•  18
    Book Review of John Martin Fischer, Death, Immortality, and Meaning in Life (review)
    European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 13 (2): 213-218. 2021.
    Book review.
  •  16
    This is the first book to argue in favor of paying people for their blood plasma. It does not merely argue that offering compensation to plasma donors is morally permissible. It argues that prohibiting donor compensation is morally wrong--and that it is morally wrong for all of the reasons that are offered against allowing donor compensation. Opponents of donor compensation claim that it will reduce the amount and quality of plasma obtained, exploit and coerce donors, and undermine social cohesi…Read more
  •  9
    Buying and Selling Friendship
    American Philosophical Quarterly 56 (2): 187-202. 2019.
    It is widely believed that the nature of love and friendship precludes them from being bought or sold. It will be argued in this paper that this view is false: There is no conceptual bar to the commodification of love and friendship. The arguments offered for this view will lead to another surprising conclusion: That these goods are asymmetrically alienable goods, goods whose nature is such that separate arguments must be provided for the views that they can be bought and sold. The possibility o…Read more
  •  7
    Autonomy, Vote Buying, and Constraining Options
    Journal of Applied Philosophy 34 (5): 711-723. 2016.
    A common argument used to defend markets in ‘contested commodities’ is based on the value of personal autonomy. Autonomy is of great moral value; removing options from a person's choice set would compromise her ability to exercise her autonomy; hence, there should be a prima facie presumption against removing options from persons’ choice sets; thus, the burden of proof lies with those who wish to prohibit markets in certain goods. Christopher Freiman has developed a version of this argument to d…Read more
  •  1
    Annihilation: The sense and significance of death – by Christopher Belshaw
    Journal of Applied Philosophy 27 (2): 218-219. 2010.
    No Abstract
  •  7
    A Scandal in Geneva
    International Journal of Applied Philosophy 28 (2): 219-234. 2014.
    In 2013 the World Health Organization published a Report in which it was argued that countries should become self-sufficient in safe blood and blood products, and that these should be secured through voluntary non-remunerated donation. These two claims were putatively supported by a wealth of citations to peer-reviewed academic papers, the results of Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries in both Canada and the United Kingdom, and data collected from Non-Government Organizations. Yet not only do…Read more
  •  9
    Autonomy, Responsibility, and Women’s Obligation to Resist Sexual Harrassment
    International Journal of Applied Philosophy 21 (1): 55-63. 2007.
    In a recent paper Carol Hay has argued for the conclusion that “a woman who has been sexually harassed has a moral obligation to confront her harasser.” I will argue in this paper that Hay’s arguments for her conclusion are unsound, for they rest on both a misconstrual of the nature of personal autonomy, and a misunderstanding of its relationship to moral responsibility. However, even though Hay’s own arguments do not support her conclusion that women have a duty to resist sexual harassment this…Read more
  •  1
    Autonomy, constraining options, and organ sales
    Journal of Applied Philosophy 19 (3). 2002.
    We should try to alleviate it through allowing a current market in them continues to be morally condemned, usually on the grounds tha
  •  2
    Blinkered objections to bioethics: a response to Benatar
    Journal of Medical Ethics 31 (3): 179-181. 2005.
    In a recent commentary, S R Benatar criticised the debates over organ donation and kidney selling for being located within a “narrow and inadequate framework”. Benatar levels four charges against those who engage in the current organs debate: that they myopically focus on saving lives; that they accept the dominance of market orientated approaches to health care; that they reify individualism, and that they engage in limited moral arguments. Given the importance of the organs debate it is impera…Read more
  •  3
    A Full-blooded Defence Of Full-blooded Epicureanism: responses to my critics
    Journal of Medical Ethics 40 (9): 642-643. 2014.
    I cannot fully respond here to all of the subtle and sophisticated criticisms of my full-blooded Epicureanism that have been advanced by Frederik Kaufman, Stephan Blatti, TM Wilkinson and Walter Glannon.1–4 Accordingly, I will focus on correcting some misunderstandings of my position and on responding to some of the most pressing objections.Kaufman holds that the implications of my full-blooded Epicureanism are ‘startling,’ since if I am right “killing or being killed in war will be morally inco…Read more
  •  4