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27Psychedelic Research for Dementia Risks Perpetuating Structural Failures and Inadequacies in Aged CareAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 14 (2): 131-134. 2023.Peterson et al. (2023) outline a broad ethics agenda for imminent research on psychedelic agents for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD) by acknowledging the therapeutic promise of...
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16Assent to research by the formerly competent: necessary and sufficient?Journal of Medical Ethics 49 (7): 483-484. 2023.Anna Smajdor offers a fresh perspective on why assent is morally required in research practices involving people who (are considered to) lack the capacity to consent.1 Smajdor holds that seeking (and documenting) assent can be a mechanism to recognise those who (are considered to) lack the capacity to consent as participants ‘in our moral sphere’.1 Smajdor suggests that this approach can function as a counter to the ‘reifying’ attitudes (often) taken towards people who (are judged to) lack the c…Read more
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34Non-clinical uses of antipsychotics in resource-constrained long-term care facilities: ethically justifiable as lesser of two evils?Journal of Medical Ethics 49 (10): 694-698. 2023.Residents with dementia in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) often receive antipsychotic (AP) medications without clear clinical indications. One non-clinical factor influencing the use of APs in LTCFs is low staff levels. Often, using APs is viewed and rationalised by healthcare professionals in LTCFs as a lesser evil option to manage low staff levels. This paper investigates the ethical plausibility of using APs as a lesser of two evils in resource-constrained LTCFs. I examine the practice vis…Read more
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21Dementia and Nussbaums capabilities approach to dignity: a response to the commentatorsJournal of Medical Ethics 48 (12): 979-980. 2022.I thank the commentators for engaging with my work and for their thoughtful and constructive contributions. I also extend my gratitude to the editors of the _Journal of Medical Ethics_ for facilitating such a lively scholarly dialogue on the topic. In this response paper, I will briefly address some of the key issues raised by the commentators and attempt to bring into conversation different viewpoints put forward by the commentators. Questioning whether my proposed account evades the objection …Read more
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13Using Antipsychotics for Self-Defense Purposes by Care Staff in Residential Aged Care Facilities: An Ethical AnalysisCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 31 (4). 2022.People with dementia at times exhibit threatening and physically aggressive behavior toward care staff in residential aged care facilities (RACFs). Current clinical guidelines recommend judicious use of antipsychotic (AP) medications when there is an immediate risk of harm to care staff in RACFs and non-pharmacological interventions have failed to avert the threats. This article examines an account of how this recommendation can be ethically defensible: caregivers in RACFs may have a prima facie…Read more
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20Determinations of Competence Ought Not to Be Primarily Grounded in Paternalistic Justifications regarding WelfareAmerican Journal of Bioethics 22 (10): 75-78. 2022.According to Pickering, Newton-Howes, and Young, the harmfulness of decisions does, and should, factor into determining patients' decisional competence. As they claim, decision-making proces...
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27What moral work can Nussbaum’s account of human dignity do in the context of dementia care?Journal of Medical Ethics 48 (12): 961-967. 2022.Appeals to the dignity of people with dementia are widespread in the current literature on dementia care. One influential account of dignity in the wider philosophical and bioethical literature that has remained underexplored in the context of dementia care is that of Martha Nussbaum. This paper critically examines Nussbaum’s account of dignity and aims to determine what moral guidance this account can offer for the provision of care to people with dementia. To that end, first, I identify four p…Read more
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30Respect for Autonomy and Dementia Care in Nursing Homes: Revising Beauchamp and Childress’s Account of Autonomous Decision-MakingJournal of Bioethical Inquiry 19 (3): 467-479. 2022.Specifying the moral demands of respect for the autonomy of people with dementia (PWD) in nursing homes (NHs) remains a challenging conceptual task. These challenges arise primarily because received notions of autonomous decision-making and informed consent do not straightforwardly apply to PWD in NHs. In this paper, I investigate whether, and to what extent, the influential account of autonomous decision-making and informed consent proposed by Beauchamp and Childress has applicability and relev…Read more
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25Normative force of appeals to personhood in dementia care: A critical examination of Kitwood's account of personhoodBioethics 35 (9): 884-890. 2021.In this paper, I critically examine Kitwood's account of personhood for people with dementia. His account has been influential in supporting appeals to personhood in both clinical and bioethical literature on dementia care. I demonstrate that Kitwood's account does not run into common objections against invoking personhood as a normative notion, namely, the objection of exclusionary implications and the objection of redundancy. I argue, however, that Kitwood's account suffers from two other majo…Read more
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16Iranian kidney market in limbo: a commentary on “The ambiguous lessons of the Iranian model of paid living kidney donation”Monash Bioethics Review 34 (2): 148-151. 2016.Sigrid Fry-Revere’s The Kidney Sellers: A Journey of Discovery in Iran, an allegedly first-hand examination of the Iranian paid kidney donation model, has been criticized by Koplin in an essay formerly published in the Monash Bioethics Review. Koplin especially challenges Fry-Revere’s claim that financially compensating kidney vendors might facilitate altruistic kidney donation. The current situation in Iran, according to Koplin, suggests that the market model has undermined altruistic donation.…Read more
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29Mode 2 Knowledge Production in the Context of Medical Research: A Call for Further ClarificationsJournal of Bioethical Inquiry 15 (1): 23-27. 2018.The traditional researcher-driven environment of medical knowledge production is losing its dominance with the expansion of, for instance, community-based participatory or participant-led medical research. Over the past few decades, sociologists of science have debated a shift in the production of knowledge from traditional discipline-based to more socially embedded and transdisciplinary frameworks. Recently, scholars have tried to show the relevance of Mode 2 knowledge production to medical res…Read more
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Macquarie UniversityMacquarie University Research Centre for Agency, Values, and Ethics (CAVE)Other
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University of SydneyLecturer
Macquarie University
PhD, 2021
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Areas of Specialization
Biomedical Ethics |
Normative Ethics |