{"title":"Rationing, Responsibility and Blameworthiness: An Ethical Evaluation of Responsibility-Sensitive Policies for Healthcare Rationing.","authors":"Xavier Symons, Reginald Chua","doi":"10.1353/ken.2021.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ken.2021.0004","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Several ethicists have defended the use of responsibility-based criteria in healthcare rationing. Yet in this article we outline two challenges to the implementation of responsibility-based healthcare rationing policies. These two challenges are, namely, that responsibility for past behavior can diminish as an agent changes, and that blame can come apart from responsibility. These challenges suggest that it is more difficult to hold someone responsible for health related actions than proponents of responsibility-sensitive healthcare policies suggest. We close by discussing public health policies that could function as an alternative to contentious, responsibility-sensitive rationing policies.</p>","PeriodicalId":46167,"journal":{"name":"Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal","volume":"31 1","pages":"53-76"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ken.2021.0004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"25485790","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Were lockdowns justified? A return to the facts and evidence.","authors":"Philippe van Basshuysen, Lucie White","doi":"10.1353/ken.2021.0028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ken.2021.0028","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Were governments justified in imposing lockdowns to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic? We argue that a convincing answer to this question is to date wanting, by critically analyzing the factual basis of a recent paper, \"How Government Leaders Violated Their Epistemic Duties During the SARS-CoV-2 Crisis\" (Winsberg, Brennan, and Suprenant 2020). In their paper, Winsberg, Brennan, and Suprenant argue that government leaders did not, at the beginning of the pandemic, meet the epistemic requirements necessitated to impose lockdowns. We focus on Winsberg, Brennan, and Suprenant's contentions that knowledge about COVID-19 resultant projections were inadequate; that epidemiologists were biased in their estimates of relevant figures; that there was insufficient evidence supporting the efficacy of lockdowns; and that lockdowns cause more harm than good. We argue that none of these claims are sufficiently supported by evidence, thus impairing their case against lockdowns, and leaving open the question of whether lockdowns were justified.</p>","PeriodicalId":46167,"journal":{"name":"Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal","volume":"31 4","pages":"405-428"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39716860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Truthfulness and Deceit in Dementia Care: An argument for truthful regard as a morally significant human bond.","authors":"Philippa Byers","doi":"10.1353/ken.2021.0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ken.2021.0020","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper presents a challenge to the view that benign 'white lies' may be therapeutic in dementia care and preferable to more truthful alternatives. Drawing on Sissela Bok and Bernard Williams, the paper develops three key points: first, that another person's dementia is not a reason to suspend one's customary reluctance to deceive others; second, that the commonly drawn contrast between benign deceit and blunt disclosure is too simple to frame arguments for the acceptability of deceit in dementia care; and third, truthful regard-regard for a person living with dementia as one for whom truth matters, as it does for oneself-is a foundation for beneficent concern that is neither infantilizing nor condescending. The paper proposes that a morally significant human bond is established through regard for another person as one for whom truth matters, just as it does for oneself, irrespective of another's dementia, and that within dementia care, the commission of deceit should be seen as an unsettling exception to a general principle of truthfulness.</p>","PeriodicalId":46167,"journal":{"name":"Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal","volume":"31 3","pages":"223-246"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39450752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editor's Note, September 2021.","authors":"Quill Kukla","doi":"10.1353/ken.2021.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ken.2021.0019","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46167,"journal":{"name":"Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal","volume":"31 3","pages":"vii-x"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39450756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hidden Costs of Inquiry: Exploitation, World-Travelling and Marginalized Lives.","authors":"Audrey Yap","doi":"10.1353/ken.2021.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ken.2021.0010","url":null,"abstract":"There are many good reasons to learn about the lives of people who have less social privilege than we do. We might want to understand their circumstances in order to have informed opinions on social policy, or to make our institutions more inclusive. Or we might want to cultivate empathy for its own sake. Much of this knowledge needs to be gained through social scientific or humanistic research into their lives. The entitlement to theorize about or study the lives of marginalized others is often granted under the framework of freedom of inquiry or academic freedom. I will not question, in this paper, whether academic freedom licenses us to do so in the first place (see XXX this issue, for consideration of those questions); instead, I will highlight tensions between the moral-epistemic imperative to learn about the lives and circumstances of people who are relatively marginalized, and the cost to marginalized people and communities of making that learning possible. This list of considerations is not intended to be exhaustive, but will illustrate a range of ways in which good intentions on the part of researchers is insufficient to mitigate harm.","PeriodicalId":46167,"journal":{"name":"Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal","volume":"31 2","pages":"153-173"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ken.2021.0010","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39088137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Epistemic Duties of Philosophers: An Addendum.","authors":"Philippe van Basshuysen, Lucie White","doi":"10.1353/ken.2021.0023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ken.2021.0023","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In \"Were Lockdowns Justified? A Return to the Facts and Evidence\", we argue that Eric Winsberg, Jason Brennan and Chris Surprenant fail to make their case that initial COVID-19 lockdowns were unjustified, due to the fact their argument rests on erroneous factual claims. As is made clear by a response in this volume, the authors mistakenly take us to have been defending the imposition of lockdowns. Here, we clarify the aims of our original paper, and emphasise the importance of getting the facts right when making philosophical arguments in such a contentious domain.</p>","PeriodicalId":46167,"journal":{"name":"Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal","volume":"31 4","pages":"447-451"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39716862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Free Speech Skepticism.","authors":"Susan J Brison","doi":"10.1353/ken.2021.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ken.2021.0008","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>If the free speech clause of the First Amendment is interpreted to mean that speech is to be granted special protection not accorded to other forms of conduct, then a free speech principle, distinct from a principle of general liberty, must be posited and must receive a distinct justification. A defense of a free speech principle must explain why the harm principle either does not apply in the case of speech or applies with less force than in the case of all other forms of human conduct. In this article, I argue that none of the defenses of the right to free speech on offer succeeds in showing why even significantly harmful speech is deserving of special protection not afforded non-speech conduct. More work needs to be done to justify a free speech principle and, until such work is done, the belief in the existence of a free speech principle that undergirds and justifies our current free speech practices is no more than an article of faith.</p>","PeriodicalId":46167,"journal":{"name":"Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal","volume":"31 2","pages":"101-132"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ken.2021.0008","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39088135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Evolving Social Purpose of Academic Freedom.","authors":"Shannon Dea","doi":"10.1353/ken.2021.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ken.2021.0012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In the face of the increasing substitution of free speech for academic freedom, I argue for the distinctiveness and irreplaceability of the latter. Academic freedom has evolved alongside universities in order to support the important social purpose universities serve. Having limned this evolution, I compare academic freedom and free speech. This comparison reveals freedom of expression to be an individual freedom, and academic freedom to be a group-differentiated freedom with a social purpose. I argue that the social purpose of academic freedom behooves an inclusive approach to group differentiation.</p>","PeriodicalId":46167,"journal":{"name":"Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal","volume":"31 2","pages":"199-222"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ken.2021.0012","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39088139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Justice and Intellectual Disability In A Pandemic","authors":"Ryan H. Nelson, L. Francis","doi":"10.1353/ken.2020.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ken.2020.0017","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:Much of the discussion of care prioritization during the COVID-19 pandemic has focused on access to high-technology, intensive care under crisis conditions. This is understandable in light of initial fears that widespread triage and rationing measures would become necessary. However, as observations about the interplay between social determinants of health and COVID-19 infection rates and outcomes have become increasingly clear, attention has also been directed to inequalities in health and healthcare in the US. In this paper, we address another less-discussed set of issues: problems of discrimination and injustice involving people with intellectual disabilities confronted by COVID-19 that go beyond those seen in policies governing triage and rationing. After discussing the proper role of quality of life judgments in healthcare, we consider a range of issues relevant to people with intellectual disabilities, including staffing and structures in group-home facilities, the need for adaptive communication, and the role of support persons during care. Addressing some of these issues will require policy changes that may be widely beneficial; adjustments particular to individuals will also need to be evaluated from the perspective of whether they create undue risks. To address these issues, we draw insights from disability anti-discrimination law as it interfaces with the ethics of patient care, especially the distinction between accommodations for individual patients and modifications of policies addressing access to services and healthcare.","PeriodicalId":46167,"journal":{"name":"Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal","volume":"30 1","pages":"319 - 338"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ken.2020.0017","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45172477","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Anarchist Responses to a Pandemic: The COVID-19 Crisis as a Case Study in Mutual Aid","authors":"N. Jun, M. Lance","doi":"10.1353/ken.2020.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ken.2020.0019","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:When central authority fails in socially crucial tasks, mutual aid, solidarity, and grassroots organization frequently arise as people take up slack on the basis of informal networks and civil society organizations. We can learn something important about the possibility of horizontal organization by studying such experiments. In this paper we focus on the rationality, care, and effectiveness of grassroots measures to respond to the pandemic and show how they illustrate core elements of anarchist thought. We do not argue for the correctness of any version of anarchist politics, nor claim that the bulk of this grassroots work was done with anarchist ideas explicitly in mind. Nonetheless, the current pandemic, like many social crises before it, serves as a sort experiment in political implementation.","PeriodicalId":46167,"journal":{"name":"Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal","volume":"30 1","pages":"361 - 378"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/ken.2020.0019","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43484590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}