Zohar Lederman
Biographic Data
| ID | 4228893 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Zohar Lederman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Zohar |
| FAMILY NAME | Lederman |
| SIGNATURE | LEDERMAN Z |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Hong Kong |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0547-1066 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Moral Deference and the War in Gaza
This paper discusses the idea of moral deference in the context of the ongoing war in Gaza. This idea is particularly pertinent where many ethicists seem to share the sense that the Israeli onslaught in Gaza is immoral, and yet only few articulate it in writing. Moral deference, I suggest, can be a temporary measure against such paralysis, by referring to international humanitarian law.
International Humanitarian Law and the Immunity of Hospitals in Gaza
International Humanitarian Law (IHL), specifically Article 18 of the IV Geneva Convention, affords special protection to civilian hospitals. This special protection is waived, however, under certain circumstances specified in Article 19. Such conditions to waive the special protection of hospitals are now being used by Israel to justify the attack on civilian hospitals and healthcare institutions in Gaza. This paper critically evaluates Article 1…
Response Paper
Throughout the decades, the ethical debate on ‘slow code’ has traversed a spectrum. Most have condemned it as deceptive, while others argued for its usefulness in balancing clinician integrity and family wishes in an otherwise emotionally complex dilemma, albeit desperately and imperfectly. The study by Sprengholz, “ Public Preferences Regarding Slow Codes in Critical Care” , contributed empirical data to a discourse chiefly shaped by expertise a…
The boycott of the Israeli Medical Association by the British Medical Association
This Current Controversy article critically reviews the recent motion by delegates of the British Medical Association to boycott the Israel Medical Association (IMA) for not upholding medical neutrality. While I generally support this motion, I disagree with the reasons justifying it. I also argue that the main issue here is not whether the IMA upheld medical neutrality but rather whether it upheld its duty to engage in political and social advoc…
War crimes, sexual assault and medical confidentiality in Israel
Hamas militants have raped and mutilated the bodies of dozens of men and women in Israel during their attack and captivity in Gaza. The exact extent of these atrocities, however, is unknown. For reasons of this sort and others, prosecuting sexual abusers during armed conflicts is notoriously difficult. In an attempt to make a legal case against Hamas militants, the Israeli authorities have recently ordered civilian hospitals to breach medical con…
Rebutting Avraham Steinberg’s response to Shahvisi
Loneliness as lack of solidarity
This paper explores the notion of loneliness as lack of solidarity in relations to Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israel, and the diaspora. Loneliness as lack of solidarity is defined as lacking someone to identify with and/or lacking someone who is willing to assist while carrying a burden. We describe the mechanism of lack of identification using the concept of epistemic injustice. The paper suggests that art may ser…
The Ecological Genome Project and the Promises of Ecogenomics for Society
This paper develops a vision for The Ecological Genome Project : an aspirational, global endeavour to connect human genomic sciences with the ethos of ecological sciences. The Project's goal is to strengthen interdisciplinary networks that relate to diverse initiatives using genomic technologies, with respect to shared ethical frameworks and governance structures. To this end, this paper proposes a practical definition of ecogenomics to align var…
The responsibility of bioethicists
In this article, we describe in detail the health and general living conditions resulting from the ongoing armed conflict in Yemen, including the historical and geopolitical underpinnings. In addition to mere reporting, we use Yemen as a case study to examine the responsibility of bioethicists in general. We find it unacceptable that bioethics neglects the largest humanitarian crisis taking place in the world at the moment as well as the largest …
On Religious Influence in Bioethics
The World Congress of Bioethics held in Qatar in 2024 (WCB 2024) sparked controversy around the role of religion in bioethics, highlighting the need for critical discussions. During the congress, there was a strong push for incorporating religious values into bioethical discourse, raising questions about the validity and implications of such an approach. This paper examines the influence of religious thought on bioethical discussions, and the ong…
(Un)Noticing Yemen
The war in Yemen, which began in late 2014, has received relatively little attention from genocide scholars, despite the hundreds of thousands of victims it has claimed.In this article, we examine the war through the lens of Critical Genocide Studies (CGS), as a case study of how and why a mass atrocity that leads to the destruction of a substantial part of a distinct group becomes "forgotten" or "hidden."At the same time, we problematize previou…
Ethics, One Health approaches, and SDGs
One Health ethics is an emerging field that has gained traction since its origin in approximately 2015. This article builds upon the insights shared during a panel discussion on One Health, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and ethical conflicts at the 28th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference. The conference, themed Sustainable Development and Courage: Culture, Art, and Human Rights, aimed to advance and e…
The duty of care and the right to be cared for
Vaccine hesitancy or refusal has been one of the major obstacles to herd immunity against Covid-19 in high-income countries and one of the causes for the emergence of variants. The refusal of people who are eligible for vaccination to receive vaccination creates an ethical dilemma between the duty of healthcare professionals (HCPs) to care for patients and their right to be taken care of. This paper argues for an extended social contract between …
Dying a lonely death
This paper argues that a lonely death is, by definition, a bad death and that society as a whole, as well as individuals in society are obligated to assure a certain degree of well‐being, flourishing, or care among and for fellow individuals. Individuals can then be said to have a right against dying a lonely death. Such a right has corresponding duties. The paper further specifies what such duties may entail based on what individuals may need on…
Against loneliness we unite
Loneliness is ubiquitous and is bad for our health, making it a bioethical concern. It is perhaps true now more than ever before. Recent publications in bioethics have discussed loneliness in the context of responsibility, solidarity, and autonomy, especially relational autonomy. In this paper, I elaborate on the relation between solidarity and loneliness, proposing an account of loneliness as lack of solidarity. Some cases of loneliness, I argue…
Digital Humans to Combat Loneliness and Social Isolation
Social isolation and loneliness are growing concerns around the globe that put people at increased risk of disease and early death. One much‐touted approach to addressing them is deploying artificially intelligent agents to serve as companions for socially isolated and lonely people. Focusing on digital humans, we consider evidence and ethical arguments for and against this approach. We set forth and defend public health policies that respond to …
Nancy S. Jecker, Zohar Lederman, and Anita Ho reply
This letter replies to the letter “Colonial and Neocolonial Barriers to Companion Digital Humans in Africa,” by Luís Cordeiro‐Rodrigues, in the same, May‐June 2024, issue of the Hastings Center Report
Eating in Isolation
The practice of solitary confinement (SC) is established within the literature as a common occurrence of torture within the prison system, and many international and national human rights organizations have called for its abolition. A somewhat more contentious topic in the literature is the practice of force feeding (FF) of hunger-striking prisoners. The paper aims to make a case against FF by establishing a parity argument that states the follow…
Loneliness at the age of Covid-19
Loneliness has been a major concern for philosophers, poets and psychologists for centuries. In the past several decades, it has concerned clinicians and public health practitioners as well. The research on loneliness is urgent for several reasons. First, loneliness has been and still is extremely ubiquitous, potentially affecting people across multiple demographics and geographical areas. Second, it is philosophically intriguing, and its analysi…
Incentivising civility in clinical environments
Incentivising civility in clinical environments
Technological solutions to loneliness—Are they enough
Loneliness is a major public health concern, particularly during pandemics such as Covid. It is extremely common, and it poses a major risk to human health. Technological solutions including social media, robots, and virtual reality have been advocated and implemented to relieve loneliness, and their use will undoubtedly increase in the near future. This paper explores the use of technological solutions from a normative perspective, asking whethe…
Responsibility and vaccine nationalism in the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict
In this article we articulate a case from moral responsibility to assist Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). We contextualize this responsibility by focusing on access to healthcare and the provision of vaccines against COVID‐19. We specifically present two arguments from responsibility, one that is global or cosmopolitan, and one that is country‐specific. For the latter, we focus on Israel
Three for me and none for you? An ethical argument for delaying Covid-19 boosters
This paper argues in support of the WHO’s proposal to forego COVID-19 booster shots until 10% of people in every country are fully vaccinated. The Ethical Argument section shows that we save the most lives and ensure the least amount of suffering by allocating doses first to unvaccinated people. It also argues that there is a duty to support decent lives and to promote health equity, which establish that refraining from boosters is a requirement …
Zoonoses and Animal Culling
One Health (OH) as a biomedical and social movement calls to reorient public health approaches toward more holistic, nonanthropocentric approaches that do not exclude the interests of animals and ecosystems. OH thus urges reexamination, from both scientific and moral perspectives, of the practice of culling pet, farm, or wild animals in the face of a zoonosis. Pandemics such as Covid and monkeypox highlight the need for more rigorous analysis of …
Just allocation of Covid-19 vaccines
Authorized COVID-19 vaccines must be distributed fairly. Several proposals have emerged offering guidelines for how to do this. However, insofar as the aim is to have the greatest health impact, these proposals fall short. We offer three suggestions to strengthen them The most advanced attempt at coordinating vaccine distribution is the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility, a collaboration that brings together governments, companies, …
Zoobiquity
One Health, Vaccines and Ebola
Responding to a Public Health Objection to Vaccinating the Great Apes
One Health Goes to India
A call from justice to support the people in Gaza
Using Madison Powers and Ruth Faden's definition of ‘well‐being,’ the authors argue that Israel, the international community and public health practitioners have a justice‐based obligation to assist the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Focusing on Palestinians in Gaza, the authors first outline a normative framework of justice, as articulated by Powers and Faden. Following Powers and Faden's assumption that empirical as…
Family for Life and Death
The dilemma of whether to allow relatives to see or even touch their loved one while she undergoes cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has been discussed for roughly four decades. However, Family Presence During Adult Resuscitation (FPDR) is still not widely implemented. In this paper, I espouse relational autonomy to make a case for a clinical approach of family-centered care and FPDR. In recent years, family-centered care (FCC) has gained incre…
One health ethics
Johnson and Degeling have recently enquired whether one health (OH) requires a comprehensive normative framework, concluding that such a framework, while not necessary, may be helpful. In this commentary, we provide a context for this debate, and describe how pragmatism has been predominant in the OH literature. We nevertheless argue that articulating a comprehensive normative theory to ground OH practice might clear existing vagueness and provid…
Just allocation of Covid-19 vaccines
Authorized COVID-19 vaccines must be distributed fairly. Several proposals have emerged offering guidelines for how to do this. However, insofar as the aim is to have the greatest health impact, these proposals fall short. We offer three suggestions to strengthen them The most advanced attempt at coordinating vaccine distribution is the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility, a collaboration that brings together governments, companies, …
The bioethics of loneliness
This article poses an invitation for bioethicists to engage with loneliness as a bioethics and public health concern. I argue that loneliness is a relevant issue for bioethicists for three main reasons: it causes ill‐health; particularly in the age of Covid‐19, it is becoming prominent on the clinical and public health agenda, affecting millions worldwide; and it engenders several ethical and philosophical questions as a social determinant of hea…
Together we lived, and alone you died
This essay discusses and weaves together three interrelated topics: loneliness as a neglected bioethics problem, solidarity as one potential solution to loneliness, and the Israeli‐Palestinian Conflict as a neglected bioethics problem in which loneliness is stark. I first present and define various kinds of loneliness, focusing on ethical loneliness, defined as suffering injustice without a proper repair process. I next discuss current health con…
Stamping Out Animal Culling
Three for me and none for you? An ethical argument for delaying Covid-19 boosters
This paper argues in support of the WHO’s proposal to forego COVID-19 booster shots until 10% of people in every country are fully vaccinated. The Ethical Argument section shows that we save the most lives and ensure the least amount of suffering by allocating doses first to unvaccinated people. It also argues that there is a duty to support decent lives and to promote health equity, which establish that refraining from boosters is a requirement …
Zoonoses and Animal Culling
One Health (OH) as a biomedical and social movement calls to reorient public health approaches toward more holistic, nonanthropocentric approaches that do not exclude the interests of animals and ecosystems. OH thus urges reexamination, from both scientific and moral perspectives, of the practice of culling pet, farm, or wild animals in the face of a zoonosis. Pandemics such as Covid and monkeypox highlight the need for more rigorous analysis of …
Eating in Isolation
The practice of solitary confinement (SC) is established within the literature as a common occurrence of torture within the prison system, and many international and national human rights organizations have called for its abolition. A somewhat more contentious topic in the literature is the practice of force feeding (FF) of hunger-striking prisoners. The paper aims to make a case against FF by establishing a parity argument that states the follow…
Loneliness at the age of Covid-19
Loneliness has been a major concern for philosophers, poets and psychologists for centuries. In the past several decades, it has concerned clinicians and public health practitioners as well. The research on loneliness is urgent for several reasons. First, loneliness has been and still is extremely ubiquitous, potentially affecting people across multiple demographics and geographical areas. Second, it is philosophically intriguing, and its analysi…
Incentivising civility in clinical environments
Incentivising civility in clinical environments
Technological solutions to loneliness—Are they enough
Loneliness is a major public health concern, particularly during pandemics such as Covid. It is extremely common, and it poses a major risk to human health. Technological solutions including social media, robots, and virtual reality have been advocated and implemented to relieve loneliness, and their use will undoubtedly increase in the near future. This paper explores the use of technological solutions from a normative perspective, asking whethe…
Responsibility and vaccine nationalism in the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict
In this article we articulate a case from moral responsibility to assist Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). We contextualize this responsibility by focusing on access to healthcare and the provision of vaccines against COVID‐19. We specifically present two arguments from responsibility, one that is global or cosmopolitan, and one that is country‐specific. For the latter, we focus on Israel
Ethics, One Health approaches, and SDGs
One Health ethics is an emerging field that has gained traction since its origin in approximately 2015. This article builds upon the insights shared during a panel discussion on One Health, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and ethical conflicts at the 28th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference. The conference, themed Sustainable Development and Courage: Culture, Art, and Human Rights, aimed to advance and e…
The duty of care and the right to be cared for
Vaccine hesitancy or refusal has been one of the major obstacles to herd immunity against Covid-19 in high-income countries and one of the causes for the emergence of variants. The refusal of people who are eligible for vaccination to receive vaccination creates an ethical dilemma between the duty of healthcare professionals (HCPs) to care for patients and their right to be taken care of. This paper argues for an extended social contract between …
Dying a lonely death
This paper argues that a lonely death is, by definition, a bad death and that society as a whole, as well as individuals in society are obligated to assure a certain degree of well‐being, flourishing, or care among and for fellow individuals. Individuals can then be said to have a right against dying a lonely death. Such a right has corresponding duties. The paper further specifies what such duties may entail based on what individuals may need on…
Against loneliness we unite
Loneliness is ubiquitous and is bad for our health, making it a bioethical concern. It is perhaps true now more than ever before. Recent publications in bioethics have discussed loneliness in the context of responsibility, solidarity, and autonomy, especially relational autonomy. In this paper, I elaborate on the relation between solidarity and loneliness, proposing an account of loneliness as lack of solidarity. Some cases of loneliness, I argue…
Digital Humans to Combat Loneliness and Social Isolation
Social isolation and loneliness are growing concerns around the globe that put people at increased risk of disease and early death. One much‐touted approach to addressing them is deploying artificially intelligent agents to serve as companions for socially isolated and lonely people. Focusing on digital humans, we consider evidence and ethical arguments for and against this approach. We set forth and defend public health policies that respond to …
Nancy S. Jecker, Zohar Lederman, and Anita Ho reply
This letter replies to the letter “Colonial and Neocolonial Barriers to Companion Digital Humans in Africa,” by Luís Cordeiro‐Rodrigues, in the same, May‐June 2024, issue of the Hastings Center Report
The boycott of the Israeli Medical Association by the British Medical Association
This Current Controversy article critically reviews the recent motion by delegates of the British Medical Association to boycott the Israel Medical Association (IMA) for not upholding medical neutrality. While I generally support this motion, I disagree with the reasons justifying it. I also argue that the main issue here is not whether the IMA upheld medical neutrality but rather whether it upheld its duty to engage in political and social advoc…
Political science (23 works) · Law (22 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Medicine (17 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Environmental ethics (11 works) · Ethics in medical practice (10 works) · Health and Conflict Studies (9 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Zoonotic diseases and public health (8 works)