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IntroductionIn David Archard & Colin M. [eds] Macleod (eds.), The moral and political status of children, Oxford University Press. 2004.In the history of philosophy, children have been seen as the property of their parents and as beings who must develop into adults. Both views provide some kind of warrant for the exercise of parental authority. There is renewed interest today in the moral and political status of the child. The principal areas of interest are rights, autonomy and education, families, and justice.
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6Mary Warnock and ‘Public Philosophy’Journal of Applied Philosophy. forthcoming.This article responds to the familiar characterisation of Mary Warnock as someone whose major achievements as a public intellectual, such as the Report on human fertilisation and embryology, were at the expense of philosophical rigour and integrity. I explicate her lifelong commitment to practical morality, and her understanding of ethics and of the role of feelings in moral judgments, before analysing her important distinction between the private and public moral attitude. ‘Public philosophy’ i…Read more
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15For F*ck's Sake: Why Swearing Is Shocking, Rude, & Fun. Rebecca Roache, 2024. Oxford, Oxford University Press. ix + 257 pp, £16.99 (hb) (review)Journal of Applied Philosophy. forthcoming.
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Family law (first annex)In Jean-Christophe Merle (ed.), Johann Gottlieb Fichte: Grundlage des Naturrechts, De Gruyter. 2016.
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20Reading Onora o’Neill (edited book)Routledge. 2013.Onora O’Neill is one of the foremost moral philosophers writing today. Her work on ethics and bioethics, political philosophy and the philosophy of Kant is extremely influential. Her landmark Reith Lectures on trust did much to establish the subject not only on the philosophical and political agenda but in the world of media, business and law more widely. Reading Onora O’Neill is the first book to examine and critically appraise the work of this important thinker. It includes specially commissio…Read more
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213. Family Law (First Annex)In Jean-Christophe Merle (ed.), Johann Gottlieb Fichte: Grundlage des Naturrechts, De Gruyter. pp. 187-196. 2016.
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9Sex EducationIn Randall Curren (ed.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Education, Wiley-blackwell. 2003.
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9The Methodology of Applied PhilosophyIn Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen, Kimberley Brownlee & David Coady (eds.), A Companion to Applied Philosophy, Wiley. 2016.The methodology of applied philosophy may consist in its mode of application; or it may serve applied philosophy's purpose of speaking to practical matters. There may be no single method that is shared by all sub‐fields of applied philosophy; applied ethics, the dominant form of applied philosophy, should be thought of as neither “top‐down” nor “bottom‐up” in its methods. The use of far‐fetched examples is arguably in tension with the concerns and intended audience of applied philosophy. Finally…Read more
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5Negotiating Diversity: Liberalism, Democracy and Cultural Difference Matthew FestensteinContemporary Political Theory 6 (4): 496. 2007.
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Regulating responsible reproductionIn Catherine Stanton, Sarah Devaney, Anne-Maree Farrell & Alexandra Mullock (eds.), Pioneering Healthcare Law: Essays in Honour of Margaret Brazier, Routledge. 2015.
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34Teaching good sex: The limits of consent and the role of the virtuesJournal of Philosophy of Education 56 (5): 645-653. 2022.I offer an account of sexual ethics, and thus of an education in sexual morality, that tries to make some sense of how a view of consent as central to those ethics might be combined with an education in certain virtues. I do so by exploring what some see as the shortcomings of a standard of consent, namely, how it can deal with instances of prima facie bad sex. I consider and reject various attempts to show that consensuality is sufficient for morally good sex. I then show how a needed supplemen…Read more
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24Clinical ethics support services during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK: a cross-sectional surveyJournal of Medical Ethics 48 (10): 695-701. 2022.Background Non-adherence to medication is associated with increased risk of relapse in patients with bipolar disorder. Objectives To validate patient-evaluated adherence to medication measured via smartphones against validated adherence questionnaire; and investigate characteristics for adherence to medication measured via smartphones. Methods Patients with BD evaluated adherence to medication daily for 6–9 months via smartphones. The Medication Adherence Rating Scale and the Rogers’ Empowerment…Read more
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12Involving parents in paediatric clinical ethics committee deliberations: a current controversyJournal of Medical Ethics 49 (11): 733-736. 2023.In cases where the best interests of the child are disputed or finely balanced, Clinical Ethics Committees (CECs) can provide a valuable source of advice to clinicians and trusts on the pertinent ethical dimensions. Recent judicial cases have criticised the lack of formalised guidance and inconsistency in the involvement of parents in CEC deliberations. In Manchester University NHS FT v Verden [2022], Arbuthnot J set out important procedural guidance as to how parental involvement in CEC deliber…Read more
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8From Pluralist to Patriotic Politics, Putting Practice FirstContemporary Political Theory 3 (2): 212-213. 2000.A review of Charles Blattberg's From Pluralist to Patriotic Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
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24Markets with Limits: How the Commodification of Academia Derails Debate. James Stacey Taylor, 2022. London and New York, Routledge. 234 pp, £120.00 (hb) (review)Journal of Applied Philosophy 39 (5): 932-934. 2022.Journal of Applied Philosophy, EarlyView.
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28The Child’s Right to a VoiceRes Publica 27 (4): 521-536. 2020.This article provides a philosophical analysis of a putative right of the child to have their expressed views considered in matters that affect them. Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 is an influential and interesting statement of that right. The article shows that the child’s ‘right to a voice’ is complex. Its complexity lies in the problem of contrasting an adult’s normative power of choice with a child’s weighted views, in the various senses in which …Read more
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52000 Years and Beyond: Faith, Identity and the 'Commmon Era'Routledge. 2003.2000 Years and Beyond brings together some of the most eminent thinkers of our time - specialists in philosophy, theology, anthropology and cultural theory. In a horizon-scanning work, they look backwards and forwards to explore what links us to the matrix of the Judaeo-Christian tradition from which Western cultural identity has evolved. Their plural reflections raise searching questions about how we move from past to future - and about who 'we' are. What do the catastrophes of the twentieth ce…Read more
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47Philosophical AdvicePhilosophy 96 (4): 603-623. 2021.Philosophers who publish articles that make practical ethical recommendations are thereby offering advice. I consider what obligations they incur in advising. I analyse the giving of advice as a communicative act whose defining and characteristic aim is to secure acceptance of what is advised. Such advice need not be solicited or taken up. I distinguish advice from incitement and threats and specify the scope of the adviser's responsibility for others acting upon the advice. I explore how advice…Read more
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18Challenging misconceptions about clinical ethics support during COVID-19 and beyond: a legal update and future considerationsJournal of Medical Ethics 47 (8): 549-552. 2021.The pace of change and, indeed, the sheer number of clinical ethics committees has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Committees were formed to support healthcare professionals and to operationalise, interpret and compensate for gaps in national and professional guidance. But as the role of clinical ethics support becomes more prominent and visible, it becomes ever more important to address gaps in the support structure and misconceptions as to role and remit. The recent case of Great Orm…Read more
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42The Child’s Right to a VoiceRes Publica (4): 1-16. 2020.This article provides a philosophical analysis of a putative right of the child to have their expressed views considered in matters that affect them. Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 is an influential and interesting statement of that right. The article shows that the child’s ‘right to a voice’ is complex. Its complexity lies in the problem of contrasting an adult’s normative power of choice with a child’s weighted views, in the various senses in which …Read more
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22Ethical expertise: The good agent and the good citizenZeitschrift Für Ethik Und Moralphilosophie 3 (2): 337-344. 2020.I consider whether political deference by a citizen within a liberal democracy to moral experts is morally problematic. I compare and contrast deference in the political and personal domains. I set to one side consequentialist worries about political deference and evaluate its possible intrinsic wrongness, expressed as a worry that deference is inconsistent with the grant to individuals of the power exercised in a democratic vote, just as personal deference is inconsistent with the grant of a po…Read more
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25Creating Future People: The Ethics of Genetic Enhancement Jonathan Anomaly Routledge: London, 2020. 110 pp. ISBN 9780367203108. £120 (review)Bioethics 34 (7): 738-739. 2020.Bioethics, EarlyView.
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299Ethical perspectives on advances in biogerontologyAging Medicine 2 (2): 99-103. 2019.Worldwide populations are aging with economic development as a result of public health initiatives and advances in therapeutic discoveries. Since 1850, life expectancy has advanced by 1 year for every four. Accompanying this change is the rapid development of anti‐aging science. There are three schools of thought in the field of aging science. One perspective is the life course approach, which considers that aging is a good and natural process to be embraced as a necessary and positive aspect of…Read more
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Queen's University, BelfastSchool of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and PoliticsRetired faculty