Guest Post: Vampire Judges and Blood Money: Blood Donation as Criminal Sanction?
Written by Christopher Chew Monash University Early one September morning, plaintiffs at a rural Alabama County court in the US, were greeted with an unexpected and highly unusual offer. To quote presiding Judge Marvin Wiggins: “There’s a b…
Read MoreFrom Self-Interest to Morality: How Moral Progress Might Be Possible
One of the most stunning successes I have personally seen in my life is the emergence of the Effective Altruism movement. I remember when Will Crouch (now MacAskill) first presented 80 000 hours to our Graduate Discussion Group and Toby Ord…
Read MoreTreatment and Understanding in Psychiatry
Understanding is a fundamental concept in medical ethics. I want to discuss two contrasting senses in which medical treatments require understanding on behalf of the patient. The first of these is very familiar, and much discussed. The seco…
Read MoreGene-free: Can parents refuse genetic testing for their child?
by Dominic Wilkinson @Neonatalethics A critically ill infant in intensive care (let us call him Jonas) has serious congenital abnormalities affecting his liver and brain.1 Doctors looking after Jonas suspect that he may have a major genetic…
Read MoreEvent announcement: European Neonatal Ethics Conference
by Dominic Wilkinson @Neonatalethics The second European Neonatal Ethics Conference is taking place next June (1-2nd) here in Oxford. I’m very pleased to have been asked to chair the conference, and there is a great line-up of …
Read MoreLiving With Other Hominids
Written by Professor Neil Levy The recent discovery of what is claimed to be a distinct species of the genus Homo, our genus, raises to three the number of species that may have co-existed with Homo Sapiens. Homo naledi is yet to be dated, …
Read MoreGuest Post: The moral lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Written by William Isdale University of Queensland This year is the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Are there any moral lessons we can learn from that historical episode? I think so. Recently I delivered a …
Read MoreGuest Post: VW cheating like Obama
Written by Dr Nicholas Shackel Cardiff University Nothing annoys the plunderers more than when the producers try to get away with the tricks that they have reserved to themselves.
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Liberalism and inequality
by Joao Fabiano Why inequality matters Philosophers who argue that we should care about inequality often have some variation of a prioritarian view. For them, well-being matters more for those who are worse off, and we should prioritise imp…
Read MoreWhy It’s OK to Block Ads
Over the past couple of months, the practice of ad blocking has received heightened ethical scrutiny. (1,2,3,4) If you’re unfamiliar with the term, “ad blocking” refers to software—usually web browser plug-ins, but increasingly mobile apps—…
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