Caroline Buchanan

Solid organ transplants save lives, but demand for transplantable organs outpaces supply. Traditionally, organs from patients infected with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) were ineligible for donation to recipients without HCV (HCV D+/r– transplants) owing to concerns about intentionally transmitting HCV to organ recipients. New direct-acting antivirals against HCV and increased HCV+ organs from the opioid epidemic promised to solve the organ shortage. In 2017, the American Society of Transplantation argued that HCV D+/r– transplants are ethically permissible to maximize transplantable organs. This utilitarian argument suffers from flaws inherent to utilitarianism and could be made obsolete by resolving the organ supply/demand mismatch. A better argument for ethical HCV D+/r– transplants arises from the principle of double effect (PDE). The good effect of prolonging a life through transplantation outweighs the evil effect of infecting recipients with HCV. The PDE provides ethical grounding for HCV D+/r– transplants and creates better informed consent discussions.

Clinical ethics consultants face a wide range of ethical dilemmas that require broad knowledge and skills. Although there is considerable overlap with the approach to adult consultation, ethics consultants must be aware of differences when they work with infant, pediatric, and adolescent cases. This article addresses unique considerations in the pediatric setting, reviews foundational theories on parental authority, suggests practical approaches to pediatric consultation, and outlines current available resources for clinical ethics consultants who wish to deepen their skills in this area.

At the 2022 Clinical Ethics Unconference, the authors perceived a significant lack of racial and ethnic diversity, which was consistent with their experiences in other clinical ethics settings. As a result, they convened a working group to address the pervasive lack of diversity present in the field of clinical ethics and to propose strategies to increase the representation of people from racial and ethnic minority populations. This article identifies the harms associated with the lack of diversity in the healthcare setting and translates these to the field of clinical ethics. The article then proposes a framework that may be used to help diversify the field of clinical ethics. Specifically, the authors identify existing barriers to appropriate diversity, actionable steps to increase diversity, and tools the field can utilize to systematically assess its progress with respect to achieving diversity.

Recent literature on J. G. Fichte's ethical philosophy has tended to focus on a handful of interpretive issues while simultaneously emphasizing his under-appreciated relevance to contemporary moral theory. In this regard, Kosch's book on Fichte's ethics is similar to other recent publications. In almost every other way, however, it is unique. Kosch uses her talent for clear argumentation to propose several theses that have little precedent in Fichte scholarship.Her book's goal is two-fold: first, to fill a "yawning gap" in Fichte scholarship by addressing aspects of Fichte's ethical system that have been misinterpreted or overlooked, and second, to present Fichte's ethical work to philosophers "who would be...

Fichte’s Ethical Thought follows a format familiar to those who have read Allen Wood’s books on the ethical thought of Immanuel Kant and G. W. F. Hegel: Wood integrates Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s work into topical chapters, each discussing an important component of Fichte’s ethical system. The text he focuses on, of course, is Fichte’s 1798 System of Ethics, but Fichte scholars will likely be pleased to find that Wood discusses a wide range of Fichte’s Jena-era writings. Wood makes use of Addresses to the German Nation, The Closed Commercial State, and earlier works such as Some Lectures Concerning the Scholar’s Vocation, especially in the final two chapters, which cover Fichte’s thought on public life, the...