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Journal of Medical Ethics is a leading international journal that reflects the whole field of medical ethics.
Strengthening harm-theoretic pro-life views | Journal of Medical …
Nov 13, 2024 · A pro-life view can be called harm-theoretic if it claims abortion is impermissible because of the harm caused to the fetus. These positions are important in the abortion discussion because they allow pro-lifers to argue abortion is impermissible without claiming the fetus is a moral person. A major problem with harm-theoretic abortion views is that they fall victim to the contraception ...
When should doctors nudge? Nudging and preference-sensitive care
Jan 1, 2025 · When should doctors nudge their patients towards the treatments they think are best? If the nudge is compatible with the patient giving informed consent, then the nudge could be permissible. To be compatible with informed consent, the nudge must, at minimum: (1) not make the patient’s understanding worse and (2) not make it hard for the patient to resist consenting. Arguably, many nudges ...
Good reasons to vaccinate: mandatory or payment for risk?
Mandatory vaccination, including for COVID-19, can be ethically justified if the threat to public health is grave, the confidence in safety and effectiveness is high, the expected utility of mandatory vaccination is greater than the alternatives, and the penalties or costs for non-compliance are proportionate. I describe an algorithm for justified mandatory vaccination. Penalties or costs ...
Principles of Biomedical Ethics, 5th edn.
The Principles of Biomedical Ethics by Beauchamp and Childress is a classic in the field of medical ethics. The first edition was published in 1979 and “unleashed” the four principles of respect for autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice on the newly emerging field. These principles were argued to be mid-level principles mediating between high-level moral theory and low-level ...
Journal of Medical Ethics at 50: a data-driven history
Jan 12, 2025 · In this paper, we take a data-driven approach to analyse intellectual trends over the first five decades of the Journal of Medical Ethics ( JME ). Our data set, comprising all texts published in the JME since 1975, reveals not only the most distinctive topics of the JME in comparison to other key journals with similar profiles but also diachronic fluctuations in the prominence of certain ...
A heart for everyone? The need to include diverse populations in …
The scientific rationale for including diverse populations First, including diverse populations in the first clinical trials of cardiac xenotransplantation enhances the scientific value of the data by assessing safety and efficacy among various populations. Treatment response can differ among patient (sub)groups as a result of genetic, physiological and …
Rethinking selective prohibitions: the inconsistency of a …
The ‘tobacco-free generation’ policy, which bans cigarette sales based on birth year, presents a bold public health initiative but raises significant ethical and practical concerns. As behaviours like drug use become legal and criminal penalties are reduced, singling out smoking for generational restriction appears inconsistent within an increasingly permissive society. Kniess1 critiques ...
Patient choice as inclusion criterion for first clinical trials of ...
Jan 22, 2025 · We are grateful for the thoughtful commentaries to our article on patient selection for first clinical trials of cardiac xenotransplantation1 because they give us the opportunity to clarify and further sharpen our arguments in this response. In our article, we proposed a multicriteria approach to selecting patients for first clinical trials of (cardiac) xenotransplantation, encompassing the ...
Clinical ethics and the duty of care - Journal of Medical Ethics
Scholarly inquiry into medical ethics should inform and guide those involved in making challenging ethical decisions.1 It should strive to be integral to the work of health care professionals and health care institutions2 and clinical relevance seems essential for this to happen. To acknowledge the importance of clinical relevance for medical ethics, …