Approximately every fifth child who gets cancer in Sweden dies from their disease. In her dissertation work at CRB, Li Jalmsell studied the care of these children at the end of their life from both the child’s and the parents’ and siblings’ perspectives. One of her findings is that one doesn’t generally recognize that the […]
Continue readingPage 34 of 50
Many posts on the Ethics Blog are about how new possibilities to collect and process large amounts of data change the horizon for medical research. But “Big Data” makes its entry also in the humanities and social sciences. How does the horizon change there? How is the understanding of humans and of society affected when […]
Continue readingIt is still unclear what kind of consent should be used when collecting biological samples for future research. Different forms of consent are practiced, which creates another uncertainty: which research is actually permitted with the collected samples? This haphazard situation leads to unintended constraints on research. But it also leads to research sometimes being carried […]
Continue readingI have in two posts complained about a tendency of ethical practices to begin to idle, as if they were ends in themselves. A risk with the tendency is that bioethics is discredited and attacked as no more than an unhappy hindrance to novel research. Like when Steven Pinker recently wrote that the primary moral goal […]
Continue readingI recently wrote about the tendency of ethical practices to lose their vital functions and degenerate into empty rituals. Why is there such a tendency? The tendency is not unique to ethics: it is everywhere. Suddenly, patients and students are to be called “customers” and be treated “as” customers. This can be perceived as an […]
Continue readingBarbara A. Koenig wrote last year about how informed consent has acquired a “liturgical feel” in biomedical research ethics. Each time the protection of research participants is challenged by new forms of research, the answer is: more consent! The procedure of informing and asking for consent may feel like assuming a priestly guise and performing […]
Continue readingWe write for many reasons. To remember, to instruct, to tell, to amuse… Sometimes we write to investigate. Investigate what? Of course, something that we don’t really understand and therefore wonder about. Writing is also a prestigious linguistic medium. Printed products (books and articles) often express the opposite of incomprehension and wonder. This is not surprising, […]
Continue readingAt CRB, an international, multidisciplinary research group works with ethical and philosophical questions that are associated with the neuroscientific exploration of the human mind and brain. As part of the European Human Brain Project, they approach not only ethical questions that arise, or may arise, with the development and practical application of neuroscience. They also […]
Continue readingA new study suggests that the results of genetic tests are not always as reliable as we want to believe. A comparison between laboratories providing these tests shows that the same genetic variant can be interpreted differently. A single gene variant can thus be interpreted as an increased risk of breast cancer by one laboratory, […]
Continue readingWorking as a lawyer in a multidisciplinary centre for research ethics and bioethics, as I do, often brings up to date questions regarding the relationship between law and ethics. What kind of ethical competence does academic lawyers need, and what kind of ethical challenges do we face? I will try to address some aspects of […]
Continue readingTHE ETHICS BLOG
A research blog from the Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics (CRB)
We write for researchers, healthcare staff, officials, politicians, patient organisations and anyone interested in ethics.
We comment on the research ethics and bioethics debate and discuss our own research. We address issues from current debates in the research community and in the press.
MEET THE EDITOR
Pär Segerdahl is editor of the Ethics Blog and Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics.