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.

Is ‘gender disappointment’ a unique mental illness?
Abstract‘Gender disappointment’ is the feeling of sadness when a parent’s strong desire for a child of a certain sex is not realised. It is frequently mentioned as a reason behind parents’ pursuit of sex selection for social reasons. It also tends to be framed as a mental disorder on a range of plat forms including the media, sex selection forums and among parents who have been interviewed about sex selection. Our aim in this paper is to investigate whether ‘gender disappointment’ represents a unique diagnosis. We argue that ‘gender disappointment’ does not account for a unique, distinc t category of mental...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - December 20, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Discourse on the idea of sustainability: with policy implications for health and welfare reform
AbstractSustainability has become a major goal of domestic and international development. This essay analyzes the transitions of normative ideas embedded in the notion of sustainability by reviewing the discourses in the representative reports and literature from different periods. Three sets of ideas are proposed: inter- and intra-generational equity, stability of public systems, and a sense of solidarity, which confirms the scope of community and functions as a precondition for the previous two ideas. This essay uses the case of a health system in a hypothetical country to illustrate that, besides securing financial sust...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - December 18, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Schr ödinger’s fetus examined
AbstractJoona R äsänen has proposed a concept he calls Schrödinger’s Fetus as a solution to reconciling what he believes are two widely held but contradictory intuitions. I show that Elizabeth Harman’s Actual Future Principle, upon which Schrödinger’s Fetus is based, uses a more convincing account of pers onhood. I also argue that both Räsänen and Harman, by embracing animalism, weaken their arguments by allowing Don Marquis’ ‘future like ours’ argument for the immorality of abortion into the frame. (Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy)
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - December 12, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Overcoming the limits of empathic concern: the case for availability and its application to the medical domain
AbstractEmpathic concern is essential to our social lives because it motivates helping behavior. It has, however, well-known shortcomings such as its limitation in scope. Here, we highlight a further shortcoming of empathic concern: it contributes little to understanding the relevant features of complex social situations (e.g. the causes of somebody ’s distress), and unaided by further cognitive inputs, likely fails to produce effective helping. We then elaborate on the conditions needed for an accurate assessment of others’ situations: the ability to pay attention and try to understand others for their own sake. We ex...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - December 11, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Remapping the organ donation ethical climate: a care ethics consideration
AbstractOrgan donation has gained much attention as the need for transplant exceeds the supply of organs. Various proposals have been put forward to address the organ shortage challenge, ranging from offering incentives to donors, addressing family refusals to donations and instituting presumed consent laws. Presumed consent as the favoured approach has not been universally effective in increasing actual transplants despite its appeal. Few considerations have been given to the broader ethical climate influencing the organ donation debate. This paper examines the ethical climate surrounding organ donation and identifies the...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - December 5, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Psychosis, vulnerability, and the moral significance of biomedical innovation in psychiatry. Why ethicists should join efforts
This article focuses on psychosis. I argue that the convergence of neuroscience and genomics in the context of psychosis is morally problematic, and that ethics scholarship should go beyond the identification of a number of ethical, legal, and social issues. My argument is composed of two strands. First, I argue that we should respond to technological convergence by developing an integrated, patient-centred approach focused on the assessment of individual vulnerabilities. Responding to technological convergence requires that we (i) integrate insights from several areas of ethics, (ii) translate bioethical principles into t...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - November 25, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

‘I am your son, mother’: severe dementia and duties to visit parents who can’t recognise you
This article challenges Mills ’ argument. Not only can children be duty-bound to visit parents who have lost the ability to recognise them, I argue that many children do in fact have such duties. As I show, these duties are grounded in any special interests that their parents have in their company; the fact that visiting their parents might allow them to comply with generic duties of sociability; and/or the fact that such visits allow them to express any gratitude that they owe their parents. (Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy)
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - November 13, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Humor and sympathy in medical practice
AbstractMedical professionals seem to interpret their uses of humor very differently from those outside the medical profession. Nurses and physicians argue that humor is necessary for them to do their jobs well. Many (potential) patients are horrified that they could one day be the butt of their physician ’s jokes. The purpose of this paper is to encourage the respectful use of humor in clinical prac-tice, so as to support its importance in medical practice, while simultaneously protecting against its potential abuse. I begin by examining two extremes of supporting or chastising the use of medical humor. I look at these ...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - October 20, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Wrongful genetic connection: neither blood of my blood, nor flesh of my flesh
AbstractThe use of reproductive techniques and the eventual reproductive negligence from the provider of reproductive services gave rise to situations in which the intended parents are deprived of raising a child genetically connected to them. Courts have been dealing with cases of those for years, but have systemically denied claimants (the prospective parents) compensation, failing to recognise as damage the loss of genetic connection. In 2017, for the first time, the Singapore High Court provided compensation for that damage, labelled “loss of genetic affinity” (ACB v Thomson Medical Pte Ltd and Others [2017] SGCA 2...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - October 3, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Disenchantment and clinical ethics
(Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy)
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - September 30, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Richard Dean: The Value of Humanity in Kant ’s Moral Theory
AbstractThis is critical review of Richard Dean ’ book, The Value of Humanity in Kant’s Moral Theory. Dean’s book was evaluated, and some of his interpretations of Kant were critiqued. However, it concludes that Dean’s book is illuminating especially, as regards the distinction he made between consent and informed consent and their roles in biomedical practice. (Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy)
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - September 29, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Is it ever morally permissible to select for deafness in one ’s child?
AbstractAs reproductive genetic technologies advance, families have more options to choose what sort of child they want to have. Using preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), for example, allows parents to evaluate several existing embryos before selecting which to implant via in vitro fertilization (IVF). One of the traits PGD can identify is genetic deafness, and hearing embryos are now preferentially selected around the globe using this method. Importantly, some Deaf families desire a deaf child, and PGD –IVF is also an option for them. Selection for genetic deafness, however, encounters widespread disapproval in the...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - September 20, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Consumed by prestige: the mouth, consumerism and the dental profession
AbstractCommercialisation and consumerism have had lasting and profound effects upon the nature of oral health and how dental services are provided. The stigma of a spoiled dental appearance, along with the attraction of the smile as a symbol of status and prestige, places the mouth and teeth as an object and product to be bought and sold. How the dental profession interacts with this acquired status of the mouth has direct implications for the professional status of dentistry and the relationship between the profession and society. This essay examines the mouth ’s developing position as a symbol of status and prestige a...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - September 18, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

The elephant in the room: a postphenomenological view on the electronic health record and its impact on the clinical encounter
AbstractUse of electronic health records (EHR) within clinical encounters is increasingly pervasive. The digital record allows for data storage and sharing to facilitate patient care, billing, research, patient communication and quality-of-care improvement —all at once. However, this multifunctionality is also one of the main reasons care providers struggle with the EHR. These problems have often been described but are rarely approached from a philosophical point of view. We argue that a postphenomenological case study of the EHR could lead to more in-depth insights. We will focus on two concepts—transparency and mult...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - September 16, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research

Death without distress? The taboo of suffering in palliative care
AbstractPalliative care (PC) names as one of its central aims to prevent and relieve suffering. Following the concept of “total pain”, which was first introduced by Cicely Saunders, PC not only focuses on the physical dimension of pain but also addresses the patient’s psychological, social, and spiritual suffering. However, the goal to relieve suffering can paradoxically lead to a taboo of suffering and imply ad verse consequences. Two scenarios are presented: First, PC providers sometimes might fail their own ambitions. If all other means prove ineffective terminal sedation can still be applied as a last resort, tho...
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - September 5, 2019 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research