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176The limits of fair equality of opportunityPhilosophical Studies 160 (2): 323-343. 2012.The principle of fair equality of opportunity is regularly used to justify social policies, both in the philosophical literature and in public discourse. However, too often commentators fail to make explicit just what they take the principle to say. A principle of fair equality of opportunity does not say anything at all until certain variables are filled in. I want to draw attention to two variables, timing and currency. I argue that once we identify the few plausible ways we have at our dispos…Read more
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27The Case for Evidence-Based Rulemaking in Human Subjects ResearchAmerican Journal of Bioethics 10 (6): 3-13. 2010.Here I inquire into the status of the rules promulgated in the canonical pronouncements on human subjects research, such as the Declaration of Helsinki and the Belmont Report. The question is whether they are ethical rules or rules of policy. An ethical rule is supposed to accurately reflect the ethical fact (the fact that the action the rule prescribes is ethically obligatory), whereas rules of policy are implemented to achieve a goal. We should be skeptical, I argue, that the actions prescribe…Read more
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43Lingering Problems of Currency and Scope in Daniels's Argument for a Societal Obligation to Meet Health NeedsJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 35 (4): 402-414. 2010.Norman Daniels's new book, Just Health, brings together his decades of work on the problem of justice and health. It improves on earlier writings by discussing how we can meet health needs fairly when we cannot meet them all and by attending to the implications of the socioeconomic determinants of health. In this article I return to the core idea around which the entire theory is built: that the principle of equality of opportunity grounds a societal obligation to meet health needs. I point, fir…Read more
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