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The Wrongness of Do Not Resuscitate Orders Being Ignored
Guest Post by Joseph Bowen Joseph is a BPhil Student studying at Oxford University. Following a surprise inspection of Colchester General Hospital by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on Friday 14th November, it was reported that inspectors had found that some patients (“elderly people, some [suffering from] dementia”) had been inappropriately restrained, and/or sedated without…
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What Kind of Altruism is Most Effective?
Imagine that you have been left a large legacy, and would like to donate it to a charity, with a view to doing the most good possible. It’s natural to think that one set of charities you should consider are those which cheaply save people’s lives, and perhaps particularly young people’s lives. For then you…
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The ethics of DocAdvisor: Is accountability always a good thing?
Dominic Wilkinson @NeonatalEthics In the news this morning, the NHS has released data on individual surgeons’ performance, so called “surgeon report cards”. This represents the latest move towards increased transparency and accountability in the National Health Service. Elsewhere in the media today, there are numerous reports of the UK couple who were apparently charged…
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Cognitive enhancement, legalising opium, and cognitive biases
Suppose you want to enhance your cognition. A scientist hands you two drugs. Drug X has at least 19 controlled studies on the healthy individual showing it is effective, and while a handful of studies report a slight increase in blood pressure, another dozen conclude it is safe and non-addictive. Drug Y is also effective,…
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Should men be allowed to discuss abortion?
@JimACEverett www.jimaceverett.com Feminists are kicking up quite a storm in Oxford at the moment. Oxford Students for Life have organized a debate on abortion to happen tomorrow (the 18th November, 2014), which has inspired some rather troubling attacks. Now, Oxford feminists (‘WomCam’) are generally rather intolerant of any pro-life rhetoric (or, indeed, anyone that disagrees…
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One Million Readers: Thank You
We are pleased to have reached our one millionth reader since our records began. Thank you to all our authors, guest posters, readers and commentators who have supported the blog over a number of years. And thanks to reader one million, whoever you are… We would like to mark the occasion by taking stock about…
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A Methodological Worry for ‘Top Down’ Accounts of Human Rights
The language of human rights is pervasive both in academic literature and international legal practice. We often take the satisfaction of human rights to be a necessary condition for a state’s legitimacy, and the failure of a state to respect human rights as grounds for international intervention. However, providing an account of the nature of…
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Why I Am Not a Utilitarian
Utilitarianism is a widely despised, denigrated and misunderstood moral theory. Kant himself described it as a morality fit only for English shopkeepers. (Kant had much loftier aspirations of entering his own “noumenal” world.) The adjective “utilitarian” now has negative connotations like “Machiavellian”. It is associated with “the end justifies the means” or using people as…
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Doing Good by Doing Nothing?
@JimACEverett www.jimaceverett.com A common theme running through debates on combating global problems like poverty and common change is the idea that something must be done. Usually, this is taken to mean that some prosocial behaviour must be actively encouraged and sought out: for example, encouraging people to recycle, or having public health campaigns to…