Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25230689›Full record

ArticleTheoretical medicine and bioethics2014

Moral uncertainty in bioethical argumentation: a new understanding of the pro-life view on early human embryos.

Tomasz Żuradzki

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Theoretical medicine and bioethics, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Abortion Ban Advocates and Rape Exception.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Tomasz ŻuradzkiInstitute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, ul. Grodzka 52, 31-044, Kraków, Poland, t.zuradzki@uj.edu.pl.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In this article, I present a new interpretation of the pro-life view on the status of early human embryos. In my understanding, this position is based not on presumptions about the ontological status of embryos and their developmental capabilities but on the specific criteria of rational decisions under uncertainty and on a cautious response to the ambiguous status of embryos. This view, which uses the decision theory model of moral reasoning, promises to reconcile the uncertainty about the ontological status of embryos with the certainty about normative obligations. I will demonstrate that my interpretation of the pro-life view, although seeming to be stronger than the standard one, has limited scope and cannot be used to limit destructive research on human embryos.

Indexed as

Embryo, MammalianMoral ObligationsUncertaintyValue of LifeBeginning of Human LifeEmbryo ResearchEthical AnalysisHumansMoralsPersonhood

Identifiers

PMID25230689
PMCPMC4244577

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.