Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied

Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied IDEA The Ethics Centre is a specialist unit for teaching, research, training and consultancy in applied ethics.

Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied Centre, or IDEA centre, is a specialist unit for teaching, research, training and consultancy in applied ethics. Our diverse and vibrant community blends in-depth theoretical enquiry and real-world experience to address the most complex ethical issues facing the world today. Part of the School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (PRHS) in the University of Leeds.

In our third post for , Dr Andrew Stanners reflects on work to consider how we could best care for people with dementi...
22/05/2026

In our third post for , Dr Andrew Stanners reflects on work to consider how we could best care for people with dementia.

Find the link to our blog in our bio.

New on the Ethics Untangled Blog: reflections on ’s book workshop. Philosophers gathered at IDEA to critically discuss C...
20/05/2026

New on the Ethics Untangled Blog: reflections on ’s book workshop.

Philosophers gathered at IDEA to critically discuss Carter’s book Relating to People Living with Dementia as Equals: Towards Social Justice in Dementia Care ().

The photo shows Danielle Bromwich, Emily McTernan, Matilda Carter, Costanza Porro and Andrew Stanners on the steps of .

Click the link in bio to access the blog.

It’s the start of 2026, which runs between the 18th and 24th of May. The purpose of the week is to raise awareness abo...
18/05/2026

It’s the start of 2026, which runs between the 18th and 24th of May.

The purpose of the week is to raise awareness about dementia in all its forms, share stories by people living with dementia and their caregivers, and support new research.

We will be posting throughout the week to share the work being done at the on dementia and applied ethics.

In our first post, Danielle Bromwich considers whether people living with dementia can consent to s*x.

Caregivers and adult social care practitioners have long had to navigate how to support and protect those living with dementia in s*xual relationships. 

Danielle argues that all parties have been let down by accounts of decision-making competence that are unfit for purpose. She sketches a novel view of competence that not only provides principled and practical guidance, but enables caregivers to keep respect for autonomy separate from the duty to protect those with marginal decision-making capacities from harm.  

Find the post on our blog. Link in bio.

In the latest episode of Ethics untangled, we’re asking whether people can really have genuine emotional reactions to ar...
18/05/2026

In the latest episode of Ethics untangled, we’re asking whether people can really have genuine emotional reactions to artificial intelligence. Many of us already feel things towards AIs – whether that’s frustration with a chatbot, affection for a companion robot, or even comfort in talking to a virtual assistant – but should we take these emotions seriously? Philosopher Rebecca Wallbank joins Jim to explore what counts as a ‘genuine’ emotion, whether our responses to AI differ from our responses to fiction, and what it means to say that these emotions might be profound. Together, Rebecca and Jim consider whether there’s anything irrational about these reactions, and what their significance might be for our emotional lives in a world increasingly shaped by AI.

Catch this and previous episodes at https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/ethics-masters/doc/ethics-untangled or your usual podcast provider.

The latest episode of Ethics Untangled, released on Monday, sees Jim speak to philosopher Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril about ...
06/05/2026

The latest episode of Ethics Untangled, released on Monday, sees Jim speak to philosopher Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril about the ethics of long COVID and the ways it is reshaping how we think about disability, care, and community.

Long COVID has left millions of people living with chronic symptoms, often without adequate medical or state support. Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril joins Jim to talk about her project, which uses podcasting not only to share stories but also as a disability-centred research method, archiving the knowledge and resilience of disabled communities. The episode explores ideas such as “disability doulas”, the legacy of HIV activism, and what needs to change in how we respond to disability in the wake of COVID.

You can listen here:
https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/ethics-research-degrees/doc/ethics-untangled

The now has a blog and newsletter! Subscribe for free here: https://ethics-untangled.ghost.io/We’ll be sharing differen...
27/04/2026

The now has a blog and newsletter!

Subscribe for free here: https://ethics-untangled.ghost.io/

We’ll be sharing different facets of our work, and making room for longer interviews, staff and student profiles, articles and other forms of content.

In the latest episode of Ethics Untangled, Jim speaks with Matilda Carter, Lecturer in Applied Ethics at IDEA, The Ethic...
20/04/2026

In the latest episode of Ethics Untangled, Jim speaks with Matilda Carter, Lecturer in Applied Ethics at IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds. The conversation focuses on the ethics of dementia care and asks what justice requires for people living with dementia.

In her book, Relating to People Living with Dementia as Equals, Matilda argues that the ways we think about and treat people with dementia raise important questions about power, stigma, and the structures of care.

Drawing on a relational conception of justice, Matilda examines how domination and oppression can shape the lives of people with dementia, and why we should recognise their capacity to live authentically. The discussion also covers advance directives, secure care, and what a more just system of dementia care might look like.

You can listen here:
https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/ethics-research-degrees/doc/ethics-untangled

Prof. Kimberley Brownlee will be joining for a joint online-only seminar with CCPT on the 27th of April. Her talk is ca...
17/04/2026

Prof. Kimberley Brownlee will be joining for a joint online-only seminar with CCPT on the 27th of April.

Her talk is called ‘Reimagining Reproductive Rights: Human reproduction is a morally fraught business.

Here’s the abstract:

‘Some people can gestate. Some people cannot. The people who cannot, such as all male adults, are reproductively dependent on the people who can. Consequently, they face morally significant disadvantages, which we should take seriously as a matter of justice. Next, some of the people who can gestate, such as pubescent girls, should never be pregnant. Instead, they should be protected from gestational labor, and they endure a specific form of injustice – anti-girlism – when the adults around them disregard their needs as children. Finally, people who do gestate should have their labour recognized for what it is: the most arduous creative endeavour a human being can undertake.’

In medical ethics, competence (or decision‑making capacity) plays a crucial role in respecting patient autonomy. But hav...
06/04/2026

In medical ethics, competence (or decision‑making capacity) plays a crucial role in respecting patient autonomy. But have ethicists misunderstood what competence really involves?

In this latest episode of Ethics Untangled, Jim speaks with Danielle Bromwich, medical ethicist here at IDEA The Ethics Centre, about a paper she has co‑written with Joseph Millum (University of St Andrews). In the paper she argues that the way medical ethics has treated competence has been mistaken, that ethicists have been conflating two distinct concepts, and that this confusion has the potential to lead to bad decisions being made about patient care. We also explore the implications her account has for other domains in which we give and refuse consent, such as s*xual relations.

Listen now:
https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/ethics-research-degrees/doc/ethics-untangled

Dr Carl Fox from will talking about the (many) philosophical issues raised by the classic film version of W***y Wonka &...
26/03/2026

Dr Carl Fox from will talking about the (many) philosophical issues raised by the classic film version of W***y Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

Get to on Sunday 12th of April at 14:30pm.

Let us know what philosophical questions the film raises for you…

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