Everyday Ethics

Last week, an FDA advisory panel recommended a number of significant changes regarding the sale and marketing of products that contain acetaminophen, which is the active ingredient in the popular over-the-counter painkiller Tylenol.  Three of their recommendations are especially significant.
First, they advised that Vicodin and Percocet be discontinued as prescription pain-relieving drugs.  They also suggested [...]

[Read more →]

Not long ago I participated in a fundraiser to support the development of cancer treatments, with the stated end goal of finding a cure for cancer.  These sorts of events are quite common, and one tends to be motivated to participate by a sense of doing what is right.  However, after some philosophical reflections, I [...]

[Read more →]

Health care is a popular area in applied ethics.  There are all sorts of “sexy” ethical questions, such as whether physician-assisted suicide is acceptable, whether people with minimal brain functioning have rights, whether a fetus is a person, and many more.  The real question, one that few people have the nerve to write about, is [...]

[Read more →]