-
21Introduction: The Limits of Consent and Conscience in MedicineHEC Forum 26 (3): 181-183. 2014.In recent years a concern with the value of personal autonomy has come to dominate discussions in medical ethics. This emphasis on autonomy has naturally led to discussions of what criteria must be met for a person to be autonomous, or to be autonomous with respect to her decisions, her actions, or those of her desires that motivate her to make or to perform the decisions or the actions that she makes or does. It has also led to discussions of whether autonomy is valuable in itself, instrumental…Read more
-
143Harming the DeadJournal of Philosophical Research 33 185-202. 2008.It is widely accepted that a person can be harmed by events that occur after her death. The most influential account of how persons can suffer such posthumous harm has been provided by George Pitcher and Joel Feinberg. Yet, despite its influence (or perhaps because of it) the Feinberg-Pitcher account of posthumous harm has been subject to several well-known criticisms. Surprisingly, there has been no attempt to defend this account of posthumous harm against these criticisms, either by philosophe…Read more
-
84Autonomy, Responsibility, and Women’s Obligation to Resist Sexual HarrassmentInternational Journal of Applied Philosophy 21 (1): 55-63. 2007.In a recent paper Carol Hay has argued for the conclusion that “a woman who has been sexually harassed has a moral obligation to confront her harasser.” I will argue in this paper that Hay’s arguments for her conclusion are unsound, for they rest on both a misconstrual of the nature of personal autonomy, and a misunderstanding of its relationship to moral responsibility. However, even though Hay’s own arguments do not support her conclusion that women have a duty to resist sexual harassment this…Read more
-
Personal Autonomy: Its Theoretical Foundations and Role in Applied EthicsDissertation, Bowling Green State University. 2000.For almost the past three decades the model of autonomy which has dominated philosophical discussion of this concept has been the "hierarchical" model, which has been independently developed and defended by Harry Frankfurt, Gerald Dworkin and John Christman, and which is primarily concerned with what makes a person autonomous with respect to her first-order desires. It is argued that all versions of the hierarchical model of personal autonomy are based upon a theoretical mistake, and so should b…Read more
-
16Autonomy and Informed Consent on the Navajo ReservationJournal of Social Philosophy 35 (4): 506-516. 2004.
-
9Market-Based Reforms in Health Care are Both Practical and Morally SoundJournal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 40 (3): 537-546. 2012.Markets have long had a whiff of sulphur about them. Plato condemned innkeepers, whose pursuit of profit he believed led them to take advantage of their customers, Aristotle believed that the pursuit of profit was indicative of moral debasement, and Cicero held that retailers are typically dishonest as this was the only path to gain. And even those who are more favorably disposed towards markets in general are frequently inclined to be suspicious of markets in medical goods and services. For exa…Read more
-
29Stefaan Cuypers, self-identity and personal autonomyJournal of Value Inquiry 37 (2): 259-265. 2003.
-
43A Scandal in GenevaInternational Journal of Applied Philosophy 28 (2): 219-234. 2014.In 2013 the World Health Organization published a Report in which it was argued that countries should become self-sufficient in safe blood and blood products, and that these should be secured through voluntary non-remunerated donation. These two claims were putatively supported by a wealth of citations to peer-reviewed academic papers, the results of Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries in both Canada and the United Kingdom, and data collected from Non-Government Organizations. Yet not only do…Read more
-
48Posthumous Interests: Legal and Ethical Perspectives. By Daniel SperlingMetaphilosophy 41 (5): 727-731. 2010.
-
77Autonomy, constraining options, and organ salesJournal of Applied Philosophy 19 (3). 2002.We should try to alleviate it through allowing a current market in them continues to be morally condemned, usually on the grounds tha
-
15Organs: tradable, but not necessarily inheritableJournal of Medical Ethics 40 (1): 62-62. 2014.Teck Chuan Voo and Soren Holm argue that “organs should be inheritable if they were to be socially and legally recognised as tradable property.”1 To support this view they first observe that “…legal recognition of objects as property… opens up the possibility of the legal recognition of the survival of the property rights and their inheritability after the death of the source/owner, even if those rights are intimately bound with the person.”1 They also note that if organs are tradable property t…Read more
-
37Why Markets in Proto-Deceptive Goods Should Be RestrictedJournal of Business Ethics 65 (4): 325-335. 2006.In recent years there has been much philosophical discussion over the question of whether the prohibitions on markets in such items as human body parts and gene sequences, and services such as human reproductive labor and sex, should be lifted. Yet despite the attention paid to this issue there are been surprisingly little discussion of the question of whether markets in certain items that are currently freely traded should be restricted or eliminated. In particular, there has been little discus…Read more
-
60John Martin Fischer and mark Ravizza, responsibility and control: A theory of moral responsibility (review)Journal of Value Inquiry 35 (1): 125-130. 2001.
-
28Harming the DeadJournal of Philosophical Research 33 185-202. 2008.It is widely accepted that a person can be harmed by events that occur after her death. The most influential account of how persons can suffer such posthumous harm has been provided by George Pitcher and Joel Feinberg. Yet, despite its influence (or perhaps because of it) the Feinberg-Pitcher account of posthumous harm has been subject to several well-known criticisms. Surprisingly, there has been no attempt to defend this account of posthumous harm against these criticisms, either by philosophe…Read more
-
50Death and the Afterlife By Samuel Scheffler, edited by Niko KolodnyAnalysis 74 (4): 738-740. 2014.
-
35Reappraising the Role of Autonomy in Medical EthicsProfessional Ethics, a Multidisciplinary Journal 8 (1): 19-33. 2000.
-
13Autonomy, Responsibility, and Women’s Obligation to Resist Sexual HarrassmentInternational Journal of Applied Philosophy 21 (1): 55-63. 2007.In a recent paper Carol Hay has argued for the conclusion that “a woman who has been sexually harassed has a moral obligation to confront her harasser.” I will argue in this paper that Hay’s arguments for her conclusion are unsound, for they rest on both a misconstrual of the nature of personal autonomy, and a misunderstanding of its relationship to moral responsibility. However, even though Hay’s own arguments do not support her conclusion that women have a duty to resist sexual harassment this…Read more
-
111Personal Autonomy: New Essays on Personal Autonomy and its Role in Contemporary Moral Philosophy (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2005.Autonomy has recently become one of the central concepts in contemporary moral philosophy and has generated much debate over its nature and value. This 2005 volume brings together essays that address the theoretical foundations of the concept of autonomy, as well as essays that investigate the relationship between autonomy and moral responsibility, freedom, political philosophy, and medical ethics. Written by some of the most prominent philosophers working in these areas, this book represents re…Read more
-
52Identification and Quasi-DesiresPhilosophical Papers 34 (1): 111-136. 2005.Although the standard objections to Harry Frankfurt's early hierarchical analysis of identification and its variants are well known, more recent work on identification has yet to be subjected to the same degree of scrutiny. To remedy this I develop in this paper objections to Frankfurt's most recent analysis of identification as satisfaction that he first outlined in his paper ?The Faintest Passion?. With such objections in place I show that they demonstrate that Frankfurt's analysis fails becau…Read more
-
47Moral Repugnance, Moral Distress, and Organ SalesJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 40 (3): 312-327. 2015.Many still oppose legalizing markets in human organs on the grounds that they are morally repugnant. I will argue in this paper that the repugnance felt by some persons towards sales of human organs is insufficient to justify their prohibition. Yet this rejection of the view that markets in human organs should be prohibited because some persons find them to be morally repugnant does not imply that persons’ feelings of distress at the possibility of organ sales are irrational. Eduardo Rivera-Lope…Read more
-
50The value of autonomy and the right to self-medicationJournal of Medical Ethics 38 (10): 587-588. 2012.In ‘Three Arguments Against Prescription Requirements’, Jessica Flanigan argues that ‘prescription drug laws violate patients' rights to self-medication’ and that patients ‘have rights to self-medication for the same reasons they have rights to refuse medical treatment according to the doctrine of informed consent , claiming that the strongest of these reasons is grounded on the value of autonomy. However, close examination of the moral value of autonomy shows that rather than being the stronges…Read more
-
82Introduction: Moral and Political Issues in VaccinationHEC Forum 26 (1): 1-3. 2014.In 1998, The Lancet published a research paper by Andrew Wakefield that provided support to the formerly-discredited theory that the Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine could cause colitis and autism spectrum disorders (Wakefield et al. 1998). Although this paper was fully retracted in 2010 after being exposed as fraudulent, it served as a catalyst for concerns about the safety of vaccination, both the MMR vaccine in particular and vaccination in general. While the scientific consensus concern…Read more
-
21The Carelessness of Affordable CareHastings Center Report 42 (5): 24-27. 2012.The Affordable Care Act has been touted as a long‐overdue remedy for what is perceived to be the chronic problem of large numbers of Americans living without adequate health insurance. While much of the discussion of the ACA has focused on its legality, it should also be assessed on the basis of its economic implications and its moral acceptability. On its face, the ACA appears to do well on both counts. Given that the uninsured often secure their health care from expensive emergency room treatm…Read more