Embryo donation or embryo adoption? Conceptual and normative issues

If states are not to go to war, what should they do instead? In The Alternatives to War: From Sanctions to Non-violence, James Pattison considers the case for the alternatives to military action to address mass atrocities and aggression. He covers the normative issues raised by measures ranging from comprehensive economic sanctions, diplomacy, and positive incentives, to criminal prosecutions, non-violent resistance, accepting refugees, and arming rebels. For instance, given the indiscriminateness of many sanctions regimes, are sanctions any better than war? Should states avoid ‘megaphone diplomacy’ and adopt more subtle measures? What, if anything, can non-violent methods such as civilian defence and civilian peacekeeping do in the face of a ruthless opponent? Is it a serious concern that positive incentives can appear to reward aggressors? Overall, Pattison provides a comprehensive account of the ethics of the alternatives to war. In doing so, he argues that the case for war is weaker and the case for many of the alternatives is stronger than commonly thought. The upshot is that, when reacting to mass atrocities and aggression, states are generally required to pursue the alternatives to war rather than military action. Pattison concludes that this has significant implications for pacifism, Just War Theory, and the responsibility to protect doctrine.

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Tobacco as a Matter of Public Health: Ethical Issues

The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190245191.013.43 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 494-510

Author(s):

Kristin Voigt

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Tobacco Use ◽

Ethical Issues ◽

Population Level ◽

Third Parties ◽

Background Factors ◽

Normative Issues

This chapter considers normative issues that tobacco raises at the population level, particularly with respect to the anti-smoking strategies policymakers might pursue and the reasons and justifications underlying these strategies. After setting out several background factors that shape the debate, the chapter discusses different grounds on which state and public health actors might seek to restrict tobacco use, considering in turn those justifications that focus on protecting smokers and those that seek to protect third parties. The chapter then considers normative problems arising in relation to specific anti-smoking strategies, such as restrictions on the sale, use, and marketing of cigarettes; taxation; incentives for cessation; and denormalization strategies. Issues of paternalism and the stigma associated with smoking are also discussed.

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Hedged Assertion

The Oxford Handbook of Assertion ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190675233.013.11 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 243-263

Author(s):

Matthew A. Benton ◽

Peter van Elswyk

Keyword(s):

Speech Act ◽

Epistemic Modals ◽

Epistemic Position ◽

Normative Issues

Surprisingly little has been written about hedged assertion. Linguists often focus on semantic or syntactic theorizing about, for example, grammatical evidentials or epistemic modals, but they pay far less attention to what hedging does at the level of action. By contrast, philosophers have focused extensively on normative issues regarding what epistemic position is required for proper assertion, yet they have almost exclusively considered unqualified declaratives. This article considers the linguistic and normative issues side by side. It aims to bring some order and clarity to thinking about hedging, so as to illuminate aspects of interest to both linguists and philosophers. In particular, it considers three broad questions. (1) The structural question: when one hedges, what is the speaker’s commitment weakened from? (2) The functional question: what is the best way to understand how a hedge weakens? And (3) the taxonomic question: are hedged assertions genuine assertions, another speech act, or what?

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Who is afraid of black box algorithms? On the epistemological and ethical basis of trust in medical AI

Journal of Medical Ethics ◽

10.1136/medethics-2020-106820 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. medethics-2020-106820 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Juan Manuel Durán ◽

Karin Rolanda Jongsma

Keyword(s):

Artificial Intelligence ◽

Medical Informatics ◽

Patient Autonomy ◽

Black Box ◽

Epistemic Reasons ◽

Potential Bias ◽

Ethical Concerns ◽

Normative Issues ◽

Ethical Basis ◽

Computational Processes

The use of black box algorithms in medicine has raised scholarly concerns due to their opaqueness and lack of trustworthiness. Concerns about potential bias, accountability and responsibility, patient autonomy and compromised trust transpire with black box algorithms. These worries connect epistemic concerns with normative issues. In this paper, we outline that black box algorithms are less problematic for epistemic reasons than many scholars seem to believe. By outlining that more transparency in algorithms is not always necessary, and by explaining that computational processes are indeed methodologically opaque to humans, we argue that the reliability of algorithms provides reasons for trusting the outcomes of medical artificial intelligence (AI). To this end, we explain how computational reliabilism, which does not require transparency and supports the reliability of algorithms, justifies the belief that results of medical AI are to be trusted. We also argue that several ethical concerns remain with black box algorithms, even when the results are trustworthy. Having justified knowledge from reliable indicators is, therefore, necessary but not sufficient for normatively justifying physicians to act. This means that deliberation about the results of reliable algorithms is required to find out what is a desirable action. Thus understood, we argue that such challenges should not dismiss the use of black box algorithms altogether but should inform the way in which these algorithms are designed and implemented. When physicians are trained to acquire the necessary skills and expertise, and collaborate with medical informatics and data scientists, black box algorithms can contribute to improving medical care.

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