Last year, Dawn Wooten, a nurse in Georgia called attention to gynecological abuses of women held in ICE detention. In the US, some whistleblowing is protected and even has a set of processes in place. OSHA has a whistleblower protection program with a web of statutes across industries. Whistleblower laws left Edward Snowden unprotected, arguably…
New ethical standards will help discern what is or is not morally (and legally) owed animals now that techno-science affects wildlife and ecosystems. The term privacy rights as it applies to animals highlights the risks of high-tech surveillance using drones, vehicles, and camera traps. Tagging and tracing devices aimed for conservation efforts and to protect…
The public policy theory of multiple streams formulated by John Kingdon in 1984 applies to problems at a time when they become ripe for solving. By aligning the problem, policy, and political “streams” a window to solving the problem arises. In public health, the analysis was applied to UK health disparities and to obesity in…
The practical situation can inform the ethics to some degree. Yet bioethics seems one directional, using theory to generate rules. Then, the rules are applied in clinical situations. Some argue for reflective equilibrium (situations influencing principles, i.e., the process of reflecting on and then revising philosophies) as a component of bioethics. Reflective equilibrium prevents certain…
Thinking like a lawyer can help with some bioethics approaches. When given a fact pattern, lawyers tend to zero in on the issues. Some people spend more time on the facts and others move toward identifying issues and applying or suggesting rules that might be generalizable. Both ways of thinking are valuable. A handle on…
This blog (and the accompanying course) is not designed to make bioethics easier or even more academically accessible. It is to address whether ethical dilemmas caused by complex scientific developments or traditions in the doctor patient relationship require broader frameworks and the identification of additional issues. One goal is to figure out whether upstream policies…
To be well-versed in how a discovery might impact society or a particular individual, bioethicists need to comprehend the discovery. It is hard to say how much science or technology they need to master. The more complex the discovery, the better an understanding helps in informing a solution. In the privacy sphere understanding the basics…
Bioethics is de facto interdisciplinary in nature. Scientists and those in medicine, etc. engage in behavior that, where relevant, reflects their social norms and moral code. The impact of scientific discovery on society (even on those who do not actively use the discovery) is often deliberated by the bioethics community. Philosophers, thinkers, and lawyers have…
The material on this website is geared toward people who have an interest in bioethics, are familiar with topics and arguments within the field, and have an interest in examining broader considerations. Some sections that discuss prominent reasoning assume familiarity with basic arguments. Many articles and books were chosen to provide readers with an understanding…
Stakeholder analysis is necessary because in bioethics sometimes the voice of the powerful (often Big Science, Tech, and Pharma, or doctors and hospitals) overpowers the voice of the vulnerable yet the vulnerable may be the ones a decision affects more deeply. In my work on parental refusals, I note that the parents live with after-effects…