Abstract:
:In a recent case in the UK, six men stored their sperm before undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer in case they proved to be infertile after the treatment. The sperm was not properly stored and as a result was inadvertently destroyed. The men sued the NHS Trust that stored the sperm and were in the end successful. This paper questions the basis on which the judgement was made and the rationale behind it, namely that the men 'had ownership' of the sperm, and that compensation was thus due on the grounds that the men's property had been destroyed. We first argue that the claim is erroneous and enhances the tendency towards the commodification of body parts. We then suggest that the men could have been compensated for the harm done to them without granting property rights, and that this would, at least in philosophical and ethical terms, have been more appropriate. To help illustrate this, we draw on a parallel case in French law in which a couple whose embryos had been destroyed were overtly denied ownership rights in them. Finally, we suggest some possible ethical and practical problems if the proprietary view expressed in the UK ruling were to become dominant in law, with particular focus on the storing of genetic information in biobanks. We conclude that, although compensation claims should not necessarily be ruled out, a 'no property in the body' approach should be the default position in cases of detached bodily materials, the alternative being significantly ethically problematic.
journal_name
J Med Ethicsjournal_title
Journal of medical ethicsauthors
Cordell S,Bellivier F,Widdows H,Noiville Cdoi
10.1136/jme.2010.042036subject
Has Abstractpub_date
2011-12-01 00:00:00pages
747-51issue
12eissn
0306-6800issn
1473-4257pii
jme.2010.042036journal_volume
37pub_type
杂志文章abstract::Physician-written "do not resuscitate" DNR orders elicit negative reactions from stakeholders that may decrease appropriate end-of-life care. The semantic significance of the phrase has led to a proposed replacement of DNR with "allow natural death" (AND). Prior to this investigation, no scientific papers address the ...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.2006.018317
更新日期:2008-01-01 00:00:00
abstract::Towers reviews Joan Robinson: One Woman's Story, an American documentary film about a terminal cancer patient that was first broadcast by the Public Broadcasting Service on 21 January 1980. The film was made at the instigation of Robinson, a writer and editor, and covers the last twenty-two months of her life from th...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.6.2.101
更新日期:1980-06-01 00:00:00
abstract::The death toll from tobacco is staggering: it might contribute to one billion premature deaths over the course of the 21st century. In 'The case for banning cigarettes', Kalle Grill and Kristin Voigt argue that the well-being and equality benefits of a complete ban on cigarettes more than justify the restrictions on a...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
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doi:10.1136/medethics-2017-104172
更新日期:2017-06-01 00:00:00
abstract::Dr Neil Campbell suggests that when patients suffering extremes of protracted pain ask for help to end their lives, their requests should be discounted as made under compulsion. I contend that the doctors concerned should be referred to and then act upon advance directives made by those patients when of sound and calm...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 评论,杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.25.3.245
更新日期:1999-06-01 00:00:00
abstract::Recently, new developments took place in the Dutch debate on the legislation of euthanasia. After a brief account of that debate, the article discusses a new government proposal for legislation in this field, which was submitted to the Dutch parliament in November 1991. This proposal relates not only to euthanasia but...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.18.3.138
更新日期:1992-09-01 00:00:00
abstract::The 'right to the truth' involves disclosing all the pertinent facts to a patient so that an informed decision can be made. However, this concept of a 'right to the truth' entails certain ambiguities, especially since it is difficult to apply the concept in medical practice based mainly on current evidence-based data ...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.2009.033340
更新日期:2010-06-01 00:00:00
abstract::Giubilini and Minerva argue that the permissibility of abortion entails the permissibility of infanticide. Proponents of what we refer to as the Birth Strategy claim that there is a morally significant difference brought about at birth that accounts for our strong intuition that killing newborns is morally impermissib...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/medethics-2020-106781
更新日期:2020-10-26 00:00:00
abstract::The recent essay by Schuklenk and Smalling opposing respect for physicians' conscientious objections to providing patients with medical services that are legally permitted in liberal democracies is based on several erroneous assumptions. Acting in this manner would have serious harmful effects on the ethos of medicine...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 评论,杂志文章
doi:10.1136/medethics-2016-103670
更新日期:2017-04-01 00:00:00
abstract::Screening of newborns for permanent congenital or early-onset hearing impairment has emerged as an essential component of neonatal care in developed countries, following favourable outcomes from early intervention in the critical period for optimal speech and language development. Progress towards a similar programme ...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.2005.014720
更新日期:2006-10-01 00:00:00
abstract::Ancell and Sinnott-Armstrong argue that medical providers possess wide freedoms to determine the scope of their practice, and therefore, prohibiting almost any conscientious objections is a bad idea. They maintain that we could create an acceptable system on the whole which even grants accommodations to discriminatory...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/medethics-2018-105173
更新日期:2019-03-01 00:00:00
abstract:OBJECTIVES:A statute enacted in 2005 modified the legislative framework of the rights of terminally ill persons in France. Ten years after the EURONIC study, which described the self-reported practices of neonatal caregivers towards ethical decision-making, a new study was conducted to assess the impact of the new law ...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.2010.038356
更新日期:2011-04-01 00:00:00
abstract:OBJECTIVES:to assess physicians' and patients' views in Saudi Arabia (KSA) towards involving the patient versus the family in the process of diagnosis disclosure and decision-making, and to compare them with views from the USA and Japan. DESIGN:A self-completion questionnaire (used previously to study these issues in ...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.2006.019638
更新日期:2008-04-01 00:00:00
abstract::Debate on the potential and uses of human stem cells tends to be conducted by two constituencies-ethicists and scientists. On many occasions there is little communication between the two, with the result that ethical debate is not informed as well as it might be by scientific insights. The aim of this paper is to high...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.2003.002386
更新日期:2004-08-01 00:00:00
abstract:INTRODUCTION:Understanding the views of the public is essential if generally acceptable policies are to be devised that balance research access to general practice patient records with protection of patients' privacy. However, few large studies have been conducted about public attitudes to research access to personal h...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.2010.037903
更新日期:2011-01-01 00:00:00
abstract::The aim of this study was to determine the opinions of private medical practitioners in Bloemfontein, South Africa, regarding euthanasia of terminally ill patients. This descriptive study was performed amongst a simple random sample of 100 of 230 private medical practitioners in Bloemfontein. Information was obtained ...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.2008.027417
更新日期:2009-03-01 00:00:00
abstract::In an earlier article in this journal, I advanced five ethical arguments in favour of a voluntary, unpaid system of blood donation. In his reply to my article, Hugh McLachlan criticised one of those arguments, namely, the argument that an unpaid system promotes altruism and social solidarity. In this reply to Dr. McLa...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.24.4.255
更新日期:1998-08-01 00:00:00
abstract::Robert Veatch has proposed a model of the doctor-patient relationship that has as its foundation the sharing of values between the doctor and the patient. This paper uses qualitative research conducted with six doctors involved in the long term, specialised care of HIV positive patients in South Australia to explore t...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.2002.001560
更新日期:2004-12-01 00:00:00
abstract:OBJECTIVES:To study some ethical problems created by accession of a previously nomadic and traditional society to modern invasive medicine, by assessment of physicians' attitudes towards sharing information and decision-making with patients in the setting of a serious illness. DESIGN:Self-completion questionnaire admi...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.22.5.282
更新日期:1996-10-01 00:00:00
abstract::Most moral dilemmas in medicine are analysed using the four principles with some consideration of consequentialism but these frameworks have limitations. It is not always clear how to judge which consequences are best. When principles conflict it is not always easy to decide which should dominate. They also do not tak...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 评论,杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.29.5.297
更新日期:2003-10-01 00:00:00
abstract:OBJECTIVES:Disclosures of funding sources and conflicts of interests (COI) in published peer-reviewed journal articles have recently begun to receive some attention, but many critical questions remain, for example, how often such reporting occurs concerning research conducted in the developing world and what factors ma...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.2010.035394
更新日期:2010-08-01 00:00:00
abstract::Jehovah's Witnesses are students of the Bible. They refuse transfusions out of obedience to the scriptural directive to abstain and keep from blood. Dr Muramoto disagrees with the Witnesses' religious beliefs in this regard. Despite this basic disagreement over the meaning of Biblical texts, Muramoto flouts the religi...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.25.6.469
更新日期:1999-12-01 00:00:00
abstract::In medicine, racial differences are frequently presented as part of the best explanation of differences in the risk of diseases. The problem of using racial classification in biomedical research has become important because of its ethical consequences in society. However, the biological relevance of the concept of rac...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.2011.043752
更新日期:2011-09-01 00:00:00
abstract::Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a simple means of brain stimulation, possesses a trifecta of appealing features: it is relatively safe, relatively inexpensive and relatively effective. It is also relatively easy to obtain a device and the do-it-yourself (DIY) community has become galvanised by reports ...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/medethics-2013-101458
更新日期:2015-05-01 00:00:00
abstract::In the context of 'Do-not-resuscitate' (DNR) decisions, there is a lack of information in the UK on the opinions of patients and prospective patients. Written anonymous responses to questionnaires issued to 322 out-patient subjects showed that 97 per cent would opt for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in their curr...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.19.2.104
更新日期:1993-06-01 00:00:00
abstract::Perimortem gamete retrieval has been a possibility for several decades. It involves the surgical extraction of gametes which can then be cryo-preserved and stored for future use. Usually, the request for perimortem gamete retrieval is made by the patient's partner after the patient himself, or herself, has lost the ca...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/medethics-2013-101727
更新日期:2015-06-01 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:More and more quantitative information is becoming available about the risks of complications arising from medical treatment. In everyday practice, this raises the question whether each and every risk, however low, should be disclosed to patients. What could be good reasons for doing or not doing so? This wi...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.2005.014936
更新日期:2007-02-01 00:00:00
abstract:INTRODUCTION:Future HIV vaccine efficacy trials with adolescents will need to ensure that participants comprehend study concepts in order to confer true informed assent. A Hepatitis B vaccine trial with adolescents offers valuable opportunity to test youth understanding of vaccine trial requirements in general. METHOD...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/medethics-2012-101286
更新日期:2013-06-01 00:00:00
abstract:OBJECTIVES:To analyse the decision making for end of life care for patients with cancer at a teaching hospital in Japan at two periods 10 years apart. DESIGN AND SETTING:Retrospective study conducted in a 550 bed community teaching hospital in Okinawa, Japan. PATIENTS:There were 124 terminally ill cancer patients (45...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.2003.000125
更新日期:2004-06-01 00:00:00
abstract::In this issue of the journal Mark Brown has offered a new argument against my potential future of value theory. I argue that even though the premises of this new argument are far more defensible than the premises of his old argument, the new argument does not show that the potential future of value theory of the wrong...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 评论,杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.28.3.198
更新日期:2002-06-01 00:00:00
abstract::W B Gallie's notion of essentially contested concepts remains of philosophical interest. I argue that medicine is one such concept and look at the consequences of this as regards the inappropriateness of looking for definitions and necessary and sufficient conditions to settle debates about what medicine is and is not...
journal_title:Journal of medical ethics
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1136/jme.29.4.261
更新日期:2003-08-01 00:00:00