•  9
    Project-based learning in bioethics education
    International Journal of Ethics Education 1-20. forthcoming.
    Higher education has become more student-centered as the Bologna process assigns students more time to study and research. Online teaching has been needed during the pandemic, which can be challenging regarding didactic and assessment. This paper analyzes project-based learning (PBL) as a form of teaching and assessing students in a bioethics course on reproductive ethics. The team project was the final assessment of the Faculty of Bioethics core curriculum course, "Bioethics, Technology and Pro…Read more
  • Family and Healthcare Decision Making : Cultural Shift from the Individual to the Relational Self
    with Marie Catherine Letendre
    In Joseph Tham, Alberto García Gómez & Mirko Daniel Garasic (eds.), Cross-cultural and religious critiques of informed consent, Routledge. 2022.
  •  11
    Religious Perspectives on Human Vulnerability in Bioethics (edited book)
    with Alberto Garcia and Gonzalo Miranda
    Imprint: Springer. 2014.
    With the advance of biomedicine, certain individuals and groups are vulnerable because of their incapacities to defend themselves. The International Bioethics Committee as a UNESCO working group has for the last several years dedicated to deepen this principle of human vulnerability and personal integrity. This book serves to supplement this effort with a religious perspective given a great number of the world's population is affiliated with some religious traditions. While there is diversity wi…Read more
  •  10
    Religious Perspectives on Bioethics and Human Rights (edited book)
    with Alberto Garcia and Kai Man Kwan
    Imprint: Springer. 2017.
    This book deals with the thorny issue of human rights in different cultures and religions, especially in the light of bioethical issues. In this book, experts from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Daoism, Hinduism and Confucianism discuss the tension between their religious traditions and the claim of universality of human rights. The East-West contrast is particularly evident with regards to human rights. Some writers find the human rights language too individualistic and it is foreign t…Read more
  • Introduction
    In Joseph Tham, Alberto García Gómez & Mirko Daniel Garasic (eds.), Cross-cultural and religious critiques of informed consent, Routledge. 2022.
  •  10
    Cross-cultural and religious critiques of informed consent (edited book)
    with Alberto García Gómez and Mirko Daniel Garasic
    Routledge. 2022.
    This book explores the challenges of informed consent in medical intervention and research ethics, considering the global reality of multiculturalism and religious diversity. Even though informed consent is a gold standard in research ethics, its theoretical foundation is based on the conception of individual subjects making autonomous decisions. There is a need to reconsider autonomy as relational-where family members, community and religious leaders can play an important part in the consent pr…Read more
  •  2129
    Resisting the Temptation of Perfection
    The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 17 (1): 51-62. 2017.
    With the advance of CRISPR technology, parents will be tempted to create superior offspring who are healthier, smarter, and stronger. In addition to the fact that many of these procedures are considered immoral for Catholics, they could change human nature in radical and possibly disastrous ways. This article focuses on the question of human perfectionism. First, by considering the relationship between human nature and technology, it analyzes whether such advances can improve human nature in add…Read more
  •  405
    A Scientific and Socioecononic Review of Betel Nut Use in Taiwan with Bioethical Reflections
    with Geoffrey Sem, Eugene Sit, and Michael Cheng-tek Tai
    Asian Bioethics Review 9 (4): 401-414. 2017.
    This article addresses the ethics of betel nut use in Taiwan. It first presents scientific facts about the betel quid and its consumption and the generally accepted negative health consequences associated with its use: oral and esophageal cancer, coronary artery disease, metabolic diseases, and adverse effects in pregnancy. It then analyzes the cultural background and economic factors contributing to its popularity in Asia. The governmental and institutional attempts to curb betel nut cultivatio…Read more
  •  10
    生命倫理學:跨文化研究
    International Journal of Chinese and Comparative Philosophy of Medicine 20 (2): 13-37. 2022.
    LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in English ; abstract also in Chinese. This paper explores the need for and place of input from local cultures and religious traditions when addressing the highly complex questions that frequently arise in the field of bioethics, something which is often overlooked and even questioned in much of the relevant academic literature. It begins by examining the historical roots of religious bioethics and the secularization of the discipline before then recounting the expe…Read more
  •  22
    Opt-in Vs. Opt-out of Organ Donation in Scotland: Bioethical analysis
    with Allister Lee
    The New Bioethics 28 (4): 341-349. 2022.
    This paper looks at the ethics of opt-in vs. opt-out of organ donation as Scotland has transitioned its systems to promote greater organ availability. We first analyse studies that compare the donation rates in other regions due to such a system switch and find that organ increase is inconclusive and modest at best. This is due to a lack of explicit opt-out choices resulting in greater resistance and family override unless there are infrastructures and greater awareness to support such change. T…Read more
  •  4
    Attitudes towards science, medicine and the body are all profoundly shaped by people's worldviews. When discussing issues of bioethics, religion often plays a major role. In this volume, the role of genetic manipulation and neurotechnology in shaping human identity is examined from multiple religious perspectives. This can help us to understand how religion might affect the impact of the initiatives such as the UNESCO Declaration in Bioethics and Human Rights. The book features bioethics experts…Read more
  •  8
    Replies to Li and Fan
    In Hon-Lam Li & Michael Campbell (eds.), Public Reason and Bioethics: Three Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 181-194. 2021.
    Farrell and Tham argue against Li’s view expressed in Chap. 1. They also respond to Fan’s Confucianism articulated in Chap. 2.
  •  2
    The Natural Law Tradition, Public Reason, and Bioethics
    In Hon-Lam Li & Michael Campbell (eds.), Public Reason and Bioethics: Three Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 59-92. 2021.
    The chapter argues that the natural law tradition’s conception of public reason is more consistent than that of political liberalism, especially when it comes to bioethical legislation. After offering a précis of Thomist natural law theory, the chapter examines Alasdair MacIntyre’s treatment of the rational resolution of moral disagreements and argues that, in line with the natural law tradition, public reason should be construed as a shared political deliberation that is rooted in truth-directe…Read more
  •  25
    Withdrawing critical care from patients in a triage situation
    with Louis Melahn and Michael Baggot
    Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 24 (2): 205-211. 2021.
    The advent of COVID-19 has been the occasion for a renewed interest in the principles governing triage when the number of critically ill patients exceeds the healthcare infrastructure’s capacity in a given location. Some scholars advocate that it would be morally acceptable in a crisis to withdraw resources like life support and ICU beds from one patient in favor of another, if, in the judgment of medical personnel, the other patient has a significantly better prognosis. The paper examines the a…Read more
  •  17
    Religious Perspectives on Social Responsibility in Health: Towards a Dialogical Approach (edited book)
    with Chris Durante and Alberto García Gómez
    Springer Verlag. 2018.
    This book discuss the meaning and implications of the social and ethical implications of the notion of social responsibility in healthcare in six major world religions — Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, & Judaism. This collection of papers is based on a four-day workshop where bioethics experts from various religious traditions gathered. They discussed the ways in which their respective traditions could, or could not, uphold the tenets of Article 14 of UNESCO's Universal De…Read more
  •  1212
    Communicating with Sufferers: Lessons from the Book of Job
    Christian Bioethics 19 (1): 82-99. 2013.
    This article looks at the question of sin and disease in bioethics with a spiritual-theological analysis from the book of Job. The biblical figure Job is an innocent and just man who suffered horrendously. His dialogues with others—his wife, his friends, and God—can give many valuable insights for patients who suffer and for those who interact with them. Family, friends, physicians, nurses, chaplains, and pastoral workers can learn from Job how to communicate properly with sufferers. The main qu…Read more
  •  963
    A Catholic Reflects on Dialogue in the Abortion Debate
    Journal of Clinical Research and Bioethics 5 (1): 168. 2014.
    The recent comments by Pope Francis on abortion have caused a bit of a stir in the media. His nuanced responses are often lost in the media, and also by advocates on both sides of the abortion debate. While the Catholic position against abortion is common knowledge, this does not preclude an openness to dialogue. This article looks at some recent attempts at dialogue on the controversial topic of abortion. The first example comes from a book that surveys the public view on abortion that surpr…Read more
  •  547
    The Decline of Natural Law Reasoning
    The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 14 (2): 245-255. 2014.
    The author discusses natural law reasoning, from the 1960s in the context of Pope Paul VI’s Humanae vitae, to recent cultural and intellectual currents and their influence on the tradition. The challenges that have skewed acceptance of a common human nature and the existence of natural law are addressed. The author shows how the debate on contraception initiated this challenge against natural law reasoning and led to a more evolutive concept of human nature. Attention is drawn to a need for natu…Read more
  •  506
    Will to Power
    The New Bioethics 18 (2): 115-132. 2012.
    This paper analyzes the underlying tendencies and attitudes toward reproductive medicine borrowing the Nietzschean concepts of nihilism: “death of God” with secularization; “will to power” with reproductive liberty and technological power; and the race of “supermen” with transhumanism. Medical science has advanced in leaps and bounds. In some way, technical innovations have given us unprecedented power to manipulate the way we reproduce. The indiscriminant use of medical technology is backed b…Read more