Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

What is suicide? Classifying self-killings
AbstractAlthough the most common understanding of suicide is intentional self-killing, this conception either rules out someone who lacks mental capacity being classed as a suicide or, if acting intentionally is meant to include this sort of case, then what it means to act intentionally is so weak that intention is not a necessary condition of suicide. This has implications in health care, and has a further bearing on issues such as assisted suicide and health insurance. In this paper, I argue that intention is not a necessary condition of suicide at all. Rather, I develop a novel approach that deploys the structure of a h...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - July 23, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

The value of doing philosophy in mental health contexts
AbstractPeople experiencing mental distress and illness are frequently on the receiving end of stigma, epistemic injustice, and social isolation. A range of strategies are required to alleviate the subsequent marginalisation. We ran a series ‘philosophy of mind’ workshops, in partnership with a third-sector mental health organisation with the aim of using philosophical techniques to challenge mental health stigma and build resources for self-understanding and advocacy. Participants were those with lived experience of mental distress , or unusual beliefs and experiences; mental health advocates; and mental health servic...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - July 22, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Fair trade in building digital knowledge repositories: the knowledge economy as if researchers mattered
AbstractBoth a significant body of literature and the case study presented here show that digital knowledge repositories struggle to attract the needed level of data and knowledge contribution that they need to be successful. This happens also to high profile and prestigious initiatives. The paper argues that the reluctance of researchers to contribute can only be understood in light of the highly competitive context in which research careers need to be built nowadays and how this affects researchers ’ quality of life. Competition and managerialism limit the discretion of researchers in sharing their results and in donat...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - July 17, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Against Ulysses contracts for patients with borderline personality disorder
AbstractPatients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) sometimes request to be admitted to hospital under compulsory care, often under the argument that they cannot trust their suicidal impulses if treated voluntarily. Thus, compulsory care is practised as a form of Ulysses contract in such situations. In this normative study we scrutinize the arguments commonly used in favour of such Ulysses contracts: (1) the patient lacking free will, (2) Ulysses contracts as self-paternalism, (3) the patient lacking decision competence, (4) Ulysses contracts as a defence of the authentic self, and (5) Ulysses contracts as a practi...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - July 15, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Indeterminacy of identity and advance directives for death after dementia
AbstractA persistent question in discussions of the ethics of advance directives for euthanasia is whether patients who go through deep psychological changes retain their identity. Rather than seek an account of identity that answers this question, I argue that responsible policy should directly address indeterminacy about identity directly. Three sorts of indeterminacy are distinguished. Two of these —epistemic indeterminacy and metaphysical indeterminacy—should be addressed in laws/policies regarding advance directives for euthanasia. (Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy)
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - July 13, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Suffering, authenticity, and physician assisted suicide
(Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy)
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - July 12, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Better in theory than in practise? Challenges when applying the luck egalitarian ethos in health care policy
This article deals with the possible application of luck egalitarianism to the area of health care. It seeks to investigate whether the ethos of luck egalitarianism can be operationalized to the point of informing health care po licy without straying from its own ideals. In the transition from theory to practise, luck egalitarianism encounters several difficulties. We argue that the charge of moral arbitrariness can, at least in part, be countered by our provided definition of “imprudent actions” in the health area. We discuss the choice for luck egalitarianism in health care betweenex ante andex post policy approaches...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - June 20, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Autonomy in HIV testing: a call for a rethink of personal autonomy in the HIV response in sub-Saharan Africa
AbstractThe author reviews various conceptions of autonomy to show that humans are actually not autonomous, strictly speaking. He argues for a need to rethink the personal autonomy approaches to HIV testing in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries. HIV/AIDS has remained a leading cause of disease burden in SSA. It is important to bring this disease burden under control, especially given the availability of current effective antiretroviral regimens in low- and middle-income countries. In most SSA countries the ethic or value of personal autonomy or self-determination is promoted as primary in HIV testing decision-making. SSA p...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - June 12, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Openness and trust in data-intensive science: the case of biocuration
AbstractData-intensive science comes with increased risks concerning quality and reliability of data, and while trust in science has traditionally been framed as a matter of scientists being expected to adhere to certain technical and moral norms for behaviour, emerging discourses of open science present openness and transparency as substitutes for established trust mechanisms. By ensuring access to all available information, quality becomes a matter of informed judgement by the users, and trust no longer seems necessary. This strategy does not, however, take into consideration the networks of professionals already enablin...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - June 9, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Compassionate use of psychedelics
AbstractIn the present paper, we discuss the ethics of compassionate psychedelic psychotherapy and argue that it can be morally permissible. When talking about psychedelics, we mean specifically two substances: psilocybin and MDMA. When administered under supportive conditions and in conjunction with psychotherapy, therapies assisted by these substances show promising results. However, given the publicly controversial nature of psychedelics, compassionate psychedelic psychotherapy calls for ethical justification. We thus review the safety and efficacy of psilocybin- and MDMA-assisted therapies and claim that it can be rati...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - May 27, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Silencing trust: confidence and familiarity in re-engineering knowledge infrastructures
AbstractIn this paper, we tell the story of efforts currently underway, on diverse fronts, to build digital knowledge repositories ( ‘knowledge-bases’) to support research in the life sciences. If successful, knowledge bases will be part of a new knowledge infrastructure—capable of facilitating ever-more comprehensive, computational models of biological systems. Such an infrastructure would, however, represent a sea-change in the technological management and manipulation of complex data, inducing a generational shift in how questions are asked and answered and results published and circulated. Integrating such knowle...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - May 27, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Vampires 2.0? The ethical quandaries of young blood infusion in the quest for eternal life
AbstractCan transfusions of blood plasma slow down ageing or even rejuvenate people? Recent preclinical studies and experimental tests inspired by the technique known as parabiosis have aroused great media attention, although for now there is no clear evidence of their effectiveness. This line of research and the interest it is triggering testify to the prominent role played by the idea of combating the “natural” ageing process in the scientific and social agenda. While seeking to increase the duration of healthy living time may be considered a duty, it also raises ethical questions about how to pursue this goal. Speci...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - May 22, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Untangling fear and eudaimonia in the healthcare provider-patient relationship
AbstractEnsuring patient participation in healthcare decision making remains a difficult task. Factors such as a lack of time in the consultation, medical objectivation, or the difficulties of translating individual patient experience into the treatment plan have been shown to limit patient contributions. Little research attention has focused however on how emotions experienced by both the patient and the healthcare provider may affect the ability of the patient to participate. In this research, patient ’s and healthcare provider’s emotions were identified and analysed. The research method showedfear as a prominent emo...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - May 19, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Letter to the editor
(Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy)
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - May 17, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Doctors that “doctor” sickness certificates: cunning intelligence as an ability and possibly a virtue among Swedish GPs
This article attempts to demonstrate that cunning intelligence—the ability of the weak to “outsmart” a stronger adversary—plays an important role in the practice of medicine. Cunning intelligenc e is not merely a defective form of prudence (phronesis), nor is it simply an instance of instrumental reason (techne), but rather an ability that occupies a distinct place among the intellectual abilities generally ascribed to professionals. (Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy)
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - May 8, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research