The legal revolution: from "sanctity of life" to "quality of life" and "autonomy".
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Attitude to Death↗
Biomedical subjects
J Keown
Publications and source records attributed to J Keown.
The gift of blood in Europe: an ethical defence of EC directive 89/381.
Article 3.4 of EC directive 89/381 requires member states to take "all necessary measures to promote Community self-sufficiency in human blood or human plasma" and, for this purpose, to "encourage the voluntary unpaid donation of blood and plasma". This paper presents an ethical case in support of the policy of voluntary, unpaid donation.
Altruism↗
Euthanasia in England: courts, committees and consistency.
Part I of this paper considers three competing ethical approaches to the valuation of human life: "Vitalism', 'Inviolability', and 'Worth'. Part II argues that, largely as a result of the case of Airedale NHS Trust v Bland, English law relating to 'euthanasia' (the intentional shortening of a patient's life, by act or omission, as part of his/her medical care) is in a morally and intellectually inconsistent state, incorporating Inviolability by prohibiting doctors from intentionally killing patients by an act but adopting Worth by permitting them intentionally to kill certain patients by omission. Part III maintains that the recent Report of the House of Lords Select Committee on Medical Ethics missed an opportunity to recommend the resolution of this inconsistency.
Cross-Cultural Comparison↗
Abortion for blindness.
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Abortion, Legal↗
Killing, karma and caring: euthanasia in Buddhism and Christianity.
In 1993 The Parliament of the World's Religions produced a declaration known as A Global Ethic which set out fundamental points of agreement on moral tissues between the religions of the world. However, the declaration did not deal explicitly with medical ethics. This article examines Buddhist and Christian perspectives on euthanasia and finds that in spite of their cultural and theological differences both oppose it for broadly similar reasons. Both traditions reject consequentialist patterns of justification and espouse a 'sanctity of life' position which precludes the intentional destruction of human life by act or omission.
Buddhism↗
The Polkinghorne Report on Fetal Research: nice recommendations, shame about the reasoning.
In 1989, in the wake of the first operations to transplant fetal tissue into the brains of sufferers from Parkinson's Disease, the UK Code of Practice governing the use of the fetus for research was overhauled by an eminent committee under the chairmanship of the Reverend Dr John Polkinghorne. The Polkinghorne Report has, however, attracted remarkably little comment or analysis. This paper is believed to be the first to subject it to sustained ethical and legal scrutiny. The author concludes that, although the committee's recommendations meet the major objections to the Code of Practice, the report is nevertheless vulnerable to criticism in its treatment of at least three issues: the moral status of the fetus; paternal consent to fetal use, and the ethical inter-relation of fetal use and abortion.
Aborted Fetus↗
On regulating death.
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Advisory Committees↗