It is comprehensible that a patient who agrees to participate in a clinical trial expects to get access to a new effective therapy that will restore health. It is comprehensible that it is difficult to convey objective, dispassionate information that such an expectation is unrealistic, given randomization and other features of clinical trials. Participation in […]
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There are things that an educated human is supposed to know about the world. Like that the Earth is spherical and that it revolves around the sun. But there are things we are supposed to know also about ourselves. Most prominently, we are supposed to know that we are animals, one of the primate species. […]
Continue readingThe interactive conference, HandsOn: Biobanks, organized for the first time in Uppsala last year, attracted participants from 27 countries. The “movie version” of the event can be viewed on BBMRI.se. This stimulating interactive concept will be repeated on 21-22 November 2013, in The Hague. HandsOn: Biobanks focuses this year on the interaction between disciplines, and […]
Continue readingIn 2001 I travelled to Atlanta, where Sue Savage-Rumbaugh then worked with the language-competent bonobos Kanzi and Panbanisha. A question I travelled with concerned the linguistic tests that I had seen in a TV-documentary, Kanzi, an ape of genius. In these tests, the ape responds to requests in spoken English, uttered by an experimenter who […]
Continue readingIntellectual life overflows with regulated forms of discourse about all kinds of urgent matters. Sometimes they are called schools of thought; sometimes theories; sometimes ideologies or positions. Philosophy could be viewed as the originator of the most prestigious and fundamental discourses about life, like idealism materialism pragmatism existentialism structuralism post-structuralism. Although this to some extent is historically correct, such […]
Continue readingFor many years, balancing individual human rights against social benefits has been the standard theme for public health ethics. Here I would like to update you on a recent discussion in Japan. Last month a new law was introduced in Japan. Originally the enactment was planned later, but it was speeded up because of the […]
Continue readingReproductive technology and surrogacy often is a cross-border practice that raises several ethical issues concerning the rights not only of adult participants but also of the children involved. Do the children have a right to know about their genetic parents and do they have a right to be recognized by the countries of their contractual […]
Continue readingLast year the Journal of Medical Ethics published an article by two philosophers claiming that the same arguments that support abortion also support abortion of newborns. The article provoked strong reactions and I too felt I had to comment on the article here on The Ethics Blog. What’s so provocative? I’m not so sure it […]
Continue readingEU is currently discussing changes to the European privacy laws. The intention is to strengthen the protection of privacy and to give people more control over their data. The problem, which I highlighted on The Ethics Blog, is that the new proposal applies also to research. Presently there is an exception for scientific research about […]
Continue readingShould individual research participants be informed if biobank researchers incidentally discover increased genetic disease risks through analysis of their samples? At a seminar, Jennifer Viberg recently discussed a well-known recommendation for when participants should be informed about incidental findings: Managing Incidental Findings in Human Subjects Research: Analysis and Recommendations During the seminar it became increasingly […]
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.