‘Ethical preparedness’ January 2022 Much was said at the outset of the pandemic about how thoroughly well prepared the United Kingdom’s health service was for the outbreak....
‘An acceptable level of deaths? July 2021 In the wake of the announced ending of most COVID restrictions the talk is inevitably of what the new normal will look like. Prominent in...
Putting ethics into the 'stuff like this' 2021Responding to suggestions that the UK Government might introduce immunity or vaccine passports, the Prime Minister in an interview on the...
Putting ethics into the 'stuff like this' (2021)Responding to suggestions that the UK Government might introduce immunity or vaccine passports, the Prime Minister in an interview on the...
Let's talk about Covid-19 Ethics (2020)2020 ends with the first people in the United Kingdom being given the vaccine that might – just – if rolled out across the whole...
Get ready for the vaccine! (2020)I followed the example of Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England's Deputy Chief Medical Officer, who, in the wake of the announcement of two...
Getting the jab done (2020)The prospect of safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 is good news for everyone towards the end of a grim year. Of course, caution...
The rise and fall and rise again of bioethics (2019)Sarah Franklin has written a very thoughtful, informed and at the same time provocative essay in a recent issue of Nature. It traces the...
Forensic futures (2019)Filmic dystopias are a great way to imagine how current and prospective scientific developments might be abused in the ‘not too distant...
Frankenstein: the monster's shadow (2018)This summer I have attended, and spoke at, two interestingly related events. The first was an academic conference in Rome celebrating the...
Public health ten years on (2017)It is now ten years since the Nuffield Council on Bioethics published its report Public health: Ethical issues. Ten years can be a long...
Ethics of regenerative medicine and innovative treatments (2017)The recently published Lancet Commission on stem cells and regenerative medicine is a very welcome and timely contribution to an...
Trustworthiness and 'doing ethics' (2020)It’s amazing how much (and how many people) we trust in and how reliant we are on trust. Imagine a world in which you never trusted your...
Hard choices at the frontline (2020)At some point in this terrible pandemic doctors will have to make some unbelievably difficult life and death decisions. This much is...
The rise and fall and rise again of bioethics (2020)Sarah Franklin has written a very thoughtful, informed and at the same time provocative essay in a recent issue of Nature. It traces the...
It’s Veganuary (2019)It’s Veganuary! The name – which has been hard to avoid anywhere this month – has been coined to inspire individuals to try being vegan...
Frankenstein: the monster’s shadow (2019)This summer I have attended, and spoke at, two interestingly related events. The first was an academic conference in Rome celebrating the...