Psychiatry becomes political weapon in US
Congressional Democrats have approached outspoken Yale University psychiatrist Dr Bandy Lee about forming an expert panel to offer advice on President Donald Trump’s mental health....
Has the venerable Belmont Report passed its use-by date?
Art Caplan calls for a complete overhaulThe 1979 Belmont Report by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research...
New kid on the block: the bioethics of ageing
A process which is "even more fundamental and ubiquitous than procreation"There is ever-multiplying number of sub-specialties in bioethics -- procreative ethics, intergenerational ethics, neuroethics, robot...
Autonomy: a short history of a big idea
Do we really need 'autonomy' to explain why people should be decently treated?“The strongest arguments in favour of physician-assisted suicide are respect for autonomy, justice,...
Dear Mr Trump, isn’t it about time to announce your bioethics commission?
The last bioethics advisory body ended in January 2017Last week, seven Democratic members of the US House Representatives sent a letter to the White House asking President Trump...
More Ubuntu, less autonomy, says South African bioethicist
The dominant philosophy in bioethics in the West is respect for autonomy. Although there is an extensive backstory to this, it has become enshrined in...
‘Nature’ has buyer’s regret after March for Science endorsement
A second editorial calls for a bit of humble self-examinationThe leading science journal Nature seems to have experienced a case of buyer’s regret after a whole-hearted endorsement...
Freedom of the mind under threat with new technology
Swiss researchers warn of exploitation and loss of privacyMind-reading in Minority Report New human rights laws to prepare for advances in neurotechnology that...
Should American doctors participate in executions?
Against the consensus, a cardiologist says they should The American state of Arkansas executed four prisoners in April. They were given a lethal injection with...
Where did Nazi doctors learn their ethics? From a textbook
There was no lack of ethical training in the Nazi eraKarl Brandt, one of the defendants in the "doctors' trial" German medicine under Hitler...
‘Fake news’ invades bioethics
IVF parents discover that they are TWINS!!!!!! It had to happen sooner or later: fake news about bioethics. Fake, not in the sense of exaggerated,...
Bioethics in the age of Trump
Do bioethicists need to redefine themselves to defy “authoritarian populism”? The election of Donald Trump and the emergence of “authoritarian populism” has given rise to...