We tend to imagine the minds of great thinkers and scientists as fountains of knowledge, intelligence and certainty. That is what their brilliant works make us believe. The products are perfect; therefore, the minds that produced them must have been perfect. Well, the opposite may also be true. Brilliant works can stem from an ability to endure […]
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I want to continue the discussion in my previous blog post. It concerned an article raising the question whether researchers in genomics have a duty to actively look for incidental findings. Joanna Forsberg aptly remarked that the notion of looking for findings that one isn’t looking for is strange. She also pointed out that healthcare […]
Continue readingA new article in The American Journal of Bioethics attempts to take the discussion about incidental findings in genomics research a step further by asking: “Assuming there is a duty to disclose significant incidental findings, might there be an obligation for researchers to actively look for these findings?” The authors use an ancillary care model […]
Continue readingThe concept of solidarity is currently receiving attention in bioethics and inspires new approaches to ethical problems. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics recently published a report – Solidarity: reflections on an emerging concept in bioethics – initiating the development of a systematic solidarity framework for approaching difficult ethical questions in biobanking, biosecurity and health inequalities. […]
Continue readingEarlier this week the exciting news was released that the Human Brain Project is one of the two Flagship Initiatives launched by the European Commission. The project is an international collaboration between more than 80 research institutions. It will create computer models of the human brain to help us better understand the brain and its diseases. It […]
Continue readingDoping is often discussed as the individual athlete’s own decision. The athlete wants to win and strategically chooses to take drugs to reach the goal. When the cyclist Lance Armstrong recently confessed that he used performance enhancing drugs while he won Tour de France seven times, he personally took responsibility for his actions and presented […]
Continue readingIs ethics universally valid or can we act differently as moral individuals than as ethical representatives of public institutions? I just read a well-argued article in Science Policy Forum, discussing whether patients should be paid for their tissue. As their point of departure, the authors cite the (by now) famous case of Henrietta Lacks. Contrary to […]
Continue readingYesterday I read Lars Hertzberg’s thoughtful blog, Language is things we do. His latest post drew my attention to a militant humanist, Raymond Tallis (who resembles another militant humanist, Roger Scruton). Tallis published Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity. He summarizes his book in this presentation on YouTube. Tallis gesticulates violently. As […]
Continue readingOne of the issues preceding the Swedish Data Inspection Board’s decision to stop the population-based biobank LifeGene concerned participation of minors. LifeGene had planned to collect samples from half a million Swedes, including children. A regional ethical review board, however, decided against collecting data from children. Only data collection from adults was approved of. LifeGene […]
Continue readingEthical questions about health care and medical research often require empirical input, to make arguments valid for real conditions. Many of the future issues that engage us at CRB need empirical basis in so called Discrete Choice Experiments (DCE). We are therefore recruiting a researcher with a doctoral degree in health economics and documented skills […]
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.