Training Ethical Competence in a World Growing Old: A Multimethod Ethical Round in Hospital and Residential Care Settings
AbstractEthical challenges are traditionally described in a negative light, even though moral conflict can express the individual ability to perceive when something is not working and promote change. The true question, therefore, is not to how tosilence moral conflict but how toeducate it. Although the need for ethical support of health- and social-care professionals in elderly care is clearly perceived, there is no universal method for providing effective interventions. The authors hypothesize that adequate training sessions can help care professionals enhance this skill, once clear goals and specific educational techniqu...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 23, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Going the Distance
AbstractQualitative studies on assisted reproductive technology commonly focus on the perspectives of participants living in major metropolises. In doing so, the experiences of those living outside major cities, and the unique way conditions of spatiality shape access to treatment, are elided. In this paper, we examine how location and regionality in Australia impact upon access and experience of reproductive services. We conducted twelve qualitative interviews with participants residing in regional areas across Australia. We asked participants to discuss their experience with assisted reproduction services and the impacts...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 20, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
The Right to Protest During a Pandemic: Using Public Health Ethics to Bridge the Divide Between Public Health Goals and Human Rights
AbstractPublic protest continued to represent a prominent form of social activism in democratic societies during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Australia, a lack of specific legislation articulating protest rights has meant that, in the context of pandemic restrictions, such events have been treated as illegal mass gatherings. Numerous large protests in major cities have, indeed, stirred significant public debate regarding rights of assembly during COVID-19 outbreaks. The ethics of infringing on protest rights continues to be controversial, with opinion divided as to whether public health goals or human rights should take prece...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 16, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
The Vulnerability of Rural Migrants Under COVID-19 Quarantine in China and its Global Implications: A Socio-Ethical Analysis
AbstractDespite the role of public health interventions in controlling disease transmission and protecting the public during the COVID-19 emergency, the implementation of quarantine restrictions has raised serious ethical concerns, especially in relation to the well-being of vulnerable populations. Drawing on the lived experiences of rural Chinese migrants who are subject to pandemic control, the authors highlight their inadequate capacities to manage the risks associated with the pandemic and adjust to quarantine restrictions. Informed by an ethical discourse of vulnerability, we show that underpinning this group ’s def...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 6, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Responding to Health Outcomes and Access to Health and Hospital Services in Rural, Regional and Remote New South Wales
AbstractEthical perspectives on regional, rural, and remote healthcare often, understandably and importantly, focus on inequities in access to services. In this commentary, we take the opportunity to examine the implications of normalizing metrocentric views, values, knowledge, and orientations, evidenced by the recent (2022) New South Wales inquiry into health outcomes and access to hospital and health services in regional, rural and remote New South Wales, for contemporary rural governance and justice debates. To do this, we draw on the feminist inspired approach to rural health ethics involving analysis of power relatio...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 2, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
The Morality of Kidney Sales: When Caring for the Seller ’s Dignity Has Moral Costs
AbstractKidney markets are prohibited in principle because they are assumed to undermine the seller ’s dignity. Considering the trade-off between saving more lives by introducing regulated kidney markets and preserving the seller’s dignity, we argue that it is advisable to demand that citizens restrain their own moral judgements and not interfere with the judgements of those who are willing to sell a kidney. We also argue that it is advisable not only to limit thepolitical implications of themoral argument of dignity concerns toward a market-based solution but alsoto re-evaluate the dignity argument itself. First, if t...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - February 20, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Ethical Diversity and Practical Uncertainty: A Qualitative Interview Study of Clinicians ’ Experiences in the Implementation Period Prior to Voluntary Assisted Dying Becoming Available in their Hospital in Victoria, Australia
AbstractIn the Australian state of Victoria, legislation allowing voluntary assisted dying (VAD) passed through parliament in November 2017. There was then an eighteen-month period before the start date for patient access to VAD, referred to as the “implementation period.” The implementation period was intended to allow time for the relevant government department and affected organizations to develop processes before the Act came into effect in June 2019. This qualitative interview study investigates the perspectives of a multidisciplinary sample of twelve clinicians from a single metropolitan hospital during this impl...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - February 17, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
“Working on a Shoestring”: Critical Resource Challenges and Place-Based Considerations for Telehealth in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada
AbstractRural, remote, and northern Indigenous communities in Canada frequently face limited access to healthcare services with ongoing physician and staff shortages, inadequate infrastructure, and resource challenges. These healthcare gaps have produced significantly poorer health outcomes for people living in remote communities than those living in southern and urban regions who have timely access to care. Telehealth has played a critical role in bridging long-standing gaps in accessing healthcare services by connecting patients and providers across distance. While the adoption of telehealth in Northern Saskatchewan is g...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - February 16, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Donor Conception, Genetic Knowledge, and Bionormativity: A Book Review of Daniel Groll ’s Conceiving People
(Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - February 15, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Dogs, Epistemic Indefensibility and Ethical Denial: Don ’t Let Sleeping Dog Owners Lie
AbstractIn this paper I use normative analysis to explore the curious and seemingly singular phenomenon whereby some dog owners deny the physical and moral facts about a situation where it is claimed their dog harmed or irritated others. I define these as epistemic and ethical denial, respectively, and offer a tentative exploration of their implications in terms of relational autonomy and responsible behaviour in public spaces. (Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - February 7, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
One Last Unexpected Lesson From the Life and Death of Queen Elizabeth II?
(Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - February 2, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Overcoming Conflicting Definitions of “Euthanasia,” and of “Assisted Suicide,” Through a Value-Neutral Taxonomy of “End-Of-Life Practices”
AbstractThe term “euthanasia” is used in conflicting ways in the bioethical literature, as is the term “assisted suicide,” resulting in definitional confusion, ambiguities, and biases which are counterproductive to ethical and legal discourse. I aim to rectify this problem in two parts. Firstly, I explore a range of conflicting definitions and identify six disputed definitional factors, based on distinctions between (1) killing versus letting die, (2) fully intended versus partially intended versus merely foreseen deaths, (3) voluntary versus nonvoluntary versus involuntary decisions, (4) terminally il l versus non...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - February 2, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Voluntary Assisted Dying in Australia —Key Similarities and Points of Difference Concerning Eligibility Criteria in the Individual State Legislation
(Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - January 23, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
COVID-19 Health Passes: Practical and Ethical Issues
This article presents some practical and ethical problems to consider in the event of wishing to implement these passes. Among the former, it is questioned how accurate diagnostic tests are as a means of ensuring that a person is not contagious, whether vaccination guarantees immunity, the fact that health passes can be forged, whether they encourage vaccination, and the problem that there is no universally recognized health pass. Among the ethical issues, it is discussed whether health passes promote discrimination and inequality and whether they violate rights to privacy and freedom. It is concluded that health passes ha...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - January 11, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
A Millian Case for Censoring Vaccine Misinformation
This article examines John Stuart Mill ’s influential defence of free expression but finds that his arguments for freedom apply only to normal, reasonably favourable circumstances. In other cases, it may be permissible to restrict freedom, including freedom of speech. Thus, while Mill would ordinarily defend the right to express false views, such as that vaccines cause autism, he might have accepted restrictions on anti-vaccine misinformation during the present pandemic. This illustrates that even the staunchest defenders of free speech can permit temporary restrictions in exceptional circumstances. (Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - January 11, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
