Bioethics – Ethoxblog

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Since its foundation in 2013, the Oxford-Amsterdam Winter School has been a highlight of the MA-programme Philosophy, Bioethics, and Health (PBH), a two-year MA-programme of the Philosophy Department and Medical Humanities, VU University (Medical Center) in Amsterdam.

This year’s Winter School was in many aspects unique and different from previous editions. Unfortunately, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic made an actual visit to Oxford and the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities impossible. However, flexibility and enthusiasm on both sides of the North Sea resulted in the first online edition of the Winter School. Even though all participants were sitting at home behind their own desk or kitchen table, there was a great sense of togetherness.

Continue reading “Oxford-Amsterdam Winter School: 8th (online) edition” → Oxford-Amsterdam Winter School: 8th (online) edition

How often do we, as starting doctoral students, get the chance to practice defending our proposed research projects in front of a panel of scholars, each a respective expert in their field? Well, that’s exactly what happened in Amsterdam on April 11 and 12, 2019. Continue reading “First Edition of the Oxford-Amsterdam Spring School!” →

First Edition of the Oxford-Amsterdam Spring School!

Suzanne Metselaar, Dept. of Medical Humanities, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam and Gerben Meynen, Humanities, Dept. of Philosophy, VU University, Amsterdam, and Ruth Horn and Michael Dunn from the Ethox Center, Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities, University of Oxford

Making the transition from being a student to becoming part of an international community of bioethicists can be a challenge. What to expect when participating in conferences? How to critically engage in current bioethical debates? How to bring your point across as convincingly as possible, but to do this in a respectful way, acknowledging the work done by others?

In order to support students in making this transition, we have been organizing an annual Winter School for students of the MA-program Philosophy, Bioethics, and Health (PBH), a two-year MA-program of Philosophy and Medical Humanities, VU University (Medical Center) in Amsterdam. The Winterschool January 2018 was its 5th edition. Continue reading “Oxford-Amsterdam Winter School – 5th edition!” →

Oxford-Amsterdam Winter School – 5th edition!

Karin Jongsma is an assistant professor of medical ethics at the Julius Center of Utrecht University Medical Center, the Netherlands and a Post-doctoral fellow at the department of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine in Göttingen, Germany.  She was also our Caroline Miles visiting scholar in November 2017.

She works with Prof. Dr. Annelien Bredenoord (Utrecht) and Prof. Dr. Silke Schicktanz (Göttingen). Her research focuses on who should have a say in decision-making and representative practices, and she is particularly interested in digital health.

Apps and big data are increasingly used to track, analyse and predict health and health behaviour via smartphones, wearables and via online behaviour. Health care has a history of failed IT investments, and health research has a reputation of being expensive to innovate in, but commercial tech-companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple have succeeded in creating momentum towards a digital change. These companies have developed and implemented technologies that offer innovative ways for collecting, storing and analysing complex and rich health-related data. This data driven research and care may be referred to as digital health. The rising attention for big data and digital health has come with high expectations and is supposedly paradigm-changing. It is hoped that the possibilities of doing research and monitoring patients and not yet patients will create new ways of predicting, treating and preventing illnesses (eg Topol 2015), but digital health will simultaneously create new risks and harm and will shift the dynamics of health research and health care.

Continue reading “Do traditional bioethical solutions suffice in times of digital health?” →

Do traditional bioethical solutions suffice in times of digital health?

Dr Aisling M. McMahon, Lecturer Newcastle Law School, and our Caroline Miles visiting Scholar in March this year

Recent international developments in gene patenting raise questions again about how bioethical concerns surrounding the grant of patents on health-related technologies are addressed or engaged with by patent law. In 2013 and 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States[1] and the Australian High Court[2], respectively, delivered judgments rejecting the patentability of isolated genes. Both disputes involved Myriad’s patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Subsequently, in March 2016 a Canadian case involving the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario’s (CHEO) challenge to patents on genes related to Long QT Syndrome (LQTS) (a condition that can potentially cause irregular and chaotic heartbeats[3]) was settled. The settlement provided a licence to CHEO to test for the syndrome and this has appeared to quell public concerns.[4]

Continue reading “Gene Patents & Access to Health: Speaking at but not to each other” →

Gene Patents & Access to Health: Speaking at but not to each other

Suzanne Metselaar, Dept. of Medical Humanities, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, and Gerben Meynen, Dept. of Philosophy, VU University, Amsterdam

Since 2013, a one-week Winter School at the Ethox Center is part of our master programme Philosophy, Bioethics, and Health (PBH). PBH is an interdisciplinary, two-year MA-programme of the Dept. of Philosophy of VU University in collaboration with the Dept. of Medical Humanities of VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam. Students describe the visit to Ethox as a great learning experience: it is seen as the highlight of our Master programme. And the beautiful scenery and history of Oxford are certainly a great bonus!

Continue reading “Winter School @Ethox: “A most exciting experience!”” →

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