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102Equal Respect and the Enforcement of MoralitySocial Philosophy and Policy 7 (2): 180. 1990.In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the question of when, if ever, the state may use coercion to enforce majority views about what types of conduct are right or wrong, noble or base, decent or indecent. Such interest has been generated by both political and philosophibal pressures. In recent political history, controversies over such issues as abortion, homosexuality, pornography, textbooks in schools, new reproductive technologies such as surrogate parenting and in vitro fertili…Read more
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3The limits of the criminal lawIn John Deigh & David Dolinko (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of the Criminal Law, Oxford University Press. pp. 3-16. 2011.
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148Contractualism and the normativity of principlesEthics 112 (3): 471-482. 2002.This is a study of the question of whether moral principles, as justified by a contractualist scheme, such as Scanlon's, are binding on persons, i.e., give them reasons to act in accordance with such principles. I argue that for those agents who meet the motivational conditions that Scanlon lays down, i.e., those who seek to reach agreement with others on principles that are not rejectable, such principles are binding. But on those who do not meet the motivational condition the principles are no…Read more
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128Patients and prisoners: The ethics of lethal injectionAnalysis 62 (2). 2002.An argument against the participation of physicians in capital punishment by means of lethal injection.
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97Lying and nudgingJournal of Medical Ethics 39 (8): 496-497. 2013.Salvaging the Concept of Nudge 1 makes a number of good points about how the concept of a nudge should be understood, and a number of important distinctions in specifying more precisely the important idea of freedom of choice. As Saghai suggests, this is a first cut, and more work needs to be done in clarifying the issues so as to make the idea of a nudge a useful tool for policy purposes.In this Commentary, I want to explore some of the difficulties that remain in getting a clear understanding …Read more
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132The serpent beguiled me and I did eat: Entrapment and the creation of crime (review)Law and Philosophy 4 (1). 1985.This paper examines the legitimacy of pro-active law enforcement techniques, i.e. the use of deception to produce the performance of a criminal act in circumstances where it can be observed by law enforcement officials. It argues that law enforcement officials should only be allowed to create the intent to commit a crime in individuals who they have probable cause to suppose are already engaged or intending to engage in criminal activity of a similar nature.
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6Defining PaternalismIn Thomas Schramme (ed.), New Perspectives on Paternalism and Health Care, Springer Verlag. 2015.
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50Against autonomy responseJournal of Medical Ethics 40 (5): 352-353. 2014.I have reviewed, and made criticisms of, Sarah Conly's book elsewhere.1 ,2 In this comment, I am a constructive critic who wants to discuss an argument against paternalism that is different from the three which Conly emphasises in her precis. It is an argument that she attacks in her book, and I want to support her objection to it.iThe argument raises a quite particular objection to paternalism, that is, that it does not treat the object of paternalistic interference with proper respect. For pat…Read more
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Pt. IV. The end of life. The definition of death / Stuart Youngner ; The aging society and the expansion of senility: biotechnological and treatment goals / Stephen Post ; Death is a punch in the jaw: life-extension and its discontents / Felicia Nimue Ackerman ; Precedent autonomy, advance directives, and end-of-life care / John K. Davis ; Physician-assisted death: the state of the debate (review)In Bonnie Steinbock (ed.), The Oxford handbook of bioethics, Oxford University Press. 2007.
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98Organ sales and paternalismJournal of Medical Ethics 40 (3): 151-152. 2014.Simon Rippon believes that a certain argument is not sound.1 I agree. I do not agree with the role he assigns the argument in the debate about organ sales. Nor do I agree with the much stronger argument he puts forward that organ sales should be forbidden.The argument he believes unsound, which I shall use his terminology to refer to as the Laissez-Choisir or LC argument, has three premises. The one be believes false says, “If we take away what some regard as their best option, we thereby make t…Read more
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158Harm and the volenti principleSocial Philosophy and Policy 29 (1): 309-321. 2012.Research Articles Gerald Dworkin, Social Philosophy and Policy, FirstView Article
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40Theory, practice, and moral reasoningIn David Copp (ed.), The Oxford handbook of ethical theory, Oxford University Press. pp. 624--644. 2006.The chapter discusses the various ways in which ethical theory and moral practice relate to one another. Various proposals are discussed and evaluated, such as that the relation is a deductive one, that the relation is one of norm-specification, or that the theory provides multiple moral principles that must be balanced against one another. The author makes some suggestions on how the relation between theory and practice should be understood.
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34Review of James Stacy Taylor, Practical Autonomy and Bioethics (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2009 (9). 2009.
Davis, California, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Normative Ethics |
Philosophy of Law |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
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Applied Ethics |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Philosophy of Law |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Value Theory, Miscellaneous |