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582Technology assessment and the 'ethical matrix'Poiesis and Praxis 1 (4): 295-307. 2003.This paper explores the usefulness of the 'ethical matrix', proposed by Ben Mepham, as a tool in technology assessment, specifically in food ethics. We consider what the matrix is, how it might be useful as a tool in ethical decision-making, and what drawbacks might be associated with it. We suggest that it is helpful for fact-finding in ethical debates relating to food ethics; but that it is much less helpful in terms of weighing the different ethical problems that it uncovers. Despite this dra…Read more
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376Human Rights and Human Dignity: An Appeal to Separate the Conjoined TwinsEthical Theory and Moral Practice 15 (3): 323-335. 2012.Why should all human beings have certain rights simply by virtue of being human? One justification is an appeal to religious authority. However, in increasingly secular societies this approach has its limits. An alternative answer is that human rights are justified through human dignity. This paper argues that human rights and human dignity are better separated for three reasons. First, the justification paradox: the concept of human dignity does not solve the justification problem for human rig…Read more
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229Dignity: Two Riddles and Four ConceptsCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 17 (2): 230-238. 2008.edited by Tuija Takala and Matti Häyry, welcomes contributions on the conceptual and theoretical dimensions of bioethics
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124Wickedness, idleness and basic incomeRes Publica 7 (1): 1-12. 2001.This paper critically analyses the position that basic income schemes foster idleness and thereby create harm. The view is based on an alleged empirical link between idleness and violent crime and an equation of non-activity with the creation of burden for others. It will be argued that the empirical claim is weak because it relies on conjectures derived from studies on unemployment. In addition, opponents arguing that basic income leads to an unfair distribution of burden between `lazy idlers''…Read more
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116Does the Pharmaceutical Sector Have a Coresponsibility for the Human Right to Health?Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 20 (2): 298-308. 2011.The highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental human right, which has been part of international law since 1948. States and their institutions are the primary duty bearers responsible for ensuring that human rights are respected, protected, and fulfilled. However, more recently it has been argued that pharmaceutical companies have a coresponsibility to fulfill the human right to health. Most prominently, this coresponsibility has been expressed in the United Nations Millennium Goal 8…Read more
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114Human genetic banking: altruism, benefit and consentNew Genetics and Society 23 (1): 89-103. 2004.This article considers how we should frame the ethical issues raised by current proposals for large-scale genebanks with on-going links to medical and lifestyle data, such as the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council's 'UK Biobank'. As recent scandals such as Alder Hey have emphasised, there are complex issues concerning the informed consent of donors that need to be carefully considered. However, we believe that a preoccupation with informed consent obscures important questions about the …Read more
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111Dignity: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Still CountingCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 19 (1): 118. 2010.
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106Too Early for Global Ethics?Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 14 (4): 404-415. 2005.“Globalisation is the Yeti of … newspapers. Everybody knows it, but nobody has ever seen it. What does it look like? Tall, monkeyish, hairy? Or rather weasel-like? With glasses? Like a ferret or a marten?” Globalization means different things to different people, a laudable development uniting humankind or an epidemic crushing the vulnerable peoples of the earth. Whether it is something we can control remains to be seen, but it is certainly upon us. The move to “go global” is such a strong force…Read more
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104Human Rights and Human Dignity: An Appeal to Separate the Conjoined TwinsEthical Theory and Moral Practice 15 (3). 2012.Why should all human beings have certain rights simply by virtue of being human? One justification is an appeal to religious authority. However, in increasingly secular societies this approach has its limits. An alternative answer is that human rights are justified through human dignity. This paper argues that human rights and human dignity are better separated for three reasons. First, the justification paradox: the concept of human dignity does not solve the justification problem for human rig…Read more
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102Access to Life-Saving Medicines and Intellectual Property Rights: An Ethical AssessmentCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 20 (2): 279-289. 2011.Dying before one’s time has been a prominent theme in classic literature and poetry. Catherine Linton’s youthful death in Wuthering Heights leaves behind a bereft Heathcliff and generations of mourning readers. The author herself, Emily Brontë, died young from tuberculosis. John Keats’ Ode on Melancholy captures the transitory beauty of 19th century human lives too often ravished by early death. Keats also died of tuberculosis, aged 25. “The bloom, whose petals nipped before they blew, died on t…Read more
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91Sharing the benefits of genetic resources: From biodiversity to human geneticsDeveloping World Bioethics 6 (3). 2006.Benefit sharing aims to achieve an equitable exchange between the granting of access to a genetic resource and the provision of compensation. The Convention on Biological Diversity, adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, is the only international legal instrument setting out obligations for sharing the benefits derived from the use of biodiversity. The CBD excludes human genetic resources from its scope, however, this article considers whether it should be expanded to include those …Read more
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89A Child's Life or a “Little Bit of Torture”? State-Sanctioned Violence and DignityCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 15 (2): 188-201. 2006.On September 28, 2002, 11-year-old Jakob von Metzler, a banker's son, was abducted on the way to his parents' house in Frankfurt. A sum of one million Euro was demanded for his release. Three days after Jakob's disappearance, Magnus Gäfgen, a 32-year-old law student, collected the ransom from the arranged tram stop in Frankfurt during the night. While under observation by the police, he ordered a new Mercedes and booked a holiday abroad. Seventy-six hours after Jakob's disappearance, the police …Read more
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89Justice and the convention on biological diversityEthics and International Affairs 23 (3): 267-280. 2009.Abstract Benefit sharing as envisaged by the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is a relatively new idea in international law. Within the context of non-human biological resources, it aims to guarantee the conservation of biodiversity and its sustainable use by ensuring that its custodians are adequately rewarded for its preservation. Prior to the adoption of the CBD, access to biological resources was frequently regarded as a free-for-all. Bioprospectors were able to take resources o…Read more
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86In its essence, post-trial obligations describe a duty by research sponsors to provide a successfully tested drug to research participants who took part in the relevant clinical trials after the trial has been concluded. In some instances,this duty is extended beyond the research participants. This article is divided into three main parts. The first part outlines the legal basis for post-trial obligations by looking at international guidelines, including those issued by the World Medical Associa…Read more
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78Transgenerational obligations: Twenty-first century germany and the holocaustJournal of Applied Philosophy 20 (1). 2003.Has history assigned special obligations to Germans that can transcend generation borders? Do the grandchildren of Holocaust perpetrators or the grandchildren of inactive bystanders carry any obligations that are only related to their ancestry? These questions will be at the centre of this investigation. It will be argued that five different models of justification are available for or against transgenerational obligations, namely liberalism, the unique evil argument, the psychological view, a f…Read more
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77Vulnerability: Too Vague and Too Broad?Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 18 (2): 113. 2009.Imagine you are walking down a city street. It is windy and raining. Amidst the bustle you see a young woman. She sits under a railway bridge, hardly protected from the rain and holds a woolen hat containing a small number of coins. You can see that she trembles from the cold. Or imagine seeing an old woman walking in the street at dusk, clutching her bag with one hand and a walking stick with the other. A group of male youths walk behind her without overtaking, drunk and in the mood for mischie…Read more
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65Dignity in the 21st Century - Middle East and West (edited book)Springer. 2017.This book offers a unique and insightful analysis of Western and Middle Eastern concepts of dignity and illustrates them with examples of everyday life. Dignity in the 21st Century - Middle East and West is unique and insightful for a range of reasons. First, the book is co-authored by scholars from two different cultures (Middle East and West). As a result, the interpretations of dignity covered are broader than those in most Western publications. Second, the ambition of the book is to use exam…Read more
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60Ethics from the top: Top management and ethical businessBusiness Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility 11 (3). 2002.Codes of ethics and conduct typically demand the highest standard of ethical behaviour from every single employee. This implies a democratic or lobbyist understanding of ethics in business. The contrasting view would argue that business ethics is an elitist undertaking that can only be instigated from the top, by managing directors or owner managers. This article looks at three types of ethical businesses, three types of approaches to ethical problem‐solving, and three possible incentives for et…Read more
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58Responsible, Inclusive Innovation and the Nano-DivideNanoEthics 10 (2): 177-188. 2016.Policy makers from around the world are trying to emulate successful innovation systems in order to support economic growth. At the same time, innovation governance systems are being put in place to ensure a better integration of stakeholder views into the research and development process. In Europe, one of the most prominent and newly emerging governance frameworks is called Responsible Research and Innovation. This article aims to substantiate the following points: The concept of RRI and the c…Read more
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49Homo Economicus on Trial: Plato, Schopenhauer and the Virtual JuryPhilosophy of Management 1 (2): 65-74. 2001.The concept of Homo economicus, one of the major foundations of neoclassical economics and a subset of the ideology of laisser-faire capitalism. was recently charged and tried in the island high court. Using the island’s virtual jury system for the first time, the accused was tried before a jury of three — Plato, Schopenhauer and feminist economists — chosen by him while under a veil of ignorance of the charge. All three returned guilty verdicts. Plato’s was prescriptive: ‘One ought not to be li…Read more
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43Editorial: Rights and Procreative LibertyCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 16 (3): 325-325. 2007.edited by Doris Schroeder, welcomes contributions on all areas outlined below. Submitted papers are peer-reviewed. To submit a paper or to discuss suitable topics, please e-mail Doris Schroeder at [email protected]
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43Realizing benefit sharing – the case of post-study obligationsBioethics 26 (6): 305-314. 2012.In 2006, the Indonesian government decided to withhold avian flu samples from the World Health Organization. They argued that even though Indonesian samples were crucial to the development of vaccines, the results of vaccine research would be unaffordable for its citizens. Commentaries on the case varied from alleging blackmail to welcoming this strong stance against alleged exploitation. What is clear is that the concern expressed is related to benefit sharing.Benefit sharing requires resource …Read more
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39Public health, ethics, and functional foodsJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 20 (3): 247-259. 2007.Functional foods aim to provide a positive impact on health and well-being beyond their nutritive content. As such, they are likely candidates to enhance the public health official’s tool kit. Or are they? Although a very small number of functional foods (e.g., phytosterol-enriched margarine) show such promise in improving individual health that Dutch health insurance companies reimburse their costs to consumers, one must not draw premature conclusions about functional foods as a group. A large …Read more
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38Benefit SharingIn Ron Iphofen (ed.), Handbook of Research Ethics and Scientific Integrity, Springer International Publishing. pp. 1-2. 2020.Research cannot be done by researchers alone. In most cases, additional resources are required, including human research participants, access to biodiversity for biological and genetic resources, or traditional knowledge. Benefit sharing has been part of global conventions and international ethics guidelines for over 25 years, predicated on the understanding that those who contribute to the research process and its outcomes should share in the benefits as a matter of fairness. This chapter explo…Read more
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35Justice beyond bordersRes Publica 10 (2): 107-113. 2004.Liberal theories of social justicefocus predominantly on the national, ratherthan international, level, and where they doaddress international concerns they insist thatprinciples of justice at the national levelhave priority over principles at theinternational level. We question the coherenceof this arrangement, given liberal theory'scommitment to moral equality of persons as suchrather than to that of particular sets of persons. What isat issue is whether liberal theory can providea coherent ba…Read more
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35Human Rights and Their Role in Global BioethicsCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 14 (2): 221-223. 2005.Global bioethics is a bold project. In its moderate form, it aims to find solutions to the dilemmas posed by modern medicine and the biological sciences through intercultural understanding of human obligations and opportunities. In its more ambitious form, it endeavors to cover all possible ethical problems arising with regard to life and living things on earth. Given the ambitiousness of even the moderate aim, it is unsurprising that disputes are frequent and agreements are scarce. One of the m…Read more
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34Realizing benefit sharing - the case of post-study obligationsBioethics 26 (6): 305-314. 2012.In 2006, the Indonesian government decided to withhold avian flu samples from the World Health Organization. They argued that even though Indonesian samples were crucial to the development of vaccines, the results of vaccine research would be unaffordable for its citizens. Commentaries on the case varied from alleging blackmail to welcoming this strong stance against alleged exploitation. What is clear is that the concern expressed is related to benefit sharing. Benefit sharing requires resource…Read more
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33Guest Editorial: Vulnerability RevisitedCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 18 (2): 110. 2009.In Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, Fanny, an 18-year-old orphan who lives with her aunt Lady Bertram, received an attractive offer of marriage, which she vehemently rejected and is not prepared to reconsider
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32Equitable Research Partnerships: A Global Code of Conduct to Counter Ethics DumpingSpringer Verlag. 2019.This open access book offers insights into the development of the ground-breaking Global Code of Conduct for Research in Resource-Poor Settings (GCC) and the San Code of Research Ethics. Using a new, intuitive moral framework predicated on fairness, respect, care and honesty, both codes target ethics dumping – the export of unethical research practices from a high-income setting to a lower- or middle-income setting. The book is a rich resource of information and argument for any research stakeho…Read more
Doris Schroeder
University of Central Lancashire
University of Central Lancashire Cyprus
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University of Central Lancashire CyprusProfessor (Part-time)
Areas of Specialization
Global Justice |
Areas of Interest
Global Justice |