{"title":"Towards Accountable, Legitimate and Trustworthy AI in Healthcare: Enhancing AI Ethics with Effective Data Stewardship.","authors":"Benjamin Bartlett","doi":"10.1080/20502877.2025.2482282","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20502877.2025.2482282","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Data Stewardship is a novel governance mechanism in the context of artificial intelligence (AI) development in healthcare. This paper examines whether the conceptual tool of stewardship can remedy inadequacies of 'AI ethics' which has fundamental problems of accountability, legitimacy and trustworthiness. A modern secular conceptual explanation of stewardship involves taking a balanced account of the interests of society, and the core element of <i>answerability.</i> This conception of stewardship lends itself to legal mechanisms involving fiduciary duties, which introduces accountability mechanisms into AI development. The separation of AI development from the permanent enclosure of health data presents a useful lever to counter unethical behaviour and ensure societal engagement. Stewardship offers some promise to remedy the inadequacies of AI ethics, but there are risks that a narrow technical conception of data stewardship, without fiduciary duties and decoupled from beneficiaries, will be insufficient to drive the required fundamental change.</p>","PeriodicalId":43760,"journal":{"name":"New Bioethics-A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body","volume":" ","pages":"1-25"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143711490","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Machine learning, healthcare resource allocation, and patient consent.","authors":"Jamie Webb","doi":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2416858","DOIUrl":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2416858","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The impact of machine learning in healthcare on patient informed consent is now the subject of significant inquiry in bioethics. However, the topic has predominantly been considered in the context of black box diagnostic or treatment recommendation algorithms. The impact of machine learning involved in healthcare resource allocation on patient consent remains undertheorized. This paper will establish where patient consent is relevant in healthcare resource allocation, before exploring the impact on informed consent from the introduction of black box machine learning into resource allocation. It will then consider the arguments for informing patients about the use of machine learning in resource allocation, before exploring the challenge of whether individual patients could principally contest algorithmic prioritization decisions involving black box machine learning. Finally, this paper will examine how different forms of opacity in machine learning involved in resource allocation could be a barrier to patient consent to clinical decision-making in different healthcare contexts.</p>","PeriodicalId":43760,"journal":{"name":"New Bioethics-A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body","volume":" ","pages":"206-227"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142640064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Artificial Intelligence for Clinical Decision-Making: Gross Negligence Manslaughter and Corporate Manslaughter.","authors":"Helen Smith","doi":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2416862","DOIUrl":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2416862","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper discusses the risk of gross negligence manslaughter (GNM) and corporate manslaughter charges (CM) when clinicians use an artificially intelligent system's (AIS's) outputs in their practice. I identify the elements of these offenses within the context of the law of England and Wales and explore how they could be applied in a potential scenario where a patient's death has followed AIS use by a clinician. The risk of a conviction due to making an AIS-augmented workplace mistake highlights the non-trivial nature of AIS adoption in healthcare, and that the consequences of its use must be considered by all interested parties prior to AIS adoption.</p>","PeriodicalId":43760,"journal":{"name":"New Bioethics-A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body","volume":" ","pages":"228-242"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142477166","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A quantitative analysis of stored frozen surplus embryos in the UK.","authors":"Zishang Yue, Calum MacKellar","doi":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2354979","DOIUrl":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2354979","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The number of surplus frozen human embryos in storage in the United Kingdom (UK) is at its highest level since records began in 1991 and the formation of the UK <i>Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority</i> (HFEA). This study features a quantitative analysis of data from 1991 to 2019 provided by the HFEA as well as a commentary on observed trends within this data. We also discuss trends relating to the final destiny of surplus embryos. Data analysis show that at least 130,000 stored embryos have been discarded in the UK since 1991, while another 500,000 embryos are currently being stored in a frozen state, of which a significant proportion is likely to be discarded in the future. However, this creates a moral dilemma since UK legislation relating to human embryos is based on the 1984 <i>Warnock Report</i> which recognizes that they have a special moral status.</p>","PeriodicalId":43760,"journal":{"name":"New Bioethics-A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body","volume":" ","pages":"173-190"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141459887","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Moral Distress and its Impact on Healthcare Workers in a European NICU.","authors":"Susan E Zinner","doi":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2370084","DOIUrl":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2370084","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In a qualitative study of 15 NICU workers in a large European NICU, the author asks the subjects to consider what sorts of work environments are likely to result in moral distress and whether support by colleagues, administrators, the institution itself and even perceived societal support may reduce some kinds of moral distress. The majority of providers felt that the support of colleagues was essential; there was some disagreement about whether the larger community was aware of the nature of the work done in NICUs by health workers. These healthcare providers were also asked about memorable patient encounters.</p>","PeriodicalId":43760,"journal":{"name":"New Bioethics-A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body","volume":" ","pages":"191-205"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141727942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Fertility Fix: the Boom in Facial-matching Algorithms for Donor Selection in Assisted Reproduction in Spain.","authors":"Rebecca Close","doi":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2371738","DOIUrl":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2371738","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article reads the uptake of facial-matching algorithms by fertility clinics in Spain through the lens of 'the fertility fix': a software fix to the social reconfiguration of kinship and a fixed capital investment made by competing fertility companies and firms. 'The fertility fix' is proposed as a critical, ethical lens through which to situate algorithmic facial-matching in assisted reproduction in the context of the racial politics of the face and phenotype and the spatial politics of market expansion. While an 'infertility crisis' is often mentioned when explaining the growth of the assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) industry, the use of donated reproductive cells is tied up in societal, ecological and economic shifts. Combining Software Studies analysis with Marxist Feminist and trans*feminist perspectives on shifting re/production dynamics, the article details the role of computational technologies in promoting certain ideas and beliefs about family and fixing certain territories of capital flow.</p>","PeriodicalId":43760,"journal":{"name":"New Bioethics-A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body","volume":" ","pages":"1-17"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141564776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"'Sit down and thrash it out': opportunities for expanding ethics consultation during conflict resolution in long-term care.","authors":"David N Hoffman, Gianna R Strand","doi":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2330275","DOIUrl":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2330275","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>To identify the frequency and nature of care conflict dilemmas that United States long-term care providers encounter, response strategies, and use of ethics resources to assist with dispute resolution.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>An online cross-sectional survey was distributed to the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine (AMDA).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Two-thirds of participants, primarily medical directors, have rejected surrogate instructions and 71% have managed family conflict. Conflict over treatment decisions and issues interpreting advance directives were frequently reported. Half of facilities lack a formal dispute mediation policy. Only five respondents have called an ethics consult for assistance.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Ethically tense care conflicts commonly arise in long-term and post-acute care facilities. Few facility procedures incorporate ethics resources into actual practice. Recommendations are made to create actionable policy, increase access to ethics services, and support staff skill development in order to improve the end-of-life care experiences for patients, families, and care facility staff.</p>","PeriodicalId":43760,"journal":{"name":"New Bioethics-A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body","volume":" ","pages":"152-162"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140176990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Extent to Which the Wish to Donate One's Organs After Death Contributes to Life-Extension Arguments in Favour of Voluntary Active Euthanasia in the Terminally Ill: An Ethical Analysis.","authors":"Richard C Armitage","doi":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2308346","DOIUrl":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2308346","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In terminally ill individuals who would otherwise end their own lives, active voluntary euthanasia (AVE) can be seen as life-extending rather than life-shortening. Accordingly, AVE supports key pro-euthanasia arguments (appeals to autonomy and beneficence) and meets certain sanctity of life objections. This paper examines the extent to which a terminally ill individual's wish to donate organs after death contributes to those life-extension arguments. It finds that, in a terminally ill individual who wishes to avoid experiencing life he considers to be not worth living, and who also wishes to donate organs after death, AVE maximizes the likelihood that such donations will occur. The paper finds that the wish to donate organs strengthens the appeals to autonomy and beneficence, and fortifies the meeting of certain sanctity of life objections, achieved by life-extension arguments, and also generates appeals to justice that form novel life-extension arguments in favour of AVE in this context.</p>","PeriodicalId":43760,"journal":{"name":"New Bioethics-A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body","volume":" ","pages":"123-151"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139693133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"'Assisted dying' as a comforting heteronomy: the rejection of self-administration in the purported act of self-determination.","authors":"David Albert Jones","doi":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2307698","DOIUrl":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2307698","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>'Assisted dying' (an umbrella term for euthanasia and/or assisted suicide) is frequently defended as an act of autonomous self-determination in death but, given a choice, between 93.3% and 100% of patients are reluctant to self-administer (median 99.5%). If required to self-administer, fewer patients request assisted death and, of these, a sizable proportion do not self-administer but die of natural causes. This manifest avoidance runs counter to the concept of autonomous self-determination, even on the supposition that suicide could truly be autonomous. The avoidance of self-administration does not show that self-administration, when it occurs, is necessarily autonomous. It suggests, rather, that there are other frames by which assisted dying is being understood. One such is desire for medical control, a desire shared by patients and doctors. Such a frame is not directed towards an exacting autonomy (self-directed action by the patient) but towards a comforting heteronomy (letting the doctor take control).</p>","PeriodicalId":43760,"journal":{"name":"New Bioethics-A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body","volume":" ","pages":"103-122"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139576774","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial.","authors":"Matt James","doi":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2354048","DOIUrl":"10.1080/20502877.2024.2354048","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43760,"journal":{"name":"New Bioethics-A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body","volume":" ","pages":"1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141155342","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}