Category Archives: bioethics

U.K.: Brignell Column on Disability and Assisted Suicide Misses Several Points

assisted suicide, bioethics, Our News & Commentary Blog, reality check, suicide, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Last week, New Statesman, a U.K. based magazine covering current affairs, published an essay by disability columnist Victoria Brignell. Unfortunately, “Assisted Death,” indicates she shares a lot of confusion with the very public she’s trying to educate about disability rights and “assisted death:” In recent years the media spotlight has fallen on a number of … Continue reading U.K.: Brignell Column on Disability and Assisted Suicide Misses Several Points →

Washington Post: Saletan on “Redefining Life and Death”

bioethics, life-ending decisions, media coverage, medical decisionmaking, Our News & Commentary Blog, reality check

I’m a little late on this, but William Saletan, national correspondent for Slate.com, wrote a pretty thoughtful analysis of the current medical debates regarding the definition of death. First published as an essay on Slate, “The Doctors Who are Redefining Life and Death” was published in the Sunday, Oct. 5th edition of the Washington Post. … Continue reading Washington Post: Saletan on “Redefining Life and Death” →

U.K. Article on Consciousness Research Contains Bombshell “Accusation”

bioethics, blog recommendations, futile care, life-ending decisions, media coverage, Our News & Commentary Blog, research, vegetative state

Last week, my email and blog alerts let me know about a “new” article on research into consciousness. Wesley Smith posted his entry on an article describing the activity of researchers in the UK seeking to reduce the 40% error rate in diagnosis of persistent vegetative state. Alex Schandenberg also featured the article and commented … Continue reading U.K. Article on Consciousness Research Contains Bombshell “Accusation” →

Followup on Caplan, Warnock and ABC

Art Caplan, bioethics, media coverage, Our News & Commentary Blog, unethical ethicists

Turns out the story ABC was doing on Warnock did run – and included part of Art Caplan’s remarks: When Dr. Jonathan Groner, a surgeon and ethicist at Ohio State University, heard of a suggestion by a well-known British philosopher that those with dementia have a “duty to die” in order to minimize the burden … Continue reading Followup on Caplan, Warnock and ABC →

Followup on Warnock – Art Caplan Strongly Disagrees With “Duty to Die”

Art Caplan, bioethics, lifeboat ethics, media coverage, Our News & Commentary Blog

Art Caplan, Director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics, dropped me a line to give me his reaction to Warnock’s comments about people with dementia. He gave these to a reporter at ABC but says they weren’t used in whatever coverage they ended up giving to Warnock: No one has a duty to … Continue reading Followup on Warnock – Art Caplan Strongly Disagrees With “Duty to Die” →