•  19
    Many thanks to bioethics reviewers
    with George Agich, Priscilla Anderson, Alice Asby, Dominic Beer, Rebecca Bennett, Alec Bodkin, Stephen Braude, Dan Brock, and Gideon Calder
    In Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred Dycus Miller & Jeffrey Paul (eds.), Bioethics, Cambridge University Press. pp. 2002. 2002.
  • Maternal responsibility to the child not yet born
    with Catherine Stanton
    In Catherine Stanton, Sarah Devaney, Anne-Maree Farrell & Alexandra Mullock (eds.), Pioneering Healthcare Law: Essays in Honour of Margaret Brazier, Routledge. 2015.
  •  13
    Clinical ethics support services during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK: a cross-sectional survey
    with Mariana Dittborn and David Archard
    Journal of Medical Ethics 48 (10): 695-701. 2022.
    Background Non-adherence to medication is associated with increased risk of relapse in patients with bipolar disorder. Objectives To validate patient-evaluated adherence to medication measured via smartphones against validated adherence questionnaire; and investigate characteristics for adherence to medication measured via smartphones. Methods Patients with BD evaluated adherence to medication daily for 6–9 months via smartphones. The Medication Adherence Rating Scale and the Rogers’ Empowerment…Read more
  •  9
    Involving parents in paediatric clinical ethics committee deliberations: a current controversy
    with David Archard and Joe Brierley
    Journal of Medical Ethics 49 (11): 733-736. 2023.
    In cases where the best interests of the child are disputed or finely balanced, Clinical Ethics Committees (CECs) can provide a valuable source of advice to clinicians and trusts on the pertinent ethical dimensions. Recent judicial cases have criticised the lack of formalised guidance and inconsistency in the involvement of parents in CEC deliberations. In Manchester University NHS FT v Verden [2022], Arbuthnot J set out important procedural guidance as to how parental involvement in CEC deliber…Read more
  •  10
    The pace of change and, indeed, the sheer number of clinical ethics committees has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Committees were formed to support healthcare professionals and to operationalise, interpret and compensate for gaps in national and professional guidance. But as the role of clinical ethics support becomes more prominent and visible, it becomes ever more important to address gaps in the support structure and misconceptions as to role and remit. The recent case of Great Orm…Read more
  •  5
    Healthcare Professional Standards in Pandemic Conditions: The Duty to Obtain Consent to Treatment
    with Sarah Devaney, Jose Miola, Craig Purshouse, and Rob Heywood
    Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 17 (4): 789-792. 2020.
    In the United Kingdom, the question of how much information is required to be given to patients about the benefits and risks of proposed treatment remains extant. Issues about whether healthcare resources can accommodate extended shared decision-making processes are yet to be resolved. COVID-19 has now stepped into this arena of uncertainty, adding more complexity. U.K. public health responses to the pandemic raise important questions about professional standards regarding how the obtaining and …Read more
  •  31
    Valid consent to medical treatment
    Journal of Medical Ethics 47 (12). 2021.
    When consent to medical treatment is described as ‘valid’, it might simply mean that it has a sound basis, or it could mean that it is legally valid. Where the two meanings are regularly interchanged, however, it can lead to aspects of the sound basis or the legal requirements being neglected. This article looks at how the term is used in a range of guidance on consent to treatment and argues for consistency.
  •  21
    COVID-19 Super-spreaders: Definitional Quandaries and Implications
    Asian Bioethics Review 12 (2): 235-242. 2020.
    Uncertainty around the role ‘super-spreaders’ play in the transmission and escalation of infectious disease is compounded by its broad and vague definition. It is a term that has been much used in relation to COVID-19, particularly in social media. On its widest definition, it refers to a propensity to infect a larger than average number of people. Given the biological, behavioural and environmental variables relevant to infectivity, this might be pertinent to almost any infected individual who …Read more
  •  19
    Professional control in the selection of treatment options for patients is changing. In light of social and legal developments emphasising patient choice and autonomy, and restricting medical paternalism and judicial deference, this article examines how far patients and families can demand NHS treatment in England and Wales. It considers situations where the patient is an adult with capacity, an adult lacking capacity and a child. In all three cases, there is judicial support for professional au…Read more
  •  19
    Milgram and Tuskegee—Paradigm Research Projects in Bioethics
    with Søren Holm
    Health Care Analysis 11 (1): 27-40. 2003.
    This paper discusses the use of the Milgram obedience experiments and the Tuskegee syphilis study in the bioethical literature. The two studies are presented and a variety of uses of them identified and discussed. It is argued that the use of these studies as paradigms of problematic research relies on a reduction of their complexity. What is discussed is thus often constructions of these studies that are closer to hypothetical examples than to the real studies
  •  34
    Medicine, Patients and the Law
    with Margaret Brazier
    Penguin Books. 1992 (MB), 2011.
    Embryo research, cloning, assisted conception, neonatal care, savior siblings, organ transplants, drug trials – modern developments have transformed the field of medicine almost beyond recognition in recent decades and the law struggles to keep up. At the same time legal claims against doctors and the NHS has grown and doctors feel under siege. In this highly acclaimed and very accessible book, Margaret Brazier and Emma Cave provide an incisive survey of the legal situation in areas as diverse a…Read more
  •  31
    This paper examines the UK’s response to a recent European Clinical Trials Directive, namely the Department of Health, Central Office for Research Ethics Committee guidance, Governance Arrangements for NHS Research Ethics Committees. The revisions have been long awaited by researchers and research ethics committee members alike. They substantially reform the ethical review system in the UK. We examine the new arrangements and argue that though they go a long way toward addressing the uncertainty…Read more
  •  21
    Why we wrote... Medicine, Patients and the Law
    with Margaret Brazier
    Clinical Ethics 3 (4): 205-208. 2008.
  •  33
    Researchers have frequently complained that the NHS ethical review system stifles good research. At last measures are being put in place to address this criticism, but will they undermine the protection of research participants? The Declaration of Helsinki recognizes that medicine will not progress without good quality research, but also demands that the well-being of research participants takes precedence over the interests of science and society. This article examines the implications of the o…Read more
  •  45
    Clinical audit and reform of the UK research ethics review system
    with C. Nichols
    Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 28 (3): 181-203. 2007.
    There is an international consensus that medical research involving humans should only be undertaken in accordance with ethical principles. Paradoxically though, there is no consensus over the kinds of activities that constitute research and should be subject to review. In the UK and elsewhere, research requiring review is distinguished from clinical audit. Unfortunately the two activities are not always easy to differentiate from one another. Moreover, as the volume of audit increases and becom…Read more