Recent Developments in the Regulation of Heritable Human Genome Editing
This article reviews the Third Summit which was held in London in March 2023 and comments on the latest developments in the regulation of heritable human genome editing. (Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - April 3, 2024 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Surrogacy and Adoption: An Empirical Investigation of Public Moral Attitudes
AbstractSurrogacy and adoption are both family-making measures subject to extensive domestic and international regulation. In this nationally representative survey study (N = 1552), we explore public attitudes to various forms of surrogacy and adoption in the United Kingdom, in response to an early proposal to allow “double donor” surrogacy as part of the ongoing legal reform project. We sought to both gauge public moral support for adoption and surrogacy generally, the effect that prospective parents’ fertility had on this support, and the extent to which the public would find equivalencies between “do uble donor...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 29, 2024 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
How the Doctrine of Double Effect Rhetoric Harms Patients Seeking Voluntary Assisted Dying
This article argues that the legacy of the DDE is promoting inequitable access to VAD in Victoria due to the assumption that death represents an “evil” for the patient and that the intentions of physicians providing VAD cannot be trusted. The latter claim relies on two common objections to the DDE: the risk of “purifying the intentions” and the issue of “closeness” when evaluating m oral acts under this theory. (Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 29, 2024 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Proxies of Trustworthiness: A Novel Framework to Support the Performance of Trust in Human Health Research
This article accepts this truism and addresses a crucial question that arises: how can trust continually be promoted in an ever-changing and uncertain HHR environment? The article analyses long-standing mechanisms that are designed to elicit trust —such as consent, anonymization, and transparency—and argues that these are best understood as trust represented byproxies of trustworthiness, i.e., regulatory attempts to convey the trustworthiness of the HHR system and/or its actors. Often, such proxies are assumed to operate as markers that trust exists or, at least, has not been lost. But, since trust can neither be “bu...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 29, 2024 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
The Ethics of Time: Towards Temporal Bioethics
AbstractIn this paper I discuss the important yet overlooked role played by time in public health ethics, clinical ethics, and personal ethics, and present an exploratory analysis of temporal inequalities and temporal autonomy. (Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 28, 2024 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
A Mixed-Methods Study Exploring Colombian Adolescents ’ Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services: The Need for a Relational Autonomy Approach
This study ’s objective was to understand Colombian adolescents’ experiences and preferences regarding access to sexual and reproductive health services (SRHS), either alone or accompanied. A mixed-method approach was used, involving a survey of 812 participants aged eleven to twenty-four years old and for ty-five semi-structured interviews with participants aged fourteen to twenty-three. Previous research shows that adolescents prefer privacy when accessing SRHS and often do not want their parents involved. Such findings align with the longstanding tendency to frame the ethical principle of autonomy as based on indepe...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 26, 2024 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
What Is A Family? A Constitutive-Affirmative Account
AbstractBio-heteronormative conceptions of the family have long reinforced a nuclear ideal of the family as a heterosexual marriage, with children who are the genetic progeny of that union. This ideal, however, has also long been resisted in light of recent social developments, exhibited through the increased incidence and acceptance of step-families, donor-conceived families, and so forth. Although to this end some might claim that the bio-heteronormative ideal is notnecessary for a social unit to count as a family, a more systematic conceptualization of the family—the kind of family thatmatters morally —is relativ...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 26, 2024 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
It is Not Too Late for Reconciliation Between Israel and Palestine, Even in the Darkest Hour
This article seeks to address these tasks by analysing the conflict as inherently an ethical one, in the sense that it exposes a rupture in the fabric of communicative relationships that has evolved systematically out of the deep cultural structures from which all protagonists have emerged. Drawing on the work of Levinas, Habermas, Arendt, and others, and referring to the specific circumstances in the region, it examines the ethical sources of the crisis and tries to identify conditions for its resolution. The possibility of reconciliation —that is, of refiguring relationships to open up a space for dialogue to create pa...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 22, 2024 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Procreating in an Overpopulated World: Role Moralities and a Climate Crisis
AbstractIt is an open question when procreation is justified. Antinatalists argue that bringing a new individual into the world is morally wrong, whereas pronatalists say that creating new life is morally good. In between these positions lie attempts to provide conditions for when taking an anti or pronatal stance is appropriate. This paper is concerned with developing one of these attempts, which can be calledqualified pronatalism. Qualified pronatalism typically claims that while procreation can be morally permissible, there are constraints on when it is justified. These constraints often concern whether an individual is...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 21, 2024 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
The Ethics of Stem Cell-Based Embryo-Like Structures
This article reports on a subset of our findings, namely those pertaining to (the degrees of and requirements for) confidence in research with hELS and its regulation. Despite commonly found disparities in confidence on emerging biotechnologies, we also found wide consensus regarding the requirements for having (more) confidence in hELS research. We conclude by reflecting on how these findings could be relevant to researchers and (Dutch) policymakers when interpreted within the context of their limitations. (Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 13, 2024 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Jewish Ethics of Inmate Vaccines Against COVID-19
This article presents the approach of Jewish ethics regarding this issue, that is, that there is a religious and a moral obligation to heal the other and to take care of his or her medical well-being and that this holds true even for a prisoner who has committed a serious crime. Hence, prisoners should be vaccinated according to the same priorities that govern the administration of the vaccine among the general public.OriginalityThe originality of the article is in a comprehensive and comparative reference between general ethics and Jewish ethics on a subject that has not yet received the proper attention. (Source: Journal...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 1, 2024 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Ethical Considerations in Decentralized Clinical Trials
AbstractAs a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of decentralized clinical trials, trials conducted in whole or in part at locations other than traditional clinical trial sites, significantly increased. While these trials have the potential advantage of access, participant centricity, convenience, lower costs, and efficiency, they also raise a number of important ethical and practical concerns. Here we focus on a number of those concerns, including participant safety, privacy and confidentiality, remote consent, digital access and proficiency, and trial oversight. Awareness of these ethical complexities will h...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - March 1, 2024 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Applying the Concepts of Benefit and Harm in Malaysian Bioethical Discourse: Analysis of Malaysian Fatwa
This article discusses several selected bioethical issues in Malaysia by studying the application ofma ṣlaḥah (the public good) andmafsadah (evil and harms) in Malaysian Islamic rulings (fatwas). This article uses the critical interpretation approach, as this is an ethical, interpretive, textual, and contextual analysis. In a situation when there is a conflict betweenma ṣlaḥah and avoidance ofmafsadah, it is preferred to attempt to address both needs. However, ifma ṣlaḥah and avoidance ofmafsadah are mutually exclusive, the decision to choose must be made by weighing (tarj īḥ) and choosing the one which is s...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - February 26, 2024 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
Social Distance Warriors Should Not Be Regarded as Moral Exemplars in a Pandemic Nor as Paragons of Politeness: A Response to Shaw
This article shows that his claims are contestable. It suggests that his own behaviour was no better than Jack’s. (Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry)
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - February 19, 2024 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
The “Bystander at the Switch” Revisited? Ethical Implications of the Government Strategies Against COVID-19
AbstractSuppose COVID-19 is the runaway tram in the famous moral thought experiment, known as the “Bystander at the Switch.” Consider the two differentiated responses of governments around the world to this new threat, namely the option of quarantine/lockdown and herd immunity. Can we contrast the hypothetical with the real scenario? What do the institutional decisions and strategies for dea ling with the virus, in the beginning of 2020, signify in a normative moral framework? This paper investigates these possibilities in order to highlight the similarities and, more importantly, the differences that exist between uti...
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - February 15, 2024 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research
