Jennifer Blumenthal‐Barby
Biographic Data
| ID | 7733952 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jennifer Blumenthal‐Barby |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jennifer |
| FAMILY NAME | Blumenthal‐Barby |
| SIGNATURE | BARBY J B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Baylor College of Medicine |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1054-619X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 21 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Can I Get a Witness? The Ethical Dimensions of Family Presence in Patient Suffering
For patients who are suffering, the bedside presence of a family member can provide comfort, and many people hold that there is moral value in being present with a conscious, suffering patient. Yet what is the moral significance of the absence of family members when a patient is minimally conscious or unconscious and not aware of their absence? Clinicians are often troubled when family members and surrogate decision‐makers who are able to spend a…
Suffering at the Margins
Research suggests that caregivers of patients with disorders of consciousness such as minimally conscious states (MCS) believe they suffer in some way. How so, if they cannot experience sensations or feelings? What is the nature of their suffering? This paper explores non-experiential suffering (NES). It argues that concerns about NES are really concerns about harms (e.g., dignity-based harms), but still face problems. Second, it addresses the mo…
A multi-site study of clinician perspectives in the lifecycle of an algorithmic risk prediction tool
Recent advancements in the performative capacities of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and algorithmic-based tools open up numerous applications in modern medicine. There are, however, few studies that track the whole lifecycle of a digital healthcare tool as it evolves from conception, to design, and deployment in real world settings-especially with a focus on the social dynamics amongst the end-users of the tool: clinicians.…
Adolescent OCD Patient and Caregiver Perspectives on Identity, Authenticity, and Normalcy in Potential Deep Brain Stimulation Treatment
The ongoing debate within neuroethics concerning the degree to which neuromodulation such as deep brain stimulation (DBS) changes the personality, identity, and agency (PIA) of patients has paid relatively little attention to the perspectives of prospective patients. Even less attention has been given to pediatric populations. To understand patients’ views about identity changes due to DBS in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the authors condu…
Trust criteria for artificial intelligence in health
Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) in healthcare raise pressing questions about how much users should trust AI/ML systems, particularly for high stakes clinical decision-making. Ensuring that user trust is properly calibrated to a tool’s computational capacities and limitations has both practical and ethical implications, given that overtrust or undertrust can influence over-reliance or under-reliance on al…
Neurorights in question
The idea of a ‘right to mental integrity’, sometimes referred to as a ‘right against mental interference,’ is a relatively new concept in bioethics, making its way into debates about neurotechnological advances and the establishment of ‘neurorights.’ In this paper, we interrogate the idea of a right to mental integrity. First, we argue that some experts define the right to mental integrity so broadly that rights violations become ubiquitous, ther…
Neuro rights and the right to mental integrity
Reconsidering risk attitudes
Ethics of speculation
Medical ethics and the climate change emergency
Looking back and looking forward
Pediatric Authenticity
The range of decisions considered permissible in pediatrics is typically understood to involve a balance between patient interests and parental or surrogate authority. In this article, we argue that there is a distinct set of considerations relevant to pediatric decision‐making that is often neglected or unacknowledged in pediatrics—namely, considerations related to patient authenticity. The standard of pediatric authenticity asks not what is bes…
Rethinking Theory in Bioethics
This book review essay points to some of the more novel and controversial contributions of A Theory of Bioethics, by Joseph Millum and David DeGrazia (Cambridge University Press, 2021), such as their account of moral status. With a remarkable breadth of topics, the book is characterized by philosophical care and nuance and by spelling out the implications of the authors’ theorizing for real‐world, pressing questions, for instance, about the impli…
Payment of Covid-19 challenge trials
One way to test vaccines is through human challenge trials in which participants are intentionally infected with a contagious organism to expedite the process of assessing the vaccine’s effectiveness. Some experts believe challenge trials may play an important role in fighting COVID-19, especially if the vaccines under current study do not demonstrate sufficient efficacy, if spread of COVID-19 is controlled to a point that radically slows down tr…
Present and future
Pediatric Deep Brain Stimulation for Dystonia
Dystonia is a movement disorder that can have a debilitating impact on motor functions and quality of life. There are 250,000 cases in the United States, most with childhood onset. Due to the limited effectiveness and side effects of available treatments, pediatric deep brain stimulation (pDBS) has emerged as an intervention for refractory dystonia. However, there is limited clinical and neuroethics research in this area of clinical practice. Thi…
Covid-19 current controversies
This July 2020 issue of JME introduces a new section, “COVID-19 Current Controversies,” which will be a recurring section in each issue for the foreseeable future. This issue reflects on some of the most pressing ethical issues that have arisen roughly 6 months into the pandemic. Kathleen Liddell and colleagues examine important legal considerations at play in ventilator allocation decisions raised by the pandemic.1 They point out that ethics-bas…
Pandemic medical ethics
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 issue of the moment, it’s important that other issues in medical ethics continue to be addressed as well. As can be seen in this issue, the Journal of Medical Ethics (JME) will uphold its commitment to publishing h…
Cure” Versus “Clinical Remission”
Nudge or Grudge? Choice Architecture and Parental Decision‐Making
Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein define a nudge as “any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people's behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.” Much has been written about the ethics of nudging competent adult patients. Less has been written about the ethics of nudging surrogates’ decision‐making and how the ethical considerations and arguments in that context might…
An investigation of the relationship between autonomy, childbirth practices, and obstetric fistula among women in rural Lilongwe District, Malawi
BACKGROUND: Obstetric fistula is a childbirth injury caused by prolonged obstructed labor that results in destruction of the tissue wall between the vagina and bladder. Although obstetric fistula is directly caused by prolonged obstructed labor, many other factors indirectly increase fistula risk. Some research suggests that many women in rural Malawi have limited autonomy and decision-making power in their households. We hypothesize that women's…
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An investigation of the relationship between autonomy, childbirth practices, and obstetric fistula among women in rural Lilongwe District, Malawi
BACKGROUND: Obstetric fistula is a childbirth injury caused by prolonged obstructed labor that results in destruction of the tissue wall between the vagina and bladder. Although obstetric fistula is directly caused by prolonged obstructed labor, many other factors indirectly increase fistula risk. Some research suggests that many women in rural Malawi have limited autonomy and decision-making power in their households. We hypothesize that women's…
Nudge or Grudge? Choice Architecture and Parental Decision‐Making
Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein define a nudge as “any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people's behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.” Much has been written about the ethics of nudging competent adult patients. Less has been written about the ethics of nudging surrogates’ decision‐making and how the ethical considerations and arguments in that context might…
Pediatric Deep Brain Stimulation for Dystonia
Dystonia is a movement disorder that can have a debilitating impact on motor functions and quality of life. There are 250,000 cases in the United States, most with childhood onset. Due to the limited effectiveness and side effects of available treatments, pediatric deep brain stimulation (pDBS) has emerged as an intervention for refractory dystonia. However, there is limited clinical and neuroethics research in this area of clinical practice. Thi…
Covid-19 current controversies
This July 2020 issue of JME introduces a new section, “COVID-19 Current Controversies,” which will be a recurring section in each issue for the foreseeable future. This issue reflects on some of the most pressing ethical issues that have arisen roughly 6 months into the pandemic. Kathleen Liddell and colleagues examine important legal considerations at play in ventilator allocation decisions raised by the pandemic.1 They point out that ethics-bas…
Pandemic medical ethics
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 issue of the moment, it’s important that other issues in medical ethics continue to be addressed as well. As can be seen in this issue, the Journal of Medical Ethics (JME) will uphold its commitment to publishing h…
Cure” Versus “Clinical Remission”
Payment of Covid-19 challenge trials
One way to test vaccines is through human challenge trials in which participants are intentionally infected with a contagious organism to expedite the process of assessing the vaccine’s effectiveness. Some experts believe challenge trials may play an important role in fighting COVID-19, especially if the vaccines under current study do not demonstrate sufficient efficacy, if spread of COVID-19 is controlled to a point that radically slows down tr…
Present and future
Medical ethics and the climate change emergency
Looking back and looking forward
Pediatric Authenticity
The range of decisions considered permissible in pediatrics is typically understood to involve a balance between patient interests and parental or surrogate authority. In this article, we argue that there is a distinct set of considerations relevant to pediatric decision‐making that is often neglected or unacknowledged in pediatrics—namely, considerations related to patient authenticity. The standard of pediatric authenticity asks not what is bes…
Rethinking Theory in Bioethics
This book review essay points to some of the more novel and controversial contributions of A Theory of Bioethics, by Joseph Millum and David DeGrazia (Cambridge University Press, 2021), such as their account of moral status. With a remarkable breadth of topics, the book is characterized by philosophical care and nuance and by spelling out the implications of the authors’ theorizing for real‐world, pressing questions, for instance, about the impli…
Reconsidering risk attitudes
Ethics of speculation
Adolescent OCD Patient and Caregiver Perspectives on Identity, Authenticity, and Normalcy in Potential Deep Brain Stimulation Treatment
The ongoing debate within neuroethics concerning the degree to which neuromodulation such as deep brain stimulation (DBS) changes the personality, identity, and agency (PIA) of patients has paid relatively little attention to the perspectives of prospective patients. Even less attention has been given to pediatric populations. To understand patients’ views about identity changes due to DBS in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the authors condu…
Trust criteria for artificial intelligence in health
Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) in healthcare raise pressing questions about how much users should trust AI/ML systems, particularly for high stakes clinical decision-making. Ensuring that user trust is properly calibrated to a tool’s computational capacities and limitations has both practical and ethical implications, given that overtrust or undertrust can influence over-reliance or under-reliance on al…
Neurorights in question
The idea of a ‘right to mental integrity’, sometimes referred to as a ‘right against mental interference,’ is a relatively new concept in bioethics, making its way into debates about neurotechnological advances and the establishment of ‘neurorights.’ In this paper, we interrogate the idea of a right to mental integrity. First, we argue that some experts define the right to mental integrity so broadly that rights violations become ubiquitous, ther…
Neuro rights and the right to mental integrity
A multi-site study of clinician perspectives in the lifecycle of an algorithmic risk prediction tool
Recent advancements in the performative capacities of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and algorithmic-based tools open up numerous applications in modern medicine. There are, however, few studies that track the whole lifecycle of a digital healthcare tool as it evolves from conception, to design, and deployment in real world settings-especially with a focus on the social dynamics amongst the end-users of the tool: clinicians.…
Can I Get a Witness? The Ethical Dimensions of Family Presence in Patient Suffering
For patients who are suffering, the bedside presence of a family member can provide comfort, and many people hold that there is moral value in being present with a conscious, suffering patient. Yet what is the moral significance of the absence of family members when a patient is minimally conscious or unconscious and not aware of their absence? Clinicians are often troubled when family members and surrogate decision‐makers who are able to spend a…
Suffering at the Margins
Research suggests that caregivers of patients with disorders of consciousness such as minimally conscious states (MCS) believe they suffer in some way. How so, if they cannot experience sensations or feelings? What is the nature of their suffering? This paper explores non-experiential suffering (NES). It argues that concerns about NES are really concerns about harms (e.g., dignity-based harms), but still face problems. Second, it addresses the mo…
Psychology (11 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Medicine (10 works) · Political science (10 works) · Law (8 works) · Data science (6 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare (4 works) · Ethics in medical practice (4 works) · Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues (4 works)