Cara Hunt, Ayden Eilmus, and Basel Tarab call for bioethicists to advocate for a permanent ceasefire and protection of medical facilities and personnel in Gaza. __________________________________________ In a recent essay repositioning bioethics to face future challenges, the newly-appointed president and CEO of the Hastings Center for Bioethics Research Dr. Vardit Ravitsky emphasized the need for ..read more

Belinda Alievska warns of the unintended consequences of changing pregnancy loss terminology, highlighting the potential for such shifts to influence reproductive justice debates and intensify emotional burdens. __________________________________________ In a climate where courts, like in the case of LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine, are ruling on whether the term “child” includes frozen embryos and ..read more

Janelle Skeard shows why it is necessary to improve abortion access in Newfoundland’s “Bible Belt”. __________________________________________ Since 1988, all pregnant persons in Canada have (theoretically) had unrestricted access to safe, legal abortions across the country regardless of their socioeconomic status and geographic location. Except that has not been, and is still not the case. I ..read more

Vanita Fernandes suggests that the promotion of trust in scientific institutions and governing bodies should be an expanded aim of health literacy. __________________________________________ In 2022, a controversial legal case in New Zealand known as Baby W attracted global attention. It involved a newborn baby who was born with a heart defect that required immediate life-saving ..read more

Shyanne Dougherty questions the goal and the likely effectiveness of the Alberta UCP government’s supposed “recovery-based” approach to the opioid crisis. __________________________________________ Alberta saw a record-breaking number of overdoses in April 2023, demonstrating the rapid escalation of the opioid crisis in the province.. The United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government’s response to this crisis does ..read more

Jean-Christophe Bélisle-Pipon and Zoha Khawaja shed light on the crucial task of untangling the limitations, dispelling misconceptions, and averting potential misuses of AI chatbots in the dynamic landscapes of human-machine relationships and in mental health services. __________________________________________ Artificial intelligence (AI) is making considerable strides in (re)shaping human interactions. AI chatbots are emerging as innovative solutions ..read more

Nicole Fice questions whether feminist objections to the idea of brain-dead individuals as gestational surrogates can be easily dismissed. __________________________________________ An article titled “Whole Body Gestational Donation” by Anna Smajdor, published in Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, has garnered recent attention due to its controversial claim that it might be ethical to allow brain-dead patients to ..read more

Addie Tiller discusses the nuances of toxicants in cosmetics and how researchers and politicians are calling for better regulation in Canada. __________________________________________ There may be potentially harmful chemicals, such as formaldehyde or formaldehyde-releasing preservatives in your shampoo, deodorant, or nail polish. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified both formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing preservatives ..read more

Megan Bailey and Babitha Paulose highlight the value of clinical ethics education and the need for more training opportunities within Canada. __________________________________________ We recently completed the clinical ethics internship program in the Ethics Quality Improvement (EQI) Lab at William Osler Health System, in Brampton, Ontario. This internship program taught us how to support physicians, staff ..read more

Martha Paynter outlines the abortion access situation in Canada and shows how it can be improved. __________________________________________ As an abortion care provider in Canada, I feel deep solidarity with colleagues south of the border and terror for their patients after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that the U.S. Constitution ..read more