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19Why genomics researchers are sometimes morally required to hunt for secondary findingsBMC Medical Ethics 21 (1): 1-11. 2020.Genomic research can reveal ‘unsolicited’ or ‘incidental’ findings that are of potential health or reproductive significance to participants. It is widely thought that researchers have a moral obligation, grounded in the duty of easy rescue, to return certain kinds of unsolicited findings to research participants. It is less widely thought that researchers have a moral obligation to actively look for health-related findings. This paper examines whether there is a moral obligation, grounded in th…Read more
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141Germline gene editing and the precautionary principleBioethics 34 (1): 49-59. 2019.The precautionary principle aims to influence decision‐making in contexts where some activity poses uncertain but potentially grave threats. This perfectly describes the controversy surrounding germline gene editing. This article considers whether the precautionary principle should influence how we weigh the risks and benefits of human germline interventions, focusing especially on the possible threats to the health of future generations. We distinguish between several existing forms of the prec…Read more
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41Human‐Animal Chimeras: The Moral Insignificance of Uniquely Human CapacitiesHastings Center Report 49 (5): 23-32. 2019.Human‐animal chimeras—creatures composed of a mix of animal and human cells—have come to play an important role in biomedical research, and they raise ethical questions. This article focuses on one particularly difficult set of questions—those related to the moral status of human‐animal chimeras with brains that are partly or wholly composed of human cells. Given the uncertain effects of human‐animal chimera research on chimeric animals’ cognition, it would be prudent to ensure we do not overloo…Read more
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45Moral uncertainty and the farming of human-pig chimerasJournal of Medical Ethics 45 (7): 440-446. 2019.It may soon be possible to generate human organs inside of human-pig chimeras via a process called interspecies blastocyst complementation. This paper discusses what arguably the central ethical concern is raised by this potential source of transplantable organs: that farming human-pig chimeras for their organs risks perpetrating a serious moral wrong because the moral status of human-pig chimeras is uncertain, and potentially significant. Those who raise this concern usually take it to be uniqu…Read more
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30Choice, pressure and markets in kidneysJournal of Medical Ethics 44 (5): 310-313. 2018.We do not always benefit from the expansion of our choice sets. This is because some options change the context in which we must make decisions in ways that render us worse off than we would have been otherwise. One promising argument against paid living kidney donation holds that having the option of selling a ‘spare’ kidney would impact people facing financial pressures in precisely this way. I defend this argument from two related criticisms: first, that having the option to sell one’s kidney…Read more
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29Response to Open Peer Commentaries on “Assessing the Likely Harms to Kidney Vendors in Regulated Organ Markets”American Journal of Bioethics 14 (10): 1-3. 2014.No abstract
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45Beyond Fair Benefits: Reconsidering Exploitation Arguments Against Organ MarketsHealth Care Analysis 26 (1): 33-47. 2018.One common objection to establishing regulated live donor organ markets is that such markets would be exploitative. Perhaps surprisingly, exploitation arguments against organ markets have been widely rejected in the philosophical literature on the subject. It is often argued that concerns about exploitation should be addressed by increasing the price paid to organ sellers, not by banning the trade outright. I argue that this analysis rests on a particular conception of exploitation, and outline …Read more