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Goodbye to Josè Saramago, genius, novelist and (sometimes) a bioethicist
The very sad news of the day is the death of Portuguese writer José Saramago. Saramago was a true genius and one of my favourite authors ever, so I thought it could be a good idea to show how this great man was able not only to write books where every single sentence is
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How wrong may we be?
By Nicholas ShackelConsider these propositions: Mandatory licensing of professional services increases the prices of those services. Overall, the standard of living is higher today than it was 30 years ago Rent control leads to housing shortages. Third World workers working for American companies overseas are not exploited. Free trade does not lead to unemployment Minimum
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The Cost of Non-Cash Incentives for Organs
The Times newspaper featured an editorial proposing changes in the organ procurement system last week by Sally Satel, a scholar from the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. I thought the first few lines were especially revealing about Satel’s attitude to market transactions – she reports that she desperately needed a kidney herself, but
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A costly separation between withdrawing and withholding treatment
by Dominic Wilkinson Television child star Gary Coleman died recently following a severe brain haemorrhage. He was taken to an intensive care unit, but the next day was taken off life support because of the severity of his brain injury. Decisions like the one made by Gary Coleman’s doctors are common in intensive care. Many
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Against Equality
by Julian Savulescu Equality is an ideal born of the vice of envy, one of the seven deadly sins. But equality has no intrinsic value and panders to our vicious nature to be envious of others. Levelling down is absurd. And why level up if we can raise everyone, improving all of their lives instead
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Critical Care ethics grand round
by Dominic Wilkinson Today I gave a talk at the John Radcliffe Medical Grand Round on Advance Directives and treatment withdrawal decisions in intensive care – based on a case I was involved in last year. A middle-aged patient presents with acute respiratory failure, and is intubated and transferred to the intensive care unit. After
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Drugs in sport debate: Proposer’s update
by Julian Savulescu So far, there has been no debate. I agree entirely with nearly all John William’s points. The topic is “Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Be Allowed in Sport.” It is not “All Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Be Allowed in Sport.” I have argued that some should according to certain criteria, including being consistent
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Religion, Tolerance and Intolerance Conference resources available online
The AHRC-Funded 'Science and Religious Conflict' Project team here at Oxford (www.src.ox.ac.uk) is pleased to announce that resources from our recent conference on 'Religion, Tolerance and Intolerance', held at Oxford 17-19 May are now available online at http://www.bep.ox.ac.uk/archive_events_data/religion_and_tolerance_conference_may_2010 This includes audio files of all talks, and several PowerPoint presentations.The audio files are also available as podcasts from
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Drugs in sport debate: Proposer’s response to comments
by Julian Savulescu two early comments on the online debate website raise concerns about allowing performance enhancing drugs in sport:
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Whether to die, or when to die? The distinction between assisted suicide and ‘aid in dying’
Assisted suicide is illegal in the state of Connecticut. But two doctors have sought to circumvent the law by requesting that the administration of lethal agents to terminally ill patients be classed as “aid in dying” rather than assisted suicide. The doctors’ lawyers reportedly drew the distinction as follows: "Suicide is a choice of whether