• Stem Cells: New Frontiers in Science and Ethics (edited book)
    World Scientific. 2012.
  • Commentary 2
    Journal of Medical Ethics 9 (4): 222. 1983.
  •  1468
    Enhancements Are A Moral Obligation
    In Nick Bostrom & Julian Savulescu (eds.), Human Enhancement, Oxford University Press. 2009.
    Sobre Filosofia clinica e Reflexões sobre o que é o humano.
  •  3
    Embryo and Fetus. Stem Cell Research and Therapy
    with D. Morgan and M. Ford
    Encyclopedia of Bioethics. forthcoming.
  •  21
    Personal or Public Health?
    In Michael Boylan (ed.), International Public Health Policy & Ethics, Dordrecht. pp. 15--29. 2008.
    Intuitively we feel that we ought (to attempt) to save the lives, or ameliorate the suffering, of identifiable individuals where we can. But this comes at a price. It means that there may not be any resources to save the lives of others in similar situations in the future. Or worse, there may not be enough resources left to prevent others from ending up in similar situations in the future. This chapter asks whether this is justifiable or whether we would be better served focusing on public healt…Read more
  •  711
    Suppose that you are soon to be a parent and you learn that there are some simple measures that you can take to make sure that your child will be healthy. In particular, suppose that by following the doctor’s advice, you can prevent your child from having a disability, you can make your child immune from a number of dangerous diseases and you can even enhance its future intelligence. All that is required for this to happen is that you (or your partner) comply with lifestyle and dietary requireme…Read more
  •  201
    Stem cell research, personhood and sentience
    Reproductive Biomedicine Online 10 68-75. 2005.
    In this paper the permissibility of stem cell research on early human embryos is defended. It is argued that, in order to have moral status, an individual must have an interest in its own wellbeing. Sentience is a prerequisite for having an interest in avoiding pain, and personhood is a prerequisite for having an interest in the continuation of one's own existence. Early human embryos are not sentient and therefore they are not recipients of direct moral consideration. Early human embryos do not…Read more
  •  84
    Human cloning and child welfare
    with J. Burley
    Journal of Medical Ethics 25 (2): 108-113. 1999.
    In this paper we discuss an objection to human cloning which appeals to the welfare of the child. This objection varies according to the sort of harm it is expected the clone will suffer. The three formulations of it that we will consider are: 1. Clones will be harmed by the fearful or prejudicial attitudes people may have about or towards them (H1); 2. Clones will be harmed by the demands and expectations of parents or genotype donors (H2); 3. Clones will be harmed by their own awareness of the…Read more
  • Abortion
    with Soren Holm
    In Hugh LaFollette (ed.), The Oxford handbook of practical ethics, Oxford University Press. 2003.
  •  28
    A recent organ distribution scandal in Germany raises questions of general importance on which many thousands of lives may well depend. The scandal in Germany has produced reactions that are likely to occur whenever and wherever distribution irregularities occur and become public knowledge. After it had become known that physicians in three German hospitals were in the habit of manipulating records in order to fast-track their patients’ cases, the country experienced a decrease of available orga…Read more
  •  1
    In support of enhancement
    with S. Chan
    Studies in Ethics Law and Technology 1. 2007.
  •  21
    How to Be Good: The Possibility of Moral Enhancement
    Oxford University Press UK. 2016.
    Knowing how to be good, or knowing how to go about trying to be good, is of immense theoretical and practical importance. And what goes for trying to be good oneself, goes also for trying to provide others with ways of being good, and for trying to make them good whether they like it or not. This is what is meant by 'moral enhancement'. John Harris explores the many proposed methodologies or technologies for moral enhancement: traditional ones like good parenting and education; newer ones like c…Read more
  •  138
    From genomic databases to translation: a call to action
    with B. M. Knoppers, P. R. Burton, M. Murtagh, D. Cox, M. Deschenes, I. Fortier, T. J. Hudson, J. Kaye, and K. Lindpaintner
    Journal of Medical Ethics 37 (8): 515-516. 2011.
    The rapid rise of international collaborative science has enabled access to genomic data. In this article, it is argued that to move beyond mapping genomic variation to understanding its role in complex disease aetiology and treatment will require extending data sharing for the purposes of clinical research translation and implementation
  •  83
    On Cloning
    Routledge. 2004.
    Cloning - few words have as much potential to grip our imagination or grab the headlines. No longer the stuff of science fiction or Star Wars - it is happening now. Yet human cloning is currently banned throughout the world, and therapeutic cloning banned in many countries. In this highly controversial book, John Harris does a lot more than ask why we are so afraid of cloning. He presents a deft and informed defence of human cloning, carefully exposing the rhetorical and highly dubious arguments…Read more
  •  37
    An Ethical Framework for Stem Cell Research in the European Union
    with Lisa Bortolotti and Louise Irving
    Health Care Analysis 13 (3): 157-162. 2005.
    Paper providing an ethical framework for stem cell research in Europe
  •  151
    Stem Cells, Sex, and Procreation
    Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 12 (4): 353-371. 2003.
    Sex is not the answer to everything, though young men think it is, but it may be the answer to the intractable debate over the ethics of human embryonic stem cell research. In this paper, I advance one ethical principle that, as yet, has not received the attention its platitudinous character would seem to merit. If found acceptable, this principle would permit the beneficial use of any embryonic or fetal tissue that would, by default, be lost or destroyed. More important, I make two appeals to c…Read more
  •  89
    Sex selection and regulated hatred
    Journal of Medical Ethics 31 (5): 291-294. 2005.
    This paper argues that the HFEA’s recent report on sex selection abdicates its responsibility to give its own authentic advice on the matters within its remit, that it accepts arguments and conclusions that are implausible on the face of it and where they depend on empirical claims, produces no empirical evidence whatsoever, but relies on reckless speculation as to what the “facts” are likely to be. Finally, having committed itself to what I call the “democratic presumption”, that human freedom …Read more
  •  131
    No sex selection please, we're British
    Journal of Medical Ethics 31 (5): 286-288. 2005.
    There is a popular and widely accepted version of the precautionary principle which may be expressed thus: “If you are in a hole—stop digging!”. Tom Baldwin, as Deputy Chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority , may be excused for rushing to the defence of the indefensible,1 the HFEA’s sex selection report,2 but not surely for recklessly abandoning so prudent a principle. Baldwin has many complaints about my misrepresenting the HFEA and about my supposed elitist contempt for publ…Read more
  •  65
    The Welfare of the Child
    Health Care Analysis 8 (1): 27-34. 2000.
    The interests or welfare of the child are rightly central to anydiscussion of the ethics of reproduction. The problematic nature of thislegitimate concern is seldom, if ever, noticed or if it is, it ismisunderstood. A prominent example of this sort of misunderstandingoccurs in the Department of Health's recent and important `SurrogacyReview' chaired by Margaret Brazier (The Brazier Report) and thesame misunderstanding makes nonsense of at least one provision of theHuman Fertilization and Embryol…Read more
  •  88
    Taking the “Human” Out of Human Rights
    Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 20 (1): 9-20. 2011.
    Human rights are universally acknowledged to be important, although they are, of course, by no means universally respected. This universality has helped to combat racism and sexism and other arbitrary and vicious forms of discrimination. Unfortunately, as we shall see, the universality of human rights is both too universal and not universal enough. It is time to take the “human” out of human rights. Indeed, it is very probable that in the future there will be no more humans as we know them now, …Read more
  •  116
    Should we presume moral turpitude in our children? – Small children and consent to medical research
    with Søren Holm
    Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 24 (2): 121-129. 2003.
    When children are too young to make their ownautonomous decisions, decisions have to be madefor them. In certain contexts we allow parentsand others to make these decisions, and do notinterfere unless the decision clearly violatesthe best interest of the child. In othercontexts we put a priori limits on whatkind of decisions parents can make, and/or whatkinds of considerations they have to take intoaccount. Consent to medical research currentlyfalls into the second group mentioned here. Wewant t…Read more
  •  3
    Cloning
    In R. G. Frey & Christopher Heath Wellman (eds.), A Companion to Applied Ethics, Wiley-blackwell. 2003.
    This chapter contains sections titled: Process The Reaction to Cloning Arguments against Human Reproductive Cloning Procreative Autonomy Acknowledgments.
  •  44
    ‘Risky’ research and participants' interests: the ethics of phase 2C clinical trials
    with Sarah Chan, Ying-Kiat Zee, and Gordon Jayson
    Clinical Ethics 6 (2): 91-96. 2011.
    Biomedical research involving human participants is highly regulated and subject to stringent ethical requirements. Clinical research ethics, regulation and policy have tended to focus almost exclusively on the protection of participants' interests against harms that might result from taking part in research. Less consideration, however, has been given to the interests that patients may themselves have in research participation, even in trials that may be beyond the bounds of current clinical re…Read more
  •  204
    In Support of Human Enhancement
    with Sarah Chan
    Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology 1 (1). 2007.
  •  63
    Does a Fish Need a Bicycle? Animals and Evolution in the Age of Biotechnology
    with Sarah Chan
    Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 20 (3): 484-492. 2011.
    Animals, in the age of biotechnology, are the subjects of a myriad of scientific procedures, interventions, and modifications. They are created, altered, and experimented upon—often with highly beneficial outcomes for humans in terms of knowledge gained and applied, yet not without concern also for the effects upon the experimental subjects themselves: consideration of the use of animals in research remains an intensely debated topic. Concerns for animal welfare in scientific research have, howe…Read more