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4Making the vulnerable less soMonash Bioethics Review 25 (2). 2006.Recent discussion on the need to reassess research ethics standards has called into question familiar concepts such as equipoise, coercion, undue inducement, and the protection of vulnerable subjects. Reassessment of these concepts can be useful for a variety of reasons. It can eliminate conceptual murkiness, can assist in the proposal of regulations to better protect human subjects, and can elucidate ethical concerns. In this essay, I call attention here to a different, and often neglected, rea…Read more
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48The challenge for medical ethicists: Weighing pros and cons of advanced reproductive technologies to screen human embryos during IVFIn E. Scott Sills & Gianpiero D. Palermo (eds.), Human Embryos and Preimplantation Genetic Technologies, Elsevier. pp. 1-10. 2019.Embryo screening technologies offer important benefits to individuals who use them and society. These techniques can expand the reproductive options of many prospective parents and can contribute to reducing the burdens of disease and disability. Nonetheless, embryo screening techniques present individuals and societies with important ethical challenges. Here, I explore some of them. In particular, I discuss the costs for prospective parents of increased reproductive choices, as well as concerns…Read more
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11When patient advocacy organizations meet industry: a novel approach to dealing with financial conflicts of interestBMC Medical Ethics 20 (1): 1-8. 2019.Background Much like academic-industry partnerships, industry financial support of patient advocacy organizations has become very common in recent years. While financial conflicts of interest between PAOs and industry have received more attention in recent years, robust efforts to mitigate these conflicts are still limited. Main body The authors outline the possible benefits and ethical concerns that can result from financial interactions between biomedical companies and PAOs. They argue that th…Read more
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42The commercialization of the biomedical sciences: (mis)understanding biasHistory and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 41 (3): 34. 2019.The growing commercialization of scientific research has raised important concerns about industry bias. According to some evidence, so-called industry bias can affect the integrity of the science as well as the direction of the research agenda. I argue that conceptualizing industry’s influence in scientific research in terms of bias is unhelpful. Insofar as industry sponsorship negatively affects the integrity of the research, it does so through biasing mechanisms that can affect any research in…Read more
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32Begetting as Producing: Who Cares?American Journal of Bioethics 19 (7): 18-20. 2019.Volume 19, Issue 7, July 2019, Page 18-20.
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129Feminist Resources for Biomedical Research: Lessons from the HPV VaccinesHypatia 26 (1). 2011.Several feminist philosophers of science have argued that social and political values are compatible with, and may even enhance, scientific objectivity. A variety of normative recommendations have emerged regarding how to identify, manage, and critically evaluate social values in science. In particular, several feminist theorists have argued that scientific communities ought to: 1) include researchers with diverse experiences, interests, and values, with equal opportunity and authority to scruti…Read more
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26Current Controversies in Values and Science ed. by Kevin C. Elliott, Daniel SteelKennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 29 (1): 5-10. 2019.As a general claim, most philosophers of science accept that science is not value-free. The disagreements lie in the proverbial details. The essays in Current Controversies in Values and Science, edited by Kevin Elliott and Daniel Steel focus on such details. Like other volumes in the Routledge Current Controversies in Philosophy’s series, this one asks ten well-known philosophers of science to engage with various questions. Each question receives roughly positive and negative responses, though …Read more
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368When the Milk of Human Kindness Becomes a Luxury GoodCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 26 (1): 159-165. 2017.A new reprogenetic technology, mitochondrial replacement, is making its appearance and, unsurprisingly given its promise to wash off our earthly stains --or at least the scourges of sexual reproduction--, John Harris finds only reasons to celebrate this new scientific feat.1 In fact, he finds mitochondrial replacement techniques (MRTs) so “unreservedly welcome” that he believes those who reject them suffer from “a large degree of desperation and not a little callousness.”2 Believing myself to be…Read more
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34We don’t need unilateral DNRs: taking informed non-dissent one step furtherJournal of Medical Ethics 45 (5): 314-317. 2019.Although shared decision-making is a standard in medical care, unilateral decisions through process-based conflict resolution policies have been defended in certain cases. In patients who do not stand to receive proportional clinical benefits, the harms involved in interventions such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation seem to run contrary to the principle of non-maleficence, and provision of such interventions may cause clinicians significant moral distress. However, because the application of the…Read more
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36“I want us to be a normal family”: Toward an understanding of the functions of anonymity among U.S. oocyte donors and recipientsAJOB Empirical Bioethics 9 (4): 235-251. 2018.Abstract BACKGROUND: Anonymity remains the more common practice in gamete donations, but legislation prohibiting anonymity with a goal of protecting donor-conceived children's right to know their genetic origins is becoming more common. However, given the dearth of research investigating the function of anonymity for donors and recipients, it is unclear whether these policies will accomplish their goals. The aim of this study was to explore experiences with anonymity among oocyte donors and reci…Read more
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389The Trouble With Moral EnhancementRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 83 19-33. 2018.Proponents of moral enhancement believe that we should pursue and apply biotechnological means to morally enhance human beings, as failing to do so is likely to lead to humanity's demise. Unsurprisingly, these proposals have generated a substantial amount of debate about the moral permissibility of using such interventions. Here I put aside concerns about the permissibility of moral enhancement and focus on the conceptual and evidentiary grounds for the moral enhancement project. I argue that su…Read more
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99The Fight Against Doubt: How to Bridge the Gap Between Scientists and the PublicOxford University Press. 2018.The lack of public support for climate change policies and refusals to vaccinate children are just two alarming illustrations of the impacts of dissent about scientific claims. Dissent can lead to confusion, false beliefs, and widespread public doubt about highly justified scientific evidence. Even more dangerously, it has begun to corrode the very authority of scientific consensus and knowledge. Deployed aggressively and to political ends, some dissent can intimidate scientists, stymie research…Read more
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49Review of Françoise Baylis and Carolyn McLeod, eds.: Family-making: contemporary ethical challenges: Oxford University Press, New York, 2014 (review)Monash Bioethics Review 34 (3-4): 239-242. 2017.
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20Not All Means Are Created Equal and Some Other ProblemsAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 1 (1): 17-18. 2010.
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51Rethinking Reprogenetics: Enhancing Ethical Analyses of Reprogenetic TechnologiesOxford University Press. 2016.Reprogenetic technologies, which combine the power of reproductive techniques with the tools of genetic science and technology, promise prospective parents a remarkable degree of control to pick and choose the likely characteristics of their offspring. Not only can they select embryos with or without particular genetically-related diseases and disabilities but also choose embryos with non-disease related traits such as sex. Prominent authors such as Agar, Buchanan, DeGrazia, Green, Harris, Robe…Read more
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138When is biology destiny? Biological determinism and social responsibilityPhilosophy of Science 70 (5): 1184-1194. 2003.I argue here that critics of biological explanations of human nature are mistaken when they maintain that the truth of genetic determinism implies the end of critical evaluation and reform of our social institutions. Such a claim erroneously presupposes that our social values, practices, and institutions have nothing to do with what makes biological explanations troublesome. What constitutes a problem for those who are concerned with social justice is not the fact that particular behaviors might…Read more
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204Biological explanations and social responsibilityStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 34 (2): 345-358. 2003.The aim of this paper is to show that critics of biological explanations of human nature may be granting too much to those who propose such explanations when they argue that the truth of genetic determinism implies an end to critical evaluation and reform of our social institutions. This is the case because when we argue that biological determinism exempts us from social critique we are erroneously presupposing that our social values, practices, and institutions have nothing to do with what make…Read more
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80Book Symposium on Andrew Feenberg’s Between Reason and Experience: Essays in Technology and Modernity: Cambridge: MIT Press, 2010Philosophy and Technology 24 (2): 203-226. 2011.Book Symposium on Andrew Feenberg’s Between Reason and Experience: Essays in Technology and Modernity Content Type Journal Article Pages 203-226 DOI 10.1007/s13347-011-0017-8 Authors Inmaculada de Melo-Martín, Division of Medical Ethics, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY 10065, USA David B. Ingram, Loyola University Chicago, 6525 North Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL 60626, USA Sally Wyatt, e-Humanities Group, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) & Maastricht University, Cr…Read more
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19How best to protect the vital interests of donor-conceived individuals: prohibiting or mandating anonymity in gamete donations?Reproductive Biomedicine and Society Online 100-108. 2017.Anonymous gamete donation continues to be practised in most jurisdictions around the world, but this practice has come under increased scrutiny. Thus, several countries now mandate that donors be identifiable to their genetic offspring. Critics contend that anonymous gamete donation harms the interests of donor-conceived individuals and that protection of these interests calls for legal prohibition of anonymous donations. Among the vital interests that critics claim are thwarted by anonymous don…Read more
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2A liver for a kidney: Ethics of trans-organ paired exchangeAmerican Journal of Transplantation 18 (5): 1077-1082. 2018.Living donation provides important access to organ transplantation, which is the optimal therapy for patients with end-stage liver or kidney failure. Paired exchanges have facilitated thousands of kidney transplants and enable transplantation when the donor and recipient are incompatible. However, frequently willing and otherwise healthy donors have contraindications to the donation of the organ that their recipient needs. Trans-organ paired exchanges would enable a donor associated with a kidne…Read more
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143The Risk of Using Inductive Risk to Challenge the Value-Free IdealPhilosophy of Science 83 (4): 500-520. 2016.The argument from inductive risk has been embraced by many as a successful account of the role of values in science that challenges the value-free ideal. We argue that it is not obvious that the argument from inductive risk actually undermines the value-free ideal. This is because the inductive risk argument endorses an assumption held by proponents of the value-free ideal: that contextual values never play an appropriate role in determining evidence. We show that challenging the value-free idea…Read more
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544Beyond informed consent: the therapeutic misconception and trustJournal of Medical Ethics 34 (3): 202-205. 2008.The therapeutic misconception has been seen as presenting an ethical problem because failure to distinguish the aims of research participation from those receiving ordinary treatment may seriously undermine the informed consent of research subjects. Hence, most theoretical and empirical work on the problems of the therapeutic misconception has been directed to evaluate whether, and to what degree, this confusion invalidates the consent of subjects. We argue here that this focus on the understand…Read more
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210Sex Selection and the Procreative Liberty FrameworkKennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 23 (1): 1-18. 2013.Although surprising to some proponents of sex selection for non-medical reasons (Dahl 2005), a considerable amount of critical debate has been raised by this practice (Blyth, Frith, and Crawshaw 2008; Dawson and Trounson 1996; Dickens 2002; Harris 2005; Heyd 2003; Holm 2004; Macklin 2010; Malpani 2002; McDougall 2005; Purdy 2007; Seavilleklein and Sherwin 2007; Steinbock 2002; Strange and Chadwick 2010; Wilkinson 2008). While abortion or infanticide has long been used as means of sex selection, …Read more
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33More Clarifications: On the Goals of Conflict of Interest PoliciesAmerican Journal of Bioethics 11 (1): 35-37. 2011.This Article does not have an abstract
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22Ethics, Embryos, and Eggs: The Need for More than Epistemic ValuesAmerican Journal of Bioethics 8 (12): 38-40. 2008.No abstract
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38A Duty to Participate in Research: Does Social Context Matter?American Journal of Bioethics 8 (10): 28-36. 2008.Because of the important benefits that biomedical research offers to humans, some have argued that people have a general moral obligation to participate in research. Although the defense of such a putative moral duty has raised controversy, few scholars, on either side of the debate, have attended to the social context in which research takes place and where such an obligation will be discharged. By reflecting on the social context in which a presumed duty to participate in research will obtain,…Read more
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Novel therapies, high-risk pediatric research, and the prospect of benefit: learning from the ethical disagreements.Molecular Therapapy 20 (6). 2012.We focus here on high-risk pediatric research with the prospect of direct benefit and point out some aspects that have raised significant debate. In particular, we call attention to disagreements related to two essential aspects of this type of research: (i) determining what constitutes a “prospect of direct benefit” in phase I trials that involve gene transfer technologies and (ii) assessing when in these trials the risk is justified by the anticipated benefit to the participant children. Altho…Read more
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63Assisted Reproductive Technology in Spain: Considering Women's InterestsCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 18 (3): 228. 2009.It might come as a surprise to many that Spain, a country with a strong Catholic tradition that officially banned contraceptive technologies until 1978, has some of the most liberal regulations in assisted reproduction in the world. Law No. 35/1988 was one of the first and most detailed acts of legislation undertaken on the subject of assisted-conception procedures. Indeed, not only did the law permit research on nonviable embryos, it made assisted reproductive technologies available to any woma…Read more
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14Response to Open Peer Commentaries on “A Duty to Participate in Research: Does Social Context Matter?”American Journal of Bioethics 8 (10): 3-4. 2008.Because of the important benefits that biomedical research offers to humans, some have argued that people have a general moral obligation to participate in research. Although the defense of such a putative moral duty has raised controversy, few scholars, on either side of the debate, have attended to the social context in which research takes place and where such an obligation will be discharged. By reflecting on the social context in which a presumed duty to participate in research will obtain,…Read more
Inmaculada de Melo-Martin
Weill Cornell Medicine--Cornell University
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Weill Cornell Medicine--Cornell UniversityProfessor
New York, NY, United States of America
Areas of Interest
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