Medicine, Health Care ,Philosophy

Education and the soul of medicine

The psychological slippery slope from physician-assisted death to active euthanasia: a paragon of fallacious reasoning Abstract In the debate surrounding the morality and legality of the practices of physician-assisted death and euthanasia, a common logical argument regularly employed against these practices is the "slippery slope argument." One formulation of this argument claims that acceptance of physician-assisted death will eventually lead down a "slippery slope" into acceptance of active euthanasia, including its voluntary, non-voluntary, and/or involuntary forms, through psychological and social processes that warp a society's values and moral perspective of a practice over an extended period of time. This formulation is known as the psychological slippery slope argument. This paper analyzes the psychological slippery slope argument as it is applied to the practice of physician-assisted death, and utilizing recent empirical evidence from various nations around the world that practice physician-assisted death and/or euthanasia, the paper argues that (1) employing the psychological slippery slope argument against physician-assisted death is logically fallacious, (2) this kind of slippery slope is unfounded in practice, and thus (3) the psychological slippery slope argument is insufficient on its own to justify continued legal prohibition of physician-assisted death.

Research ethics aspects of experimentation with LSD on human subjects: a historical and ethical review Abstract In this paper our aim is to examine whether research conducted on human participants with LSD-25 (lysergic acid diethylamide) raises unique research ethical questions or demands particular concerns with regard to the design, conduct and follow-up of these studies, and should this be the case, explore and describe those issues. Our analysis is based on reviewing publications up to date which examine the clinical, research and other uses of LSD and those addressing ethical and methodological concerns of these applications, just as some historical examinations of this subject. The first chapters of the paper give an overview regarding the history of LSD-research with human participants, healthy volunteers and patients alike. The remaining chapters have a focus on questions regarding the potential ethical issues of such human trials in the contemporary research ethics framework. We also consider briefly political and regulatory issues regarding this substance that possibly affect its clinical and research applications.

Spirituality in medical education: a concept analysis Abstract Spirituality in medical education is an abstract multifaceted concept, related to the healthcare system. As a significant dimension of health, the importance and promotion of this concept has received considerable attention all over the world. However, it is still an abstract concept and its use in different contexts leads to different perceptions, thereby causing challenges. In this regard, the study aimed to clarify the existing ambiguities of the concept of spirituality in medical education. Walker and Avant (Strategies for theory construction in nursing, Prentice Hall, Boston, 2011) concept analysis eight-step approach was used. After an extensive review of online national and international databases from 2000 to 2015, 180 articles and 3 books in English and Persian were retrieved for the purposes of the study. Analysis revealed that the defining attributes of spirituality in medical education are: teaching with all heart and soul, Life inspiring, ontological multidimensional connectedness, religious-secular spectrum, and socio-cultural intricacies. Moreover, innate wisdom, skillful treatment, transcendent education, and environmental requirements were antecedents to this concept, with the health of body and soul, intrapersonal development and elevation, and responsive treatment and education being its consequences. The defining attributes provided in this study can assist physicians, instructors, and professors to develop and implement evidence-based, health based and comprehensive education plans according to the guidelines of professional ethics and qualification of using spirituality in practice. The clarification of the noted concept facilitates further development of medical knowledge, research, and research instruments.

Obesity, political responsibility, and the politics of needs Abstract Since overweight and obesity have been framed as one of the main contemporary health challenges in industrialized countries, it has become a matter of public health efforts. While the belief that obese individuals are personally responsible for their body weight prevails in public opinion, evidence-based health science widely acknowledges that obesity is significantly influenced by socio-economic factors and thus that prevention requires structural changes. This constellation bears the chance of politicizing an issue formerly conceived of as private which really is dependent on societal contingencies, such as the particular availability of food. Reflecting on the prevention of obesity from an ethical point of view, therefore, requires an elaborate concept of political responsibility. The core thesis of this paper is that existing approaches within the field of obesity ethics fall short in reasonably grasping the political dimensions at play, due to the prevailing individualistic understanding of responsibility. Drawing upon Iris Marion Young's concept of political responsibility, I propose an alternative approach that emphasizes the structural determinants of obesity. By arguing this way, obesity prevention comes into view as a public endeavor that involves public discourse as well as shared action. Political responsibility then cannot be discharged merely by intrusive governmental action nor by individuals on their own, but should be considered as a task all of us share. As I will sketch in the last part of the paper, this includes contesting discourses on interpretations of need. Thereby, the paper contributes to recognizing obesity as a social instead of an individual problem.

Criminalization of scientific misconduct Abstract This paper discusses the criminalization of scientific misconduct, as discussed and defended in the bioethics literature. In doing so it argues against the claim that fabrication, falsification and plagiarism (FFP) together identify the most serious forms of misconduct, which hence ought to be criminalized, whereas other forms of misconduct should not. Drawing the line strictly at FFP is problematic both in terms of what is included and what is excluded. It is also argued that the criminalization of scientific misconduct, despite its anticipated benefits, is at risk of giving the false impression that dubious practices falling outside the legal regulation "do not count". Some doubts are also raised concerning whether criminalization of the most serious forms of misconduct will lower the burdens for universities or successfully increase research integrity. Rather, with or without criminalization, other measures must be taken and are probably more important in order to foster a more healthy research environment.

Moral enhancement and the good life Abstract One approach to defining enhancement is in the form of bodily or mental changes that tend to improve a person's well-being. Such a "welfarist account", however, seems to conflict with moral enhancement: consider an intervention that improves someone's moral motives but which ultimately diminishes their well-being. According to the welfarist account, this would not be an instance of enhancement—in fact, as I argue, it would count as a disability. This seems to pose a serious limitation for the account. Here, I elaborate on this limitation and argue that, despite it, there is a crucial role for such a welfarist account to play in our practical deliberations about moral enhancement. I do this by exploring four scenarios where a person's motives are improved at the cost of their well-being. A framework emerges from these scenarios which can clarify disagreements about moral enhancement and help sharpen arguments for and against it.

Rethinking the doctor–patient relationship: toward a hermeneutically-informed epistemology of medical practice Abstract Although typically implicit, clinicians face an inherent conflict between their roles as medical healers and as providers of technical biomedicine (Scott et al. in Philos Ethics Humanit Med 4:11, 2009). This conflict arises from the tension between the physicalist model which still predominates in medical training and practice and the extra-physicalist dimensions of medical practice as epitomised in the concept of patient-centred care. More specifically, the problem is that, as grounded in a "borrowed" physicalist philosophy, the dominant "applied scientist" model exhibits a number of limitations which severely restrict its ability to underwrite the effective practice of care. Moreover, being structural in character, these problems cannot be resolved by piecemeal modifications of the existing model, nor by an appeal to evidence-based medicine (Miles in J Eval Clin Pract 15(6):887–890, 2009; Miles in Folia Med 55(1):5–24, 2013; Miles et al. in J Eval Clin Pract 14(5):621–649, 2008). Hence, the need for medical theorists to "partner with experts in the humanities to build a sui generis philosophy of medicine" (Whatley in J Eval Clin Pract 20(6):961–964, 2014, p. 961). In response, the present paper seeks to vindicate the merits of hermeneutically-informed template in providing the requisite grounding. While capable of correcting for the limitations of the applied scientist model, a hermeneutically-informed template is a "both/and" approach, which seeks to complement rather than exclude the physicalist dimension, and thereby aspires to reconcile technical mastery with patient-centred care, rather than eschew one in favour of the other. As such, it can provide a cogent philosophical template for current best practice, which does justice to the art as well as the science of medical care.

Professional ethics: the case of neonatology Abstract Neonatal professionals encounter many ethical challenges especially when it comes to interventions at the limit of viability (weeks 22–25 of gestation). At times, these challenges make the moral dilemmas in neonatology tragic and they require a particular set of intellectual and moral virtues. Intellectual virtues of episteme and phronesis, together with moral virtues of courage, compassion, keeping fidelity to trust, and integrity were highlighted as key virtues of the neonatal professional. Recognition of the role of ethics requires a recognition that answering the obvious question (what shall we do?) does not always suffice. Acknowledging the tragic question (is any of the alternatives open to us free from serious moral wrongdoing) and recognizing the ethical dilemmas, where the lines between right and wrong are blurred, leads to actions taken towards establishing ethics frameworks to support decision-making. In neonatology units, such organizational support can help in allowing the team members to recognize the ethical dilemmas, avoid moral distress, and improve team cohesion and the quality of care provided. Only when the organizational structure allows ethical dilemmas to be recognized, adequate decisions can be made.

Leaving gift-giving behind: the ethical status of the human body and transplant medicine Abstract The paper argues that the idea of gift-giving and its associated imagery, which has been founding the ethics of organ transplants since the time of the first successful transplants, should be abandoned because it cannot effectively block arguments for (regulated) markets in human body parts. The imagery suggests that human bodies or their parts are transferable objects which belong to individuals. Such imagery is, however, neither a self-evident nor anthropologically unproblematic construal of the relation between a human being and their body. The paper proposes an alternative conceptualization of that relation, the identity view according to which a human being is identical with their living body. This view, which offers a new ethical perspective on some central concepts of transplant medicine and its ethical and legal standards and institutions, supports widely shared intuitive ethical judgments. On this proposal, an act of selling a human body or one of its parts is an act of trade in human beings, not in owned objects. Transfers of human body parts for treatment purposes are to be seen as sharing in another human being's misfortune rather than as giving owned objects. From the perspective of policy-making, the proposal requires, first, that informed consent for removal of transplant material be obtained from the potential benefactor. Secondly, explicit consent by the prospective benefactor is obligatory in the case of removal of transplant material from a living benefactor. Thirdly, in the case of posthumous retrieval, informed consent by the potential benefactor during their life is not ethically indispensable. Additionally, while refusal of posthumous retrieval expressed by a potential benefactor during their life must be respected, such a refusal needs ethical justification and explanation.