The virtues and the vices of the outrageous
(Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics)
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - March 10, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Subjectivity of pre-test probability value: controversies over the use of Bayes ’ Theorem in medical diagnosis
This study argues that using Bayes’ Theorem in medical diagnosis does not require accepting the radical personalistic interpretation. It will be sho wn that what distinguishes radical and moderate personalist interpretations is the criterion of conditional inter-subjectivity which applies only to the moderate account of personalist interpretation. (Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics)
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - March 7, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Controversial views and moral realism
AbstractIt is argued that the emergence of controversial views in discussions of theoretical medicine and bioethics is best explained by the assumption of moral realism within those discursive practices. Neither of the main alternatives of realism in contemporary meta-ethics — moral expressivism and anti-realism — can account for the rise of controversies in the bioethical debate. This argument draws from the contemporary expressivist or anti-representationalist pragmatism as advanced by Richard Rorty and Huw Price, as well as the pragmatist scientific realism and fallibilism of the founder of pragmatism, Charles ...
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - March 3, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Suffering and the dilemmas of pediatric care: a response to Tyler Tate
AbstractIn a recent article, Tyler Tate argues that the suffering of children — especially children with severe cognitive impairments — should be regarded as the antithesis of flourishing, where flourishing is relative to one’s individual characteristics and essentially involves receiving care from others. Although initially persuasive, Tate’s theory is ambiguous in several ways, leading to significant conceptual problems. By identifying flourishing with receiving care, Tate raises questions about the importance of care that he does not address, giving rise to a bootstrapping problem. By making flourishing rel...
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - February 26, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Childbearing, abortion and regret: a response to Kate Greasley
AbstractIs moral or other regret for abortion an indicator that abortion may not be morally or prudentially choice worthy? This paper examines the work of Kate Greasley in this area, who offers an explanation of any asymmetry in openness to regret between women who have abortions and women who give birth. The latter, not unlike Derek Parfit ’s 14-year-old who conceives deliberately, may feel duty-bound not to regret their decision (in their case, to continue their pregnancy) and to affirm the life of their child. In response to Greasley, testimonial evidence of one group cannot be dismissed simply because regret may be l...
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - February 24, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Anent the theoretical justification of a sex doula program
AbstractThe Human Condition is neither a well-defined nor well-described concept —nevertheless, it is generally agreed that human sexuality is a fundamental and constituent part of it. For most able-bodied persons, accessing and expressing one's sexuality is a (relatively) trouble-free process. However, many disabled persons experience difficulty in accessing their sexuality, while others experience such significant barriers that they are often precluded from sexual citizenship altogether. Recognising the barriers to the sexual citizenship of disabled persons, the concept of a Welfare-Funded Sex Doula Program has been a...
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - February 24, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Reviewers, 2022
(Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics)
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - February 16, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Implicit understandings and trust in the doctor-patient relationship: a philosophy of language analysis of pre-operative evaluations
In conclusion, I re-emphasize the importance of implicit meanings during risk communication. (Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics)
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - February 13, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Weak transhumanism: moderate enhancement as a non-radical path to radical enhancement
AbstractTranshumanism aims to bring about radical human enhancement. In ‘Truly Human Enhancement’ Agar (2014) provides a strong argument against producing radically enhancing effects in agents. This leaves the transhumanist in a quandary—how to achieve radical enhancement whilst avoiding the problem of radically enhancing effects? This paper aims to show that tran shumanism can overcome the worries of radically enhancing effects by instead pursuing radical human enhancement via incremental moderate human enhancements (Weak Transhumanism). In this sense, weak transhumanism is much like traditional transhumanism in its...
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - February 13, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Should vegans have children? Examining the links between animal ethics and antinatalism
AbstractEthical vegans and vegetarians believe that it is seriously immoral to bring into existence animals whose lives would be miserable. In this paper, I will discuss whether such a belief also leads to the conclusion that it is seriously immoral to bring human beings into existence. I will argue that vegans should abstain from having children since they believe that unnecessary suffering should be avoided. After all, humans will suffer in life, and having children is not necessary for a good life. Thus vegans, and probably vegetarians as well, should not have children. I will consider several objections against this co...
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - February 11, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Introduction: controversial arguments in bioethics
(Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics)
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - February 11, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Correction to: Biographical lives and organ conscription
(Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics)
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - January 5, 2023 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Are some controversial views in bioethics Juvenalian satire without irony?
AbstractThe article examines five controversial views, expressed in Jonathan Swift ’sA Modest Proposal, Helga Kuhse and Peter Singer ’sShould the Baby Live? The Problem of Handicapped Infants, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva ’s “After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?”, Julian Savulescu’s “Procreative beneficence: why we should select the best children”, and the author’s “A rational cure for prereproductive stress syndrome”. These views have similarities and differences on five levels: the grie vances they raise, the proposals they make, the justifications they explicitly use, the just...
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - December 24, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Biographical lives and organ conscription
AbstractAccording to 2021 data, the United States ’ opt-in system of posthumous organ donation results in seventeen Americans dying each day waiting for vital organs, while many good undonated organs go to the grave with the corpse. One of the most aggressive, and compelling, proposals to resolve this tragedy is postmortem organ conscription, als o called routine salvaging or organ draft. This proposal entails postmortem retrieval of needed organs, regardless of the prior authorization or refusal of the deceased or his family. The argument of most proponents of conscription relies heavily upon a denial of the possibility...
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - December 15, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Biological lives and organ conscription
AbstractAccording to 2021 data, the United States ’ opt-in system of posthumous organ donation results in seventeen Americans dying each day waiting for vital organs, while many good undonated organs go to the grave with the corpse. One of the most aggressive, and compelling, proposals to resolve this tragedy is postmortem organ conscription, als o called routine salvaging or organ draft. This proposal entails postmortem retrieval of needed organs, regardless of the prior authorization or refusal of the deceased or his family. The argument of most proponents of conscription relies heavily upon a denial of the possibility...
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - December 15, 2022 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
