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6IntroductionIn Emma Moormann, Anna Smajdor & Daniela Cutas (eds.), Epigenetics and Responsibility: Ethical Perspectives, Bristol University Press. pp. 1-22. 2024.
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10Epigenetics, Bioethics and a Developmental Outlook on LifeIn Emma Moormann, Anna Smajdor & Daniela Cutas (eds.), Epigenetics and Responsibility: Ethical Perspectives, Bristol University Press. pp. 23-36. 2024.
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4Responsibility and the MicrobiomeIn Emma Moormann, Anna Smajdor & Daniela Cutas (eds.), Epigenetics and Responsibility: Ethical Perspectives, Bristol University Press. pp. 129-141. 2024.
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39The history of the concept of pain: how the experts came to be out of touch with the folkIn Richard Samuels & Daniel A. Wilkenfeld (eds.), Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Science, Bloomsbury. pp. 173-190. 2019.In this chapter we consider the tension between how pain researchers today typically define pains and the dominant, ordinary conception of pain. While both philosophers and pain scientists define pains as experiences, taking this to correspond with the ordinary understanding, recent empirical evidence indicates that laypeople tend to think of pains as qualities of bodily states. How did this divide come about? To answer, we sketch the historical origins of the concept of pain in Western medicine…Read more
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4Toevallige ontmoetingen: bio-ethiek voor een gehavende planeetOpen Book Publishers. 2023.This note is part of Quality testing.
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39Precise Worlds for Certain Minds: An Ecological Perspective on the Relational Self in AutismTopoi 39 (3): 611-622. 2020.Autism Spectrum Condition presents a challenge to social and relational accounts of the self, precisely because it is broadly seen as a disorder impacting social relationships. Many influential theories argue that social deficits and impairments of the self are the core problems in ASC. Predictive processing approaches address these based on general purpose neurocognitive mechanisms that are expressed atypically. Here we use the High, Inflexible Precision of Prediction Errors in Autism approach …Read more
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499Autism Spectrum Condition presents a challenge to social and relational accounts of the self, precisely because it is broadly seen as a disorder impacting social relationships. Many influential theories argue that social deficits and impairments of the self are the core problems in ASC. Predictive processing approaches address these based on general purpose neurocognitive mechanisms that are expressed atypically. Here we use the High, Inflexible Precision of Prediction Errors in Autism approach …Read more
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24Part of my story. The meaning and experiences of genes and genetics for sperm donor-conceived offspringNew Genetics and Society 38 (1): 18-37. 2019.Existing empirical research often do not explain which concepts about genetics underlie the assumption that genetic information is deemed important for donor-conceived offspring. This study focused on how donor-conceived individuals following anonymous sperm donation give meaning to and make sense of genes and genetics. Analysis is based on focus groups and interviews with adult donor-conceived offspring. Findings suggest that genes are part of their specific context of being donor-conceived but…Read more
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31Advances in experimental philosophy of medicine (edited book)Bloomsbury Academic. 2023.This open access collection brings together a team of leading scholars and rising stars to consider what experimental philosophy of medicine is and can be. While experimental philosophy of science is an established field, attempts to tackle issues in philosophy of medicine from an experimental angle are still surprisingly scarce. A team of interdisciplinary scholars demonstrate how we can make progress by integrating a variety of methods from experimental philosophy, including experiments, socio…Read more
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20Ethics is everywhere: Human Geography, Bioethics and the value of interdisciplinary collaborationBioethics 37 (7): 615-616. 2023.
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44Parental Responsibility in the Context of Neuroscience and Genetics (edited book)Springer International Publishing. 2016.Should parents aim to make their children as normal as possible to increase their chances to “fit in”? Are neurological and mental health conditions a part of children’s identity and if so, should parents aim to remove or treat these? Should they aim to instill self-control in their children? Should prospective parents take steps to insure that, of all the children they could have, they choose the ones with the best likely start in life? This volume explores all of these questions and more. Agai…Read more
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9InleidingAlgemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte 111 (4): 499-504. 2019.Amsterdam University Press is a leading publisher of academic books, journals and textbooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our aim is to make current research available to scholars, students, innovators, and the general public. AUP stands for scholarly excellence, global presence, and engagement with the international academic community.
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19Kinderen krijgen in apocalyptische tijdenAlgemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte 111 (4): 621-641. 2019.Procreation in the face of an apocalypse: Some ethical considerations In the field of procreation ethics both Kantian and consequentialist arguments have been developed purporting to show the moral impermissibility of having (more than two) children. A survey of the most important arguments leaves us wondering whether one could derive general obligations or prohibitions from abstract principles and apply them to deeply personal decisions about whether or not to have children (and how many). At t…Read more
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17Conceptualizing neurodevelopmental disorders as networks: Promises and challengesBehavioral and Brain Sciences 42. 2019.
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42A plea for an experimental philosophy of medicineTheoretical Medicine and Bioethics 42 (3): 81-89. 2021.This special issue aims to explore and investigate a new subfield, namely experimental philosophy of medicine. Whereas experimental philosophy is relatively new on the philosophical block, some of its takes and findings have already shaped central debates in ethics, philosophy of action, philosophy of language, and epistemology. Interestingly, the approach of this program was for a long time almost wholly ignored within bioethics and philosophy of medicine—although this seems to have changed som…Read more
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31Preserving children’s fertility: two tales about children’s right to an open future and the margins of parental obligationsMedicine, Health Care and Philosophy 18 (2): 253-260. 2015.The sources, extent and margins of parental obligations in taking decisions regarding their children’s medical care are subjects of ongoing debates. Balancing children’s immediate welfare with keeping their future open is a delicate task. In this paper, we briefly present two examples of situations in which parents may be confronted with the choice of whether to authorise or demand non-therapeutic interventions on their children for the purpose of fertility preservation. The first example is tha…Read more
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66Parental Choices and the Prospect of Regret: An Alternative AccountInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 25 (5): 586-607. 2017.ABSTRACTIs the question ‘will you regret it if you do this?’ helpful when people face difficult life decisions, such as terminating a pregnancy if a disability is detected or deciding to become a parent? Despite the commonness of the question in daily life, several philosophers have argued lately against its usefulness. We reconstruct four arguments from recent literature on regret, transformative experience and the use of imagination in deliberation. After analysis of these arguments we conclud…Read more
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185Parental Responsibility: A Moving TargetIn Kristien Hens, Daniela Cutas & Dorothee Horstkötter (eds.), Parental Responsibility in the Context of Neuroscience and Genetics, Springer International Publishing. 2016.Beliefs about the moral status of children have changed significantly in recent decades in the Western world. At the same time, knowledge about likely consequences for children of individual, parental, and societal choices has grown, as has the array of choices that (prospective) parents may have at their disposal. The intersection between these beliefs, this new knowledge, and these new choices has created a minefield of expectations from parents and a seemingly ever-expanding responsibility to…Read more
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20Microbiome in Precision Psychiatry: An Overview of the Ethical Challenges Regarding Microbiome Big Data and Microbiome-Based InterventionsAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 13 (4): 270-286. 2022.There has been a spurt in both fundamental and translational research that examines the underlying mechanisms of the human microbiome in psychiatric disorders. The personalized and dynamic features of the human microbiome suggest the potential of its manipulation for precision psychiatry in ways to improve mental health and avoid disease. However, findings in the field of microbiome also raise philosophical and ethical questions. From a philosophical point of view, they may yet be another attemp…Read more
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29Editorial: Dis/Abling Gender in Crisis TimesTijdschrift Voor Genderstudies 25 (1). 2022.The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made explicit what many of us already knew and some of us are constantly made to feel: good health and the abilities of our bodies & minds1 are fluid and uncertain. We can only ever hold them precariously (Butler, 2004; Scully, 2014). In the end, we are all vulnerable beings. And, yet, vulnerability, perhaps especially in times of crisis, can never be fully universalised, nor is it distributed equally: the value and definition of what our bodies & minds can do, …Read more
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24Philosophy of Science Can Prevent ManslaughterJournal of Bioethical Inquiry 19 (4): 537-543. 2022.In September 2020, the surgeon Paulo Macchiarini, who used stem cell technology to enable the transplants of artificial and donor trachea, was charged with aggravated assault in Sweden. In this comment, we argue that the Ethics Council of the Karolinska Institute should have considered issues from philosophy of science when they were brought to their attention, rather than dismiss them as irrelevant to research ethics. We demonstrate how conceptual issues of a philosophy-of-science-kind about cl…Read more
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48Exculpation and Stigma in Tourette Syndrome: An Experimental Philosophy StudyNeuroethics 15 (1): 1-16. 2022.Purpose: There is a widespread recognition that biomedical explanations offer benefits to those diagnosed with a mental disorder. Recent research points out that such explanations may nevertheless have stigmatizing effects. In this study, this ‘mixed blessing’ account of biomedical explanations is investigated in a case of philosophical interest: Tourette Syndrome. Method: We conducted a vignette survey with 221 participants in which we first assessed quantitative attributions of blame as well a…Read more
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42Pandemic Risk and Standpoint Epistemology: A Matter of SolidarityHealth Care Analysis 30 (2): 146-162. 2022.Current and past pandemics have several aspects in common. It is expected that all members of society contribute to beat it. But it is also clear that the risks associated with the pandemic are different for different groups. This makes that appeals to solidarity based on technocratic risk calculations are only partially successful. Objective ‘risks of transmission’ may, for example, be trumped by risks of letting down people in need of help or by missing out certain opportunities in life. In th…Read more
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17Global Health Disparities: Can Liberal Perfectionism Better Address the Problem?American Journal of Bioethics 21 (9): 48-50. 2021.In his article, Ismaili M’hamdi argues that a neutralist approach in public health policy might turn into a gap that separates citizens who endure preventable poor conditions from the state...
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6Normaal versus abnormaal, typisch versus atypischAlgemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte 112 (1): 59-63. 2020.Amsterdam University Press is a leading publisher of academic books, journals and textbooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our aim is to make current research available to scholars, students, innovators, and the general public. AUP stands for scholarly excellence, global presence, and engagement with the international academic community.
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156Going Beyond the Catch-22 of Autism Diagnosis and Research. The Moral Implications of (Not) Asking “What Is Autism?”Frontiers in Psychology 11. 2020.Psychiatric diagnoses such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are primarily attributed on the basis of behavioral criteria. The aim of most of the biomedical research on ASD is to uncover the underlying mechanisms that lead to or even cause pathological behavior. However, in the philosophical and sociological literature, it has been suggested that autism is also to some extent a ‘social construct’ that cannot merely be reduced to its biological explanation. We show that a one-sided adherence to e…Read more
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The ethics of complexity. Genetics and autism, a literature reviewAmerican Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics 171 (3). 2016.It is commonly believed that the etiology of autism is at least partly explained through genetics. Given the complexity of autism and the variability of the autistic phenotype, genetic research and counseling in this field are also complex and associated with specific ethical questions. Although the ethics of autism genetics, especially with regard to reproductive choices, has been widely discussed on the public fora, an in depth philosophical or bioethical reflection on all aspects of the theme…Read more
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KU LeuvenResearcher
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Leuven, Belgium