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89What is the harm in harmful conception? On threshold harms in non-identity casesTheoretical Medicine and Bioethics 35 (5): 337-351. 2014.Has the time come to put to bed the concept of a harm threshold when discussing the ethics of reproductive decision making and the legal limits that should be placed upon it? In this commentary, we defend the claim that there exist good moral reasons, despite the conclusions of the non-identity problem, based on the interests of those we might create, to refrain from bringing to birth individuals whose lives are often described in the philosophical literature as ‘less than worth living’
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74Should uterus transplants be publicly funded?Journal of Medical Ethics 42 (9): 559-565. 2016.Since 2000, 11 human uterine transplantation procedures (UTx) have been performed across Europe and Asia. Five of these have, to date, resulted in pregnancy and four live births have now been recorded. The most significant obstacles to the availability of UTx are presently scientific and technical, relating to the safety and efficacy of the procedure itself. However, if and when such obstacles are overcome, the most likely barriers to its availability will be social and financial in nature, rela…Read more
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50Should Deceased Donation be Morally Preferred in Uterine Transplantation Trials?Bioethics 30 (6): 415-424. 2016.In recent years much research has been undertaken regarding the feasibility of the human uterine transplant as a treatment for absolute uterine factor infertility. Should it reach clinical application this procedure would allow such individuals what is often a much-desired opportunity to become not only social mothers, or genetic and social mothers but mothers in a social, genetic and gestational sense. Like many experimental transplantation procedures such as face, hand, corneal and larynx tran…Read more
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37Harms to “Others” and the Selection Against Disability ViewJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 42 (2): 154-183. 2017.In recent years, the question of whether prospective parents might have a moral obligation to select against disability in their offspring has piqued the attention of many prominent philosophers and bioethicists, and a large literature has emerged surrounding this question. Rather than looking to the most common arguments given in support of a positive response to the abovementioned question, such as those focusing on the harms disability may impose on the child created, duties and role-specific…Read more
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35Within the ethics and science literature surrounding uterus transplantation (UTx), emphasis is often placed on the extent to which UTx might improve upon, or offer additional benefits when compared to, existing ‘treatment options’ for women with absolute uterine factor infertility, such as adoption and gestational surrogacy. Within this literature UTx is often positioned as superior to surrogacy because it can deliver things that surrogacy cannot (such as the experience of gestation). Yet, in ad…Read more
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30‘Take my kidneys but not my corneas’—Selective preferences as a hidden problem for ‘opt‐out’ organ donation policyBioethics 36 (8): 829-839. 2022.With aims to both increase organ supply and better reflect individual donation preferences, many nations worldwide have shifted from ‘opt‐in’ to ‘opt‐out’ systems for post‐mortem organ donation (PMOD). In such countries, while a prospective donor's willingness to donate their organs/tissues for PMOD was previously ascertained—at least partially—by their having recorded positive donation preferences on an official register prior to death, this willingness is now presumed or inferred—at least part…Read more
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26On harm thresholds and living organ donation: must the living donor benefit, on balance, from his donation?Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 21 (1): 11-22. 2018.For the majority of scholars concerned with the ethics of living organ donation, inflicting moderate harms on competent volunteers in order to save the lives or increase the life chances of others is held to be justifiable provided certain conditions are met. These conditions tend to include one, or more commonly, some combination of the following: The living donor provides valid consent to donation. Living donation produces an overall positive balance of harm–benefit for donors and recipients w…Read more
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24Public funding, social change and uterus transplants: a response to commentariesJournal of Medical Ethics 42 (9): 572-573. 2016.
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22Deceased Donation in Uterus Transplantation Trials: Novelty, Consent, and Surrogate Decision MakingAmerican Journal of Bioethics 18 (7): 18-20. 2018.
Lancaster, Lancashire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Biomedical Ethics |
Political Ethics |
Social Ethics |
Technology Ethics |
Areas of Interest
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