•  8
    Where Do I Go to Wait? Ethical Considerations During the 90 Day Reflection Period for MAiD
    with Kesi Disha, Ruby Shanker, and Nikolija Lukich
    Canadian Journal of Bioethics / Revue canadienne de bioéthique 6 (1): 70-74. 2023.
    Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) legislation changed in 2021; persons without a reasonably foreseeable natural death (RFND) could now be eligible for MAID and would have to wait at least 90 days before their intervention. This legislative change caused a new ethically complex question to arise, which we explore in this commentary, namely: Where should individuals without a RFND wait (for 90 days) in a publicly funded health system?
  •  5
    Contracting Compliance: A Discussion of the Ethical Implications of Behavioural Contracts in the Rehabilitation Setting
    with Jane Cooper, Ann Heesters, Kevin Rodrigues, and Nathalie Brown
    Canadian Journal of Bioethics / Revue canadienne de bioéthique 2 (2): 97-101. 2019.
    The pervasive use of contracts in healthcare is a source of unease for many healthcare ethicists and patient advocates. This commentary examines the use of such contracts with individuals in rehabilitation settings who have complex medical and behavioural issues. The goals of this paper are to examine the many factors that can lead to contract use, to discuss some legal and ethical implications of contract use, and to assess contract use in light of concerns about health equity. The paper conclu…Read more
  •  21
    Clinical ethics consultations: a scoping review of reported outcomes
    with Ann M. Heesters, Ruby R. Shanker, Kevin Rodrigues, Daniel Z. Buchman, Claudia Barned, Erica Nekolaichuk, Eryn Tong, Marina Salis, and Jennifer A. H. Bell
    BMC Medical Ethics 23 (1): 1-65. 2022.
    BackgroundClinical ethics consultations can be complex interventions, involving multiple methods, stakeholders, and competing ethical values. Despite longstanding calls for rigorous evaluation in the field, progress has been limited. The Medical Research Council proposed guidelines for evaluating the effectiveness of complex interventions. The evaluation of CEC may benefit from application of the MRC framework to advance the transparency and methodological rigor of this field. A first step is to…Read more
  •  3
    Licit Substance Use in Physical Rehabilitation Settings
    with Brynne McArthur and Alexandra Campbell
    The purpose of this commentary is to consider circumstances under which it may be ethical to permit patients to use licit substances in rehabilitation contexts. While the content of this commentary may be transferable to other healthcare spaces, our focus on rehabilitation is based on some important distinctions that exist between rehabilitation and acute care spaces.
  •  11
    Accessing Indigenous Long-Term Care
    with Danielle Gionnas, Leonard Benoit, and Kevin Rodrigues
    Canadian Journal of Bioethics / Revue canadienne de bioéthique 4 (1). 2021.
    The purpose of this commentary is to present and respond to the gap that currently exists in providing culturally inclusive residential long-term care options for Indigenous peoples in Ontario. After presenting statistics regarding the Indigenous population and long-term care options, we argue that we have an ethical responsibility to offer more culturally inclusive long-term care.
  •  34
    The Ethical Defensibility of Harm Reduction and Eating Disorders
    with Katherine Stanley and Kalam Sutandar
    American Journal of Bioethics 21 (7): 46-56. 2020.
    Eating disorders are mental illnesses that can have a significant and persistent physical impact, especially for those who are not treated early in their disease trajectory. Although many persons w...
  •  37
    Considering sex robots for older adults with cognitive impairments
    Journal of Medical Ethics 47 (1): 37-38. 2021.
    Determining whether and/or how to enable older persons with disabilities to engage in sex raises several ethical considerations. With the goal of enabling the sexual functioning of older adults with disabilities, Jecker argues that sex robots could be used as a helpful tool. In her article, ‘Nothing to be Ashamed of: Sex Robots for Older Adults with Disabilities’, Jecker acknowledges the importance of sexual functioning and the fact that ageist assumptions incorrectly classify older persons as a…Read more
  •  12
    Questioning the ethics of promoting weight loss in clinical practice
    with Maria Ricupero
    Canadian Journal of Bioethics / Revue canadienne de bioéthique 3 (1): 95-98. 2020.
    This case study considers the ethical defensibility of recommending weight loss as a treatment for patients with higher body mass indexes. Recommending weight loss may be motivated by clinicians’ biases toward people living in larger bodies, misperceptions about weight and its relevancy to overall health, and a failure to consider other ethical factors such as those related to equity and the social determinants of health.
  •  78
    The question of whether transgender athletes should be permitted to compete in accordance with their gender identity is an evolving debate. Most competitive sports have male and female categories. One of the primary challenges with this categorization system, however, is that some transgender athletes may be prevented from competing in accordance with their gender identity. The reason for this restriction is because of the idea that transgender women have an unfair advantage over their cisgender…Read more
  •  34
    The Burden of Over-Representation: Race, Sport and Philosophy
    Sport, Ethics and Philosophy 14 (2): 279-281. 2019.
    Volume 14, Issue 2, May 2020, Page 279-281.
  •  24
    Sex and dementia is becoming an increasingly important topic in applied ethics. By the year 2030, more than 74.7 million people are expected to be diagnosed with dementia worldwide; many of these people may want to engage in sex. The question of how to manage cases of sex and dementia is occurring more frequently in practical cases because of our aging population. The primary reason that sex and dementia is ethically complex is because sexual consent is both legally and morally significant, yet …Read more
  •  12
    This paper explores the ethics of deceased‐directed donation (DDD) and brings a unique perspective to this issue—the relevance of providing family‐centered care and culturally sensitive care to deceased donors, potential recipients, and their families. The significance of providing family‐centered care is becoming increasingly prevalent, specifically in pediatric healthcare settings. Therefore, this topic is especially relevant to those working with and interested in pediatrics. As the world is …Read more
  •  21
    Gender Testing in Sport: Ethics, cases and controversies (review)
    Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 45 (1): 105-108. 2018.
  •  71
    Autonomy, Sexuality, and Intellectual Disability
    Social Philosophy Today 32 107-121. 2016.
    Respect for autonomy grounds common ethical judgments about why people should be allowed to make decisions for themselves. Under this assumption, it is concerning that a number of feminist conceptions of autonomy present challenges for people with intellectual disabilities. This paper explores some of the most philosophically influential feminist accounts of autonomy and demonstrates how these accounts exclude persons with intellectual disabilities. As a possible solution to these accounts, Laur…Read more
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    Transgender women in sport
    Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 44 (2): 229-242. 2017.
    This paper considers whether transgender women should be permitted to compete in female categories in sports. Trans* women are often criticized for competing in female categories because they are seen as having an unfair advantage. Specifically, they are seen as having high levels of testosterone that unfairly enhance their performance in comparison to cisgender competitors. In this paper, I argue that trans* women should be permitted to compete in female categories. I suggest that if we want to…Read more