Published Work
Sophie Gibert, "The Wrong of Wrongful Manipulation," Philosophy & Public Affairs, 2023.
I argue against the widespread view that manipulation is wrong when and because it alters someone's practical reasoning in a certain way - either subverts it, circumvents it, or affects it non-rationally. Instead I defend the Reductive View, according to which manipulating someone is wrong when and because it infringes one or more of their other rights. The wrong of wrongful manipulation is therefore non-basic: it cannot be identified without pointing to some other wrong that's involved.
Leah Pierson, Sophie Gibert, Leila Orszag, Rachel Fei, Haley Sullivan, Emily Largent, and Govind Persad, “Bioethicists Today: Results of the Views in Bioethics Survey," The American Journal of Bioethics, 2024.
We present findings from a survey of American bioethicists on major issues in bioethics.
Leah Pierson, Sophie Gibert (co first authors), Benjamin Berkman, Marion Danis, and Joseph Millum, "Allocation of Scarce Biospecimens for Use in Research," Journal of Medical Ethics, 2021. Penultimate draft.
We argue that scientists and researchers should aim to maximize the social value of the research enterprise as a whole when allocating scarce biospecimen samples, provide an ethical framework for assessing the contributions that proposed research projects would make to the social value of the research enterprise, and describe how the framework can be implemented.
Sophie Gibert, David DeGrazia, and Marion Danis, "The Ethics of Patient Activation," Journal of Medical Ethics, 2017. Penultimate draft.
We consider the ethics of measuring and aiming to improve "patient activation" - that is, the extent to which patients with chronic medical conditions feel responsible for, and in control of, their own health outcomes - and describe how clinicians can increase the sense of agency that such patients have with respect to their health without exposing them to blame, stigma, and other harms.
Sophie Gibert, “Closed-Loop Deep Brain Stimulation and its Compatibility with Autonomous Agency,” Open Peer Commentary, American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience, 2017.
I argue that closed-loop deep brain stimulation (DBS) does not threaten agency more than do other treatments, substances, and modes of influence, simply because it reduces the individual’s degree of local control and conscious awareness; and that allowing individuals a higher degree of local control does not necessarily mitigate concerns about their agency.
Work In Progress
Paternalism and the Right to Be Wronged (draft available on request)
The Function of Moralized Concepts
Sophie Gibert, "The Wrong of Wrongful Manipulation," Philosophy & Public Affairs, 2023.
I argue against the widespread view that manipulation is wrong when and because it alters someone's practical reasoning in a certain way - either subverts it, circumvents it, or affects it non-rationally. Instead I defend the Reductive View, according to which manipulating someone is wrong when and because it infringes one or more of their other rights. The wrong of wrongful manipulation is therefore non-basic: it cannot be identified without pointing to some other wrong that's involved.
- Featured on the New Work in Philosophy Blog
- Online discussion on PEA Soup Blog with precis by Massimo Renzo: March 20, 2024
Leah Pierson, Sophie Gibert, Leila Orszag, Rachel Fei, Haley Sullivan, Emily Largent, and Govind Persad, “Bioethicists Today: Results of the Views in Bioethics Survey," The American Journal of Bioethics, 2024.
We present findings from a survey of American bioethicists on major issues in bioethics.
Leah Pierson, Sophie Gibert (co first authors), Benjamin Berkman, Marion Danis, and Joseph Millum, "Allocation of Scarce Biospecimens for Use in Research," Journal of Medical Ethics, 2021. Penultimate draft.
We argue that scientists and researchers should aim to maximize the social value of the research enterprise as a whole when allocating scarce biospecimen samples, provide an ethical framework for assessing the contributions that proposed research projects would make to the social value of the research enterprise, and describe how the framework can be implemented.
Sophie Gibert, David DeGrazia, and Marion Danis, "The Ethics of Patient Activation," Journal of Medical Ethics, 2017. Penultimate draft.
We consider the ethics of measuring and aiming to improve "patient activation" - that is, the extent to which patients with chronic medical conditions feel responsible for, and in control of, their own health outcomes - and describe how clinicians can increase the sense of agency that such patients have with respect to their health without exposing them to blame, stigma, and other harms.
Sophie Gibert, “Closed-Loop Deep Brain Stimulation and its Compatibility with Autonomous Agency,” Open Peer Commentary, American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience, 2017.
I argue that closed-loop deep brain stimulation (DBS) does not threaten agency more than do other treatments, substances, and modes of influence, simply because it reduces the individual’s degree of local control and conscious awareness; and that allowing individuals a higher degree of local control does not necessarily mitigate concerns about their agency.
Work In Progress
Paternalism and the Right to Be Wronged (draft available on request)
The Function of Moralized Concepts
