There can be little doubt, at least in the Western world, that autonomy is the ruling principle in contemporary bioethics. In spite of its ‘triumph’ however, the dominance of the utilitarian concept of autonomy is being increasingly questioned. In this paper, I explore the nature of autonomy, how it came to displace the Hippocratic tradition in medicine and how different concepts of autonomy have evolved. I argue that the reduction of autonomy to ‘the exercise of personal choice’ in medicine has (...) led to a ‘tyranny of autonomy’ which can be inimical to ethical medical practice rather than conducive to it. I take the case of Kerrie Wooltorton as an illustration of how misplaced adherence to respect for patient autonomy can lead to tragic consequences. An analysis of autonomy based on the work of Rachel Haliburton is described and applied to the role of autonomy in a recent bioethical debate — that arising from Savulescu's proposal that conscientious objection by health-care professionals should not be permit.. (shrink)

invited commentary on David Oderberg's call for conscientious objection in medicine to be permitted in the UK.

Volume 26, Issue 2, June 2020, Page 81-81.

Editorial for issue with articles on tranhumanism, principlism, total body transplants and inter-uterine surgery for myelomeningocele.

Volume 25, Issue 4, December 2019, Page 293-294.

Volume 25, Issue 1, March 2019, Page 1-2.

Volume 25, Issue 2, June 2019, Page 101-102.

‘There is a tide in the affairs of men.Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;’Those who edit academic journals rarely seek fortune in finan...

In 2017, The New Bioethics published its first special-themed issue on the topic of personalized medicine. It proved highly popular, especially Gyawali and Sullivan’s paper ‘Economics of Can...

Editorial on papers relating to among other infanticide and intersex.

A review of the range of articles in the summer issue of The New Bioethics.

This issue provides an end of year feast with something for everyone. Browning and Veit note how, since the presence of sentience in mammals, birds and cephalopods received official scientific reco...

In last June's themed issue on environmental bioethics, presciently planned in early 2019, we published in addition our very first paper on Covid-19 – a critique of the British Medical Association'...

Covid-19 and arguments related to abortion – these two topics between them take up the majority of the pages of this issue. That the first of these should do so, is no surprise. Over two years on f...

I suspect that most readers will, like me, be unfamiliar with the concept of chirality. Indeed I had never heard of the term before reading Dahlen’s paper proposing the completely novel concept of...

Bioethics is not a field for the faint-hearted. Life and death decisions are both at stake and everything in between. Increasingly, before-life decisions are being taken as well and this issue comm...

One of the insights gained from editing a journal is to see early trends in the research topics of submissions. The ethics of data management in healthcare is an issue on which we have published a...

Ediorial Content Type Journal Article Category Editorial Pages 139-140 DOI 10.1558/hrge.v17i2.139 Authors Trevor Stammers, St Mary’s University College, London Journal Human Reproduction & Genetic Ethics Online ISSN 2043-0469 Print ISSN 1028-7825 Journal Volume Volume 17 Journal Issue Volume 17, Number 2 / 2011.

Volume 26, Issue 3, September 2020, Page 195-196.

The demand for organs prompted the first use of elective ventilation in the UK in the 1990s. Recently the shortfall in supply of organs has once again prompted calls for elective ventilation to be instituted even in patients who are not brain dead. This paper proposes that the term ‘elective’ ventilation is a misnomer and the term non-therapeutic ventilation (NTV) should be used instead. It is further argued that the practice of NTV in cases of severe stroke is unethical and (...) has the potential of causing a variety of harms to the patient, their relatives, the healthcare professionals working in transplant teams and this may result in a backlash of reductions in the number of organ donations. (shrink)

Organ trafficking in all its various forms is an international crime which could be entirely eliminated if healthcare professionals refused to participate in or be complicit with it. Types of organ trafficking are defined and principal international declarations and resolutions concerning it are discussed. The evidence for the involvement of healthcare professionals is illustrated with examples from South Africa and China. The ways in which healthcare professionals directly or indirectly perpetuate illegal organ transplantation are then considered, including lack of awareness, (...) the paucity of both undergraduate and postgraduate education on organ trafficking, turning a blind eye, advocacy of organ commercialism, and the lure of financial gain. (shrink)

This is a must-read text for anyone interested in the ethics surrounding gene editing. The author, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Texas and director of their Developmental...

Amidst a plethora of books about human genome engineering (HGE), this one by John H Evans, a professor of sociology in the United States, stands out with its original and interesting take on how th...

Review of Arul Gawande's best seller about preparing for death.

Review of book on the nature of conscience and history of development of ideas about it.

Volume 25, Issue 1, March 2019, Page 97-100.

‘This book is the record of an exploration. I am a writer, a non-specialist in a specialist's wilderness and I find my way with a writer's tools’. Just as we should never judge a book by i...

Arising from a research project from the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge, UK, this primer on gene editing is written by a postdoctoral researcher in the Faculty of Divinity...