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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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366Cutting 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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52Do we need an alternative ‘relational approach’ to saviour siblings?Journal of Medical Ethics 41 (12): 927-928. 2015.
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119Bodies for Sale: Ethics and Exploitation in the Human Body TradeRoutledge. 2003._Bodies for Sale: Ethics and Exploitation in the Human Body Trade _explores the philosophical and practical issues raised by activities such as surrogacy and organ trafficking. Stephen Wilkinson asks what is it that makes some commercial uses of the body controversial, whether the arguments against commercial exploitation stand up, and whether legislation outlawing such practices is really justified. In Part One Wilkinson explains and analyses some of the notoriously slippery concepts used in th…Read more
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70Smokers' rights to health care: Why the 'restoration argument' is a moralising wolf in a liberal sheep's clothingJournal of Applied Philosophy 16 (3). 1999.Do people who cause themselves to be ill (e.g. by smoking) forfeit some of their rights to healthcare? This paper examines one argument for the view that they do, the restoration argument. It goes as follows. Smokers need more health‐resources than non‐smokers. Given limited budgets, we must choose between treating everyone equally (according to need) or reducing smokers' entitlements. If we choose the former, non‐smokers will be harmed by others' smoking, because there will be less resources av…Read more
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157Commodification Arguments for the Legal Prohibition of Organ SaleHealth Care Analysis 8 (2): 189-201. 2000.The commercial trading of human organs, along withvarious related activities (for example, advertising)was criminalised throughout Great Britain under theHuman Organ Transplants Act 1989.This paper critically assesses one type of argumentfor this, and similar, legal prohibitions:commodification arguments.Firstly, the term `commodification' is analysed. Thiscan be used to refer to either social practices or toattitudes. Commodification arguments rely on thesecond sense and are based on the idea t…Read more
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125Female Genital Mutilation and Cosmetic Surgery: Regulating Non‐Therapeutic Body ModificationBioethics 12 (4). 1998.In the UK, female genital mutilation is unlawful, not only when performed on minors, but also when performed on adult women. The aim of our paper is to examine several arguments which have been advanced in support of this ban and to assess whether they are sufficient to justify banning female genital mutilation for competent, consenting women. We proceed by comparing female genital mutilation, which is banned, with cosmetic surgery, towards which the law has taken a very permissive stance. We th…Read more
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39Eugenics and the Criticism of BioethicsEthical Theory and Moral Practice 10 (4): 409-418. 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
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97Bodily integrity and the sale of human organsJournal of Medical Ethics 22 (6): 334-339. 1996.Existing arguments against paid organ donation are examined and found to be unconvincing. It is argued that the real reason why organ sale is generally thought to be wrong is that (a) bodily integrity is highly valued and (b) the removal of healthy organs constitutes a violation of this integrity. Both sale and (free) donation involve a violation of bodily integrity. In the case of the latter, though, the disvalue of the violation is typically outweighed by the presence of other goods: chiefly, …Read more
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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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Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
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Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |