safety, result’: Tattoo World: Standard YouTube licence. The appellant in R v BM was a tattooist and body piercer who also engaged in ‘body modification’. He was charged with th…
Read MoreGuest Post: Cambridge Analytica: You Can Have My Money but Not My Vote
Emily Feng-Gu, Medical Student, Monash University When news broke that Facebook data from 50 million American users had been harvested and misused, and that Facebook had kept silent about it for two years, the 17th of March 2018 became a ba…
Read MoreHarm, Interests and Medical Treatment. Where the Supreme Court Got it Wrong…
By Dominic Wilkinson @Neonatalethics In the latest case of disputed medical treatment for a child, the family of Liverpool toddler Alfie Evans yesterday lost their last legal appeal. The family had appealed to the European Court of H…
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