About
36
Publications
8,272
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
673
Citations
Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Publications
Publications (36)
The book provides an argument against a right to conscientious objection by health care professionals. In increasingly multicultural societies inspired by pluralism, and given the range of controversial medical procedures that are or will be legal in many countries, claims about health care professionals’ right to abide by their own moral or religi...
We argue that, in certain circumstances, doctors might be professionally justified to provide abortions even in those jurisdictions where abortion is illegal. That it is at least professionally permissible does not mean that they have an all-things-considered ethical justification or obligation to provide illegal abortions or that professional obli...
The world is changing so fast that it is hard to know how to think about what we ought to do. We barely have time to reflect on how scientific advances will affect our lives before they are upon us. New kinds of dilemma are springing up. Can robots be held responsible for their actions? Will artificial intelligence be able to predict criminal activ...
Although the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious public health and economic emergency, and although effective vaccines are the best weapon we have against it, there are groups and individuals who oppose certain kinds of vaccines because of personal moral or religious reasons. The most widely discussed case has been that of certain religious groups that...
In recent years, bioethical discourse around the topic of ‘genetic enhancement’ has become increasingly politicized. We fear there is too much focus on the semantic question of whether we should call particular practices and emerging bio-technologies such as CRISPR ‘eugenics’, rather than the more important question of how we should view them from...
The range of opportunities people enjoy in life largely depends on social, biological, and genetic factors for which individuals are not responsible. Philosophical debates about equality of opportunities have focussed mainly on addressing social determinants of inequalities. However, the introduction of human bioenhancement should make us reconside...
Cryonics—also known as cryopreservation or cryosuspension—is the preservation of legally dead individuals at ultra-low temperatures. Those who undergo this procedure hope that future technology will not only succeed in reviving them, but also cure them of the condition that led to their demise. In this sense, some hope that cryopreservation will al...
Cryonics is considered a key step towards indefinite life extension. But are there good reasons to extend the human lifespan beyond its current limit? One possible reason is that death is bad, and since death is bad, we should avoid dying by staying alive indefinitely. In this chapter, possible explanations for why death might be bad are examined....
Cryonics is the act of preserving legally dead individuals at ultra-low temperatures, in the hope that they can someday be revived using future technology. Although still in its infancy, the potential success of cryonics carries many crucial implications for human society, and discussing these ahead of time may help us avoid unwelcome developments...
A woman who finds herself pregnant against her plans (e.g. because contraceptives have failed) has only two available options: continuing or terminating the pregnancy. Continuing the pregnancy may not be an option due to lack of economic resources, possible birth defects, or other life plans; yet terminating the pregnancy may be considered immoral...
Most objections to cryonics deal with either the unlikelihood that cryonics will succeed in reviving people or the claim that the enterprise as a whole would be undesirable (whether due to high cost or some potential implications). This chapter starts with an analysis of arguments based on the wastefulness of cryonics, as compared with other costly...
Most objections to euthanasia are based on the moral principle that killing an innocent person is wrong. This principle also applies to cases wherein people ask (for help) to die in order to avoid unbearable, intractable, and incurable pain. It has been suggested that such patients could be offered an alternative in which they are cryosuspended imm...
Hypothetical future treatments aimed at “rejuvenating” the body, thereby keeping it young and healthy for an indefinite amount of time, could offer a form of biological immortality. This chapter explores whether such immortality would come with downsides that would eventually make it an immoral or an undesirable goal. In order to assess the desirab...
The treatment-enhancement distinction is often used to delineate acceptable and unacceptable medical interventions. It is likely that future assistive and augmenting technologies will also soon develop to a level that they might be considered to provide users, in particular those with disabilities, with abilities that go beyond natural human limits...
In this article we discuss the moral and legal aspects of causing the death of a terminal patient in the hope of extending their life in the future. We call this theoretical procedure cryothanasia. We argue that administering cryothanasia is ethically different from administering euthanasia. Consequently, objections to euthanasia should not apply t...
Lookism can be defined as discrimination (see Discrimination) against people considered physically unattractive according to widespread psychobiological and/or social standards. The term, literally, indicates a more generic form of discrimination based on appearance, including cases of people discriminated against for being too attractive, or for t...
The fact that attractive people benefit from their good looks is not bad per se. Rather, what is worrisome is the fact that unattractive people are discriminated against, and that such discrimination negatively affects many aspects of their lives. I focus on the moral implications of this discrimination and on the possible measures that could be ta...
In this paper, I analyse the issue of conscientious objection in relation to cosmetic surgery. I consider cases of doctors who might refuse to perform a cosmetic treatment because: (1) the treatment aims at achieving a goal which is not in the traditional scope of cosmetic surgery; (2) the motivation of the patient to undergo the surgery is conside...
This article analyzes the problem of complicity in wrongdoing in the case of healthcare practitioners (and in particular Roman Catholic ones) who refuse to perform abortions, but who are nonetheless required to facilitate abortions by informing their patients about this option and by referring them to a willing colleague. Although this solution is...
The goal of this article is to introduce a philosophical analysis of a widely neglected condition which affects between 3% and 18% of the population. People affected by this condition (which will be revealed later in the article) experience a lower level of wellbeing than the average population and are discriminated against in both their profession...
Abortion, partial-birth abortion, and after-birth abortion refer to acts of killing early forms of human life at different stages of development, from the embryonic stage to the newborn stage. Abortion and partial-birth abortion are medical procedures that are decriminalized or legal in some legislations and explicitly prohibited in others. After-b...
Healthcare practitioners, according to legislations in most Western countries, may refuse to perform some medical activities that conflict with their moral and religious values. The Roman Catholic Church has declared in official documents that doctors should not perform or facilitate activities considered immoral such as abortion and euthanasia. Th...
The new media offer a valuable tool to spread the results of academic research outside the boundaries of academia, but they can also have a chilling effect on academic freedom. In this paper, I argue that we need to rethink academic freedom in the light of the enormous changes in communication and dissemination of ideas provided by the new media. I...
The law regulating abortion in Italy gives healthcare practitioners the option to make a conscientious objection to activities that are specific and necessary to an abortive intervention. Conscientious objectors among Italian gynaecologists amount to about 70%. This means that only a few doctors are available to perform abortions, and therefore acc...
Using a specific case as an example, the article argues that the Internet allows dissemination of academic ideas to the general public in ways that can sometimes pose a threat to academic freedom. Since academic freedom is a fundamental element of academia and since it benefits society at large, it is important to safeguard it. Among measures that...
In this paper we clarify some issues related to our previous article 'After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?'.
One of three commentaries on -Scholarly Discussion of Infanticide?" by Mirko D. Garasic, and "Reflections from a Troubled Stream: Giubilini and Minerva on 'After-Birth Abortion,'" by Michael Hauskeller, from the July-August 2012 issue.
Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus' health. By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people, the authors...
This dissertation investigates whether conscientious objection in medicine is morally justifiable. I first distinguish between three types of conscientious objection: (1) where health workers refuse to inform a patient about a possible therapeutic option as an emergency contraceptive or a vaccination or an abortion, (2) where health workers refuse...