Rosalind McDougall
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View article: Ethical Management of Elective Surgery Waiting Lists
Ethical Management of Elective Surgery Waiting Lists Open
Waiting time for elective surgery in public health systems has long been a focus for health institutions and governments. Such focus, and existing ethics literature, tends to hover at a policy or systems level. However, long waiting lists …
View article: The mutuality account of parenthood: a subjective approach to parent-child relationships
The mutuality account of parenthood: a subjective approach to parent-child relationships Open
Stimulated by development of reproductive technologies, many current bioethical accounts of parenthood focus on defining parenthood at or around birth. They tend to exclude from their scope some parent-child relationships that develop late…
View article: Gut feelings and lived experiences: a qualitative study of ‘anti-diet’ dietitians’ and psychologists’ motivations and experiences regarding the weight-neutral approach
Gut feelings and lived experiences: a qualitative study of ‘anti-diet’ dietitians’ and psychologists’ motivations and experiences regarding the weight-neutral approach Open
This paper examines whether the motivations and experiences of 'anti-diet' dietitians and psychologists represent a paradigm shift in healthcare. We conducted four 2-hour, discipline-specific focus groups with a total of 16 female particip…
View article: Visitor restrictions in hospitals during infectious disease outbreaks: An ethical approach to policy development and requests for exemptions
Visitor restrictions in hospitals during infectious disease outbreaks: An ethical approach to policy development and requests for exemptions Open
In this paper, we explore the ethics of restricting visitation to hospitals during an infectious disease outbreak. We aim to answer three questions: What are the features of an ethically justified hospital visitor restriction policy? Shoul…
View article: Vaccine Refusal and What to Do About It: a Systematic Review of the Ethical Literature
Vaccine Refusal and What to Do About It: a Systematic Review of the Ethical Literature Open
Background: Parental refusal of routine childhood vaccination remains an ethically contested area. This systematic review sought to explore and characterise the normative arguments made about parental refusal of routine vaccination, with t…
View article: The ethical dimensions of everyday alcohol and other drug work: An empirical ethics investigation
The ethical dimensions of everyday alcohol and other drug work: An empirical ethics investigation Open
Introduction The complex and contentious nature of alcohol and other drug (AOD) clinical work affords the likelihood of significant ethical dimensions. However, little attention has been paid to clinicians' perspectives of ethics in their …
View article: Anticipated impacts of voluntary assisted dying legislation on nursing practice
Anticipated impacts of voluntary assisted dying legislation on nursing practice Open
Background: The Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 passed into law in Victoria, Australia, on the 29 November 2017. Internationally, nurses have been shown to be intimately involved in patient care throughout the voluntary assisted dying pr…
View article: Fertility preservation for transgender children and young people in paediatric healthcare: a systematic review of ethical considerations
Fertility preservation for transgender children and young people in paediatric healthcare: a systematic review of ethical considerations Open
Background While fertility preservation is recommended practice for paediatric oncology patients, it is increasingly being considered for transgender children and young people in paediatric care. This raises ethical issues for clinicians, …
View article: Supporting cancer care clinicians to ‘hold’ their patients during and beyond the <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 pandemic: a role for reflective ethics discussions
Supporting cancer care clinicians to ‘hold’ their patients during and beyond the <span>COVID</span>‐19 pandemic: a role for reflective ethics discussions Open
The COVID‐19 pandemic has placed an overwhelming burden on healthcare delivery globally. This paper examines how COVID‐19 has affected cancer care clinicians' capacity to deliver cancer care in the Australian context. We use the lens of ‘h…
View article: Junior doctors and conscientious objection to voluntary assisted dying: ethical complexity in practice
Junior doctors and conscientious objection to voluntary assisted dying: ethical complexity in practice Open
In jurisdictions where voluntary assisted dying (VAD) is legal, eligibility assessments, prescription and administration of a VAD substance are commonly performed by senior doctors. Junior doctors’ involvement is limited to a range of more…
View article: Effective fertility counselling for transgender adolescents: a qualitative study of clinician attitudes and practices
Effective fertility counselling for transgender adolescents: a qualitative study of clinician attitudes and practices Open
Objective Fertility counselling for trans and gender diverse (TGD) adolescents has many complexities, but there is currently little guidance for clinicians working in this area. This study aimed to identify effective strategies for—and qua…
View article: Introducing Voluntary Assisted Dying: Staff Perspectives in an Acute Hospital
Introducing Voluntary Assisted Dying: Staff Perspectives in an Acute Hospital Open
Background: Voluntary assisted dying (VAD) was legalised in Victoria, Australia in June 2019. Physicians can now assist patients to end their lives by providing drugs for self-administration at their voluntary and competent request (or for…
View article: Balancing health worker well-being and duty to care: an ethical approach to staff safety in COVID-19 and beyond
Balancing health worker well-being and duty to care: an ethical approach to staff safety in COVID-19 and beyond Open
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the risks that can be involved in healthcare work. In this paper, we explore the issue of staff safety in clinical work using the example of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the COVID-19 crisis. …
View article: Forever young? The ethics of ongoing puberty suppression for non-binary adults
Forever young? The ethics of ongoing puberty suppression for non-binary adults Open
In this article, we analyse the novel case of Phoenix, a non-binary adult requesting ongoing puberty suppression (OPS) to permanently prevent the development of secondary sex characteristics, as a way of affirming their gender identity. We…
View article: Mentoring As Reframing: A Useful Conceptualisation of Dyadic Multidisciplinary Mentoring in Academia
Mentoring As Reframing: A Useful Conceptualisation of Dyadic Multidisciplinary Mentoring in Academia Open
Mentoring relationships between academics have been conceptualised in a variety of ways, drawing on concepts such as developmental networks, complex adaptive systems and ecology. However, reflecting on our experience as a mentoring dyad in…
View article: Ethical considerations for paediatrics during the<scp>COVID</scp>‐19 pandemic: A discussion paper from the Australian Paediatric Clinical Ethics Collaboration
Ethical considerations for paediatrics during the<span>COVID</span>‐19 pandemic: A discussion paper from the Australian Paediatric Clinical Ethics Collaboration Open
Children have not been severely affected by SARS-CoV-2-related illness but are vulnerable to the economic and social deprivation arising from the pandemic. This document describes unique risks and burdens for children and their care givers…
View article: Pandemic medical ethics
Pandemic medical ethics Open
The COVID-19 pandemic will generate vexing ethical issues for the foreseeable future and many journals will be open to content that is relevant to our collective effort to meet this challenge. While the pandemic is clearly the critical iss…
View article: Navigating difficult decisions in medical care and research
Navigating difficult decisions in medical care and research Open
The articles in this issue explore a number of difficult choices in medical care and research. They investigate ethical complexity in a range of decisions faced by policymakers and clinicians, and offer new evidence or normative approaches…
View article: Too much safety? Safeguards and equal access in the context of voluntary assisted dying legislation
Too much safety? Safeguards and equal access in the context of voluntary assisted dying legislation Open
Background In June 2019, the Australian state of Victoria joined the growing number of jurisdictions around the world to have legalised some form of voluntary assisted dying. A discourse of safety was prominent during the implementation of…
View article: Long-term Puberty Suppression for a Nonbinary Teenager
Long-term Puberty Suppression for a Nonbinary Teenager Open
Many transgender and gender-diverse people have a gender identity that does not conform to the binary categories of male or female; they have a nonbinary gender. Some nonbinary individuals are most comfortable with an androgynous gender ex…
View article: Making concepts work
Making concepts work Open
The articles in this issue direct our attention to the role of concepts in medical ethics. The issue includes research that defines a concept,1 research that applies concepts to illuminate the moral aspects of various elements of medicine,…
View article: Diversity of scholarship in medical ethics
Diversity of scholarship in medical ethics Open
In their essay arguing for ethical review of social research, Sheehan et al write:
> Inquiry and human life are intertwined and interdependent. To be human is to be curious, to ask questions about yourself, the world, and your place in t…
View article: The zone of parental discretion and the complexity of paediatrics: A response to Alderson
The zone of parental discretion and the complexity of paediatrics: A response to Alderson Open
Alderson critiques our recent book on the basis that it overlooks children’s own views about their medical treatment. In this response, we discuss the complexity of the paediatric clinical context and the value of diverse approaches to inv…
View article: Ethics of fertility preservation for prepubertal children: should clinicians offer procedures where efficacy is largely unproven?
Ethics of fertility preservation for prepubertal children: should clinicians offer procedures where efficacy is largely unproven? Open
Young children with cancer are treated with interventions that can have a high risk of compromising their reproductive potential. ‘Fertility preservation’ for children who have not yet reached puberty involves surgically removing and cryop…