Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

J Savulescu

Publications and source records attributed to J Savulescu.

58 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

Rational non-interventional paternalism: why doctors ought to make judgments of what is best for their patients.

This paper argues that doctors ought to make all things considered value judgments about what is best for their patients. It illustrates some of the shortcomings of the model of doctor as 'fact-provider'. The 'fact-provider' model fails to take account of the fact that practising medicine necessarily involves making value judgments; that medical practice is a moral practice and requires that doctors reflect on what ought to be done, and that patients can make choices which fail to express their autonomy and which are based on mistaken judgments of value. If doctors are properly to respect patient autonomy and to function as moral agents, they must make evaluations of what their patients ought to do, all things considered. This paper argues for 'rational, non-interventional paternalism'. This is a practice in which doctors form conceptions of what is best for their patients and argue rationally with them. It differs from old-style paternalism in that it is not committed to doing what is best.

Choice Behavior↗
PubMed1987

MPTP, impairment of motor performance and amine accumulation in Macaca fascicularis.

The selective neurotoxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) was injected (IV) into monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) in two different injection regimes. With the small dose regime, one monkey was injected with 0.25 mg/kg, every other day, over a 16 day period. In the large dose regime, another monkey was injected with 0.5 mg/kg every other day, over an 8 day period. While the time required for drug delivery was varied between animals, the total dose delivered was 2 mg/kg in both animals. Before, during and for 14 days after the course of drug administration both animals were assessed on several motor function tests. The animal receiving the small dose regime showed normal motor performance on all tests for the duration of the study, however, the monkey receiving the large dose regime displayed progressive akinesia, muscular rigidity, and aphagia. In fact, impairment was so severe that this animal had to be force fed and maintained with daily oral L-dopa. Fluorescent histochemical assessment of forebrain in both monkeys revealed that striatal tissue was totally devoid of fluorescence in both cases. Large, swollen axons in the internal capsule, hypothalamus and midbrain were visible only in the severely impaired animal. These results suggest that, as with other neurotoxins, degeneration associated increases in amines may be important in the aetiology of Parkinson-like motor impairment produced by selective neurotoxins.

1-Methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine↗