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394Authorship and Responsibility in Health Sciences Research: A Review of Procedures for Fairly Allocating Authorship in Multi-Author StudiesScience and Engineering Ethics 18 (2): 199-212. 2012.While there has been significant discussion in the health sciences and ethics literatures about problems associated with publication practices (e.g., ghost- and gift-authorship, conflicts of interest), there has been relatively little practical guidance developed to help researchers determine how they should fairly allocate credit for multi-authored publications. Fair allocation of credit requires that participating authors be acknowledged for their contribution and responsibilities, but it is n…Read more
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367Managing Antimicrobial Resistance In Food Production: Conflicts Of Interest And Politics In The Development Of Public Health PolicyLes ateliers de l'éthique/The Ethics Forum 5 (1): 156-169. 2010.Antimicrobial resistance is a growing public health concern and is associated with the over - or inappropriate use of antimicrobials in both humans and agriculture. While there has been recognition of this problem on the part of agricultural and public health authorities, there has nonetheless been significant difficulty in translating policy recommendations into practical guidelines. In this paper, we examine the process of public health policy development in Quebec agriculture, with a focus on…Read more
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348Commercial Surrogacy and the Redefinition of MotherhoodJournal of Philosophy, Science and Law 2 1-16. 2002.
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300How do medical device manufacturers' websites frame the value of health innovation? An empirical ethics analysis of five Canadian innovationsMedicine, Health Care and Philosophy 15 (1): 61-77. 2012.While every health care system stakeholder would seem to be concerned with obtaining the greatest value from a given technology, there is often a disconnect in the perception of value between a technology’s promoters and those responsible for the ultimate decision as to whether or not to pay for it. Adopting an empirical ethics approach, this paper examines how five Canadian medical device manufacturers, via their websites, frame the corporate “value proposition” of their innovation and seek to …Read more
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281Pharmacogenetics: the bioethical problem of DNA investment bankingStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 37 (3): 550-565. 2006.
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272Global bioethics – myth or reality?BMC Medical Ethics 7 (1): 1-10. 2006.Background There has been debate on whether a global or unified field of bioethics exists. If bioethics is a unified global field, or at the very least a closely shared way of thinking, then we should expect bioethicists to behave the same way in their academic activities anywhere in the world. This paper investigates whether there is a 'global bioethics' in the sense of a unified academic community. Methods To address this question, we study the web-linking patterns of bioethics institutions, t…Read more
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252Bio-ethics and one health: a case study approach to building reflexive governanceFrontiers in Public Health 10 (648593). 2022.Surveillance programs supporting the management of One Health issues such as antibiotic resistance are complex systems in themselves. Designing ethical surveillance systems is thus a complex task (retroactive and iterative), yet one that is also complicated to implement and evaluate (e.g., sharing, collaboration, and governance). The governance of health surveillance requires attention to ethical concerns about data and knowledge (e.g., performance, trust, accountability, and transparency) and e…Read more
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231Challenges for Corporate Ethics in Marketing Genetic TestsJournal of Business Ethics 77 (1): 33-44. 2008.Public discussions of ethical issues related to the biotechnology industry tend to treat "biotechnology" as a single, undifferentiated technology. Similarly, the pros and cons associated with this entire sector tend to get lumped together, such that individuals and groups often situate themselves as either "pro-" or "anti-" biotechnology as a whole. But different biotechnologies and their particular application context pose very different challenges for ethical corporate decision-making. Even wi…Read more
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230Drug Familiarization and Therapeutic Misconception Via Direct-to-Consumer InformationJournal of Bioethical Inquiry 12 (2): 259-267. 2015.Promotion of prescription drugs may appear to be severely limited in some jurisdictions due to restrictions on direct-to-consumer advertising. However, in most jurisdictions, strategies exist to raise consumer awareness about prescription drugs, notably through the deployment of direct-to-consumer information campaigns that encourage patients to seek help for particular medical conditions. In Canada, DTCI is presented by industry and regulated by Health Canada as being purely informational activ…Read more
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220Impacts of the Early COVID-19 Pandemic on the Work of Bioethicists in CanadaCanadian Journal of Bioethics / Revue canadienne de bioéthique 5 (4): 20-29. 2022.Bioethics experts played a key role in ensuring a coherent ethical response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the fields of healthcare, public health, and scientific research in Canada. In the province of Quebec, a group of academic and practicing bioethicists met periodically in the early months of the pandemic to discuss approaches and solutions to ethical dilemmas encountered during the crisis. These meetings created the opportunity for a national survey of bioethics practitioners from different fi…Read more
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219Should we perform kidney transplants on foreign nationals?Journal of Medical Ethics 40 (12): 821-826. 2014.In Canada, there are currently no guidelines at either the federal or provincial level regarding the provision of kidney transplantation services to foreign nationals (FN). Renal transplant centres have, in the past, agreed to put refugee claimants and other FNs on the renal transplant waiting list, in part, because these patients (refugee claimants) had health insurance through the Interim Federal Health Programme to cover the costs of medication and hospital care. However, severe cuts recently…Read more
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210Beyond a pejorative understanding of conflict of interestAmerican Journal of Bioethics 11 (1). 2011.In seeking to clarify the concept of conflict of interest (COI) in debates about physician–industry relationships, Howard Brody (2011) highlights the extent to which the prob- lem turns on a common pejorative understanding of COI. Whether it is the academic or public policy “pharmapologists” or “pharmascolds” talking about COI, there is often a straightforward and overly simplistic correlation made: that is, a conflict of interest—by definition—leads to fraudulent or corrupt behavior. The same t…Read more
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200Principles for Incorporating Farmers in the Ethical Assessment of Genetically Modified CropsEthics in Biology, Engineering and Medicine 1 (2): 83-99. 2010.A current advance within the agricultural industry is the use of genetic engineering to produce novel crops for food production. This technology raises questions about how societies should position themselves with respect to genetically modified (GM) crop development and implementation; namely, how should the potentials and risks of this technology be evaluated? We argue that current methods to evaluate the risks and benefits of GM crops are inadequate and not conducive to the strategic developm…Read more
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199Imagining Truly Open Access Bioethics: From Dreams to RealityAmerican Journal of Bioethics 17 (10): 19-20. 2017.Imagine that you are part of the editorial board of a young bioethics journal committed to publishing open access (OA) and to ensuring accessibility to high quality and innovative scholarship. To support junior and interna- tional scholars who might not otherwise find places for their work in the leading Western bioethics journals, you do not charge author fees. Imagine also that you have no financial resources to pay for a professional website, auto- mated submissions manager, or even a part-ti…Read more
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198Ethics and genetics: Susceptibility testing in the workplaceJournal of Business Ethics 35 (3): 235-241. 2002.Genetic testing in the workplace is a technology both full of promise and fraught with ethical peril. Though not yet common, it is likely to become increasingly so. We survey the key arguments in favour of such testing, along with the most significant ethical worries. We further propose a set of pragmatic criteria, which, if met, would make it permissible for employers to offer (but not to require) workplace genetic testing.
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198Barriers to Research on Research Ethics Review and Conflicts of InterestIRB: Ethics & Human Research 35 (5): 14-20. 2013.Research on research ethics—regarding both the governance and practice of the ethical review of human subjects research—has a tumultuous history in North America and Europe. Much of the academic literature focuses on issues to do with regulating the conduct and quality of ethics review of research protocols by ethics committees (research ethics boards (REBs) in Canada and institutional review boards (IRBs) in the United States). In addition, some of the literature attends to issues particular to…Read more
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197The global HLA banking of embryonic stem cells requires further scientific justificationAmerican Journal of Bioethics 7 (8): 45-46. 2007.There is a widely acknowledged shortage of and an increasing demand for transplantable human organs and tissues (e.g., kidney, heart, lung, liver, cornea) in developed and developing countries around the world. In response to this need, Lott and Savulescu (2007) propose the creation of a human embryonic stem (hESC) bank to facilitate the equitable and efficient dissemination of human leukocyte anti- gen (HLA) matched tissues and organs to patients in need of replacement. Although not an unreason…Read more
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189Access to Personal Information for Public Health Research: Transparency Should Always Be MandatoryCanadian Journal of Bioethics/Revue canadienne de bioéthique 1 (2): 94-98. 2018.In Québec, the Act Respecting Access to Documents Held by Public Bodies and the Protection of Personal Information provides an exception to transparency to most public institutions where public health research is conducted by allowing them to not disclose their uses of personal data. This exceptionalism is ethically problematic due to important concerns and we argue that all those who conduct research should be transparent and accountable for the work they do in the public interest.
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185La conduite responsable en recherche en sciences humaines et socialesIn Christian Hervé & Michèle Stanton Jean (eds.), Ethique, intégrité scientifique et fausses nouvelles. pp. 121-134. 2021.Jusqu’à présent, les discussions au sein de la communauté universitaire et dans la littérature scientifique sur la conduite responsable en recherche (CRR), incluant l’intégrité scientifique et l’éthique de la recherche, ont principalement été menées par les chercheurs en sciences de la santé et en sciences fondamentales. Préoccupés, à juste titre, par des problèmes d’inconduite, leurs effets négatifs sur la rigueur scientifique et la confiance du public dans l’entreprise de la recherche, ces déb…Read more
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181Biopolitical Barriers to a Potterian Bioethics: The (Potentially) Missed Opportunity of EpigeneticsAmerican Journal of Bioethics 17 (9): 15-17. 2017.Lee (2017) calls for greater attention to the shared epistemological and normative grounds of both public health ethics and environmental ethics, and to Potter’s original conception of bioethics, which, as she rightly observes, has been largely disregarded in contemporary North American bioethics scholarship and practice. In a previous publication we also argued in favor of reviving the Potterian approach to bioethics; we built a case grounded in “the relatively new field of molecular epigenetic…Read more
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18110 Years On: Looking Back in Order to Move Forward into the FutureCanadian Journal of Bioethics/Revue canadienne de bioéthique 5 (4): 1-4. 2022.NA.
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178Pharmacogenetics: the bioethical problem of DNA investment bankingStudies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 37 (3): 550-565. 2004.Concern about the ethics of clinical drug trials research on patients and healthy volunteers has been the subject of significant ethical analysis and policy development—protocols are reviewed by Research Ethics Committees and subjects are protected by informed consent procedures. More recently attention has begun to be focused on DNA banking for clinical and pharmacogenetics research. It is, however, surprising how little attention has been paid to the commercial nature of such research, or the …Read more
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167À la recherche du chaînon manquant entre bio et éthiqueCanadian Journal of Bioethics / Revue canadienne de bioéthique 1 (5): 103-118. 2022.Van Rensselaer Potter (1911-2001), le biologiste à l’origine du terme « bioéthique » dans les écrits nord-américains, considère que « real bioethics falls in the context of the ideals of […] Aldo Leopold », un forestier, philosophe et poète ayant marqué le XXe siècle. Associer Leopold à Potter a pour effet de placer la bioéthique dans la famille des éthiques de l’environnement, ce qui la différencie du sens conventionnel retenu en médecine et en recherche depuis le Rapport Belmont (1979), une dé…Read more
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160Applying the ecosystem approach to global bioethics: building on the Leopold legacyGlobal Bioethics 34 (1): 2280289. 2023.For Van Rensselaer Potter (1911–2001), Global Bio-Ethics is about building on the legacy of Aldo Leopold (1887–1948), one of the most notable forest managers of the twentieth century who brought to light the importance of pragmatism in the sciences and showed us a new way to proceed with environmental ethics. Following Richard Huxtable and Jonathan Ives's methodological 'Framework for Empirical Bioethics Research Projects' called 'Mapping, framing, shaping,' published in BMC Medicine Ethics (201…Read more
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159Bioéthique et "bioéthicien" : révélation d’une professionIn Christian Hervé, Michèle Stanton-Jean, Mylène Deschênes & Henri-Corto Stoeklé (eds.), Covid-19, One Health et intelligence artificielle, Dalloz. 2022.Depuis 2020, le monde a connu une situation sanitaire exceptionnelle à la suite de la pandémie de Covid-19, faisant face à une incertitude dans le monde médical clinique, de la recherche et dans l’ensemble des domaines connexes en santé publique. Le caractère imprévisible et l’absence de données fiables en lien avec ce virus ont fait émerger une quantité d’enjeux éthiques concrets, cela a donc révélé un domaine particulier, la bioéthique, et plus particulièrement une profession, les bioéthiciens…Read more
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143Colombian adolescents’ preferences for independently accessing sexual and reproductive health services: a cross-sectional and bioethics analysisSexual and Reproductive Healthcare 100698 (32). 2022.Objective Our study sought to (1) describe the practices and preferences of Colombian adolescents in accessing sexual and reproductive health services: accompanied versus alone; (2) compare actual practices with stated preferences; and (3) determine age and gender differences regarding the practice and these stated preferences. Methods 812 participants aged 11–24 years old answered a survey in two Profamilia clinics in the cities of Medellin and Cali in Colombia. A cross-sectional analysis was p…Read more
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143Reference Letters and Conflict of Interest: A Professor’s DilemmaBioéthiqueOnline 1 10. 2012.This case study examines some of the challenges, and in particular conflicts of interest, that professors face in writing letters of reference for their students.
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140Managing Conflicts of Interest Should Begin with Dialogue and Education, Not Punitive Measures: Comment on “Toward a Sociology of Conflict of Interest in Medical Research” by Sarah Winch and Michael SinnottJournal of Bioethical Inquiry 9 (2): 221-222. 2012.The case study presented by Winch and Sinnott (2011) shows not only how difficult it is for clinicians and researchers to identify conflicts of interest (COI), but also how damaging it can be when there are unin- formed and uncoordinated policy responses by senior administrators.
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139Genetic Testing for Sale: Implications of Commercial Brca Testing in CanadaDissertation, The University of British Columbia (Canada). 2002.Ongoing research in the fields of genetics and biotechnology hold the promise of improved diagnosis and treatment of genetic diseases, and potentially the development of individually tailored pharmaceuticals and gene therapies. Difficulty, however, arises in determining how these services are to be evaluated and integrated equitably into public health care systems such as Canada's. The current context is one of increasing fiscal restraint on the part of governments, limited financial resources b…Read more
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137Book review: Who Owns Life? (review)Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 25 (2): 165-169. 2004.Genetics research and biotechnology development - while holding the promise of improved pharmaceuticals, medical treatments, and foods - is also raising concerns about the impact of market forces on scientific inquiry, product development, and the provision of health care.