Clarifying the meaning of ethical concepts is fundamental for medical ethics. Many of the best papers in the Journal of Medical Ethics have advanced our understanding of the limits and implications of ethical concepts. This issue includes a number of papers that give us reason to reflect on the use, implications and grounding of some important ethical concepts. The concepts we use are rarely neutral. For example, those arguing against assisted dying are more likely to use terms such as ‘euthanasia’ (...) or perhaps even ‘killing’, while those arguing in favour of it might opt for ‘aid in dying’ or ‘facilitated aid in dying’. Of course, these are different concepts and do not mean the same thing, but the different associations and implications of concepts can weaken or strengthen a position. Woollard analyses the way in which the terms used in public information and discussions about breastfeeding can be morally loaded and thereby cause guilt or detract from the effectiveness of public information.1 She argues that normative concepts such as ‘harm’ or ‘dangerous’ and slogans such as ‘breast is best’ can imply moral duties or criticism when it is unhelpful and inappropriate to do so. She does this by showing how concepts such as ‘harm’ and ‘risk’, …. (shrink)

The kind of expertise someone who specialises in ethics has, or indeed whether it makes sense to talk of moral expertise, is keenly debated and is a far from settled issue. It has been of interest to moral philosophers, partly because of the light it might shine on the nature of morality.1 2 It has also been debated within medical ethics, with some arguing against the idea that expertise in moral philosophy translates into ethical expertise and others arguing that skills (...) in ethical justification can be viewed as ethical expertise.3 4 This issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics includes a number of papers that demonstrate the importance of ethical expertise and some of the distinctive elements of it. Public involvement in research is seen in a number of countries as something valuable and in some, such as Australia, it can be a criterion for research grants. The UK National Standards for Public Involvement in Research are discussed in this issue of JME and McCoy et al provide a good illustration of why ethical expertise is important for framing public policy.5 The appeal of stakeholders having some say into research projects, particularly when they are funded via taxation is easy to understand, so who would not see public involvement as a good thing? However, McCoy et al claim that while there is a substantial and growing literature on public involvement in research that tends to emphasise the importance of public involvement, it doesn’t explain how or what this looks like when …. (shrink)