Pablo de Lora
I am a legal and political philosopher at the School of Law of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). I focus my research on the intersection of Bioethics and Legal and Political Philosophy. I have written extensively on distributive justice and health care, artificial reproduction technologies, death and organ donation, animal ethics and the philosophical foundations of constitutionalism.
Address: Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Address: Madrid, Madrid, Spain
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argumento expresivo.
The aim of this article is to wipe off some of the most common fallacies used by the opponents of surrogate mother-hood: fallacies of relevance, petitio principle, persuasive defini-tion, composition and false dilemma. In this way, it will be possi-ble to discuss more rigorously some of the regulatory key issues that have to be solved, such as the conditions of the contract through which the embryo is gestated, whether it is acceptable to pay a market price or compensation to the gestating wom-an, what conditions the participants should meet, whether the pregnant woman can abort without restrictions and if her consent is revocable.
have been shown to be effective in healthy individuals. It is
sometimes assumed that the use of these drugs constitutes
cheating in an academic context. We examine whether
this assumption is ethically sound. Beyond providing the
most up-to-date discussion of modafinil use in an academic
context, this contribution includes an overview of the safety
of modafinil use in greater depth than previous studies
addressing the issue of cheating. Secondly, we emphasize
two crucial, but hitherto nearly overlooked, nuances to the
issues: (a) the potential for modafinil to decrease inequality
and disadvantage in academic settings, and (b) the fact that
how modafinil is used dramatically impacts its effects on
health, coercion, fairness, authenticity and effort. Finally, we
explicitly defend the position that there are no qualitatively
morally relevant differences between modafinil use and other
enhancement modalities; any such differences are in degree,
not kind.
ABSTRACT: Is the performance of a cranioplasty with bandage on a patient with poor prognosis and previously subjected to a decompressive craniectomy a legitimate form of “treatment” withdrawal in order to achieve death by neurological criterion, and, subsequently, procure his organs? A clinical team from the Hospital General de Asturias previously advised by some bioethical experts, considered so and in this paper I discuss three main objections that have been raised against their procedure: the potential conflict of interests that may permeate the decision; the mischaracterization of the cranioplasty as a way of “withdrawing futile treatment” and the violation of the medical imperative to refrain from direct killing. I conclude that (1) in cases as this transparency as to what is actually driving the therapeutic alternative at the end of life is of utmost importance; (2) that the rule that forbids doctors to kill coexist with other duties equally stringent, namely, the duty not to harm, and that (3) neither the removing of a respirator nor the cranioplasty with bandage are means of limiting futile treatment, but medical contributions to death that may be deemed ethical in circumstances in which there is consent by the patient and his remaining alive is a worst outcome.
or religious reasons is the source of a significant
legal controversy. In this essay I report recent
quarrels involving circumcision and I assess the reasons
raised by those who favor its current status as a
permitted practice. I conclude by arguing that those
reasons do not trump the minor’s right to corporal
integrity and to an “open future”.
puntos de arranque históricos. En este trabajo analizo los problemas que plantea un tipo específico de
experimentación, el ensayo clínico para el desarrollo de medicamentos, cuando ese estudio se lleva a cabo en países
de escasos recursos. A partir de dos casos célebres – el ensayo del AZT en África y el pretendido del Surfaxin en
Latinoamérica- trato de mostrar las condiciones bajo las cuales esos ensayos constituyen formas de explotación
inaceptables y cómo sólo mediante la instauración de mecanismos globales de gobernanza que supervisen la equidad en la producción y distribución de medicamentos se pueden disipar las condiciones que permiten la explotación injusta de los más pobres.
Bio-health law and Bioethics stemmed from the excesses in the use of human subjects for scientific research. In this
chapter I assess the difficulties associated with one specific type of experimentation, that of clinical trials when these
studies are conducted in less developed countries. I rely on two famous cases – the AZT trial in Africa and the
Surfaxin case in Latinamerica- in order to show the conditions under which those experiments constitute unfair
exploitation. I conclude by arguing that only through the instauration of mechanisms for global governance that
oversight the fair production and distribution of drugs, we will be capable of lessening the conditions that enable the
unjust exploitation of the poor.
expected to remain virgins until marriage. In this article, I assess the ethical and
legal challenges raised by this request, both for the individual physician and for the
health care system. I argue that performing hymenoplasty is not always an unethical
practice and that, under certain conditions, it should be provided by the health care
system.
argumento expresivo.
The aim of this article is to wipe off some of the most common fallacies used by the opponents of surrogate mother-hood: fallacies of relevance, petitio principle, persuasive defini-tion, composition and false dilemma. In this way, it will be possi-ble to discuss more rigorously some of the regulatory key issues that have to be solved, such as the conditions of the contract through which the embryo is gestated, whether it is acceptable to pay a market price or compensation to the gestating wom-an, what conditions the participants should meet, whether the pregnant woman can abort without restrictions and if her consent is revocable.
have been shown to be effective in healthy individuals. It is
sometimes assumed that the use of these drugs constitutes
cheating in an academic context. We examine whether
this assumption is ethically sound. Beyond providing the
most up-to-date discussion of modafinil use in an academic
context, this contribution includes an overview of the safety
of modafinil use in greater depth than previous studies
addressing the issue of cheating. Secondly, we emphasize
two crucial, but hitherto nearly overlooked, nuances to the
issues: (a) the potential for modafinil to decrease inequality
and disadvantage in academic settings, and (b) the fact that
how modafinil is used dramatically impacts its effects on
health, coercion, fairness, authenticity and effort. Finally, we
explicitly defend the position that there are no qualitatively
morally relevant differences between modafinil use and other
enhancement modalities; any such differences are in degree,
not kind.
ABSTRACT: Is the performance of a cranioplasty with bandage on a patient with poor prognosis and previously subjected to a decompressive craniectomy a legitimate form of “treatment” withdrawal in order to achieve death by neurological criterion, and, subsequently, procure his organs? A clinical team from the Hospital General de Asturias previously advised by some bioethical experts, considered so and in this paper I discuss three main objections that have been raised against their procedure: the potential conflict of interests that may permeate the decision; the mischaracterization of the cranioplasty as a way of “withdrawing futile treatment” and the violation of the medical imperative to refrain from direct killing. I conclude that (1) in cases as this transparency as to what is actually driving the therapeutic alternative at the end of life is of utmost importance; (2) that the rule that forbids doctors to kill coexist with other duties equally stringent, namely, the duty not to harm, and that (3) neither the removing of a respirator nor the cranioplasty with bandage are means of limiting futile treatment, but medical contributions to death that may be deemed ethical in circumstances in which there is consent by the patient and his remaining alive is a worst outcome.
or religious reasons is the source of a significant
legal controversy. In this essay I report recent
quarrels involving circumcision and I assess the reasons
raised by those who favor its current status as a
permitted practice. I conclude by arguing that those
reasons do not trump the minor’s right to corporal
integrity and to an “open future”.
puntos de arranque históricos. En este trabajo analizo los problemas que plantea un tipo específico de
experimentación, el ensayo clínico para el desarrollo de medicamentos, cuando ese estudio se lleva a cabo en países
de escasos recursos. A partir de dos casos célebres – el ensayo del AZT en África y el pretendido del Surfaxin en
Latinoamérica- trato de mostrar las condiciones bajo las cuales esos ensayos constituyen formas de explotación
inaceptables y cómo sólo mediante la instauración de mecanismos globales de gobernanza que supervisen la equidad en la producción y distribución de medicamentos se pueden disipar las condiciones que permiten la explotación injusta de los más pobres.
Bio-health law and Bioethics stemmed from the excesses in the use of human subjects for scientific research. In this
chapter I assess the difficulties associated with one specific type of experimentation, that of clinical trials when these
studies are conducted in less developed countries. I rely on two famous cases – the AZT trial in Africa and the
Surfaxin case in Latinamerica- in order to show the conditions under which those experiments constitute unfair
exploitation. I conclude by arguing that only through the instauration of mechanisms for global governance that
oversight the fair production and distribution of drugs, we will be capable of lessening the conditions that enable the
unjust exploitation of the poor.
expected to remain virgins until marriage. In this article, I assess the ethical and
legal challenges raised by this request, both for the individual physician and for the
health care system. I argue that performing hymenoplasty is not always an unethical
practice and that, under certain conditions, it should be provided by the health care
system.
Contemporary Iberian Debates ask the
following questions:
n What are the different rhetorical
strategies employed by writers,
artists, filmmakers, and activists to
react to the degradation of life and
climate change?
n How are urban movements using
environmental issues to resist
corporate privatization of the
commons?
Ethics of Life
Contemporary Iberian Debates
Edited by KATARZYNA BEILIN and WILLIAM VIESTENZ
n What is the shape of Spanish
debates on reproductive rights and
biotechnology?
n What is the symbolic significance of
the bullfighting debate and other
human/animal issues in today’s
political turmoil in Spain?
Katarzyna Beilin and William Viestenz
The Environment in Literature and the Arts in Spain
Carmen Flys-Junquera and Tonia Raquejo
Nunca Máis: Ecological Collectivism and the Prestige Disaster
John H. Trevathan
Tourism and “Quality of Life” at the End of Franco’s Dictatorship
Eugenia Afinoguénova
Die and Laugh in the Anthropocene: Disquieting Realism
and Dark Humor in Biutiful and Nocilla experience
Katarzyna Beilin
Cultivating the Square: Trash, Recycling, and the Cultural
Ecology of Post-Crisis Madrid
Matthew Feinberg and Susan Larson
Degrowth and Ecological Economics in Twenty-First-Century
Spain: Toward a Posthumanist Economy
Luis I. Prádanos
Reproductive Rights in Spain: From “Abortion Tourism” to
“Reproductive Destination”
Pablo de Lora
Mar adentro and the Question of Freedom
Paul Begin
Still Different? Biotechnology, Politics, and Culture in Spain
Sainath Suryanarayanan and Katarzyna Beilin
Iberian Cultural Studies beyond the Human: Exploring the
Life History of Marcos Rodríguez Pantoja in Spanish
Anthropology and Popular Film
Daniel Ares López
The Bull Also Rises: The Political Redemption of the Beast in
La pell de brau by Salvador Espriu
William Viestenz
Animals in Contemporary Spanish Newspapers
John Beusterien
Accounting for Violence, Counting the Dead: The Civil War
and Spain’s Political Present
Sebastiaan Faber
Afterword
Spain: Taking the Alternative?
Martín López-Vega and Luis Martín-Estudillo