35 found
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  1. Is pregnancy a disease? A normative approach.Anna Smajdor & Joona Räsänen - forthcoming - Journal of Medical Ethics.
    In this paper, we identify some key features of what makes something a disease, and consider whether these apply to pregnancy. We argue that there are some compelling grounds for regarding pregnancy as a disease. Like a disease, pregnancy affects the health of the pregnant person, causing a range of symptoms from discomfort to death. Like a disease, pregnancy can be treated medically. Like a disease, pregnancy is caused by a pathogen, an external organism invading the host’s body. Like a (...)
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  2. Whole body gestational donation.Anna Smajdor - 2023 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 44 (2):113-124.
    Whole body gestational donation offers an alternative means of gestation for prospective parents who wish to have children but cannot, or prefer not to, gestate. It seems plausible that some people would be prepared to consider donating their whole bodies for gestational purposes just as some people donate parts of their bodies for organ donation. We already know that pregnancies can be successfully carried to term in brain-dead women. There is no obvious medical reason why initiating such pregnancies would not (...)
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  3. The complex case of Ellie Anderson.Joona Räsänen & Anna Smajdor - 2022 - Journal of Medical Ethics 48 (4):217-221.
    Ellie Anderson had always known that she wanted to have children. Her mother, Louise, was aware of this wish. Ellie was designated male at birth, but according to news sources, identified as a girl from the age of three. She was hoping to undergo gender reassignment surgery at 18, but died unexpectedly at only 16, leaving Louise grappling not only with the grief of losing her daughter, but with a complex legal problem. Ellie had had her sperm frozen before starting (...)
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  4. Epigenetics, Harm, and Identity.Joona Räsänen & Anna Smajdor - 2022 - American Journal of Bioethics 22 (9):40-42.
    Robert Sparrow argues that genome editing is unlikely to be person-affecting for the foreseeable future and, as a result, will neither benefit nor harm edited individuals. We regard Sparrow’...
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  5. The ethics of ectogenesis.Joona Räsänen & Anna Smajdor - 2020 - Bioethics 34 (4):328-330.
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  6.  29
    Reification and assent in research involving those who lack capacity.Anna Smajdor - 2023 - Journal of Medical Ethics 49 (7):474-480.
    In applied ethics, and in medical treatment and research, the question of how we should treat others is a central problem. In this paper, I address the ethical role of assent in research involving human beings who lack capacity. I start by thinking about why consent is ethically important, and consider what happens when consent is not possible. Drawing on the work of the German philosopher Honneth, I discuss the concept of reification—a phenomenon that manifests itself when we fail to (...)
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  7. The ethics of cellular reprogramming.Anna Smajdor & Adrian Villalba - forthcoming - Cellular Reprogramming 25.
    Louise Brown's birth in 1978 heralded a new era not just in reproductive technology, but in the relationship between science, cells, and society. For the first time, human embryos could be created, selected, studied, manipulated, frozen, altered, or destroyed, outside the human body. But with this possibility came a plethora of ethical questions. Is it acceptable to destroy a human embryo for the purpose of research? Or to create an embryo with the specific purpose of destroying it for research? In (...)
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  8.  39
    Epigenetics and Responsibility: Ethical Perspectives.Emma Moormann, Anna Smajdor & Daniela Cutas (eds.) - 2024 - Bristol University Press.
    We tend to hold people responsible for their choices, but not for what they can’t control: their nature, genes or biological makeup. This thought-provoking collection redefines the boundaries of moral responsibility. It shows how epigenetics reveals connections between our genetic make-up and our environment. The essays challenge established notions of human nature and the nature/nurture divide and suggest a shift in focus from individual to collective responsibility. Uncovering the links between our genetic makeup, environment and experiences, this is an important (...)
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  9. The Moral Imperative for Ectogenesis.Anna Smajdor - 2007 - Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 16 (3):336-345.
    edited by Tuija Takala and Matti Häyry, welcomes contributions on the conceptual and theoretical dimensions of bioethics.
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  10. Defending the disease view of pregnancy: a reply to our critics.Joona Räsänen & Anna Smajdor - forthcoming - Journal of Medical Ethics.
    We recently suggested that there are both pragmatic and normative reasons to classify pregnancy as a disease. Several scholars argued against our claims. In this response, we defend the disease view of pregnancy against their criticism. We claim that the dysfunctional account of disease that some of our critics rely on has some counterintuitive results. Furthermore, we claim that our critics assume what needs to be argued that the primary function of our sexual organs is to reproduce. Since only a (...)
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  11. The ethics of synthetic DNA.Villalba Adrian, Anna Smajdor, Iain Brassington & Daniela Cutas - 2024 - Journal of Medical Ethics.
    In this paper, we discuss the ethical concerns that may arise from the synthesis of human DNA. To date, only small stretches of DNA have been constructed, but the prospect of generating human genomes is becoming feasible. At the same time, the significance of genes for identity, health and reproduction is coming under increased scrutiny. We examine the implications of DNA synthesis and its impact on debates over the relationship with our DNA and the ownership of our genes, its potential (...)
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  12. In Defense of Ectogenesis.Anna Smajdor - 2012 - Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 21 (1):90-103.
    In his article “Research Priorities and the Future of Pregnancy” in this issue of CQ, Timothy Murphy evaluates some of the arguments I advanced in an earlier publication, “The Moral Imperative for Ectogenesis.
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  13.  94
    If Marc is Suzanne’s father, does it follow that Suzanne is Marc’s child? An experimental philosophy study in reproductive ethics.Kristien Hens, Emma Moormann, Anna Smajdor & Daniela Cutas - 2024 - Journal of Medical Ethics.
    In this paper, we report the results from an experimental reproductive ethics study exploring questions about reproduction and parenthood. The main finding in our study is that, while we may assume that everyone understands these concepts and their relationship in the same way, this assumption may be unwarranted. For example, we may assume that if ‘x is y’s father’, it follows that ‘y is x’s child’. However, the participants in our study did not necessarily agree that it does follow. This (...)
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  14. ‘Duped Fathers’, ‘Cuckoo Children’, and the Problem of Basing Fatherhood on Biology: A Philosophical Analysis.Daniela Cutas & Anna Smajdor - 2020 - In Daniela Cutas & Anna Smajdor (eds.), Assistierte Reproduktion mit Hilfe Dritter. Medizin - Ethik - Psychologie - Recht. Berlin, Heidelberg:
    Who is a child’s father? Is it the man who raised her, or the one whose genes she carries—or both? We look at the view that men who have raised children they falsely believed to be ‘their own’ have been victims of a form of fraud or are ‘false fathers’. We consider the question of who has been harmed in such cases, and in what the harm consists. We use conceptual analysis, a philosophical method of investigating the use of a (...)
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  15.  87
    “I am Your Mother and Your Father!” In Vitro Derived Gametes and the Ethics of Solo Reproduction.Daniela Cutas & Anna Smajdor - 2017 - Health Care Analysis 25 (4):354-369.
    In this paper, we will discuss the prospect of human reproduction achieved with gametes originating from only one person. According to statements by a minority of scientists working on the generation of gametes in vitro, it may become possible to create eggs from men’s non-reproductive cells and sperm from women’s. This would enable, at least in principle, the creation of an embryo from cells obtained from only one individual: ‘solo reproduction’. We will consider what might motivate people to reproduce in (...)
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  16.  66
    How useful is the concept of the ‘harm threshold’ in reproductive ethics and law?Anna Smajdor - 2014 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 35 (5):321-336.
    In his book Reasons and Persons, Derek Parfit suggests that people are not harmed by being conceived with a disease or disability if they could not have existed without suffering that particular condition. He nevertheless contends that entities can be harmed if the suffering they experience is sufficiently severe. By implication, there is a threshold which divides harmful from non-harmful conceptions. The assumption that such a threshold exists has come to play a part in UK policy making. I argue that (...)
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  17. Keeping it in the family: reproduction beyond genetic parenthood.Daniela Cutas & Anna Smajdor - 2024 - Journal of Medical Ethics.
    Recent decades have seen the facilitation of unconventional or even extraordinary reproductive endeavours. Sperm has been harvested from dying or deceased men at the request of their wives; reproductive tissue has been surgically removed from children at the request of their parents; deceased adults’ frozen embryos have been claimed by their parents, in order to create grandchildren; wombs have been transplanted from mothers to their daughters. What is needed for requests to be honoured by healthcare staff is that they align (...)
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  18.  65
    Paper: Ethical challenges in fetal surgery.Anna Smajdor - 2011 - Journal of Medical Ethics 37 (2):88-91.
    Fetal surgery has been practised for some decades now. However, it remains a highly complex area, both medically and ethically. This paper shows how the routine use of ultrasound has been a catalyst for fetal surgery, in creating new needs and new incentives for intervention. Some of the needs met by fetal surgery are those of parents and clinicians who experience stress while waiting for the birth of a fetus with known anomalies. The paper suggests that the role of technology (...)
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  19.  18
    Why bother the public? A critique of Leslie Cannold’s empirical research on ectogenesis.Anna Smajdor - 2021 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 42 (3):155-168.
    Can discussion with members of the public show philosophers where they have gone wrong? Leslie Cannold argues that it can in her 1995 paper ‘Women, Ectogenesis and Ethical Theory’, which investigates the ways in which women reason about abortion and ectogenesis. In her study, Cannold interviewed female non-philosophers. She divided her participants into separate ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-choice’ groups and asked them to consider whether the availability of ectogenesis would change their views about the morality of dealing with an unwanted pregnancy. (...)
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  20.  14
    Pictures at an Exhibition: Epigenetics, Harm and the Non-Identity Problem.Anna Smajdor - 2024 - In Emma Moormann, Anna Smajdor & Daniela Cutas (eds.), Epigenetics and Responsibility: Ethical Perspectives. Bristol University Press. pp. 78-97.
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  21. From Ivf to Immortality: Controversy in the Era of Reproductive Technology.Ruth Deech & Anna Smajdor - 2007 - Oxford University Press.
    This book provides a clear, simple account of techniques involved in assisted reproduction and embryo research. It thoughtfully and provocatively explores controversies raised by developments in reproductive technology since the first IVF baby in 1978, such as 'saviour siblings', designer babies, reproductive cloning and embryo research.
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  22.  75
    The limits of empathy: problems in medical education and practice.Anna Smajdor, Andrea Stöckl & Charlotte Salter - 2011 - Journal of Medical Ethics 37 (6):380-383.
    Empathy is commonly regarded as an essential attribute for doctors and there is a conviction that empathy must be taught to medical students. Yet it is not clear exactly what empathy is, from a philosophical or sociological point of view, or whether it can be taught. The meaning, role and relevance of empathy in medical education have tended to be unquestioningly assumed; there is a need to examine and contextualise these assumptions. This paper opens up that debate, arguing that ‘empathy’, (...)
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  23.  31
    Will Artificial Gametes End Infertility?Anna Smajdor & Daniela Cutas - 2015 - Health Care Analysis 23 (2):134-147.
    In this paper we will look at the various ways in which infertility can be understood and at how need for reproductive therapies can be construed. We will do this against the background of research with artificial gametes. Having explored these questions we will attempt to establish the degree to which technologies such as AGs could expand the array of choices that people have to reproduce and/or become parents. Finally, we will examine whether and in what ways the most promising (...)
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  24.  55
    Reification and compassion in medicine: A tale of two systems.Anna Smajdor - 2013 - Clinical Ethics 8 (4):1477750913502620.
    In this paper, I will explore ideas advanced by Bradshaw, Pence and others who have written on compassion in healthcare. I will attempt to see how and whether their assumptions about compassion can be justified, and explore the role compassion should play in a modern healthcare system. I will justify scepticism at the idea of attempting to incentivise compassion through metrics. The Francis Report raises important questions concerning the nature of a healthcare system that harms rather than helps patients. If (...)
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  25.  69
    Postmenopausal Motherhood Reloaded: Advanced Age and In Vitro Derived Gametes.Daniela Cutas & Anna Smajdor - 2015 - Hypatia 30 (2):386-402.
    In this paper we look at the implications of an emerging technology for the case in favor of, or against, postmenopausal motherhood. Technologies such as in vitro derived gametes have the potential to influence the ways in which reproductive medicine is practiced, and are already bringing new dimensions to debates in this area. We explain what in vitro derived gametes are and how their development may impact on the case of postmenopausal motherhood. We briefly review some of the concerns that (...)
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  26.  62
    Artificial gametes, the unnatural and the artefactual.Anna Smajdor, Daniela Cutas & Tuija Takala - 2018 - Journal of Medical Ethics 44 (6):404-408.
    In debates on the ethics of artificial gametes, concepts of naturalness have been used in a number of different ways. Some have argued that the unnaturalness of artificial gametes means that it is unacceptable to use them in fertility treatments. Others have suggested that artificial gametes are no less natural than many other tissues or processes in common medical use. We suggest that establishing the naturalness or unnaturalness of artificial gametes is unlikely to provide easy answers as to the acceptability (...)
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  27.  38
    Facts and ideologies: race and moral equality.Anna Smajdor - 2024 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 67 (8):2250-2255.
    Appiah distinguishes between people who are racist because they are motivated by strong ideological convictions, and those who are racist because they believe certain facts to be true. I explore to what extent this distinction might apply to those who believe in racial equality. I show that it may be risky to ignore race-related factors in the health context, while acknowledging that what constitutes race may be open to question. I discuss the idea that there are no morally relevant differences (...)
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  28.  40
    Response to comments on my paper on whole body gestational donation.Anna Smajdor - 2023 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 44 (4):393-399.
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  29. The inexorability of immortality: no need for God?Anna Smajdor - 2021 - Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift 56 (1):19-30.
    In this paper, I aim to show that a certain form of immortality, without the need for any intervention from a supernatural being, is almost inevitable for human beings. I take a physicalist starting point: I am a certain configuration of physical particles. Thus, if these particles were reassembled in the same configuration, I would necessarily come back into existence. I address a number of objections raised against this prospect by Eric T. Olson, who argues that the reassembly of such (...)
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  30.  75
    The moral status of the (nuclear) family.Daniela Cutas & Anna Smajdor - unknown
    The family is commonly regarded as being an important social institution. In several policy areas, evidence can be found that the family is treated as an entity towards which others can have moral obligations; it has needs and interests that require protection; it can be ill and receive treatment. The interests attributed to the family are not reducible to those of its members – and may even come into conflict with them. Using Warren's criteria for moral status, we show that, (...)
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  31.  32
    Perimortem gamete retrieval: should we worry about consent?Anna Smajdor - 2015 - Journal of Medical Ethics 41 (6):437-442.
  32.  20
    Assent and reification: a response to the commentators.Anna Smajdor - 2023 - Journal of Medical Ethics 49 (7):495-496.
    My paper on assent and reification in research involving adults with impairments of capacity and/or communication (AWIC)1 drew many thoughtful and insightful responses. I am grateful to all who submitted commentaries. Most agreed in principle that AWIC could be better represented in medical research. However, several commentators felt that further clarification was needed in terms of what assent is and how it should be obtained and operationalised.2 I fully agree that if increased representation of AWIC is to come about through (...)
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  33.  77
    Institute of Medical Ethics Guidelines for confirmation of appointment, promotion and recognition of UK bioethics and medical ethics researchers.Lucy Frith, Carwyn Hooper, Silvia Camporesi, Thomas Douglas, Anna Smajdor, Emma Nottingham, Zoe Fritz, Merryn Ekberg & Richard Huxtable - 2018 - Journal of Medical Ethics 44 (5):289-291.
    This document is designed to give guidance on assessing researchers in bioethics/medical ethics. It is intended to assist members of selection, confirmation and promotion committees, who are required to assess those conducting bioethics research when they are not from a similar disciplinary background. It does not attempt to give guidance on the quality of bioethics research, as this is a matter for peer assessment. Rather it aims to give an indication of the type, scope and amount of research that is (...)
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  34. Assistierte Reproduktion mit Hilfe Dritter. Medizin - Ethik - Psychologie - Recht.Daniela Cutas & Anna Smajdor (eds.) - 2020 - Berlin, Heidelberg:
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  35.  80
    Getting from the Ethical to the Empirical and Back Again: The Danger of Getting it Wrong, and the Possibilities for Getting it Right: 2008 Bioethics Special Edition: Editorial 2. [REVIEW]Anna Smajdor, Jonathan Ives, Emma Baldock & Adele Langlois - 2008 - Health Care Analysis 16 (1):7-16.
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