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6When Should Popular Views be Included in a Reflective Equilibrium?Erkenntnis 1-18. forthcoming.It has become increasingly common to conduct research on popular views on ethical questions. In this paper, we discuss when and to what extent popular views should be included in a reflective equilibrium process, thereby influencing normative theory. We argue that popular views are suitable for inclusion in a reflective equilibrium if they approximate considered judgments and examine some factors that plausibly contribute to the consideredness of popular views. We conclude that deliberation and …Read more
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17Premature Death as a Normative ConceptHealth Care Analysis 32 (2): 88-105. 2024.The practical goal of preventing premature death seems uncontroversial. But the term ‘premature death’ is vague with several, sometimes conflicting definitions. This ambiguity results in several conceptions with which not all will agree. Moreover, the normative rationale behind the goal of preventing premature deaths is masked by the operational definition of existing measures. In this article, we argue that ‘premature death’ should be recognized as a normative concept. We propose that normative…Read more
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34Severity as a moral qualifier of maladyBMC Medical Ethics 24 (1): 1-7. 2023.The overarching aim of this article is to scrutinize how severity can work as a qualifier for the moral impetus of malady. While there is agreement that malady is of negative value, there is disagreement about precisely how this is so. Nevertheless, alleviating disease, injury, and associated suffering is almost universally considered good. Furthermore, the strength of a diseased person’s moral claims for our attention and efforts will inevitably vary. This article starts by reflecting on what k…Read more
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540Severity as a Priority Setting Criterion: Setting a Challenging Research AgendaHealth Care Analysis 28 (1): 25-44. 2019.Priority setting in health care is ubiquitous and health authorities are increasingly recognising the need for priority setting guidelines to ensure efficient, fair, and equitable resource allocation. While cost-effectiveness concerns seem to dominate many policies, the tension between utilitarian and deontological concerns is salient to many, and various severity criteria appear to fill this gap. Severity, then, must be subjected to rigorous ethical and philosophical analysis. Here we first giv…Read more
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30Public health priority setting: A case for priority to the worse off in well-being during the COVID-19 pandemicEtikk I Praksis - Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics. forthcoming.In Norway, priority for health interventions is assigned on the basis of three official criteria: health benefit, resources, and severity. Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have mainly happened through intersectoral public health efforts such as lockdowns, quarantines, information campaigns, social distancing and, more recently, vaccine distribution. The aim of this article is to evaluate potential priority setting criteria for public health interventions. We argue in favour of the following th…Read more
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17Abortion and multifetal pregnancy reduction: An ethical comparisonEtikk I Praksis - Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics 1 51-73. 2021.In recent years, multifetal pregnancy reduction has increasingly been a subject of debate in Norway. The intensity of this debate reached a tentative maximum when the Legislation Department delivered their interpretative statement, Section 2 - Interpretation of the Abortion Act, in 2016 in response to a request from the Ministry of Health that the Legislation Department consider whether the Abortion Act allows for MFPR of healthy fetuses in multiple pregnancies. The Legislation Department conclu…Read more
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14Bør vi diskontere fremtidige helsegevinster?Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift 55 (2-3): 170-184. 2020.
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19The Devils in the DALY: Prevailing Evaluative AssumptionsPublic Health Ethics 13 (3): 259-274. 2020.In recent years, it has become commonplace among the Global Burden of Disease study authors to regard the disability-adjusted life year primarily as a descriptive health metric. During the first phase of the GBD, it was widely acknowledged that the DALY had built-in evaluative assumptions. However, from the publication of the 2010 GBD and onwards, two central evaluative practices—time discounting and age-weighting—have been omitted from the DALY model. After this substantial revision, the emergi…Read more
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31Do not despair about severity—yetJournal of Medical Ethics 46 (8): 557-558. 2020.In a recent extended essay, philosopher Daniel Hausman goes a long way towards dismissing severity as a morally relevant attribute in the context of priority setting in healthcare. In this response, we argue that although Hausman certainly points to real problems with how severity is often interpreted and operationalised within the priority setting context, the conclusion that severity does not contain plausible ethical content is too hasty. Rather than abandonment, our proposal is to take sever…Read more
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15Consistency is not overratedJournal of Medical Ethics 45 (12): 830-831. 2019.In a recent paper— The disvalue of death in the global burden of disease 1—we question the commensurability of the two components of the disability-adjusted life year — years lived with disability and years of life lost —and offer a tentative solution to this problem. In an exciting and constructive reply— Is consistency overrated? 2—philosopher S Andrew Schroeder argues that our concern about the DALY may be missing the mark by accepting the DALY as what he refers to as an index reflecting noth…Read more
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36The disvalue of death in the global burden of diseaseJournal of Medical Ethics 44 (3): 192-198. 2018.In the Global Burden of Disease study, disease burden is measured as disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). The paramount assumption of the DALY is that it makes sense to aggregate years lived with disability (YLDs) and years of life lost (YLLs). However, this is not smooth sailing. Whereas morbidity (YLD) is something thathappens toan individual, loss of life itself (YLL) occurs when that individual’s life has ended. YLLs quantify something that involves no experience and does not take place a…Read more
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629Abort og fosterreduksjon: En etisk sammenligningEtikk I Praksis - Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics 1 89-111. 2019.In recent years, multifetal pregnancy reduction (MFPR) has increasingly been the subject of debate in Norway, and the intensity reached a tentative maximum when Legislation Department delivered the interpretative statement § 2 - Interpretation of the Abortion Act in 2016 in response to the Ministry of Health (2014) requesting the Legislation Department to consider whether the Law on abortion allows for MFPR of healthy fetuses in multiple pregnancies. The Legislation Department concluded that cur…Read more
Mathias Barra
Akershus University Hospital
University of Oslo
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Akershus University HospitalSenior Researcher
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Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Areas of Specialization
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |
Value Theory |
Other Academic Areas |