Open access publishing has major benefits to readers, library systems, and anyone who would forgo reading due to the subscription price or who would pay subscription fees. I am (or maybe was) a huge fan. In the 1990s open access arose as a non-profit, often university-based system. Around 2002, commercial publishers entered the market. Along…
The Family Miranda Rights bill in New York would give parents much-needed protections from abusive actions by the child protective services industrial complex. Miranda warnings are a mainstay of the US Constitution – their role in offering some protections in criminal law are well documented. Miranda warnings were established in Miranda v. Arizona as a…
Adapted and including significant excerpts from Zimmerman, A. “Our System for Reporting Child Abuse is Unethical” Hastings Center Forum, September 29, 2023. “Take Care of Maya” documents the tragic circumstances of powerful child abuse pediatrician Sally Smith and social worker Cathi Bedy, who, with doctors and the infrastructure of the Department of Children and Families…
Some articles in mainstream media and academics could be paraphrased as statements that begin “I am concerned about AI proliferation because. . .” Answers can be broadly grouped into two distinct categories: existential threats and grounded, proven and anticipated harms. Math is not going to “take over the world”. While that is an odd statement,…
The “rule of rescue” describes the imperative people feel to rescue those in imminent danger. That kneejerk reaction is distinct from the ethical imperative that is described as a duty to rescue. The firm territory of the moral duty to rescue involves rescue that puts the rescuer at little inconvenience or cost and does not…
Medical tourism presents ethical dilemmas and has many downsides. The CDC does recognize that many people from the United States travel to Mexico for care and its website provides some guidance and warnings. Last week, members of a drug cartel kidnapped four travelers to Mexico and killed two of them. Safety along the US-Mexico border…
In federal court, Seattle School District #1 is suing big tech companies under Washington state’s public nuisance law, alleging social media harms children’s mental health. Also, as a result of consolidating 100 cases, a large multi-district lawsuit in federal court in California is using products liability to take aim at big tech for harming children’s…
Hospital and physician liability for saving the life of someone who wished not to be saved is an area of evolving law. While years ago, such cases were routinely dismissed, recent caselaw recognizes the cause of action under medical malpractice. Increasing public awareness of the importance of advance directives and movements like medical aid in…
There was an episode of Welcome Back, Kotter that aired in 1976. Juan Epstein, a character in Kotter’s infamous classroom of remedial students called the Sweathogs, decides he wants to become a veterinarian. His teacher, Gabe Kotter, supports his dream and encourages him to speak to a career counselor at the school. Enter technology. The…
I envision a broad bioethics, one that covers the relationships and interactions between science and society. Bioethics ranges from dilemmas arising in the relationship between doctors and people seeking care (often clinical ethics) to largescale societal moral dilemmas. The individual and societal issues are intertwined: each has implications for the other. Does a policy, personal…