-
What the People Really Want: Narrow Mandates in Politics
Written by Ben Davies Last week’s by-election in the Welsh constituency of Brecon and Radnorshire saw a reduction of Boris Johnson’s government majority to just one, as Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds won the seat. The result was an interesting one: more voters went for No Deal-friendly parties (mainly Johnson’s Conservatives and the Brexit Party) than
-
Press Release: Tafida Raqeeb, Medical Ethics, and Difficult Decisions
by Professor Dominic Wilkinson, consultant neonatologist, Professor of Medical Ethics, University of Oxford. In September, the high court will hear a legal challenge relating to the medical care of five-year old Tafida Raqeeb. She has been in intensive care since suffering a severe stroke in February this year. The doctors apparently believe that
-
Puberty-Blocking Drugs: The Difficulties of Conducting Ethical Research
The ethics of research trials for young people with gender dysphoria are complicated. Billion Photos/Shutterstock Dominic Wilkinson, University of Oxford and Julian Savulescu, University of Oxford A recent Newsnight programme reported that a major UK puberty-blocking trial is under investigation. Doctors at a London clinic provided drugs to block the development of puberty in young
-
A Proposal for Addressing Language Inequality in Academia
Written by Anri Asagumo Oxford Uehiro/St Cross Scholar Although more and more people see the importance of diversity in academia, language diversity is one type of diversity that seems to be diminishing: English is increasingly dominant in both areas. I would like to argue that people who are born and raised in an English-speaking country
-
Criticising Stigma Whilst Reinforcing it: the Case of the Response to CRUK’s Anti-Obesity Campaign
Written by Rebecca Brown There has been recent concern over CRUK’s (Cancer Research UK) latest campaign, which features the claim ‘obesity is a cause of cancer too’ made to look like cigarette packets. It follows criticism of a previous, related campaign which also publicised links between obesity and cancer. Presumably, CRUK’s aim is to increase
-
Doing More Harm Than Good? Should the Police Always Investigate Non-recent Child Sexual Abuse Cases?
Hannah Maslen, University of Oxford, @hannahmaslen_ox Colin Paine, Thames Valley Police, @Colin_Paine Police investigators are sometimes faced with a dilemma when deciding whether to pursue investigation of a non-recent case of child sexual abuse. Whilst it might seem obvious at first that the police should always investigate any credible report of an offence – especially
-
Four Lessons from the Covert Separation and Study of Triplets
Written by Julian Savulescu Today, the Journal of the American Medical Association published an article entitled “Three Identical Strangers and The Twinning Reaction— Clarifying History and Lessons for Today From Peter Neubauer’s Twins Study” written by Leon Hoffman and Lois Oppenheim. It provides background to a documentary, Three Identical Strangers, which gained a lot of
-
Responsibility Over Time And Across Agents
Rebecca Brown and Julian Savulescu Cross-posted from the Journal of Medical Ethics blog, available here. There is a rich literature on the philosophy of responsibility: how agents come to be responsible for certain actions or consequences; what conditions excuse people from responsibility; who counts as an ‘apt candidate’ for responsibility; how responsibility links to blameworthiness; what
-
Abolish Medical Ethics
Written by Charles Foster In a recent blog post on this site Dom Wilkinson, writing about the case of Vincent Lambert, said this: ‘If, as is claimed by Vincent’s wife, Vincent would not have wished to remain alive, then the wishes of his parents, of other doctors or of the Pope, are irrelevant. My views or
-
Is ‘Dad Joke” Sexist?
Written by Neil Levy A dad joke is a short joke, often turning on a pun or a play on words. Here are a couple of examples: Did you hear about the restaurant on the moon? It’s got great food, but no atmosphere. A sandwich walks into a bar and orders a beer. “Sorry,” says