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155Syllabus on Ethics in Research: Addendum to the European Textbook on Ethics in ResearchEuropean Union. 2010.The syllabus presented here is designed for use in the training of researchers and research ethics committee members throughout the European Union and beyond. It is intended to be accessible to scientific and lay readers, including those with no previous experience of ethical theory and analysis. The syllabus will cover key issues in the ethics of research involving human participants, including the ethical issues associated with new technologies.
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365Cutting to the Core: Exploring the Ethics of Contested SurgeriesRowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2006.When the benefits of surgery do not outweigh the harms or where they do not clearly do so, surgical interventions become morally contested. Cutting to the Core examines a number of such surgeries, including infant male circumcision and cutting the genitals of female children, the separation of conjoined twins, surgical sex assignment of intersex children and the surgical re-assignment of transsexuals, limb and face transplantation, cosmetic surgery, and placebo surgery
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5Book Review: Sue Eckstein, Manual for Research Ethics Committees (Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, King's College London) (review)Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 6 (4): 459-460. 2003.
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67Mitochondrial Replacement: Ethics and IdentityBioethics 29 (9): 631-638. 2015.Mitochondrial replacement techniques have the potential to allow prospective parents who are at risk of passing on debilitating or even life-threatening mitochondrial disorders to have healthy children to whom they are genetically related. Ethical concerns have however been raised about these techniques. This article focuses on one aspect of the ethical debate, the question of whether there is any moral difference between the two types of MRT proposed: Pronuclear Transfer and Maternal Spindle Tr…Read more
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75Should uterus transplants be publicly funded?Journal of Medical Ethics 42 (9): 559-565. 2016.Since 2000, 11 human uterine transplantation procedures (UTx) have been performed across Europe and Asia. Five of these have, to date, resulted in pregnancy and four live births have now been recorded. The most significant obstacles to the availability of UTx are presently scientific and technical, relating to the safety and efficacy of the procedure itself. However, if and when such obstacles are overcome, the most likely barriers to its availability will be social and financial in nature, rela…Read more
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31Before and beyond trust: reliance in medical AIJournal of Medical Ethics 48 (11): 852-856. 2021.Artificial intelligence is changing healthcare and the practice of medicine as data-driven science and machine-learning technologies, in particular, are contributing to a variety of medical and clinical tasks. Such advancements have also raised many questions, especially about public trust. As a response to these concerns there has been a concentrated effort from public bodies, policy-makers and technology companies leading the way in AI to address what is identified as a "public trust deficit".…Read more
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26Public funding, social change and uterus transplants: a response to commentariesJournal of Medical Ethics 42 (9): 572-573. 2016.
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26Separating conjoined twins: the case of Laden and Laleh BijaniIn Jennifer Gunning & Søren Holm (eds.), Ethics, Law, and Society, Ashgate. pp. 1--257. 2005.
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37Why I wrote…Choosing Tomorrow's Children: The Ethics of Selective ReproductionClinical Ethics 5 (1): 46-50. 2010.
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353The exploitation argument against commercial surrogacyBioethics 17 (2). 2003.It is argued that there are good reasons for believing that commercial surrogacy is often exploitative. However, even if we accept this, the exploitation argument for prohibiting (or otherwise legislatively discouraging) commercial surrogacy remains quite weak. One reason for this is that prohibition may well 'backfire' and lead to potential surrogates having to do other things that are more exploitative and/or more harmful than paid surrogacy. It is concluded, therefore, that those who oppose e…Read more
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4On the distinction between positive and negative eugenicsIn Matti Häyry (ed.), Arguments and analysis in bioethics, Rodopi. 2010.
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179Choosing Tomorrow's Children: The Ethics of Selective ReproductionOxford University Press. 2010.To what extent should parents be allowed to use reproductive technologies to determine the characteristics of their future children? Is there something morally wrong with choosing what their sex will be, or with trying to 'screen out' as much disease and disability as possible before birth? Stephen Wilkinson offers answers to such questions.
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64Eugenics, embryo selection, and the Equal Value PrincipleClinical Ethics 1 (1): 46-51. 2006.Preimplantation genetic diagnosis and some prenatal screening programmes have been criticized for being 'eugenic'. This paper aims to analyse this criticism and to evaluate one of the main ethical arguments lying behind it. It starts with a discussion of the meaning of the term 'eugenics' and of some relevant distinctions: for example, that between objections to eugenic ends and objections to certain means of achieving them. Next, a particular argument against using preimplantation genetic diagn…Read more
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77Exploitation in International Paid Surrogacy ArrangementsJournal of Applied Philosophy 33 (2): 125-145. 2015.Many critics have suggested that international paid surrogacy is exploitative. Taking such concerns as its starting point, this article asks: how defensible is the claim that international paid surrogacy is exploitative and what could be done to make it less exploitative? In the light of the answer to, how strong is the case for prohibiting it? Exploitation could in principle be dealt with by improving surrogates' pay and conditions. However, doing so may exacerbate problems with consent. Foremo…Read more
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33Biomedical Research and the Commercial Exploitation of Human TissueGenomics, Society and Policy 1 (1): 1-14. 2005.There is widespread anxiety about the commercialisation and commodification of human tissue. The aims of this paper are: (a) to analyse some of these concerns, and (b) to see whether some of the main ethical arguments that lie behind them are sound. Part 1 looks at 'inducement arguments' against paying individuals for their tissue and concludes that these are generally quite weak. Part 2 examines some ethical objections to third parties (e.g. biotechnology companies and researchers) commercially…Read more
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18Using some “new” political ideas: Feminism and “green ideology”Res Publica 5 (1): 103-108. 1999.
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54Prenatal Screening, Reproductive Choice, and Public HealthBioethics 29 (1): 26-35. 2014.One widely held view of prenatal screening is that its foremost aim is, or should be, to enable reproductive choice; this is the Pure Choice view. The article critiques this position by comparing it with an alternative: Public Health Pluralism. It is argued that there are good reasons to prefer the latter, including the following. Public Health Pluralism does not, as is often supposed, render PNS more vulnerable to eugenics-objections. The Pure Choice view, if followed through to its logical con…Read more
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13Designer babies', instrumentalisation and the child's right to an open futureIn Nafsika Athanassoulis (ed.), Philosophical reflections on medical ethics, Palgrave-macmillan. 2005.
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142"Eugenics talk" and the language of bioethicsJournal of Medical Ethics 34 (6): 467-471. 2008.In bioethical discussions of preimplantation genetic diagnosis and prenatal screening, accusations of eugenics are commonplace, as are counter-claims that talk of eugenics is misleading and unhelpful. This paper asks whether “eugenics talk”, in this context, is legitimate and useful or something to be avoided. It also looks at the extent to which this linguistic question can be answered without first answering relevant substantive moral questions. Its main conclusion is that the best and most no…Read more
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21Selective Reproduction, eugenics, and public healthIn Angus Dawson (ed.), Public Health Ethics: Key Concepts and Issues in Policy and Practice, Cambridge University Press. pp. 48-66. 2011.
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22Book review: Sue Eckstein, manual for research ethics committees (centre of medical law and ethics, King's college london) (review)Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 6 (4): 459-460. 2003.
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11Guest Editorial - A Complex Web of QuestionsCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 22 (1): 4-7. 2013.
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39Review: Eugenics and the Criticism of Bioethics (review)Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 10 (4). 2007.This article provides a critical assessment of some aspects of Ann Kerr and Tom Shakespeare's Genetic Politics: from eugenics to genome. In particular, I evaluate their claims: (a) that bioethics is too ‘top down’, involving normative prescriptions, whereas it should instead be ‘bottom up’ and grounded in social science; and (b) that contemporary bioethics has not dealt particularly well with people's moral concerns about eugenics. I conclude that several of Kerr and Shakespeare's criticisms are…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |