Manchester, UK, 13 – 16 AUGUST 2025

Bioethics and philosophy of medicine after COVID

Call for Abstracts   

 

37th European Conference on Philosophy of Medicine & Health Care

This conference is organized by the European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Healthcare, and the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy, University of Manchester. It is supported by the Hallsworth Conference Fund.

The COVID-19 pandemic marked both a societal and academic turning point—simultaneously a period of disruption and a catalyst for rapid development in medicine, ethics, philosophy, and regulation. In the aftermath of COVID-19, significant bioethics topics emerged or gained renewed urgency, e.g. in relation to resource allocation and priority-setting, new stem cell technologies, artificial intelligence, weight loss drugs, and reproductive technologies. The conference welcomes work on these topics in medical philosophy and bioethics. Abstracts addressing any of the issues mentioned below will be favored, although work on other topics is also very welcome.

Main Topics of the Upcoming Conference

New challenges to the concept of health and disease

  • Long COVID
  • One health approach
  • Overweight and obesity
  • Mental health and psychiatry

Clinical decision making

  • Philosophical analysis of clinical decision making
  • Philosophical analysis of risk
  • Unproven medical interventions

Research ethics

  • Ethical issues in new trial designs
  • Research ethics in crisis situations
  • Incentives to research participation
  • The interface between research ethics and research integrity

Public health ethics and pandemic preparedness

  • Moral limits of markets in healthcare
  • Vaccine distribution and equity
  • Ethical preparedness
  • Access to essential medicines in low- and middle-income countries
  • Health and military crises

Weight-loss drugs

  • Advances in weight-loss medications
  • Cosmetic weight loss vs. obesity treatment
  • Equity and affordability

Reproduction

  • New reproductive technologies
  • Access to reproductive technologies
  • Surrogacy
  • Reproductive tourism

Interdisciplinarity

  • The contribution of philosophy to interdisciplinary collaboration
  • Challenges in collaborations with social scientists and legal scholars
  • The contribution of philosophy to policymaking

New stem cell technologies

  • Embryo models
  • Neural organoids
  • Artificial gametes

Artificial intelligence

  • The status of AI output
  • Algorithmic bias
  • Transparency
  • Accountability
  • Health data and AI development
  • Responsibility for AI error
  • AI as a tool in medical philosophy and ethics

Resource Allocation and Priority-Setting

  • Triage in crisis situations
  • Distributive justice and healthcare rationing
  • Justice and end-of-life decision-making

Anyone wishing to present a paper at the conference should submit an abstract in Word format (500 words maximum) before March 1, 2025. The Conference Programme Committee will select abstracts for oral presentation. Please send abstracts by e-mail to Professor Bert Gordijn, Secretary of the espmh, Institute of Ethics, Dublin City University, Ireland:

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