Solid organ xenotransplantation may have the potential to help address the shortage of organs for transplantation. There is concern, however, that a novel zoonotic disease could be transmitted from the source organ to the human recipient, and then from the recipient to others. Theoretically, this could result in an epidemic or pandemic. Because of this potential risk, it has been argued that collective consent is required. Our goal is to critically evaluate the claim that collective consent is necessary for xenotransplantation (...) to be ethically permissible. We argue that collective consent is not required and highlight the important roles of public engagement and due diligence in xenotransplant research moving forward. (shrink)

This paper outlines a novel framing of the normative significance of health by considering the idea of ‘health capital’. Health capital is a set of health-related assets of individuals that enable them to pursue their interests and to collaborate with others. The specific contribution of this paper is to establish the notion of health capital beyond a metaphorical idea and to initially explore the repercussions of it for theories of health justice. We propose a sufficientarian approach to health capital justice. (...) Our theory claims that social justice requires enabling people to achieve enough health capital to meet threats to health. This is a dynamic ideal, establishing claims of justice over time. The overarching goal is to avoid disadvantageous tipping points of health depletion. (shrink)

Four decades after the first reported case of HIV, the stigma surrounding an HIV diagnosis remains a significant challenge. This persistence, even amid numerous destigmatization efforts, has posed a puzzle for both scholars and policymakers. In this study, we explore the concept of morality attached to HIV status to shed light on this ongoing stigma. Utilizing data from the 2021 and 2022 waves of the General Social Survey, we examined the relationship between comfort in proximity to people with HIV (PWH) (...) and moral beliefs associated with HIV status. Our findings suggest that individuals who ‘strongly agree’ that PWH engage in immoral activities are over 13 times more likely to reject proximity to PWH compared with those who ‘strongly disagree’. This finding is robust, even after taking to account factors such as the individual’s moral belief that same-sex sexual activity is wrong, and their awareness of discrimination against PWH. Overall, our results suggest that stigmatization is more likely when immorality is associated with the stigmatized status. We encourage destigmatization campaigns to consider these findings and integrate the dissociation of morality from HIV status into their messaging frames. (shrink)