Is the NHS surcharge just?
Not long ago the UK implemented an NHS surcharge – an extra fee that non-EEA nationals (Australia and New Zealand are also exempt) applying for leave to remain in the UK must pay. It costs £200 per year, and must be paid up front. So, for e…
Read MoreGuest Post: Agree to disagree? Let’s not.
Written by David Aldridge Oxford Brookes University Recently a colleague offered in conversation that we should agree to disagree. This led me to some observations about the role of agreement and disagreement in dialogue. Some conversati…
Read MoreIf you want to do the most good, maybe you shouldn’t work for Wall Street
Suppose you are an altruistically minded person who is adamant about doing the most good you possibly can. If you are lucky enough to have a wide range of options, what career should you choose? Two years ago, William MacAskill, President o…
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Effort, psychological continuity, human enhancement and superintelligence
One argument against human enhancement is that it is cheating. Cheating others and oneself. One may be cheating oneself for various reasons; because one took the easy path instead of actually acquiring a certain capacity, because once one e…
Read MoreGuest Post: A feminist defence of the nanny state
Written by Anke Snoek Macquarie University In Australia Senator David Leyonhjelm http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/david-leyonhjelm-declares-war-on-nanny-state/story-fn59niix-1227415288323 has won support for a broad-ranging …
Read MoreDoping: Alive and Well in the Tour But You Won’t Hear About It
Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with my argument for legalising doping in sport, aiming to focus resources on harm reduction rather than zero tolerance. Key safeguards in this approach are (1) doping carried out under the supe…
Read MoreReincarnation and discrimination
by Dominic Wilkinson @Neonatalethics In California, in the last week, there have been further motions in a long running lawsuit relating to a brain-dead child. Oakland teenager Jahi McMath died after a tonsillectomy in December 2013. Howeve…
Read MoreGuest Post: Housing in Australia– Investment Vehicle or Social Institution?
Written by Christopher Chew Monash University JOURNALIST: Treasurer, do you accept that housing in Sydney is unaffordable and the only way we’re going to make it affordable is if real house prices in real terms actually fall over the near …
Read MoreGuest Post: Genetics education, genetic determinism, and the trickle-down effect
Written By Johanna Ahola-Launonen University of Helsinki In bioethical discussion, it is often debated whether or not some studies espouse genetic determinism. A recent study by Tuomas Aivelo and Anna Uitto[1] give important insight to the …
Read MoreGuest Post: Impractical ethics
Written by Constantin Vica Postdoctoral Fellow, Romanian Academy Iasi Branch Research Center in Applied Ethics, University of Bucharest This post is not, as one might expect, about that part of ethics which is not concerned about practical …
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