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39Collective immunization can be highly effective in protecting societies against infectious diseases, but policy decisions about both the character and the content of immunization policies require ethical justification. This article offers an overview of ethical aspects that should be taken into account, which include assessment of relevant disease burden, effectiveness and safety of vaccinations, justice and cost-effectiveness, and the question whether immunization should be compulsory.
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38Public health dilemmas concerning a 2-year old hepatitis-b carrier – responseJournal of Bioethical Inquiry 5 (1): 87--89. 2008.
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36Public Health Ethics: Key Concepts and Issues in Policy and Practice (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2011.Machine generated contents note: Preface; Introduction Angus Dawson; Part I. Concepts: 1. Resetting the parameters: public health as the foundation for public health ethics Angus Dawson; 2. Health, disease and the goal of public health Bengt Brülde; 3. Selective reproduction, eugenics and public health Stephen Wilkinson; 4. Risk and precaution Stephen John; Part II. Issues: 5. Smoking, health and ethics Richard Ashcroft; 6. Infectious disease control Marcel Verweij; 7. Population screening Ainsl…Read more
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36Law, Ethics, and Politics in the Face of a Global PandemicPublic Health Ethics 13 (1): 1-3. 2020.
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36Ethics in Public Health: Bloomberg's Battle and BeyondPublic Health Ethics 6 (3): 231-232. 2013.
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33Vaccination PoliciesIn Hugh LaFollette (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Ethics, Blackwell. 2013.Vaccination involves priming the immune system with an antigenic agent that mimics a virus or bacterium, which results in immunity against the “real” microorganism. Collective vaccination policies have played an important role in the control of infectious disease worldwide. They can serve the utilitarian aim to protect public health – hence welfare – and also promote fairness: making essential vaccines accessible to all members of the public. Yet as more and more vaccines are developed, societie…Read more
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32Ethics of infection control measures for carriers of antimicrobial drug–Resistant organismsEmerging Infectious Diseases 24 (9). 2018.Many countries have implemented infection control measures directed at carriers of multidrug-resistant organisms. To explore the ethical implications of these measures, we analyzed 227 consultations about multidrug resistance and compared them with the literature on communicable disease in general. We found that control measures aimed at carriers have a range of negative implications. Although moral dilemmas seem similar to those encountered while implementing control measures for other infectio…Read more
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32Personal Health Monitoring and Human InteractionAmerican Journal of Bioethics 12 (9): 47-48. 2012.The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, Issue 9, Page 47-48, September 2012
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30Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Offence, Harm and the Good LifePublic Health Ethics 3 (2): 89-90. 2010.
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28Maintaining Trust in Newborn ScreeningHastings Center Report 42 (5): 41-47. 2012.Newborn screening consists of taking a few drops of blood from a baby's heel in the first week of life and testing it for a list of disorders. In the United States and most countries in Europe, newborn screening programs began in the 1960s and 1970s with screening for phenylketonuria (PKU), a rare metabolic disease that causes severe and irreversible mental retardation unless treated before problems arise. As knowledge about rare diseases expanded and new screening technologies were introduced—s…Read more
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28Between Individualistic Animal Ethics and Holistic Environmental Ethics Blurring the BoundariesIn Bernice Bovenkerk & Jozef Keulartz (eds.), Animal Ethics in the Age of Humans: Blurring Boundaries in Human-Animal Relationships, Springer. 2016.Due to its emphasis on experiential interests, animal ethics tends to focus on individuals as the sole unit of moral concern. Many issues in animal ethics can be fruitfully analysed in terms of obligations towards individual animals, but some problems require reflection about collective dimensions of animal life in ways that individualist approaches can’t offer. Criticism of the individualist focus in animal ethics is not new; it has been put forward in particular by environmental ethics approac…Read more
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27Do's and dont's for ethics committees: Practical lessons learned in the netherlands (review)HEC Forum 12 (4): 344-357. 2000.
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26Ethics of early detection of disease risk factors: A scoping reviewBMC Medical Ethics 25 (1): 1-16. 2024.Background Scientific and technological advancements in mapping and understanding the interrelated pathways through which biological and environmental exposures affect disease development create new possibilities for detecting disease risk factors. Early detection of such risk factors may help prevent disease onset or moderate the disease course, thereby decreasing associated disease burden, morbidity, and mortality. However, the ethical implications of screening for disease risk factors are unc…Read more
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26Professional Solidarity: The Case of Influenza ImmunizationAmerican Journal of Bioethics 13 (9): 51-52. 2013.No abstract
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25Shutting Up Infected Houses: Infectious Disease Control, Past and PresentPublic Health Ethics 3 (1): 1-3. 2010.(No abstract is available for this citation)
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25Sharing Responsibility: Responsibility for Health Is Not a Zero-Sum GamePublic Health Ethics 12 (2): 99-102. 2019.
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24Interpreting and Applying the Precautionary Principle: A Response to Open Peer Commentaries on “The Precautionary Principle and the Tolerability of Blood Transfusion Risks”American Journal of Bioethics 17 (4): 4-6. 2017.
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24Individual and Collective Considerations in Public Health: Influenza Vaccination in Nursing HomesBioethics 15 (5-6): 536-546. 2001.Many nursing homes have an influenza vaccination policy in which it is assumed that express (proxy) consent is not necessary. Tacit consent procedures are more efficient if one aims at high vaccination rates. In this paper I focus on incompetent residents and proxy consent. Tacit proxy consent for vaccination implies a deviance of standard proxy consent requirements. I analyse several arguments that may possibly support such a deviance. The primary reason to offer influenza vaccination is that v…Read more
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24Why Socio-Economic Inequalities in Health Threaten Relational Justice. A Proposal for an Instrumental EvaluationPublic Health Ethics 11 (3): 311-324. 2018.In this article, we argue that apart from evaluating the causes and the social determinants of health inequalities, an evaluation of the effects of health inequalities is due. For this, we propose the ideal of relational equality as an evaluative framework, and test to what extent health inequalities threaten this ideal of a society of equals. We identify three ways in which they do and argue that these risks are especially great for those lower down the socio-economic strata. We thus conclude t…Read more
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24You eat what you are: Moral dimensions of diets tailored to one's genesJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 16 (6): 557-568. 2003.Thanks to developments in genomics,dietary recommendations adapted to genetic riskprofiles of individual persons are no longerscience fiction. But what are the consequencesof these diets? An examination of possibleimpacts of genetically tailor-made diets raisesmorally relevant concerns that are analogous to(medical-ethical) considerations aboutscreening and testing. These concerns oftengive rise to applying norms for informedconsent and for the weighing of burdens andbenefits. These diets also h…Read more
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23Ethical ComputingIdealistic Studies 23 (2-3): 151-159. 1993.As many moral problems have a very complex nature, moral reasoning towards a justified decision in such cases may be as difficult. Many considerations have to be taken into account in order to reach a judgement based on good reasons. May the computer, as a tool in data processing, be of use for ethical decision-making? In this paper I will argue that we should be very careful in developing and using ethical expert-systems. Next, I will explain how the computer may be a useful ‘tool’ for instruct…Read more
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23Influenza vaccination in Dutch nursing homes: Is tacit consent morally justified?Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 8 (1): 89-95. 2005.Objectives: Efficient procedures for obtaining informed (proxy) consent may contribute to high influenza vaccination rates in nursing homes. Yet are such procedures justified? This study’s objective was to gain insight in informed consent policies in Dutch nursing homes; to assess how these may affect influenza vaccination rates and to answer the question whether deviating from standard informed consent procedures could be morally justified. Design: A survey among nursing home physicians. Settin…Read more
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22Ethical Advice for an Intensive Care Triage Protocol in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons Learned from The NetherlandsPublic Health Ethics 13 (2): 157-165. 2020.At the height of the COVID-19 crisis in the Netherlands a shortness of intensive care beds was looming. Dutch professional medical organizations asked a group of ethicists for assistance in drafting guidelines and criteria for selection of patients for intensive care treatment in case of absolute scarcity, when medical selection criteria would no longer suffice. This article describes the Dutch context, the process of drafting the advice and reflects on the role of ethicists and lessons learned.…Read more
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22Academic freedom under siegeJournal of Medical Ethics. forthcoming.This paper describes a global pattern of declining academic freedom, often driven by powerful political interference with core functions of academic communities. It argues that countering threats to academic freedom requires doubling down on ethics, specifically standards of justice and fairness in pursuing knowledge and assigning warrant to beliefs. Using the example of the selection of a Qatari university to host the 2024 World Congress of Bioethics, the authors urge fairness towards diverse g…Read more
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21(Un)fairness of Vaccination FreeridingPublic Health Ethics 15 (3): 233-239. 2022.For contagious diseases like measles a successful immunization program can result in herd protection. Small outbreaks may still occur but fade out soon, because the possibilities for the pathogen to spread in the ‘herd’ are very small. This implies that people who refuse to participate in such a program will still benefit from the protection it offers, but they don’t do their part in maintaining protection. Isn’t that a case of freeriding—and isn’t that unfair towards all the people who do colla…Read more
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19The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and resulting health and economic crisis has caused major disruptions in the functioning of food systems and revived the discussion on what forms balanced, effective and responsible crisis management. As part of its thought leadership and its social responsibility in times of crisis, WUR is uniquely placed to contribute to the scientific knowledge base and data collection mechanisms required for early recognition and rapid response. In addition, WUR takes on the cha…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |