•  293
    ABSTRACT Objectives There is little research on moral uncertainties and distress of palliative and hospice care providers (PHCPs) working in jurisdictions anticipating legalising voluntary assisted dying (VAD). This study examines the perception and anticipated concerns of PHCPs in providing VAD in the State of Queensland, Australia prior to legalisation of the practice in 2021. The findings help inform strategies to facilitate training and support the health and well-being of healthcare workers…Read more
  •  89
    Human dignity and human tissue: a meaningful ethical relationship?
    with K. Dierickx
    Journal of Medical Ethics 37 (9): 552-556. 2011.
    Human dignity has long been used as a foundational principle in policy documents and ethical guidelines intended to govern various forms of biomedical research. Despite the vast amount of literature concerning human dignity and embryonic tissues, the majority of biomedical research uses non-embryonic human tissue. Therefore, this contribution addresses a notable lacuna in the literature: the relationship, if any, between human dignity and human tissue. This paper first elaborates a multidimensio…Read more
  •  81
    In the debates concerning the ethics of human enhancement through biological or technological modifications, there have been several appeals to the concept of human dignity, both by those favouring such enhancement and by those opposing it. The result is the phenomenon of ‘dignity talk', where opposing sides both appeal to the concept of human dignity to ground their arguments resulting in a moral impasse. This article examines the use of the concept of human dignity in the enhancement debates a…Read more
  •  69
    Beneficence in Research Ethics
    with C. Favor and C. Cordner
    In David G. Kirchhoffer & Bernadette Richards (eds.), Beyond Autonomy: Limits and Alternatives to Informed Consent in Research Ethics and Law, Cambridge University Press. 2019.
    This chapter examines the explicit and implicit roles that the concept of beneficence plays in the guidelines that govern biomedical research involving humans. We suggest that the role beneficence is actually playing in the guidelines is more comprehensive than is commonly assumed. The broader conceptualisation of beneficence proposed here clarifies the relationship of beneficence to respect for autonomy. It does this by showing how respect for autonomy is at the service of beneficence rather th…Read more
  •  58
    Personhood and human dignity
    In Jãnis T. Ozoliņš & Joanne Grainger (eds.), Foundations of Healthcare Ethics: Theory to Practice, Cambridge University Press. 2015.
    The concepts of personhood and human dignity are widely used in contemporary healthcare ethics. This chapter provides a brief overview of how the concept of human dignity came to be so important in healthcare ethics, and examines how the concept’s widespread use and relationship to the concept of personhood have led to problems regarding its meaning and relevance. A practical solution is then presented. The rise of the concept of human dignity in healthcare ethics The word dignity is derived f…Read more
  •  50
    The threat of ecological collapse is increasingly becoming a reality for the world’s populations, both human and nonhuman; addressing this global challenge requires enormous cultural creativity and demands a diversity of perspectives, especially from the humanities. Theology and Ecology Across the Disciplines draws from a variety of academic disciplines and positions in order to explore the role and nature of environmental responsibility, especially where such themes intersect with religious or …Read more
  •  47
    The use of voluntary assisted dying as an end‐of‐life option has stimulated concerns and debates over the past decades. Although public attitudes towards voluntary assisted dying (including euthanasia and physician‐assisted suicide) are well researched, there has been relatively little study of the different reasons, normative reasoning and rhetorical strategies that people invoke in supporting or contesting voluntary assisted dying in everyday life. Using a mix of computational textual mining t…Read more
  •  47
    It has been said that human dignity is a vacuous concept that should, therefore, be dismissed as an ethical category. This article seeks to defend the concept of human dignity by suggesting, first, that the flaw in the logic of those who claim that human dignity is a vacuous concept lies in an unjustifiable reductionism that results from the hermeneutic of suspicion that such authors apply to the concept. Second, that human dignity is not an either/or concept, as these authors would suggest, but…Read more
  •  46
    Preparing for the Synod on the Family
    with Natalie Lindner L’Huillier
    Intams Review 20 (1): 111--117. 2014.
    Australians responded enthusiastically to the calling of the Synod, though there appears to be a tension between expectations of doctrinal reform and pastoral reform. The Bishops Conference allowed each diocese to consult as it saw fit and submit its findings, in light of which a committee of four bishops drafted the official submission to the Synod. Other materials were also sent to the Synod office, including some directly by dioceses and other Catholic organisations. The dioceses surveyed mad…Read more
  •  46
    With a challenging title, based on an anecdote about a dialogue between a scientist/philosopher and a lady on the structure of the universe, David Kirchhoffer proposes that the insight that human beings are the world (rather than merely live in the world) should be our starting point for reflections on theological anthropology. Relationality thus being the key-word for an up-to-date theological anthropology, this chapter discusses the main challenges that such an anthropology faces: first, anthr…Read more
  •  46
    Beyond Autonomy: Limits and Alternatives to Informed Consent in Research Ethics and Law (edited book)
    with Bernadette Richards
    Cambridge University Press. 2019.
    Respect for autonomy has become a fundamental principle in human research ethics. Nonetheless, this principle and the associated process of obtaining informed consent do have limitations. This can lead to some groups, many of them vulnerable, being left understudied. This book considers these limitations and contributes through legal and philosophical analyses to the search for viable approaches to human research ethics. It explores the limitations of respect for autonomy and informed consent bo…Read more
  •  45
    Dignity, Autonomy, and Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources During COVID-19
    Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 17 (4): 691-696. 2020.
    Ruth Macklin argued that dignity is nothing more than respect for persons or their autonomy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, difficult decisions are being made about the allocation of scarce resources. Respect for autonomy cannot justify rationing decisions. Justice can be invoked to justify rationing. However, this leaves an uncomfortable tension between the principles. Dignity is not a useless concept because it is able to account for why we respect autonomy and for why it can be legitimate to o…Read more
  •  44
    Dignity, Being and Becoming in Research Ethics
    In David G. Kirchhoffer & Bernadette Richards (eds.), Beyond Autonomy: Limits and Alternatives to Informed Consent in Research Ethics and Law, Cambridge University Press. 2019.
    Since the end of World War II, most guidelines governing human research seem to have relied on the principle of respect for autonomy as a key, though not sole, criterion in assessing the moral validity of research involving human participants.1 One explanation for this apparent reliance on respect for autonomy may be that respect for autonomy, made effective through the practice of obtaining informed consent, functions as a useful proxy when dealing with competent adults for the more complex pri…Read more
  •  44
    Bioethics and the Demise of the Concept of Human Dignity
    Human Reproduction and Genetic Ethics 17 (2): 141-154. 2011.
    The rise of “dignity talk” has led to the concept of human dignity being criticized in recent years. Some critics argue that human dignity must either be something we have or something we acquire. Others argue that there is no such thing as human dignity and people really mean something else when they appeal to it. Both “dignity talk” and the criticisms arise from a problematic conception of medical ethics as a legalistic, procedural techne. A retrieval of hermeneutical ethics, by contrast, offe…Read more
  •  36
    Introduction: The Limits of Respect for Autonomy
    In David G. Kirchhoffer & Bernadette Richards (eds.), Beyond Autonomy: Limits and Alternatives to Informed Consent in Research Ethics and Law, Cambridge University Press. 2019.
    This book makes an important contribution to ongoing efforts in the fields of medical law and bioethics to answer the challenges posed by the limitations of the principle of respect for autonomy, especially as these pertain to human research ethics. The principle of respect for autonomy seems to have become firmly embedded in human research ethics since its inclusion in the 1947 Nuremberg Code, which was a response to atrocities committed by Nazi doctors. Nonetheless, there is an increasing awar…Read more
  •  34
    Human dignity and consent in research biobanking
    with K. Dierickx
    South African Journal of Bioethics and Law 5 (2): 74--77. 2012.
    Biobanking policy needs to take into account the concept of human dignity, because this concept is enshrined in both international and South African law. The accepted understanding of informed consent, which is also required by law, is inadequate for biobanking because it is often not possible to inform people of possible uses of their stored tissue. If human dignity is understood as a multidimensional concept that corresponds to the multidimensionality of the human person, then human dignit…Read more
  •  33
    The claim that human dignity is universal is challenged by the particular experience of the horrible things people do to others. If dignity is just a ‘vacuous concept’ then the notion of universal human rights and the claim of cosmopolitism that all human beings for a single moral community are also called into question. A close reading of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and an analysis the historical development of the text reveals a complex conception of human dignity expressed by th…Read more
  •  32
    Introduction: The Limits of Respect for Autonomy.
    In David G. Kirchhoffer & Bernadette Richards (eds.), Beyond Autonomy: Limits and Alternatives to Informed Consent in Research Ethics and Law, Cambridge University Press. pp. 1-14. 2019.
    This book makes an important contribution to ongoing efforts in the fields of medical law and bioethics to answer the challenges posed by the limitations of the principle of respect for autonomy, especially as these pertain to human research ethics. The principle of respect for autonomy seems to have become firmly embedded in human research ethics since its inclusion in the 1947 Nuremberg Code, which was a response to atrocities committed by Nazi doctors. Nonetheless, there is an increasing awar…Read more
  •  30
    Human dignity and the moral status of animals
    Southern African Public Law 27 (1): 119--135. 2012.
    The concept of human dignity is widely used in contemporary ethics and law as a foundational criterion for moral reasoning. Nonetheless, the concept has recently received criticism from various quarters. Some of this criticism has come from representatives of the animal liberation movement. The concept of human dignity is accused of underpinning an ethics that is anthropocentric and speciesist. That is, human dignity is said to be used as the basis of an ultimately unjustifiable attribution of i…Read more
  •  27
    Human Dignity in Contemporary Ethics develops a holistic and relevant understanding of human dignity for ethics today. Whilst critics of the concept of human dignity call for its dismissal, and many of its defenders rehearse the same old arguments, this book offers an alternative set of methodological assumptions on which to base a revitalized and practical understanding of human dignity, which at the same time overcomes the challenges that the concept currently faces. The Component Dimensions o…Read more
  •  26
    The claim that human dignity is universal is challenged by the particular experience of the horrible things people do to others. If dignity is just a ‘vacuous concept’ then the notion of universal human rights and the claim of cosmopolitism that all human beings for a single moral community are also called into question. A close reading of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and an analysis the historical development of the text reveals a complex conception of human dignity expressed by th…Read more
  •  23
    New Medical Technologies and the Ethical Challenges for Minors from the Perspective of Human Dignity
    with Kris Dierickx
    In Jan C. Joerden, Eric Hilgendorf, Natalia Petrillo & Felix Thiele (eds.), Menschenwürde und moderne Medizintechnik. 2011.
    Summary This volume undertakes to determine the fundamentals and limits of an ethical assessment of the methods of modern medical technology with regard to the concepts of human dignity and human image, which are particularly important for this purpose. It shows that the philosophical-legal foundation of the term human dignity has not yet been clearly clarified; one even has to ask whether the term is (still) suitable for assessing ethical problems in medical technology. The term human image al…Read more
  •  15
    Religious pluralism in healthcare means that conflicts regarding appropriate treatment can occur because of convictions of patients and healthcare workers alike. This contribution argues for a presumption in favour of respect for religious belief on the basis that such convictions are judgements of conscience, and respect for conscience is core to what it means to respect human dignity. The human person is a subject in relation to all that is. Human dignity refers to the worth of human persons a…Read more
  •  3
    Being Human: Groundwork for a Theological Anthropology for the Twenty-First Century (edited book)
    with Robyn Horner and Patrick McArdle
    Mosaic Press. 2013.
    What does it mean to be human? The traditional answers from the past remain only theoretical possibilities unless they come to mean something to today's generation. Moreover, in light of new knowledge and circumstances, a new generation may call these old answers into question, and seek to reinterpret, or, indeed, provide alternatives to them. In the 1960's, the Catholic Church's Second Vatican Council attempted such a reinterpretation, an aggiornamento, for the post-war generation of the mid-tw…Read more
  • Abstract Religious pluralism in healthcare means that conflicts regarding appropriate treatment can occur because of convictions of patients and healthcare workers alike. This contribution argues for a presumption in favour of respect for religious belief on the basis that such convictions are judgements of conscience, and respect for conscience is core to what it means to respect human dignity. The human person is a subject in relation to all that is. Human dignity refers to the worth of human …Read more