•  3
    To Assess or Not to Assess? Physician-Patient Disagreement as the Primary Trigger for Capacity Testing in Clinical Practice
    with Matthew Cho, Connor T. A. Brenna, Stacy S. Chen, and Liam G. McCoy
    American Journal of Bioethics 24 (8): 98-100. 2024.
    Volume 24, Issue 8, August 2024, Page 98-100.
  •  77
    Believing in black boxes: machine learning for healthcare does not need explainability to be evidence-based
    with Liam G. McCoy, Connor T. A. Brenna, Stacy S. Chen, and Karina Vold
    Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 142 252-257. 2022.
    Objective: To examine the role of explainability in machine learning for healthcare (MLHC), and its necessity and significance with respect to effective and ethical MLHC application. Study Design and Setting: This commentary engages with the growing and dynamic corpus of literature on the use of MLHC and artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine, which provide the context for a focused narrative review of arguments presented in favour of and opposition to explainability in MLHC. Results: We find…Read more
  •  32
    The name of the game: a Wittgensteinian view of ‘invasiveness’
    with Stacy S. Chen, Connor T. A. Brenna, Matthew Cho, and Liam G. McCoy
    Journal of Medical Ethics 50 (4): 240-241. 2024.
    In their forthcoming article, ‘What makes a medical intervention invasive?’ De Marco, Simons, and colleagues explore the meaning and usage of the term ‘invasive’ in medical contexts. They describe a ‘Standard Account’, drawn from dictionary definitions, which defines invasiveness as ‘incision of the skin or insertion of an object into the body’. They then highlight cases wherein invasiveness is employed in a manner that is inconsistent with this account (eg, in describing psychotherapy) to argue…Read more
  •  24
    Beyond Words: Reconsidering the Moral Distinction of Action in Consent for Assisted Dying
    with Matthew Cho, Liam G. McCoy, and Connor T. A. Brenna
    American Journal of Bioethics 23 (9): 25-27. 2023.
    In their forthcoming article, Shavelson and colleagues (2023) identify a key ethical concern associated with medical aid-in-dying (MAiD) laws in the eleven US jurisdictions where the practice is le...
  •  20
    Steering clear of Akrasia: An integrative review of self‐binding Ulysses Contracts in clinical practice
    with Connor T. A. Brenna, Stacy S. Chen, Matthew Cho, and Liam G. McCoy
    Bioethics 37 (7): 690-714. 2023.
    In many jurisdictions, legal frameworks afford patients the opportunity to make prospective medical decisions or to create directives that contain a special provision forfeiting their own ability to object to those decisions at a future time point, should they lose decision‐making capacity. These agreements have been described with widely varying nomenclatures, including Ulysses Contracts, Odysseus Transfers, Psychiatric Advance Directives with Ulysses Clauses, and Powers of Attorney with Specia…Read more
  •  14
    Neuroethics, Neuroscience, and the Project of Human Self-Understanding
    with Liam G. McCoy, Connor Brenna, Felipe Morgado, and Stacy Chen
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 11 (3): 207-209. 2020.
  •  18
    The aim of a theoretically ideal process of informed consent is to promote the autonomy of the patient and to limit unethical physician paternalism. However, in practice, the nature of the medical profession requires physicians to act as ontological decision architects—based on the medical knowledge that they acquire through their experience and training, physicians ontologically determine a subset of viable courses of action for their patient. What is observed is not an unethical physician limi…Read more
  •  21
    Big Decisions on a Small Scale: From Evidence-Based Medicine to Personalized Medicine
    with Liam G. McCoy, Stacy S. Chen, and Connor T. A. Brenna
    American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 13 (2): 132-134. 2022.
  •  18
    An ethical analysis of clinical triage protocols and decision-making frameworks: what do the principles of justice, freedom, and a disability rights approach demand of us?
    with Chloë G. K. Atkins, Liam G. McCoy, Connor T. A. Brenna, and Jane Zhu
    BMC Medical Ethics 23 (1): 1-9. 2022.
    BackgroundThe expectation of pandemic-induced severe resource shortages has prompted authorities to draft and update frameworks to guide clinical decision-making and patient triage. While these documents differ in scope, they share a utilitarian focus on the maximization of benefit. This utilitarian view necessarily marginalizes certain groups, in particular individuals with increased medical needs.Main bodyHere, we posit that engagement with the disability critique demands that we broaden our u…Read more
  •  39
    A Critique of the Use of the Clinical Frailty Scale in Triage
    with Chloë G. K. Atkins
    American Journal of Bioethics 21 (11): 67-68. 2021.
    We read with interest Dominic Wilkinson’s article “Frailty Triage: Is Rationing Intensive Medical Treatment on the Grounds of Frailty Ethical?” on the utility of the Clinical Frailty Score in...
  •  18
    The Divided Principle of Justice: Ethical Decision-Making at Surge Capacity
    with Connor T. A. Brenna
    American Journal of Bioethics 21 (8): 37-39. 2021.
    As Alfandre and colleagues describe in “Between Usual and Crisis Phases of a Public Health Emergency: The Mediating Role of Contingency Measures”, efforts to maintain standards of care durin...
  •  30
    Imperfect by design: the problematic ethics of surgical training
    with Connor Brenna
    Journal of Medical Ethics 47 (5): 350-353. 2021.
    There exists in academic medicine a core ethical issue that is seldom pursued: trainees are frequently not the best person in the operating room at a given intervention being performed, and yet as a profession we understand a fundamental need to afford them opportunities to perform. Academic centres are traditionally associated with a higher quality of care than non-academic centres, suggesting that practical measures exist within teaching hospitals that effectively mask the clinical discrepanci…Read more
  •  361
    The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of Ai (edited book)
    with Markus Dirk Dubber and Frank Pasquale
    Oxford Handbooks. 2020.
    This 44-chapter volume tackles a quickly-evolving field of inquiry, mapping the existing discourse as part of a general attempt to place current developments in historical context; at the same time, breaking new ground in taking on novel subjects and pursuing fresh approaches. The term "A.I." is used to refer to a broad range of phenomena, from machine learning and data mining to artificial general intelligence. The recent advent of more sophisticated AI systems, which function with partial or …Read more
  •  35
    The Surgeon-in-Chief Should Oversee Innovative Surgical Practice
    with Martin McKneally
    American Journal of Bioethics 19 (6): 34-36. 2019.
    Volume 19, Issue 6, June 2019, Page 34-36.