Things you should think about when you hear ‘vaccine by end of the year’
Will we have one by the US election? By Christmas? On July 27, 2020, the Washington Post reported, Two coronavirus vaccines begin the last phase...
Covid-19: should we deliberately infect volunteers?
A thorny question for researchers and ethicists In a desperate race to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, it is tempting for scientists to compromise quality control...
Coercive population control in China
We're back! For the past few months Covid-19 has been front and centre for most people thinking bioethical thoughts. Important as the pandemic is, I urge you to...
China accused of coercive population control over Uyghur Muslims
US Secretary of State calls it “shocking” and “disturbing” A Uyghur man at a bus in the city of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China A searing report...
‘Cancel culture’ finally comes knocking at Planned Parenthood’s door
Time for a reckoning with her record of supporting eugenics Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) was the founder of Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortion services...
Babies for everyone: the new social justice movement
The ability to create a family should not be limited by sexuality, or sex, or wealth, or gender A new slogan has emerged in the...
Dutch concern over bill for ‘completed life’ euthanasia
“The difference between your biological and your biographical life is increasing” A Dutch legislator has submitted a private member’s bill to allow “completed life” euthanasia....
Famous last words – Covid-19 directives
Lethal instructions given to nursing homes Joseph Henry Green, an English surgeon who was Coleridge’s literary executor was checking his own pulse as he lay...
Coronavirus futility in Texas
Who determines ‘quality of life’? A Covid-19 death in Texas offers a dramatic demonstration of the opposite poles in end-of-life care. Michael Hickson was a...
Covid-19 patients need not die alone
‘Dying alone, despite adhering to social distancing, should not be part of dying at all.’ The Covid-19 pandemic has led to drastic changes in how...
Concerns raised about Covid-19 and moral distress
Medical assocations have warned of the moral stress that COVID-19 can place on clinicians. Commentators have recently raised serious concerns about healthcare practitioners’ experience of...
Should biobanks be used in criminal investigations?
A new paper in the JME explores the ethics behind the forensic use of biobanks. Several ethicists have written at length about the forensic use...