•  6
    Epigenetics, Parenthood and Responsibility for Children
    In Emma Moormann, Anna Smajdor & Daniela Cutas (eds.), Epigenetics and Responsibility: Ethical Perspectives, Bristol University Press. pp. 98-109. 2024.
  •  17
    Epigenetics and Responsibility: Ethical Perspectives (edited book)
    Bristol University Press. 2024.
  •  4363
    Etica aplicată şi de ce avem nevoie de ea
    with Alexandru Volacu and Adrian Miroiu
    In Alexandru Volacu, Daniela Cutas & Adrian Miroiu (eds.), Alegeri morale. Teme actuale de etică aplicată, Polirom. 2021.
    În cele ce urmează vom prezenta pe scurt zona de cercetare a eticii aplicate și locul ei în cadrul disciplinei filosofiei. Vom discuta apoi despre ce fac filosofii când fac etică aplicată. Vom trece în revistă câteva concepte importante din etica aplicată, cum ar fi deontologie, virtute, grijă sau drepturi. Apoi vom încerca să oferim un răspuns la întrebarea din titlul introducerii: de ce avem nevoie de etica aplicată? Vom povesti pe scurt despre istoria eticii aplicate în România, iar la final …Read more
  •  885
    Etica relației dintre copii, părinți și stat
    In Alexandru Volacu, Daniela Cutas & Adrian Miroiu (eds.), Alegeri morale. Teme actuale de etică aplicată, Polirom. 2021.
    Care este statutul moral al copiilor? Ce înseamnă egalitatea morală dintre copii şi adulți? Care sunt constrângerile pe care le impune acceptarea acestei egalități în ceea ce priveşte felul în care pot fi tratați copiii în familie sau în societate ? Cine are ce fel de responsabilitate pentru copii ? În capitolul de față voi discuta astfel de întrebări. Voi analiza relația dintre copii, părinți şi stat, în dimensiunea ei practică (felul în care ne raportăm la copii), din punct de vedere legal (co…Read more
  •  92
    Paternal Responsibility for Children and Pediatric Hospital Policies in Romania
    In What About the Family? Practices of Responsibility in Care, . 2019.
    In this brief text we look at one instance of how gender norms continue to inform institutional treatment of parents regarding care for children: specifically, at how the exercise of fathers’ responsibilities for their children can be discouraged or altogether blocked.
  •  228
    Internationally, there is considerable inconsistency in the recognition and regulation of children's genetic connections outside the family. In the context of gamete and embryo donation, challenges for regulation seem endless. In this paper, I review some of the paths that have been taken to manage children' being closely genetically related to people outside their families. I do so against the background of recognising the importance of children's interests as moral status holders. I look at re…Read more
  •  41
    Is it a boy or a girl? Who should (not) know children's sex and why?
    with Simona Giordano
    Journal of Medical Ethics 39 (6): 374-377. 2013.
    In this paper, we present the case of a couple who refused to disclose the sex of their child to others, and some of the responses that this case prompted in the international media. We outline the ethical issues that this case raises, and we place it into the more general context of parental preferences regarding the gender (development) of their children and of the impact on children of parental choices in the matter. Based on current knowledge of gender identity development, we identify some …Read more
  •  21
    Alegeri morale. Teme actuale de etică aplicată (edited book)
    with Alexandru Volacu and Adrian Miroiu
    Polirom. 2021.
    De ce este importanta familia? Care este statutul moral al copiilor si cine are ce responsabilitati fata de ei? Ce este consimtamintul si care sint conditiile in care este valid? Care ar trebui sa fie rolul religiei in dezbaterile publice dintr-o societate democrata? Cum ar trebui sa fie gestionate inegalitatile sociale create de mosteniri? Ar trebui ca vaccinarea sa fie obligatorie? Este legitim sa fie cenzurate anumite forme de discurs? Avem datoria sa votam si, daca da, care sint considerente…Read more
  •  204
    In it Together? An Exploration of the Moral Duties of Co‐parents
    with Sabine Hohl
    Journal of Applied Philosophy 38 (5): 809-823. 2021.
    Even though co‐parenthood is one of the most significant close personal relationships that people can have, there is relatively little philosophical work on the moral duties that co‐parents owe each other. This may be due to the increasingly questionable assumption, still common in our societies, that co‐parenthood arises naturally from marriage or romantic coupledom and thus that commitment to a co‐parent evolves from a commitment to a marital or romantic partner. In this article, we argue that…Read more
  •  18
    This chapter explores current and prospective reproductive technologies and some of their likely implications for reproductive and family ethics and policymaking. The technologies discussed include uterus transplants, mitochondrial transfer, ectogenesis, the development of in vitro gametes, and solo reproduction. The chapter considers the impact of these developments on the content of concepts such as 'infertility', 'mother', or 'father'. Another layer to this process of redefinition originates …Read more
  •  17
    The chapter starts with an exploration of what the family is in order then to move on to look at its parts. The family has been defined in terms of its form (e.g. a mother, a father, and their biological offspring) or its function (e.g. adults taking and/or sharing custodial responsibility for children). In both of these cases, children are a necessary ingredient for a unit to be called a family – but the chapter also briefly reviews proposals to extend the accolade of “family” to beyond child-r…Read more
  •  197
    ‘Duped Fathers’, ‘Cuckoo Children’, and the Problem of Basing Fatherhood on Biology: A Philosophical Analysis
    In Assistierte Reproduktion mit Hilfe Dritter. Medizin - Ethik - Psychologie - Recht, . 2020.
    Who is a child’s father? Is it the man who raised her, or the one whose genes she carries—or both? We look at the view that men who have raised children they falsely believed to be ‘their own’ have been victims of a form of fraud or are ‘false fathers’. We consider the question of who has been harmed in such cases, and in what the harm consists. We use conceptual analysis, a philosophical method of investigating the use of a concept and the logical implications of its various interpretations. We…Read more
  •  72
    Reproductive and parental autonomy: an argument for compulsory parental education
    Reproductive Biomedicine Online 19 (ethics suppl.): 5-14. 2009.
    In this paper we argue that society should make available reliable information about parenting to everybody from an early age. The reason why parental education is important (when offered in a comprehensive and systematic way) is that it can help young people understand better the responsibilities associated with reproduction, and the skills required for parenting. This would allow them to make more informed life-choices about reproduction and parenting, and exercise their autonomy with respect …Read more
  •  34
    This paper is focused on the analysis of two documents (the Council of Europe's Bioethics Convention and the Additional Cloning Protocol) inasmuch as they refer to the relationship between human dignity and human genetic engineering. After presenting the stipulations of the abovementioned documents, I will review various proposed meanings of human dignity and will try to identify which of these seem to be at the core of their underlying assumptions. Is the concept of dignity proposed in the two …Read more
  •  97
    Natural versus assisted reproduction. In search of fairness
    Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology 4 (1). 2010.
    Whilst the choice of becoming a parent in the natural way is unregulated all over Europe (and proposals of regulation raise vehement objections), most European countries have (either legal or professional) regulations imposing criteria that people must satisfy if they wish to gain access to assisted reproduction and parenting. These criteria may include relationship status, age, sexual orientation, financial stability, health, and willingness to attend parenting classes. The existence of regulat…Read more
  •  108
    Families – Beyond the Nuclear Ideal
    with Sarah Chan
    Bloomsbury Academic. 2012.
    This book examines, through a multi-disciplinary lens, the possibilities offered by relationships and family forms that challenge the nuclear family ideal, and some of the arguments that recommend or disqualify these as legitimate units in our societies. That children should be conceived naturally, born to and raised by their two young, heterosexual, married to each other, genetic parents; that this relationship between parents is also the ideal relationship between romantic or sexual partners…Read more
  •  31
    Parental Responsibility in the Context of Neuroscience and Genetics (edited book)
    with Kristien Hens and Dorothee Horstkötter
    Springer International Publishing. 2016.
    Should parents aim to make their children as normal as possible to increase their chances to “fit in”? Are neurological and mental health conditions a part of children’s identity and if so, should parents aim to remove or treat these? Should they aim to instill self-control in their children? Should prospective parents take steps to insure that, of all the children they could have, they choose the ones with the best likely start in life? This volume explores all of these questions and more. Agai…Read more
  •  8
    Should Parents Take Active Steps to Preserve Their Children’s Fertility?
    In Kristien Hens, Daniela Cutas & Dorothee Horstkötter (eds.), Parental Responsibility in the Context of Neuroscience and Genetics, Springer International Publishing. 2016.
    It has been argued that, when there is a probable imminent risk of loss of children’s fertility, their parents should take active steps to preserve their reproductive potential if possible – or even that children have a right to such interventions being undertaken on them on their behalf, as an expression of their right to an open future. In this chapter, I explore these proposals and some of their implications. I place the discussion of fertility preservation for children into the more general …Read more
  •  59
    In this paper, we will discuss the prospect of human reproduction achieved with gametes originating from only one person. According to statements by a minority of scientists working on the generation of gametes in vitro, it may become possible to create eggs from men’s non-reproductive cells and sperm from women’s. This would enable, at least in principle, the creation of an embryo from cells obtained from only one individual: ‘solo reproduction’. We will consider what might motivate people to r…Read more
  •  30
    Natural versus Assisted Reproduction: In Search of Fairness
    Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology 4 (1). 2010.
    In this paper, we are concerned with the ethical implications of the distinction between natural reproduction and reproduction that requires assistance. We argue that the current practice of enforcing regulations on the latter but not on the former means of reproduction is ethically unjustified. It is not defensible to tolerate parental ignorance or abuse in natural reproduction and subsequently in natural parenting, whilst submitting assisted reproduction and parenting to invasive scrutiny. Our…Read more
  •  6
    Artificial gametes: perspectives of geneticists, ethicists and representatives of potential users
    with Guido de Wert, Sjoerd Repping, Tsjalling Swierstra, and Wybo Dondorp
    Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 17 (3): 339-345. 2014.
    Several threads of research towards developing artificial gametes are ongoing in a number of research labs worldwide. The development of a technology that could generate gametes in vitro has significant potential for human reproduction, and raises a lot of interest, as evidenced by the frequent and extensive media coverage of research in this area. We have asked researchers involved in work with artificial gametes, ethicists, and representatives of potential user groups, how they envisioned the …Read more
  •  34
    Artificial gametes, the unnatural and the artefactual
    with Anna Smajdor and Tuija Takala
    Journal of Medical Ethics 44 (6): 404-408. 2018.
    In debates on the ethics of artificial gametes, concepts of naturalness have been used in a number of different ways. Some have argued that the unnaturalness of artificial gametes means that it is unacceptable to use them in fertility treatments. Others have suggested that artificial gametes are no less natural than many other tissues or processes in common medical use. We suggest that establishing the naturalness or unnaturalness of artificial gametes is unlikely to provide easy answers as to t…Read more
  •  265
    On Love
    Analize – Journal of Gender and Feminist Studies 11 5-15. 2018.
    What is love? Is it an uncontrollable emotion? Is it, instead, socially shaped, both an emotion and a social practice? Can the bonds of care and affection between humans and non-human animals be said to be on a par with parent-child relationships between humans? Do parents owe love to their children – and do mothers and fathers, respectively, owe it to different degrees? Do subversive weddings challenge normative ideals about love? What is the significance of love for the value of close personal…Read more
  •  48
    The family is commonly regarded as being an important social institution. In several policy areas, evidence can be found that the family is treated as an entity towards which others can have moral obligations; it has needs and interests that require protection; it can be ill and receive treatment. The interests attributed to the family are not reducible to those of its members – and may even come into conflict with them. Using Warren's criteria for moral status, we show that, although the status…Read more
  •  139
    Parental Responsibility: A Moving Target
    with Kristien Hens and Dorothee Horstkötter
    In Kristien Hens, Daniela Cutas & Dorothee Horstkötter (eds.), Parental Responsibility in the Context of Neuroscience and Genetics, Springer International Publishing. 2016.
    Beliefs about the moral status of children have changed significantly in recent decades in the Western world. At the same time, knowledge about likely consequences for children of individual, parental, and societal choices has grown, as has the array of choices that (prospective) parents may have at their disposal. The intersection between these beliefs, this new knowledge, and these new choices has created a minefield of expectations from parents and a seemingly ever-expanding responsibility to…Read more
  •  20
    Illegal beings. Human cloning and the law
    Journal of Medical Ethics 34 (6): 510-510. 2008.
    A Professor of Law at Santa Clara University, Kerry Lynn Mackintosh presents us with a rigorously structured book on anticloning legislation. Although written for US readers and thus focusing on US context and legislation, the book is very much relevant internationally, due to the similarities between the various anticloning legislative endeavours and between their underlying premises.The book is divided into three parts. In Part I, Macintosh identifies and discusses the five most common sources…Read more
  •  135
    Some of the objections to life-extension stem from a concern with overpopulation. I will show that whether or not the overpopulation threat is realistic, arguments from overpopulation cannot ethically demand halting the quest for, nor access to, life-extension. The reason for this is that we have a right to life, which entitles us not to have meaningful life denied to us against our will and which does not allow discrimination solely on the grounds of age. If the threat of overpopulation creates…Read more
  •  29
    Immortal Fetuses
    Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 17 (3): 322-329. 2008.
    edited by Tuija Takala and Matti Häyry, welcomes contributions on the conceptual and theoretical dimensions of bioethics
  •  82
    This paper presents a systematic account of ethical issues actualised in different areas, as well as at different levels and stages of health care, by introducing organisational and other procedures that embody a shift towards person centred care and shared decision-making (PCC/SDM). The analysis builds on general ethical theory and earlier work on aspects of PCC/SDM relevant from an ethics perspective. This account leads up to a number of theoretical as well as empirical and practice oriented i…Read more