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252The Luck Egalitarianism of G.A. Cohen - A Reply to David MillerSATS 18 (1): 37-53. 2017.The late G.A. Cohen is routinely considered a founding father of luck egalitarianism, a prominent responsibility-sensitive theory of distributive justice. David Miller argues that Cohen’s considered beliefs on distributive justice are not best understood as luck egalitarian. While the relationship between distributive justice and personal responsibility plays an important part in Cohen’s work, Miller maintains that it should be considered an isolated theme confined to Cohen’s exchange with …Read more
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141Assessing deemed consent in Wales - the advantages of a broad difference-in-difference designJournal of Medical Ethics 45 (3): 211-212. 2019.As the debate over an English opt-out policy for organ procurement intensifies, assessing existing experiences becomes even more important. The Welsh introduction of opt-out legislation provides one important point of reference. With the introduction of deemed consent in December 2015, Wales became the first part of the UK to introduce an opt-out system in organ procurement. My article ‘Deemed consent: assessing the new opt-out approach to organ procurement in Wales’ conducted an early assessmen…Read more
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121Distributive justice and the harm to medical professionals fighting epidemicsJournal of Medical Ethics 43 (12): 861-864. 2017.The exposure of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals to risks in the context of epidemics is significant. While traditional medical ethics offers the thought that these dangers may limit the extent to which a duty to care is applicable in such situations, it has less to say about what we might owe to medical professionals who are disadvantaged in these contexts. Luck egalitarianism, a responsibility-sensitive theory of distributive justice, appears to fare particularly badly in that r…Read more
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121Shlomi Segall , Equality and opportunity: Oxford University Press, ISBN: 9780199661817. 240 pages, £ 35Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 19 (5): 1345-1347. 2016.Review: Shlomi Segall (2013) Equality and opportunity
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141Fresh Starts for Poor Health Choices: Should We Provide Them and Who Should Pay?Public Health Ethics 9 (1): 55-64. 2016.Should we grant a fresh start to those who come to regret their past lifestyle choices? A negative response to this question can be located in the luck egalitarian literature. As a responsibility-sensitive theory of justice, luck egalitarianism considers it just that people’s relative positions reflect their past choices, including those they regret. In a recent article, Vansteenkiste, Devooght and Schokkaert argue against the luck egalitarian view, maintaining instead that those who regret thei…Read more
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161Tough Luck and Tough Choices: Applying Luck Egalitarianism to Oral HealthJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 40 (3): 342-362. 2015.Luck egalitarianism is often taken to task for its alleged harsh implications. For example, it may seem to imply a policy of nonassistance toward uninsured reckless drivers who suffer injuries. Luck egalitarians respond to such objections partly by pointing to a number of factors pertaining to the cases being debated, which suggests that their stance is less inattentive to the plight of the victims than it might seem at first. However, the strategy leaves some cases in which the attribution of i…Read more
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491A framework for luck egalitarianism in health and healthcareJournal of Medical Ethics 41 (2): 165-169. 2015.Several attempts have been made to apply the choice-sensitive theory of distributive justice, luck egalitarianism, in the context of health and healthcare. This article presents a framework for this discussion by highlighting different normative decisions to be made in such an application, some of the objections to which luck egalitarians must provide answers and some of the practical implications associated with applying such an approach in the real world. It is argued that luck egalitarians sh…Read more
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182Joseph Fishkin: Bottlenecks—A New Theory of Equality of Opportunity: Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2014, 288 ppRes Publica 21 (3): 331-336. 2015.Book review: Joseph Fishkin: Bottlenecks—A New Theory of Equality of Opportunity
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173Unjust EqualitiesEthical Theory and Moral Practice 17 (2): 335-346. 2014.In the luck egalitarian literature, one influential formulation of luck egalitarianism does not specify whether equalities that do not reflect people’s equivalent exercises of responsibility are bad with regard to inequality. This equivocation gives rise to two competing versions of luck egalitarianism: asymmetrical and symmetrical luck egalitarianism. According to the former, while inequalities due to luck are unjust, equalities due to luck are not necessarily so. The latter view, by contrast, …Read more
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183Drinking in the last chance saloon: luck egalitarianism, alcohol consumption, and the organ transplant waiting listMedicine, Health Care and Philosophy 19 (2): 325-338. 2016.The scarcity of livers available for transplants forces tough choices upon us. Lives for those not receiving a transplant are likely to be short. One large group of potential recipients needs a new liver because of alcohol consumption, while others suffer for reasons unrelated to their own behaviour. Should the former group receive lower priority when scarce livers are allocated? This discussion connects with one of the most pertinent issues in contemporary political philosophy; the role of pers…Read more
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230Luck Egalitarianism, Social Determinants and Public Health InitiativesPublic Health Ethics 8 (1): 42-49. 2015.People’s health is hugely affected by where they live, their occupational status and their socio-economic position. It has been widely argued that the presence of such social determinants in health provides good reasons to reject luck egalitarianism as a theory of distributive justice in health. The literature provides different reasons why this responsibility-sensitive theory of distributive justice should not be applied to health. The critiques submit that the social circumstances undermine or…Read more
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456Rawlsian Justice and Palliative CareBioethics 29 (8): 536-542. 2015.Palliative care serves both as an integrated part of treatment and as a last effort to care for those we cannot cure. The extent to which palliative care should be provided and our reasons for doing so have been curiously overlooked in the debate about distributive justice in health and healthcare. We argue that one prominent approach, the Rawlsian approach developed by Norman Daniels, is unable to provide such reasons and such care. This is because of a central feature in Daniels' account, name…Read more
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183Feiring’s concept of forward–looking responsibility: a dead end for responsibility in healthcareJournal of Medical Ethics 41 (2): 161-164. 2015.Eli Feiring has developed a concept of forward-looking responsibility in healthcare. On this account, what matters morally in the allocation of scarce healthcare resources is not people's past behaviours but rather their commitment to take on lifestyles that will increase the benefit acquired from received treatment. According to Feiring, this is to be preferred over the backward-looking concept of responsibility often associated with luck egalitarianism. The article critically scrutinises Feiri…Read more
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Aarhus UniversityResearcher
Aarhus, Denmark
Areas of Specialization
Medical Ethics |
Medicine and Law |
Egalitarianism |
Distributive Justice, Misc |