Expertise and Knowledge Required to Support Health Staff to Manage Stressful Events
(Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - September 22, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Digital Covid Certificates as Immunity Passports: An Analysis of Their Main Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues
AbstractDigital COVID certificates are a novel public health policy to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. These immunity certificates aim to incentivize vaccination and to deny international travel or access to essential spaces to those who are unable to prove that they are not infectious. In this article, we start by describing immunity certificates and highlighting their differences from vaccination certificates. Then, we focus on the ethical, legal, and social issues involved in their use, namely autonomy and consent, data protection, equity, and international mobility from a global fairness perspective. The main conclusion ...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - September 19, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Blanket Consent and Trust in the Biobanking Context
AbstractObtaining human genetic samples is vital for many biobank research purposes, yet, the ethics of obtainment seems to many fraught with difficulties. One key issue is consent: it is by many considered ethically vital that consent must be fully informed (at least ideally speaking) in order to be legitimate. In this paper, we argue for a more liberal approach to consent: a donor need not know all the specifics of future uses of the sample. We argue that blanket consent is ethically defensible, and that this is buttressed by considerations of (justified) trust-relations. Given robust institutional oversight, blanket con...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - September 6, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
The Use of Porcine-Derived Materials for Medical Purposes: What do Muslim and Jewish Individuals Know and Opine About It?
AbstractPorcine-derived medical products represent an effective solution for a wide range of human suffering, yet this may contradict Muslim and Jewish religious prohibitions against consuming pig. The present study evaluated the level to which Muslim and Jewish participants are knowledgeable about the conditions permitting porcine-based treatments and explored their attitudes toward the permissibility of these treatments. A questionnaire that presented fifteen medical uses of porcine-derived products was completed by 809 Muslims and 714 Jews. Neither Muslim nor Jewish participants are knowledgeable about the religious rul...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - September 5, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
The Directiveness that Dare Not Speak Its Name. Views and Attitudes of Polish Clinical Geneticists toward the Nondirectiveness Principle
In this study, we offer hypotheses about the sources of these attitudes by analyzing the current cultural and legal context of Poland. (Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - September 1, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Critical Incident Stress Debriefing
(Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - September 1, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Despair of the Intellect, but Hope of the Heart?
(Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - August 31, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
A public health framework for reducing stigma: the example of weight stigma
AbstractWe examine stigma and how it operates, then develop a novel framework to classify the range of positions that are conceptually possible regarding how stigma ought to be handled from a public health perspective. In the case of weight stigma, the possible positions range from encouraging the intentional use of weight stigma as an obesity prevention and reduction strategy to arguing not only that this is harmful but that weight stigma, independent of obesity, needs to be actively challenged and reduced. Using weight stigma as an illustrative example, we draw on prior theoretical work on stigma mechanisms and intervent...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - July 20, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Bias in algorithms of AI systems developed for COVID-19: A scoping review
AbstractTo analyze which ethically relevant biases have been identified by academic literature in artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms developed either for patient risk prediction and triage, or for contact tracing to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, to specifically investigate whether the role of social determinants of health (SDOH) have been considered in these AI developments or not. We conducted a scoping review of the literature, which covered publications from March 2020 to April 2021. Studies mentioning biases on AI algorithms developed for contact tracing and medical triage or risk prediction re...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - July 20, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Ethics of Buying DNA
AbstractDNA databases have significant commercial value. Direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies have built databanks using samples and information voluntarily provided by customers. As the price of genetic analysis falls, there is growing interest in building such databases by paying individuals for their DNA and personal data. This paper maps the ethical issues associated with private companies paying for DNA. We outline the benefits of building better genomic databases and describe possible concerns about crowding out, undue inducement, exploitation, and commodification. While certain objections deserve more empiri...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - July 19, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
A Close Shave: Balancing Religious Tolerance and Patient Care in the Age of COVID-19
AbstractIn this essay we discuss an ethical dilemma that recently arose in our institution, involving healthcare workers who lamented the requirement to shave their facial hair as a condition to care for COVID-19 patients. The essay represents a genuine attempt to grapple with the dilemma sensibly and vigorously. We first provide a brief introduction, focusing on the tension between religious tolerance and the institutional obligation to optimize patient care and public health in the age of COVID-19. We then discuss the complex relationship between facial hair and cultural as well as religious factors throughout history. N...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - July 19, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Philosophy of Science Can Prevent Manslaughter
AbstractIn September 2020, the surgeon Paulo Macchiarini, who used stem cell technology to enable the transplants of artificial and donor trachea, was charged with aggravated assault in Sweden. In this comment, we argue that the Ethics Council of the Karolinska Institute should have considered issues from philosophy of science when they were brought to their attention, rather than dismiss them as irrelevant to research ethics. We demonstrate how conceptual issues of a philosophy-of-science-kind about clinical research and medical practice should be integral to research ethics. (Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - June 24, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Respect for Autonomy and Dementia Care in Nursing Homes: Revising Beauchamp and Childress ’s Account of Autonomous Decision-Making
AbstractSpecifying the moral demands of respect for the autonomy of people with dementia (PWD) in nursing homes (NHs) remains a challenging conceptual task. These challenges arise primarily because received notions of autonomous decision-making and informed consent do not straightforwardly apply to PWD in NHs. In this paper, I investigate whether, and to what extent, the influential account of autonomous decision-making and informed consent proposed by Beauchamp and Childress has applicability and relevance to PWD in NHs. Despite its otherwise practical orientation and suitability for acute care settings, I identify three ...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - June 24, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of Emerging Technology (ELSIET) Symposium
(Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - June 24, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust v WV [2022] EWCOP 9
At first glance, this case might give the impression that a resolution would have been straightforward. A 17-year-old young man with moderate to severe learning disabilities and other conditions discussed below required a kidney transplant–the Court of Protection was tasked with determining whether this was in his best interests. However, the case of WV was in fact far more technical and required nuanced discussion and expert medical evidence from a range of specialists to objectively balance the needs of WV and the risks to WV, and to ultimately determine his fate of life or death based on receiving a kidney transpla...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - June 24, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
