SpringerBriefs in Ethics – serie

​This book offers a clear analysis of Foucault’s work on scientific knowledge and its relationship to individuals and society. It suggests a way of using Foucault’s tools for science criticism and resistance, while avoiding the pitfalls of vulgar relativism or irrational anti-science views. Two cases of scientific conflict are considered. The first considers left-handers as subjects of science, in particular studies which purport to show that left-handers die on average younger than right-handers. The second case considers Icelanders as subjects of science in the context of a partly failed attempt to construct a genetic database encompassing the entire nation.The book will be of interest to bioethicists and philosophers who are concerned with the interaction between science and its human subjects, as well as scholars concerned with Foucault’s work on science.

This book offers a much needed overview of the neglected notion of responsibility.  Instead of offering vague talk about “individual responsibility” or “corporate responsibility,” Daryl Koehn examines in detail four accounts of responsibility, taking care to specify what responsibility does and does not mean in each account.  She argues for a return to the ancient concept of Socratic dialogical responsibility, a concept that avoids many of the problems inherent in the other accounts. After examining the Anglo-American criminal legal system’s treatment of responsibility as intentional agency, she critiques Hans Jonas’s concept of responsibility as ontological care and Hannah Arendt’s notion of communicative responsibility. She provides a careful analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each approach to responsibility. The final chapter makes the case for Socratic dialogical responsibility.  Dialogical responsibility hasmany strengths in its own right and avoids the major pitfalls of the other notions of responsibility examined in the book. It serves as an eminently practical way to hold ourselves responsible for our actions and speech. In addition, dialogical responsibility alone qualifies as a virtue integral to the good life.

This book addresses the morality of engaging in weapons research, a topic that has been neglected but which is extremely important. It is argued that this activity is both morally wrong and morally unjustifiable, and this implies that moral persons should not engage in it. The argument is not based on any pacifist assumptions: it is not assumed that neither individuals nor states should not defend themselves. What is wrong with weapons research is that it is the first step in the production of weapons, weapons are the means to harm, and harming without justification is always wrong. Those who study science, for instance those who are interested in the responsibilities of the scientist, are given a new perspective, while those who are practicing scientists will realize that they should not consider working to design new or improved weapons systems. This book is of interest to students and  researchers working in  ethics and technology, philosophy of technology, military ethics, and history of technology.

This book provides an up-to-date description of cross-cultural aspects of end-of-life decision-making. The work places this discussion in the context of developments in the United States such as the emphasis on patient informed consent, “right to die” legal cases, and the federal Patient Self-Determination Act. With the globalization of health care and increased immigration from developing to developed countries, health care professionals are experiencing unique challenges in communicating with seriously ill patients and their families about treatment options as well as counselling all patients about advance medical care planning. While many Western countries emphasize individual autonomy and patient-centered decision-making, cultures with a greater collectivist orientation have, historically, often protected patients from negative health information and emphasized family-centered decision-making. In order to place these issues in context, the history of informed consent in medicineis reviewed. Additionally, cross-cultural issues in health care decision-making are analysed from the perspective of multiple philosophical theories including deontology, utilitarianism, virtues, principlism, and communitarian ethics.  This book is a valuable addition to courses on end-of-life care, death and dying, cross-cultural health, medical anthropology, and medical ethics and an indispensable guide for healthcare workers dealing with patients coming from various cultural backgrounds.

This book is both a workbook and process guide for making ethical system-level decisions. It is of great use to any individual or team that is looking for support in making an ethically-justified system-level decision – that is, a decision that will impact people in more than one or two individual situations. Traditionally, when people think of ethics in the context of policy, what comes to mind is identification of key principles relevant to the work. Ethics analysis of the policy then explores what these principles mean and how they are balanced in the policy. The conventional approach only considers formal policies as worthy of ethics analysis, and the method of analysis leaves a number of key ethically significant dimensions of the system-level decision process unaddressed. The approach in this book assists decision leaders or teams to make better decisions and realize the benefits of quality, legitimacy, and compliance - and most important, greater integrity for all concerned. Applicable to almost any context, this resource has been effectively utilized in organizations that range from health care to civil society.

This open access book provides an extensive review of ethical and regulatory issues related to human infection challenge studies, with a particular focus on the expansion of this type of research into endemic settings and/or low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Human challenge studies (HCS) involve the intentional infection of research participants, and this type of research is rapidly increasing in frequency worldwide. HCS are widely considered to be an especially promising approach to vaccine development, including for pathogens endemic to LMICs. However, challenge studies are sometimes controversial and raise complex ethical issues, some of which are especially salient in endemic and/or LMIC settings. Informed by qualitative interviews with experts in infectious diseases and bioethics, this book highlights areas of ethical consensus and controversy concerning this kind of research. As the first volume to focus on ethical issues associated with human challenge studies, it sets the agenda for further work in this important area of global health research; contributes to current debates in research ethics; and aims to inform regulatory policy and research practice.  Insofar as it focuses on HCS in (endemic) settings where diseases are present and/or widespread, much of the analysis provided here is directly relevant to HCS involving pandemic diseases including COVID19.

This open access book introduces the reader to the foundations of AI and ethics. It discusses issues of trust, responsibility, liability, privacy and risk. It focuses on the interaction between people and the AI systems and Robotics they use. Designed to be accessible for a broad audience, reading this book does not require prerequisite technical, legal or philosophical expertise. Throughout, the authors use examples to illustrate the issues at hand and conclude the book with a discussion on the application areas of AI and Robotics, in particular autonomous vehicles, automatic weapon systems and biased algorithms. A list of questions and further readings is also included for students willing to explore the topic further.

This book explores major bioethical issues emerging from the development and use of artificial intelligence in medical settings. The authors start by defining the past, present and future of artificial intelligence in medical settings and then proceed to address the resulting common and specific bioethical inquiries. The book discusses bioethical inquiries in two separate sets. The first set is comprised of ontological discussions mainly focusing on personhood and being an ethical agent of an artefact. The second set discusses bioethical issues resulting from the use of artificial intelligence. It focuses particularly on the area of artificial intelligence use in medicine and health services. It addresses the main challenges by considering fundamental principles of medical ethics, including confidentiality, privacy, compassion, veracity and fidelity. Finally, the authors discuss the ethical implications of involvement of artificial intelligence agents in patient care by expanding on communication skills in a case-based approach. The book is of great interest to ethicists, medical professionals, academicians, engineers and scientists working with artificial intelligence.

This open access book offers a unique and practically oriented study of organisational and national conditions for implementing Responsible Research Innovation (RRI) policies and practices. It gives the reader a thorough understanding of the different aspects of RRI, and of barriers and drivers of implementation of RRI related policies. It shows how different organisational and national contexts provide unique challenges and opportunities for bringing RRI into practice. The book provides concrete examples and offers the reader both a theory-based understanding of the topic, as well as guidance for action. The target audience encompasses, in addition to RRI students and scholars in particular, all students and scholars in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). The book is also of interest to students and scholars in the fields of research ethics, philosophy of science, organisational governance in the research system and organisational theory more generally. Finally, thebook is of use to practitioners in research conducting and funding organisations working to implement RRI.

This is the first book to explore the epistemology and ethics of advanced imaging tests, in order to improve the critical understanding of the nature of knowledge they provide and the practical consequences of their utilization in healthcare. Advanced medical imaging tests, such as PET and MRI, have gained center stage in medical research and in patients’ care. They also increasingly raise questions that pertain to philosophy: What is required to be an expert in reading images? How are standards for interpretation to be fixed? Is there a problem of overutilization of such tests? How should uncertainty be communicated to patients? How to cope with incidental findings? This book is of interest and importance to scholars of philosophy of medicine at all levels, from undergraduates to researchers, to medical researchers and practitioners (radiologists and nuclear physicians) interested in a critical appraisal of the methodology of their discipline and in the ethical principles andconsequences of their work.

This book deals with good, evil, happiness and morally enhanced post-humans. It offers a succinct historical elaboration of philosophical stances towards morality and happiness, focusing on Kant's ideas in particular.  Human augmented ethical maturity in a futuristic version of Kant’s Ethical Commonwealth implies, among else, voluntary moral bio-enhancement (VMBE); consequently, more happiness – as morality and happiness are in a circularly supportive relationship; ultimate morality (UM). UM is in its own way a universal morality. In line with the contention that Kant’s vision of the (not immediate but more distant) future of humanity is one of a cosmopolitan moral order in which humans act virtuously in the broadest possible community, that is, humanity, it is justified to conclude that successful VMBE is conducive to Kant’s vision. In this context the book is of great interest to a broad audience, such as those interested in VMBE and novel conceptions of morality, andthose with an interest in the historical development of morality and happiness, in philosophy (specifically, ethics) and in post-humanity.

This book offers an innovative approach to moral enhancement. We, as humans, have a moral duty to be as good as we can be. Hence, moral bio-enhancement (MBE), if effective and safe, is our moral duty. However, it has to be voluntary because if it is made compulsory, human freedom (of the will) would be curtailed. As freedom (of the will) is an essential component of humanness, compulsory MBE would infringe upon our humanness.An essential question is; what will motivate humans to subject themselves voluntarily to MBE?The book argues - and supports by using empirical/experimental evidence - that morality and happiness operate in a circularly supportive relationship that applies to most humans most of the time: the better they are, the happier they will be; the happier they are, the better they will be. Hence, the grounding rationale for MBE ought not to be the prevention of “ultimate harm” based on compulsory MBE (as argued by Persson and Savulescu), but human happiness based on voluntary MBE. The primary objective of the book is to provide the readers with an original view on moral enhancement, whilst proposing a novel conception of moral enhancement that is informed by new biotechnological developments.

This book is open access. This book undertakes a multifaceted and integrated examination of biometric identification, including the current state of the technology, how it is being used, the key ethical issues, and the implications for law and regulation. The five chapters examine the main forms of contemporary biometrics–fingerprint recognition, facial recognition and DNA identification– as well the integration of biometric data with other forms of personal data, analyses key ethical concepts in play, including privacy, individual autonomy, collective responsibility, and joint ownership rights, and proposes a raft of principles to guide the regulation of biometrics in liberal democracies.Biometric identification technology is developing rapidly and being implemented more widely, along with other forms of information technology. As products, services and communication moves online, digital identity and security is becoming more important. Biometric identification facilitates this transition. Citizens now use biometrics to access a smartphone or obtain a passport; law enforcement agencies use biometrics in association with CCTV to identify a terrorist in a crowd, or identify a suspect via their fingerprints or DNA; and companies use biometrics to identify their customers and employees. In some cases the use of biometrics is governed by law, in others the technology has developed and been implemented so quickly that, perhaps because it has been viewed as a valuable security enhancement, laws regulating its use have often not been updated to reflect new applications. However, the technology associated with biometrics raises significant ethical problems, including in relation to individual privacy, ownership of biometric data, dual use and, more generally, as is illustrated by the increasing use of biometrics in authoritarian states such as China, the potential for unregulated biometrics to undermine fundamental principles of liberal democracy. Resolving these ethical problems is a vital step towards more effective regulation.

This open access book offers four ways to enrich traditional research methods in business ethics. By looking at critical jokes and cartoons on management consultants, their business practice and their clients’ demands, many ethical transgressions in business get addressed. By illustrating and criticizing such transgression, jokes can serve as an example in a theoretical argument, as a prompt to reflect on in an open interview, as a statement to assess in an enquiry or as basis for qualitative content analysis. By adding jokes to the conversation on ethical transgressions in business much depth and honesty can be added, resulting in better research data. Jokes can help to surpass social desirability bias included in answers given in traditional interview settings or enquiries. This book is of interest to consultants, researchers, educators and students in business ethics and management. The book showcases what kind of practical and ethical wisdom is embedded in business jokes and howthis knowledge can be made productive in the context of business ethics.

What is pediatric suffering, and how is the suffering of sick children different from that of sick adults? This book attempts to answer these pressing questions. Through philosophical engagement with a clinical case, the essays in this book approach the problem of pediatric suffering from a set of unique perspectives reflecting diverse philosophical traditions, disciplinary formations, and clinical experiences.Previously published in Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics Volume 41, issue 4, August 2020Chapter “Valuing life and evaluating suffering in infants with life-limiting illness” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This open access book tackles the pressing problem of integrating concerns related to Artificial Intelligence (AI) ethics into higher education curriculums aimed at future AI developers in Africa and beyond. For doing so, it analyzes the present and future states of AI ethics education in local computer science and engineering programs. The authors share relevant best practices and use cases for teaching, develop answers to ongoing organizational challenges, and reflect on the practical implications of different theoretical approaches to AI ethics. The book is of great interest to faculty members, researchers, and students in the fields of artificial intelligence, computer science, mathematics, computer engineering, and related areas, as well as higher education administration.

This open access book offers unique insights into the key ethical issues faced by practitioners and discussed by ethicists in the field of genomics and incidental findings, with a focus on the Islamic moral tradition. Embark on an enlightening exploration of key ethical challenges in genomics and incidental findings, uniquely tailored to the context of the Muslim Arab world.  Following the regional scientific leap in genomic infrastructure, this study provides a timely response to the need for a solid evidence base that pairs scientific research with cutting-edge research in Islamic ethics. A variety of expert perspectives have been incorporated, which produce a holistic overview of the intricate, interwoven systems, including the status quo of genomic research in the Gulf region, related Islamic ethical deliberations, and, finally, the governing jurisdictions and regulations on the ground.This publication stands as a pioneer work for academics interested in various fields, including genomics, bioethics, and Islamic studies. It equally serves as an invaluable guide for practitioners and policy-makers, equipping them to make informed decisions that resonate with the socio-cultural and religio-ethical nuances of the Islamic tradition. Being multidisciplinary in nature, the study is written in such a way that makes it accessible for those without a specialized background in Islamic studies or genomics.

This book provides an overview of how the intricacies of the Trolley Problem shed light on various aspects of medical ethics. It shows how trolley dilemmas have become useful to ethicists to the extent that they activate intuitions and provide guidance about what the relevant moral principle ought to be in judging specific actions.Issues are covered at length such as euthanasia, where it is important to determine a relevant difference between killing and letting die; and abortion, where it is necessary to establish if harms can be used as a means to an end.  While specialists in medical ethics have argued about these topics at length, few have established connections with the complexities of trolley cases. The Trolley Problem has now become a staple of pop culture and yet, outside philosophy, few people understand its implications. Consequently, this book is of interest to those with a general interest in philosophy, students, researchers as well as those in the healthcare industry where many of the difficult moral decisions encountered are better informed by framing them around the intricacies of the Trolley Problem.

Aimed at supporting their emancipatory project, this book explores strategies for resisting dominance and enhancing agency within the caring professions. It helps bridge the gap between theoretical and practical autonomy in these fields, which have long been overshadowed by other professional groups. The book scrutinises the often-misunderstood notion of autonomy, which is frequently equated with mere independence—an equation that can paradoxically undermine, rather than improve, care quality. Additionally, it critiques the prevailing lack of a specific philosophical framework for practice. Existing literature typically approaches professional autonomy through a liberal philosophy lens or loosely assigns moral agency to groups, leading to a view of autonomous professions as analogous to autonomous individuals. By presenting a critical overview of the main schools of thought on autonomy—emphasising group autonomy and the specific challenges faced by caring professions—this book aims to fill a significant gap. It includes case studies to ground its theoretical insights in practical examples from real-world scenarios, helping the caring professions identify both autonomy issues and opportunities for enhancing autonomous practice.

This book offers an extensive assessment of the nature and feasibility of the metaverse and is the first to critically examine its social and ethical implications. The metaverse is, in essence, an envisioned future merger of virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) and the internet, enabling real-time immersive interaction and activities like work, play, socializing, and entertainment. Major tech companies like Meta, Microsoft, Apple and NVIDIA have been investing billions in metaverse technologies, with generative AI accelerating progress. This book examines how these efforts could culminate in the metaverse, exploring its potential forms, implications, and the social and ethical challenges it may pose—along with recommendations for responsible innovation. The book is aimed at stakeholders shaping the metaverse—developers, creators, investors, business leaders, and thought leaders in technologies like VR, AR, Web3, blockchain, and AI. It also serves scholars and students in applied ethics, the social sciences, and the humanities, including fields such as media studies, psychology, and law. General readers interested in the metaverse and emerging technologies will find it both accessible and engaging.  Endorsements: "In this book, the talented and eloquent philosopher Philip Brey carefully explains the history and ideas behind the metaverse, and the prospects for its further development and adoption. That detailed information, meticulously presented, makes this a valuable read. But that is just the start. In later chapters, Brey just as skillfully describes the opportunities and vulnerabilities that a metaverse is likely to generate. These chapters are thorough, precise, and offer profound insights into our possible futures. Some of the possibilities are exciting. Others are frightening." –Keith W. Miller, University of Missouri–St. Louis.

This is the first book to focus on the concept of human rights in African philosophy and the debates surrounding it. It provides its readers–from policymakers to scholars, from experts in human rights to experts in African philosophy–with a succinct, general guide on the key theorists, themes, and debates on human rights in African philosophy. This book thus offers the reader an alternative to the dominance of the Western perspective on human rights. It begins to make our conversations about human rights, social justice, and human dignity truly global and international.

This book provides an overview of discrimination and structural injustice in assisted dying. It differentiates between direct and indirect discrimination at both the individual and organizational levels, and it pays particular attention to indirect discrimination due to structural factors that have been systemically overlooked. Whereas bioethics literature has traditionally engaged with discrimination on the basis of disability or exclusionary legal barriers, comparatively little attention has been devoted to the cases of individuals who are not legally excluded from access, but are effectively unable to access assisted suicide for other reasons, such as being inhabitants of rural areas with no reasonable access, being prisoners, or, in certain cases, low-income individuals. A conceptual mapping of this kind provides a finer understanding of the overall architecture of the ethical debate surrounding assisted dying and clarifies its moral wrongs. Finally, this book shows the inherent political dimension of assisted dying, where the ethics of assisted dying are not only about principles of autonomy and liberty in death and dying, but also about social justice and equality. The book offers a robust normative claim ensuring fair and equal opportunity of access to assisted dying. This book is of interest to philosophers, policymakers, public health experts, and political scientists interested in the issue of discrimination in the context of assisted dying.

This book clarifies the differing roles of informed consent in healthcare as well as the guidelines, rules, and laws governing consent. The growing use of AI in health care has led to open questions about disclosure to the public as well as to healthcare consumers. There is no universal right to know whether or how AI is used in health care. The traditional right to informed consent requires disclosure of information, often based on what a reasonable person would use to make healthcare decisions, such as the risk of debilitating side effects. The system of informed consent as disclosure, understanding, and acquiescence as commonly used in patient care differs from the informed consent to release one’s data, which is governed by a web of privacy laws. Furthermore, disclosure of the role of AI in drug discovery or in medical records brings different concerns for which the traditional patient-centered informed consent is insufficient or inapplicable. It may be ethically satisfactory to disclose the use of AI for the sake of transparency when the use of AI is unlikely to be considered in the healthcare consumer’s decision making. By providing a simple explainer of medical AI, a brief history of informed consent, and arguments for the use of informed consent and against it, this book recommends using informed consent in health care, especially when a clinician is likely to unduly rely on an AI tool that poses risk. This book explores what healthcare consumers and the public should know and why. It is of interest to scholars and professionals navigating the growing use of AI in healthcare.

This book critically explores the transformation of business ethics from a reflective moral practice into a domain shaped by legal compliance and political power. Bridging legal theory, political philosophy, and corporate studies, it examines how ethics is both depoliticized through juridification and politicized through corporate sovereignty. Drawing on Carl Schmitt’s concepts of political antagonism and sovereignty, the book challenges liberal frameworks and calls for a renewed, politically engaged understanding of business ethics. This book is of interest to scholars and students of business ethics, legal theory, political philosophy, corporate governance, critical legal studies, and political theology.

This book tracks the growth of environmental awareness and conservation in the United States through the major trends of the 20th century, and establishes a philosophical ground for protection of the environment.  It records a major cultural shift in the thinking of this nation, and provides guidelines for its continuation.​

This short introduction to the discipline of Ethics in its practical and professional applications teaches, in simplest form, the discipline's vocabulary and forms of reasoning.  It includes illustrative cases, clear explanations of philosophical terminology, and presents decision procedures appropriate to a hierarchy of cases.  It is meant to be a foundation for elementary work in Ethics.​

This volume tracks the development in the United States of the field of Bioethics, Ethics applied to the disciplines of medicine, nursing, and health care in general, including medical research and the complex economic and political problems surrounding the provision of medical and nursing care. It explains how the United States developed, case by case, the central rules and principles of ER ethics in the Health Care System. The discussion includes the controversies centering on birth, death, clinical research, experimental procedures (cloning, reproductive technology, organ transplants), and ends with a substantial suggestion on the provision of health care for all.

There is a diversity of ‘ethical practices’ within medicine as an institutionalised profession as well as a need for ethical specialists both in practice as well as in institutionalised roles. This Brief offers a social perspective on medical ethics education. It discusses a range of concepts relevant to educational theory and thus provides a basic illumination of the subject. Recent research in the sociology of medical education and the social theory of Pierre Bourdieu are covered. In the end, the themes of Bourdieuan Social Theory, socio-cultural apprenticeships and the ‘characterological turn’ in medical education are draw together the context of medical ethics education. ​

The book tracks the rise of Business Ethics as a discipline in the United States through a review of the basic understandings of the role of business practices in the operations of society, beginning with Aristotle and proceeding to a review of the formative concepts and cases in the history of American business.​