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Virtually reality? The value of virtual activities and remote interaction
By Hannah Maslen The Oxford Martin School recently held a two-day symposium on virtual reality and immersive technologies. The aim was to examine a range of technologies, from online games to telepresence via a robot avatar, to consider the ways in which such technologies might affect our personal lives and our interactions with…
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Guest Post: An Unfortunate State Of Affairs
Hilary Greaves, University of Oxford Ashley Madison is an online extramarital dating service, running with the succinct subtitle “Life is short. Have an affair.” On July 20, 2015, the service announced that hackers had breached its data security defences, and obtained identifying details for the site’s 37 million members. In the months that have since…
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ANNOUNCEMENT: Journal of Medical Ethics now accepting longer papers
Please note: this blog is was first published at the Journal of Medical Ethics Blog. The Journal of Medical Ethics is pleased to announce the addition of a new article type – Extended Essays – that will allow authors up to 7,000 words to provide an in-depth analysis of their chosen topic. In an interview, Associate Editor…
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The reproducibility problem and the status of bioethics
There is a long overdue crisis of confidence in the biological and medical sciences. It would be nice – though perhaps rather ambitious – to think that it could transmute into a culture of humility. A recent comment in Nature observes that: ‘An unpublished 2015 survey by the American Society for Cell Biology found that…
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Guest Post: Vampire Judges and Blood Money: Blood Donation as Criminal Sanction?
Written by Christopher Chew Monash University Early one September morning, plaintiffs at a rural Alabama County court in the US, were greeted with an unexpected and highly unusual offer. To quote presiding Judge Marvin Wiggins: “There’s a blood drive outside, and if you don’t have any money, and you don’t want to go to jail,…
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From Self-Interest to Morality: How Moral Progress Might Be Possible
One of the most stunning successes I have personally seen in my life is the emergence of the Effective Altruism movement. I remember when Will Crouch (now MacAskill) first presented 80 000 hours to our Graduate Discussion Group and Toby Ord was still a grad student. From their ideas a whole movement has emerged of…
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Treatment and Understanding in Psychiatry
Understanding is a fundamental concept in medical ethics. I want to discuss two contrasting senses in which medical treatments require understanding on behalf of the patient. The first of these is very familiar, and much discussed. The second is less so.
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Gene-free: Can parents refuse genetic testing for their child?
by Dominic Wilkinson @Neonatalethics A critically ill infant in intensive care (let us call him Jonas) has serious congenital abnormalities affecting his liver and brain.1 Doctors looking after Jonas suspect that he may have a major genetic problem. They have recommended testing for Jonas, to help determine whether he does have this problem. However, Jonas’…
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Event announcement: European Neonatal Ethics Conference
by Dominic Wilkinson @Neonatalethics The second European Neonatal Ethics Conference is taking place next June (1-2nd) here in Oxford. I’m very pleased to have been asked to chair the conference, and there is a great line-up of speakers including Margot Brazier, Sofia Moratti, Ingrid Miljeteig, Mirjam de Vos, John Wyatt, Neil Marlowe. Those with…