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28A Prescription for Ethical LearningHastings Center Report 43 (s1): 28-29. 2013.We argued last year in this journal that extensive integration of research and care is a worthy goal of health system design, and we second the call from Ruth Faden and colleagues to move toward learning health care systems. As they recognize, learning health care systems demand the coordination of research and medical ethics—two sets of normative commitments that have long been considered distinct. In offering a novel ethics framework for such systems, Faden et al. advance the scholarly debate …Read more
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27Killing versus totally disabling: a reply to criticsJournal of Medical Ethics 39 (1): 12-14. 2013.We are very grateful to the commentators for taking the time to respond to our little article, ‘What Makes Killing Wrong?’ They raise many points, so we cannot respond to them all, but we do want to head off a few misinterpretations.Our critics in this journal avoid one careless misinterpretation, but less informed readers have pressed this misinterpretation in popular venues, so we need to start by renouncing it. We do not deny that killing humans is morally wrong. To the contrary, we argue tha…Read more
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27A Response to Commentators on "Sham Surgery: An Ethical Analysis"American Journal of Bioethics 3 (4): 36-36. 2003.
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27The search for clarity in communicating research results to study participantsJournal of Medical Ethics 34 (9). 2008.Current guidelines on investigators' responsibilities to communicate research results to study participants may differ on whether investigators should proactively re-contact participants, the type of results to be offered, the need for clinical relevance before disclosure, and the stage of research at which results should be offered. Lack of consistency on these issues, however, does not undermine investigators' obligation to offer to disclose research results: an obligation rooted firmly in the…Read more
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26The Research‐Clinical Practice Distinction, Learning Health Systems, and RelationshipsHastings Center Report 43 (5): 41-47. 2013.A special report of The Hastings Center and the Association of American Medical Colleges addressed the ethical oversight of learning health systems, which seek to combine high‐quality patient care with routine data collection aimed at improving patient outcomes. The report contained two position papers, authored by a number of distinguished bioethicists, and several commentaries. The position papers urged two changes. First, they urged a rethinking of our approach to the regulation of human subj…Read more
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25Monotonicity of drive effects in the instrumental conditioning of attitudesBulletin of the Psychonomic Society 16 (5): 381-382. 1980.
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25Letters to the EditorProceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 59 (4). 1986.
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23What does 'respect for persons' require? Attitudes and reported practices of genetics researchers in informing research participants about researchJournal of Medical Ethics 38 (1): 48-52. 2012.Background It has been suggested that researchers are obliged to offer summary findings to research participants to demonstrate respect for persons, and that this may increase public trust in, and awareness of, the research enterprise. Yet little research explores researchers' attitudes and practices regarding the range of initiatives that might serve these ends. Methods Results of an international survey of 785 eligible authors of genetics research studies in autism or cystic fibrosis are repor…Read more
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22The Legality and Ethics of Mandating COVID-19 VaccinationPerspectives in Biology and Medicine 64 (4): 479-493. 2021.ARRAY
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22Research on Medical Records without Informed ConsentJournal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 36 (3): 560-566. 2008.Research drawn from data contained in medical records is a common and immensely important means of scientific investigation in epidemiology and health services research. It provides valuable knowledge regarding risk factors for disease, the safety of pharmaceuticals and medical procedures, and the quality of medical care. Electronic information technology has greatly enhanced the capability of conducting research using medical records, but it has also generated increasing concern about invasions…Read more
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21Communication and conditioning: Correlated reinforcementBulletin of the Psychonomic Society 10 (1): 37-38. 1977.
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21On AuthorshipAmerican Journal of Bioethics 11 (10). 2011.The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 11, Issue 10, Page 32-33, October 2011
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21Does research ethics rest on a mistake?American Journal of Bioethics 5 (1). 2005.This Article does not have an abstract
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20Equipoise and the Ethics of Clinical Research RevisitedAmerican Journal of Bioethics 6 (4): 59-61. 2006.No abstract
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19Assessing the Ethics of Ethics Research: A Case StudyIRB: Ethics & Human Research 26 (2): 9. 2004.
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19Forgoing Debriefing in Deceptive Research: Is It Ever Ethical?Ethics and Behavior 23 (2): 98-116. 2013.The use of deception in research is generally permitted so long as participants are debriefed at the conclusion of their participation. Several authoritative research ethics guidelines allow investigators to omit debriefing under certain circumstances, however. Here we examine various justifications for forgoing debriefing in deceptive research, including concerns about subject pool contamination, the risk that revealing the deception will be harmful or distressing to participants, and issues of…Read more
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17Sham Surgery: An Ethical AnalysisAmerican Journal of Bioethics 3 (4): 41-48. 2003.Surgical clinical trials have seldom used a "sham" or placebo surgical procedure as a control, owing to ethical concerns. Recently, several ethical commentators have argued that sham surgery is either inherently or presumptively unethical. In this article I contend that these arguments are mistaken and that there are no sound ethical reasons for an absolute prohibition of sham surgery in clinical trials. Reflecting on three cases of sham surgery, especially on the recently reported results of a …Read more
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17Going All the Way: Ethical Clarity and Ethical ProgressAmerican Journal of Bioethics 12 (6): 10-11. 2012.The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, Issue 6, Page 10-11, June 2012
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16There is limited guidance on how to assess the ethical acceptability of research risks that extend beyond research participants to third parties (or “research bystanders”). Community or stakeholder engagement has been proposed as one way to address potential harms to community members, including bystanders. Despite widespread agreement on the importance of community engagement in biomedical research, this umbrella term includes many different goals and approaches, agreement on which is ethically…Read more
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15Introduction to the Special Issue on the Belmont ReportPerspectives in Biology and Medicine 63 (2): 219-219. 2020.The Belmont Report, issued in 1979 by the US National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, is a landmark document providing guidance on the ethics of research involving human subjects. It is divided into three sections: “Boundaries between practice and research; “Basic ethical principles” ; and “Applications of these principles with respect to informed consent, assessment of risks and benefits, and selection of subjects.”While the Belmont Report …Read more
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15The ethics of peer review in bioethicsJournal of Medical Ethics 40 (10): 697-701. 2014.A good deal has been written on the ethics of peer review, especially in the scientific and medical literatures. In contrast, we are unaware of any articles on the ethics of peer review in bioethics. Recognising this gap, we evaluate the extant proposals regarding ethical standards for peer review in general and consider how they apply to bioethics. We argue that scholars have an obligation to perform peer review based on the extent to which they personally benefit from the peer review process. …Read more
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15Commentary: False Positives in the Diagnosis of Brain DeathCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 28 (4): 648-656. 2019.
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15Challenging the Conventional Wisdom: From Philosophy to BioethicsPerspectives in Biology and Medicine 60 (1): 3-18. 2017.Kierkegaard famously declared that life is lived forwards but understood backwards. The retrospective look at one's career necessarily takes the form of a narrative reconstruction. Our lives are messier than the stories we tell about them.I first took up serious study of philosophy as a sophomore at Columbia College in 1967. The extensive core curriculum at Columbia exposes all students to a sampling of classic texts in philosophy. Some inkling of a more than passing interest in philosophy, whic…Read more
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15Henry Beecher and Consent to Research: a critical re-examinationPerspectives in Biology and Medicine 59 (1): 78-94. 2016.Henry Beecher was a distinguished professor of anesthesia and clinical investigator at Harvard Medical School. He became an iconic figure in bioethics, best known for his 1966 article describing 22 examples of unethical clinical research. This is one of the most frequently cited articles on ethics in the medical literature. Indeed, it may be seen as marking a watershed in the moral climate of medical research. In his history of bioethics, Albert Jonsen characterized Beecher as one of the “stars …Read more
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Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |