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63Defining life from death: problems with the somatic integration definition of lifeBioethics (5): 1-5. 2020.To determine when the life of a human organism begins, Mark T. Brown has developed the somatic integration definition of life. Derived from diagnostic criteria for human death, Brown’s account requires the presence of a life‐regulation internal control system for an entity to be considered a living organism. According to Brown, the earliest point at which a developing human could satisfy this requirement is at the beginning of the fetal stage, and so the embryo is not regarded as a living human …Read more
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746Responding to objections to gatekeeping for hormone replacement therapyJournal of Medical Ethics 45 (12): 828-829. 2019.Florence Ashley has responded to our response to ‘Gatekeeping hormone replacement therapy for transgender patients is dehumanising.’ Ashley criticises some of our objections to their view that patients seeking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for gender dysphoria should not have to undergo a prior psychological assessment. Here we clarify our objections, most importantly that concerning the parity between cosmetic surgery and the sort of intervention Ashley has in mind. Firstly, we show Ashley’…Read more
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40Moral distress in healthcare assistants: A discussion with recommendationsNursing Ethics 26 (7-8): 2306-2313. 2019.Background:Moral distress can be broadly described as the psychological distress that can develop in response to a morally challenging event. In the context of healthcare, its effects are well documented in the nursing profession, but there is a paucity of research exploring its relevance to healthcare assistants.Objective:This article aims to examine the existing research on moral distress in healthcare assistants, identity the important factors that are likely to contribute to moral distress, …Read more
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1081Questionable benefits and unavoidable personal beliefs: defending conscientious objection for abortionJournal of Medical Ethics 3 (46): 178-182. 2020.Conscientious objection in healthcare has come under heavy criticism on two grounds recently, particularly regarding abortion provision. First, critics claim conscientious objection involves a refusal to provide a legal and beneficial procedure requested by a patient, denying them access to healthcare. Second, they argue the exercise of conscientious objection is based on unverifiable personal beliefs. These characteristics, it is claimed, disqualify conscientious objection in healthcare. Here, …Read more
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457Using animal-derived constituents in anaesthesia and surgery: the case for disclosing to patientsBMC Medical Ethics 20 (1): 1-9. 2019.Animal-derived constituents are frequently used in anaesthesia and surgery, and patients are seldom informed of this. This is problematic for a growing minority of patients who may have religious or secular concerns about their use in their care. It is not currently common practice to inform patients about the use of animal-derived constituents, yet what little empirical data does exist indicates that many patients want the opportunity to give their informed consent. First, we review the nature …Read more
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349Why a right to life rules out infanticide: A final reply to RäsänenBioethics 33 (8): 965-967. 2019.Joona Räsänen has argued that pro‐life arguments against the permissibility of infanticide are not persuasive, and fail to show it to be immoral. We responded to Räsänen’s arguments, concluding that his critique of pro‐life arguments was misplaced. Räsänen has recently replied in ‘Why pro‐life arguments still are not convincing: A reply to my critics’, providing some additional arguments as to why he does not find pro‐life arguments against infanticide convincing. Here, we respond briefly to Räs…Read more
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22320An introduction to ethical theory for healthcare assistantsBritish Journal of Healthcare Assistants 11 (11): 556-561. 2017.This article will explore and summarise the four main ethical theories that have relevance for healthcare assistants. These are utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, and principlism. Understanding different ethical theories can have a number of significant benefits, which have the potential to shape and inform the care of patients, challenge bad practice and lead staff to become better informed about areas of moral disagreement.
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629Hormone replacement therapy: informed consent without assessment?Journal of Medical Ethics 45 (12): 1-2. 2019.Florence Ashley has argued that requiring patients with gender dysphoria to undergo an assessment and referral from a mental health professional before undergoing hormone replacement therapy is unethical and may represent an unconscious hostility towards transgender people. We respond, first, by showing that Ashley has conflated the self-reporting of symptoms with self-diagnosis, and that this is not consistent with the standard model of informed consent to medical treatment. Second, we note tha…Read more
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1704The Problem of Spontaneous Abortion: Is the Pro-Life Position Morally Monstrous?The New Bioethics 25 (2): 103-120. 2019.A substantial proportion of human embryos spontaneously abort soon after conception, and ethicists have argued this is problematic for the pro-life view that a human embryo has the same moral status as an adult from conception. Firstly, if human embryos are our moral equals, this entails spontaneous abortion is one of humanity’s most important problems, and it is claimed this is absurd, and a reductio of the moral status claim. Secondly, it is claimed that pro-life advocates do not act as if spo…Read more
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409Meeting the Epicurean challenge: a reply to ChristensenJournal of Medical Ethics 45 (7): 478-479. 2019.In ’Abortion and deprivation: a reply to Marquis’, Anna Christensen contends that Don Marquis’ influential ’future like ours’ argument for the immorality of abortion faces a significant challenge from the Epicurean claim that human beings cannot be harmed by their death. If deprivation requires a subject, then abortion cannot deprive a fetus of a future of value, as no individual exists to be deprived once death has occurred. However, the Epicurean account also implies that the wrongness of murd…Read more
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431Can conscientious objection lead to eugenic practices against LGBT individuals?Bioethics 33 (4): 524-528. 2019.In a recent article in this journal, Abram Brummett argues that new and future assisted reproductive technologies will provide challenging ethical questions relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons. Brummett notes that it is likely that some clinicians may wish to conscientiously object to offering assisted reproductive technologies to LGBT couples on moral or religious grounds, and argues that such appeals to conscience should be constrained. We argue that Brummett's ca…Read more
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93Ectogenesis and the case against the right to the death of the foetusBioethics 33 (1): 76-81. 2018.Ectogenesis, or the use of an artificial womb to allow a foetus to develop, will likely become a reality within a few decades, and could significantly affect the abortion debate. We first examine the implications for Judith Jarvis Thomson’s violinist analogy, which argues for a woman’s right to withdraw life support from the foetus and so terminate her pregnancy, even if the foetus is granted full moral status. We show that on Thomson’s reasoning, there is no right to the death of the foetus, an…Read more
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70Why arguments against infanticide remain convincing: A reply to RäsänenBioethics 32 (3): 215-219. 2018.In ‘Pro-life arguments against infanticide and why they are not convincing’ Joona Räsänen argues that Christopher Kaczor's objections to Giubilini and Minerva's position on infanticide are not persuasive. We argue that Räsänen's criticism is largely misplaced, and that he has not engaged with Kaczor's strongest arguments against infanticide. We reply to each of Räsänen's criticisms, drawing on the full range of Kaczor's arguments, as well as adding some of our own.
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39Down’s Syndrome Screening and Reproductive Politics: Care, Choice, and Disability in the Prenatal Clinic (review)The New Bioethics 24 (1): 95-97. 2018.
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1307Beyond Infanticide: How Psychological Accounts of Persons Can Justify Harming InfantsThe New Bioethics 24 (2): 106-121. 2018.It is commonly argued that a serious right to life is grounded only in actual, relatively advanced psychological capacities a being has acquired. The moral permissibility of abortion is frequently argued for on these grounds. Increasingly it is being argued that such accounts also entail the permissibility of infanticide, with several proponents of these theories accepting this consequence. We show, however, that these accounts imply the permissibility of even more unpalatable acts than infantic…Read more
Daniel Rodger
London South Bank University
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London South Bank UniversitySenior Lecturer
Areas of Specialization
2 more
Philosophy, Misc |
Professional Areas |
Other Academic Areas |
Persons |
Nursing Ethics |
Death and Dying |
Public Health, Misc |