There is today a wide range of competing theories, each in its own way trying to account for consciousness in neurobiological terms. Parallel to the “Babylonian confusion of tongues” and inability to collaborate that this entails in the theorizing of consciousness, progress has been made in the empirical study of the brain. Advanced methods for […] The post A way out of the Babylonian confusion of tongues in the theorizing of consciousness? appeared first on The Ethics Blog ..read more

Science and technology advance so rapidly that it is hard to keep up with them. This is true not only for the general public, but also for the scientists themselves and for scholars from fields like ethics and regulation, who find it increasingly difficult to predict what will come next. Today AI is among the […] The post A strategy for a balanced discussion of conscious AI appeared first on The Ethics Blog ..read more

Philosophy begins with doubt, this has been emphasized by many philosophers. But what does it mean to doubt? To harbor suspicions? To criticize accepted beliefs? In that case, doubt is based on thinking we know better. We believe that we have good reason to doubt. Is that doubting? Thinking that you know? It sounds paradoxical, […] The post The doubtful beginnings of philosophy appeared first on The Ethics Blog ..read more

More than 5 million women become pregnant in the EU every year and a majority take at least one medication during pregnancy. A problem today is that as few as 5% of available medications have been adequately monitored, tested and labelled with safety information for use in pregnant and breastfeeding women. The field is difficult […] The post Better evidence may solve a moral dilemma appeared first on The Ethics Blog ..read more

What will you do if you feel sick or discover a rash and wonder what it is? Is it something serious? If you do not immediately contact healthcare, a common first step is to search for information on the internet. But there are also applications for mobiles and online, where users can check their symptoms. […] The post Mobile apps to check symptoms and get recommendations: what do users say? appeared first on The Ethics Blog ..read more

A theme in recent blog posts has been our need for time. Patients need time to be listened to; time to ask questions; time to decide whether they want to be included in clinical studies, and time for much more. Healthcare workers need time to understand the patients’ situation; time to find solutions to the […] The post Time to forget time appeared first on The Ethics Blog ..read more

Not all diseases can be cured, but medication along with other measures can alleviate the symptoms. Rheumatoid arthritis is one such disease. Medicines for symptoms such as swellings and stiffness have become very effective. As a patient, you can find good ways to live with the disease, even if it can mean more or less […] The post Living with rheumatoid arthritis: how do patients perceive their interaction with healthcare and a self-care app? appeared first on The Ethics Blog ..read more

Newly formed concepts can sometimes satisfy such urgent linguistic needs that they immediately seem completely self-evident. Moral stress is probably such a concept. It is not many decades old. Nevertheless, the concept probably appeared from the beginning as an all-too-familiar reality for many healthcare workers. An interesting aspect of these immediately self-evident concepts is that […] The post Moral stress: what does the COVID-19 pandemic teach us about the concept? appeared first on The Ethics Blog ..read more

In clinical research with participating patients, research nurses play a central role. On a daily basis, they balance the values of care and the needs of research. For these nurses, it is clear that patients’ informed consent for research participation is more than just a one-time event completed by signing the form. The written consent […] The post Research nurses on ethical challenges in recruiting participants for clinical research appeared first on The Ethics Blog ..read more

Since 2022, an annual conference in medical ethics is organized by Swedish universities. The first conference was organized by Lund University and the second by Karolinska Institutet. The next conference will be arranged on 10–11 June 2024 by us at the Centre for Research and Bioethics at Uppsala University. Conference names vary with the host […] The post Medical ethics conference in Uppsala, 10–11 June 2024 appeared first on The Ethics Blog ..read more