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4The Ethics of Time: Towards Temporal BioethicsJournal of Bioethical Inquiry 1-6. forthcoming.In this paper I discuss the important yet overlooked role played by time in public health ethics, clinical ethics, and personal ethics, and present an exploratory analysis of temporal inequalities and temporal autonomy.
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8The definition of ‘patient’ is commonly taken for granted and considered as obvious, but the term is rather underconceptualised in the literature. In this paper, it will be argued that the criterion of suffering can be considered a sufficient criterion for a parent to be considered a secondary patient when their seriously ill child is receiving medical care (i.e. not necessarily the parents themselves) – these parents are sufferers in virtue of the suffering of others. The nature of parental and…Read more
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10The Ranking Argument – Challenging Favourable Comparative Rhetoric about Animal Welfare LawLeoh - Journal of Animal Law, Ethics and One Health 1. 2023.This article captures and critiques a recurring and prominent political argument against animal welfare improvements in Switzerland which we term the “ranking argument”. This states that Swiss animal welfare law ranks among the strictest in the world, therefore no improvements are called for. This argument was advanced three times by Swiss government authorities in 2022 alone, but also in a case dating back to 1984, to advise the electorate on popular initiatives aiming at animal welfare improve…Read more
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17Integrating ethics in AI development: a qualitative studyBMC Medical Ethics 25 (1): 1-11. 2024.Background While the theoretical benefits and harms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have been widely discussed in academic literature, empirical evidence remains elusive regarding the practical ethical challenges of developing AI for healthcare. Bridging the gap between theory and practice is an essential step in understanding how to ethically align AI for healthcare. Therefore, this research examines the concerns and challenges perceived by experts in developing ethical AI that addresses the he…Read more
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18Schrödinger’s Fetus and Relational Ontology: Reconciling Three Contradictory Intuitions in Abortion DebatesEthical Theory and Moral Practice 1-18. forthcoming.Pro-life and pro-choice advocates battle for rational dominance in abortion debates. Yet, public polling (and general legal opinion) demonstrates the public’s preference for the middle ground: that abortions are acceptable in certain circumstances and during early pregnancy. Implicit in this, are two contradictory intuitions: (1) that we were all early fetuses, and (2) abortion kills no one. To hold these positions together, Harman and Räsänen have argued for the Actual Future Principle (AFP) wh…Read more
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9Playing Brains: The Ethical Challenges Posed by Silicon Sentience and Hybrid Intelligence in DishBrainScience and Engineering Ethics 29 (6): 1-17. 2023.The convergence of human and artificial intelligence is currently receiving considerable scholarly attention. Much debate about the resulting _Hybrid Minds_ focuses on the integration of artificial intelligence into the human brain through intelligent brain-computer interfaces as they enter clinical use. In this contribution we discuss a complementary development: the integration of a functional in vitro network of human neurons into an _in silico_ computing environment. To do so, we draw on a r…Read more
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116. Defining Death in Donation after Circulatory Determination of DeathIn Solveig Lena Hansen & Silke Schicktanz (eds.), Ethical Challenges of Organ Transplantation, Transcript Verlag. pp. 117-132. 2021.
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3The Consequences of Vagueness in Consent to Organ DonationBioethics 31 (6): 424-431. 2016.In this article I argue that vagueness concerning consent to post‐mortem organ donation causes considerable harm in several ways. First, the information provided to most people registering as organ donors is very vague in terms of what is actually involved in donation. Second, the vagueness regarding consent to donation increases the distress of families of patients who are potential organ donors, both during and following the discussion about donation. Third, vagueness also increases the chance…Read more
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4Positive HIV Test Results from Deceased Organ Donors: Should We Disclose to Next of Kin?Journal of Clinical Ethics 29 (3): 191-195. 2018.In the context of deceased organ donation, donors are routinely tested for HIV, to check for suitability for organ donation. This article examines whether a donor’s HIV status should be disclosed to the donor’s next of kin.On the one hand, confidentiality requires that sensitive information not be disclosed, and a duty to respect confidentiality may persist after death. On the other hand, breaching confidentiality may benefit third parties at risk of having been infected by the organ donor, as i…Read more
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16Reply to reaction on ‘Organ donation after euthanasia starting at home in a patient with multiple system atrophy – case report’BMC Medical Ethics 24 (1): 1-2. 2023.We would like to respond to the comment we received from our colleagues on our case report about organ donation after euthanasia starting at home. We reply to their statements on medical and legal aspects, and provide more information on our view of informed consent.
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11Allonymous science: the politics of placing and shifting credit in public-private nutrition researchLife Sciences, Society and Policy 16 (1): 1-16. 2020.Ideally, guidelines reflect an accepted position with respect to matters of concern, ranging from clinical practices to researcher behaviour. Upon close reading, authorship guidelines reserve authorship attribution to individuals fully or almost fully embedded in particular studies, including design or execution as well as significant involvement in the writing process. These requirements prescribe an organisation of scientific work in which this embedding is specifically enabled. Drawing from i…Read more
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34The Quest for Clarity in Research Integrity: A Conceptual SchemaScience and Engineering Ethics 25 (4): 1085-1093. 2019.Researchers often refer to “research integrity”, “scientific integrity”, “research misconduct”, “scientific misconduct” and “research ethics”. However, they may use some of these terms interchangeably despite conceptual distinctions. The aim of this paper is to clarify what is signified by several key terms related to research integrity, and to suggest clearer conceptual delineation between them. To accomplish this task, it provides a conceptual analysis based upon definitions and general usage …Read more
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2Necessary Conjunctions: The Social Self in Medieval England (review)Speculum 82 (2): 482-483. 2007.
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110Deaf by design: Disability and impartialityBioethics 22 (8): 407-413. 2008.In 'Benefit, Disability and the Non-Identity Problem', Hallvard Lillehammer uses the case of a couple who chose to have deaf children to argue against the view that impartial perspectives can provide an exhaustive account of the rightness and wrongness of particular reproductive choices. His conclusion is that the traditional approach to the non-identity problem leads to erroneous conclusions about the morality of creating disabled children. This paper will show that Lillehammer underestimates t…Read more
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12Circumcision in the Original Position: Why Children Would Not Choose ItBioethics 28 (9): 501-502. 2014.
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8Accommodating an Uninvited Guest: Perspectives of Researchers in Switzerland on ‘Honorary’ AuthorshipScience and Engineering Ethics 26 (2): 947-967. 2020.The aim of this paper is to analyze the attitudes and reactions of researchers towards an authorship claim made by a researcher in a position of authority who has not made any scientific contribution to a manuscript or helped to write it. This paper draws on semi-structured interviews conducted with 33 researchers at three seniority levels working in biomedicine and the life sciences in Switzerland. This manuscript focuses on the analysis of participants’ responses when presented with a vignette…Read more
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21Accommodating an Uninvited Guest: Perspectives of Researchers in Switzerland on ‘Honorary’ AuthorshipScience and Engineering Ethics 26 (2): 947-967. 2020.The aim of this paper is to analyze the attitudes and reactions of researchers towards an authorship claim made by a researcher in a position of authority who has not made any scientific contribution to a manuscript or helped to write it. This paper draws on semi-structured interviews conducted with 33 researchers at three seniority levels working in biomedicine and the life sciences in Switzerland. This manuscript focuses on the analysis of participants’ responses when presented with a vignette…Read more
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16This paper addresses psychological factors that might interfere with informed consent on the part of stable patients as potential early-phase clinical trial participants. Thirty-six semistructured interviews with patients who had either diabetes or gout were conducted. We investigated stable patients’ attitudes towards participating in a fictitious first-in-human trial of a novel intervention. We focused on an in-depth analysis of those statements and explanations that indicated the existence of…Read more
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60Empirical Methods in Animal EthicsJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 28 (5): 853-866. 2015.In this article the predominant, purely theoretical perspectives on animal ethics are questioned and two important sources for empirical data in the context of animal ethics are discussed: methods of the social and methods of the natural sciences. Including these methods can lead to an empirical animal ethics approach that is far more adapted to the needs of humans and nonhuman animals and more appropriate in different circumstances than a purely theoretical concept solely premised on rational a…Read more
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31Writers Blocked: On the Wrongs of Research Co-authorship and Some Possible Strategies for ImprovementScience and Engineering Ethics 21 (5): 1315-1329. 2015.The various problems associated with co-authorship of research articles have attracted much attention in recent years. We believe that this growing awareness is a very welcome development. However, we will argue that the particular and increasing importance of authorship and the harmful implications of current practices of research authorship for junior researchers have not been emphasised enough. We will use the case of our own research area to illustrate some of the pitfalls of current publish…Read more
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23Parents as secondary patients: Towards a more family-centred approach to careClinical Ethics 18 (4): 368-374. 2023.The definition of ‘patient’ is commonly taken for granted and considered as obvious, but the term is rather underconceptualised in the literature. In this paper, it will be argued that the criterion of suffering can be considered a sufficient criterion for a parent to be considered a secondary patient when their seriously ill child is receiving medical care (i.e. not necessarily the parents themselves) – these parents are sufferers in virtue of the suffering of others. The nature of parental and…Read more
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17Organ donation after euthanasia starting at home in a patient with multiple system atrophyBMC Medical Ethics 22 (1): 1-6. 2021.BackgroundA patient who fulfils the due diligence requirements for euthanasia, and is medically suitable, is able to donate his organs after euthanasia in Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada. Since 2012, more than 70 patients have undergone this combined procedure in the Netherlands. Even though all patients who undergo euthanasia are suffering hopelessly and unbearably, some of these patients are nevertheless willing to help others in need of an organ. Organ donation after euthanasia is a so-ca…Read more
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55Moral qualms, future persons, and embryo researchBioethics 22 (4). 2008.Many people have moral qualms about embryo research, feeling that embryos must deserve some kind of protection, if not so much as is afforded to persons. This paper will show that these qualms serve to camouflage motives that are really prudential, at the cost of also obscuring the real ethical issues at play in the debate concerning embryo research and therapeutic cloning. This in turn leads to fallacious use of the Actions/Omissions Distinction and ultimately neglects the duties that we have t…Read more
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13Neuroenhancing public healthJournal of Medical Ethics 40 (6): 389-391. 2014.One of the most fascinating issues in the emerging field of neuroethics is pharmaceutical cognitive enhancement. The three main ethical concerns around CE were identified in a Nature commentary in 2008 as safety, coercion and fairness; debate has largely focused on the potential to help those who are cognitively disabled, and on the issue of ‘cosmetic neurology’, where people enhance not because of a medical need, but because they want to. However, the potential for CE to improve public health h…Read more
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20Noisy Autonomy: The Ethics of Audible and Silent NoisePublic Health Ethics 14 (3): 288-297. 2021.In this paper, I summarize the medical evidence regarding the auditory and non-auditory effects of noise and analyse the ethics of noise and personal autonomy in the social environment using a variety of case studies. Key to this discussion is the fact that, contrary to the traditional definition of noise, sound can be noise without being annoying, as the evidence shows that some sounds can harm without being perceived. Ultimately, I develop a theory of ‘noisy autonomy’ with which to guide us in…Read more
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24Automated vehicles, big data and public healthMedicine, Health Care and Philosophy 23 (1): 35-42. 2020.In this paper we focus on how automated vehicles can reduce the number of deaths and injuries in accident situations in order to protect public health. This is actually a problem not only of public health and ethics, but also of big data—not only in terms of all the different data that could be used to inform such decisions, but also in the sense of deciding how wide the scope of data should be. We identify three key different types of data, including basic data, advanced data and preference dat…Read more
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27Artificial intelligence and the doctor–patient relationship expanding the paradigm of shared decision makingBioethics 37 (5): 424-429. 2023.Artificial intelligence (AI) based clinical decision support systems (CDSS) are becoming ever more widespread in healthcare and could play an important role in diagnostic and treatment processes. For this reason, AI‐based CDSS has an impact on the doctor–patient relationship, shaping their decisions with its suggestions. We may be on the verge of a paradigm shift, where the doctor–patient relationship is no longer a dual relationship, but a triad. This paper analyses the role of AI‐based CDSS fo…Read more
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12Dogs, Epistemic Indefensibility and Ethical Denial: Don’t Let Sleeping Dog Owners LieJournal of Bioethical Inquiry 20 (1): 7-12. 2023.In this paper I use normative analysis to explore the curious and seemingly singular phenomenon whereby some dog owners deny the physical and moral facts about a situation where it is claimed their dog harmed or irritated others. I define these as epistemic and ethical denial, respectively, and offer a tentative exploration of their implications in terms of relational autonomy and responsible behaviour in public spaces.
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14It takes a pirate to know one: ethical hackers for healthcare cybersecurityBMC Medical Ethics 23 (1): 1-8. 2022.Healthcare cybersecurity is increasingly targeted by malicious hackers. This sector has many vulnerabilities and health data is very sensitive and valuable. Consequently, any damage caused by malicious intrusions is particularly alarming. The consequences of these attacks can be enormous and endanger patient care. Amongst the already-implemented cybersecurity measures and the ones that need to be further improved, this paper aims to demonstrate how penetration tests can greatly benefit healthcar…Read more
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12The ethics of semantics in medicineJournal of Medical Ethics 48 (12): 1026-1031. 2022.In this paper, we discuss the largely neglected topic of semantics in medicine and the associated ethical issues. We analyse several key medical terms from the informed perspective of the healthcare professional, the lay perspective of the patient and the patient’s family, and the descriptive perspective of what the term actually signifies objectively. The choice of a particular medical term may deliver different meanings when viewed from these differing perspectives. Consequently, several ethic…Read more
Basel, Basel-City, Switzerland
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Philosophy of Law |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Natural Sciences |