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Even Though Mass Testing For COVID Isn’t Always Accurate, It Could Still Be Useful – Here’s Why
By Jonathan Pugh This article was originally published here by the Conversation, on 22nd Dec 2020 The mass testing of asymptomatic people for COVID-19 in the UK was thrown into question by a recent study. In a pilot in Liverpool, over half the cases weren’t picked up, leading some to question whether using tests that perform
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Selectively Saving Christmas?
Written by Ben Davies and Gabriel De Marco The UK governments in Westminster and the devolved nations (Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) have made a recent about-turn regarding Christmas. Where there were previously plans to relax Covid-related restrictions for five days, they will now be relaxed for only Christmas itself, and not at all in
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Dementia, Pagal, or Neurocognitive Disorder: What Is In a Name?
By Doug McConnell A recent BBC news story has drawn attention to the fact that there isn’t a word for “dementia” in many South Asian languages and some South Asian people living in the UK still use the stigmatising Punjabi word “pagal”, meaning “crazy” or “mad”. The news story implicitly assumes that the word
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Climbing the Pension Mountain: A Review of Michael Otsuka’s 2020 Uehiro Centre Lecture Series
Written by Professor Larry Locke (University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and LCC International University) On three successive Tuesdays last November, Michael Otsuka of the London School of Economics delivered the annual Uehiro Centre Lecture Series. The Series, entitled “How to Pool Risk Across Generations”, focused on the ethics of pension reform. Otsuka attacked the real-world problem
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In Defence of Pretentiousness
Written by Neil Levy In Paul Brok’s book Into the Silent Land, the English neuropsychologist tells the story of Michael. Following a head injury, Michael is disinhibited. When he first returned from rehab, he lived on a diet of fish fingers and Led Zeppelin. Michael experiences the change as a return to authenticity. “He’d always
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Could vaccine requirements for entering pubs be wrong, while closing pubs altogether is OK?
By Tom Douglas Suppose that, before you could enter a pub, you had to produce a ‘vaccine passport’ showing that you had been vaccinated against the new coronavirus. Vaccine requirements like this are controversial. In the UK, the government has been keen to deny that it is even considering their use. This is in some
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DNACPR Orders in a Pandemic: Misgivings and Misconceptions.
by Dominic Wilkinson @Neonatalethics This week, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published an interim report into resuscitation decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a number of media outlets, the report found that in the first wave of the crisis inappropriate and possibly unlawful ‘do not resuscitate’ orders were used “without the consent of patients
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The Libertarian Argument Is the Best Argument Against Immunity Passports. But is it good enough?
Written by Julian Savulescu and Alberto Giubilini The government has reportedly flirted with the introduction of vaccination passports that would afford greater freedoms to people who have been vaccinated for COVID-19. However, the UK’s Minister for the Cabinet Office, Michael Gove, recently announced that vaccination passports are not currently under consideration in the UK. However,
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Mandatory Morality: When Should Moral Enhancement Be Mandatory?
By Julian Savulescu Together with Tom Douglas and Ingmar Persson, I launched the field of moral bioenhancement. I have often been asked ‘When should moral bioenhancement be mandatory?’ I have often been told that it won’t be effective if it is not mandatory. I have defended the possibility that it could be mandatory. In that