Med Health Care Philos [JOURNAL]
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200 papers
Precision prevention and the temporal disruption of evidence: the case of heart rate notifications from wearables.
Green S, Haase CB, Spalletta O
Med Health Care Philos · 2026 Mar · PMID 41176530 · Full text
Precision prevention refers to the use of data-intensive technologies to detect early indicators of disease and risk factors at the individual level. Precision prevention is not just a policy vision for a distant future...
Precision prevention refers to the use of data-intensive technologies to detect early indicators of disease and risk factors at the individual level. Precision prevention is not just a policy vision for a distant future but a development currently gaining momentum through wearables and self-tests marketed directly to consumers. We critically analyze one of the applications already on the market, namely detection of asymptomatic atrial fibrillation via smartwatches. We examine the promises made by manufacturers of smartwatches in relation to perspectives of general practitioners (GPs) in Denmark, who experience that new opportunities for disease prevention often come with new challenges. As one informant termed it, heart rate notifications are a form of "unauthorized screening" with uncertain benefits for individual patients and the healthcare system. The case of device-detected asymptomatic atrial fibrillation illustrates how precision prevention, via wellness technologies, can lead to a temporal disruption of evidence. We use this term to highlight the concern that evidence becomes the result of implementation, rather than the basis for it, thus turning consumers into experimental research subjects. The case of heart rate notifications also illustrates how the proactive approach to disease prevention, promoted by the wellness technology industry, drives a need for reactive research evaluating the benefits and harms of detection after the fact. We call for more attention to how big tech expansionism impacts the organization of health care and health research, as well as how the wellness technology industry shapes our understanding of disease and health.
Epistemic authority and medical AI: epistemological differences and challenges in medical practice.
Kerasidou A, Kerasidou CX
Med Health Care Philos · 2026 Mar · PMID 41176529 · Full text
Recent and ongoing advances in medical AI promise to revolutionise medicine by improving the accuracy, speed, and efficiency of clinical care. These promises are responses to the continuous quest of modern medicine to el...
Recent and ongoing advances in medical AI promise to revolutionise medicine by improving the accuracy, speed, and efficiency of clinical care. These promises are responses to the continuous quest of modern medicine to eliminate uncertainty and find answers to crucial questions of diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, while the impressive reported results of medical AI have raised the question of whether medical AI can be perceived as an epistemic authority that challenges the authority of doctors. In this paper, we examine this question by approaching it from the standpoint of what epistemic goods medical AI can offer, or else, what medical AI can claim to "know". Using Popowicz' account of epistemic authority in medical practice, which he locates in the scientific method that underpins the practice, we argue that medical AI uses a different scientific method to the one that has given rise and forms the epistemic foundations of traditional western medicine, and this presents a problem. As long as we are seeking not only statistically accurate correlations, but empirically grounded causations in medicine, AI cannot be treated as an epistemic authority in this field. We conclude that until medical practice finds ways to successfully incorporate such epistemological differences, medical AI should submit to the epistemic authority of medical practice and take its place on the long list of important and useful epistemic tools doctors can use to improve the health of patients.
Ethical governance of AI-based humanoid carebots: the case for Ethics of Techno-care.
Tamir S
Med Health Care Philos · 2026 Mar · PMID 41162800 · Full text
The reality of ageing population, with loneliness among older people recognised as a public health concern, and a significant shortage of caregivers-call for techno-creative solutions. Artificial intelligence (AI)-based...
The reality of ageing population, with loneliness among older people recognised as a public health concern, and a significant shortage of caregivers-call for techno-creative solutions. Artificial intelligence (AI)-based humanoid carebots (AIhCs) are one emerging solution, where care for humans is being outsourced to robots, in what we dub as "techno-care". The humanisation of carebots, employing anthropomorphism to influence care-recipients' trust in and compliance with AIhCs, is a key issue, uniquely involving deception to achieve care-related goals, which may violate care-recipients' autonomy, among other things. This problem, and other autonomy-related issues, underscore the need for techno-care-specific ethical governance. We therefore set out to examine the appropriateness of existing ethical frameworks for governing AIhC design and implementation, focusing on autonomy and transparency, which are fundamental for AIhC ethicality. We intuitively start by considering the more novel frameworks of AI ethics and roboethics, then move to examine the well-established bioethics and ethics of care (EoC) frameworks. Our analysis concludes that no existing ethical framework adequately copes with the autonomy-related and other challenges of techno-care by AIhCs. We consequently suggest that a new derivative framework needs to be developed and applied to this setting-that of "ethics of techno-care" (EtC). We first distinguish EoC care setting and care-relationships from those of EtC, then offer a preliminary outline for this new normative guidance, comprised of the following key elements: human care-sensitive design, minimally-necessary deception, techno-care transparency, techno-care privacy design, techno-care autonomy, techno-care responsibility and accountability, and diversity and cultural sensitivity in AIhC design.
Towards a shared and supported decision-making model: fostering relational autonomy in end-of-life care.
Pujol N, Foley G, Hogan L
Med Health Care Philos · 2026 Mar · PMID 41139193 · Publisher ↗
Respect for autonomy is a central ethical principle in end-of-life care. However, due to cognitive decline, emotional distress, and the existential weight of end-of-life decisions, many patients may struggle to articulat...
Respect for autonomy is a central ethical principle in end-of-life care. However, due to cognitive decline, emotional distress, and the existential weight of end-of-life decisions, many patients may struggle to articulate or sustain their preferences without appropriate forms of support. The question, then, is not solely how to respect patients' autonomy in end-of-life care, but how autonomy, understood in relational terms, can be genuinely fostered. To address this question, the article advances a normative and practice-oriented model of decision-making that integrates two approaches often treated separately: shared decision-making and supported decision-making. Taking an original position in the philosophical debate between procedural and substantive accounts of autonomy, and drawing on the ethical analysis of a composite clinical case, we ground our model in a transformative ethics of deliberation that links relational autonomy with democratic habits and skills. In doing so, the article bridges clinical experience and philosophical inquiry to offer a richer account of how autonomy can be meaningfully fostered in end-of-life care, while also opening new questions about the institutional conditions required for its realisation.
Threshold of understanding: disease as the interface of lifeworld and science.
Galli C
Med Health Care Philos · 2026 Mar · PMID 41120650 · Publisher ↗
Disease, this essay contends, lives at the threshold where the felt immediacy of the lifeworld touches the measured abstractions of science, each continually shaping the other. Seen from that border, a lesion or lab valu...
Disease, this essay contends, lives at the threshold where the felt immediacy of the lifeworld touches the measured abstractions of science, each continually shaping the other. Seen from that border, a lesion or lab value is never complete without its human resonance, and a story of pain or fear is never fully told until its biological underpinnings come into view. Every diagnostic exchange therefore pauses the flow of ordinary life, translates it into clinical language, and then returns it, changed, to the person who must carry it forward. The stakes of that translation grow sharper wherever social power skews who is heard and who is helped. A medicine that keeps faith with both sides of the threshold can investigate molecules without losing sight of meanings, meet suffering with knowledge as well as compassion, and in doing so open fresh paths for teaching, policy, and practice.
Navigating autistic empathy: phenomenological perspectives and debates.
Zhang J
Med Health Care Philos · 2026 Mar · PMID 41108341 · Publisher ↗
This paper re-examines phenomenological accounts of autism in light of the double empathy theory. I fully endorse the compelling critique by contemporary phenomenologists such as Gallagher, Fuchs, and Zahavi of the Theor...
This paper re-examines phenomenological accounts of autism in light of the double empathy theory. I fully endorse the compelling critique by contemporary phenomenologists such as Gallagher, Fuchs, and Zahavi of the Theory of Mind framework, as they ground autistic social difficulties in impairments of primary and secondary intersubjectivity. However, their analyses tend to underemphasize or overlook the reciprocal structure of empathy, an aspect that is crucial for a comprehensive understanding of autistic-allistic social interactions. This omission has been rightly criticized by proponents of the double empathy theory, such as Rizzo and Ekdahl, who emphasize that social breakdowns between autistic and allistic individuals are bidirectional. Drawing on Husserl's classical phenomenology of empathy, I argue that a deeper phenomenological understanding reveals empathy to be inherently reciprocal and co-constituted. Thus, Husserlian phenomenology not only aligns with the core insights of the double empathy theory but also offers a conceptual foundation for rethinking autistic experience beyond unidirectional deficit models.
Ethical competency.
Ten Have H, Gordijn B
Med Health Care Philos · 2025 Dec · PMID 41085903 · Publisher ↗
Abstract loading — click title to view on PubMed.
Kidney stone disease: phenomenological perspectives.
Suijker CA, van Mazijk C, Roemeling S
Med Health Care Philos · 2026 Mar · PMID 41073587 · Full text
Kidney stone disease is a highly prevalent condition, and has received significant attention in medical research due to its substantial impact on quality of life and the strain it places on healthcare systems. Despite it...
Kidney stone disease is a highly prevalent condition, and has received significant attention in medical research due to its substantial impact on quality of life and the strain it places on healthcare systems. Despite its prominence, philosophical perspectives on kidney stone disease remain underexplored. This paper presents the first comprehensive phenomenological analysis of kidney stone disease, integrating both classical and contemporary phenomenological approaches with insights from qualitative and quantitative studies. We examine the lived experience of renal colic, the role of medical imaging, the diverse methods of treatment, and the challenges posed by recurrent chronic kidney stone disease, providing philosophical depth to these medical issues. We argue that kidney stone disease, along with its treatment, can deeply affect the patient's relationship with their own body, sense of self, environment, and interpersonal connections. We conclude by discussing the practical implications of our phenomenological analysis for clinical care, advocating a more holistic, humanistic approach to kidney stone disease and its treatment. This approach recognizes not only the physical, but also the lived aspects of the condition, thereby enhancing patient care and well-being.
The ethics of Wegovy: promoting autonomy in pediatric care.
Ryan N, Savulescu J
Med Health Care Philos · 2026 Mar · PMID 41065944 · Full text
Semaglutide, marketed as Wegovy, Ozempic, and Rybelsus, is a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) that has attracted significant global attention for its appetite-suppressing and weight-loss effects. Appro...
Semaglutide, marketed as Wegovy, Ozempic, and Rybelsus, is a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) that has attracted significant global attention for its appetite-suppressing and weight-loss effects. Approved for pediatric use in children aged 12 and older, Wegovy has been described as a "miracle drug" and hailed as a potential solution to the so-called "obesity epidemic." However, prescribing medication to children raises complex ethical questions, including how best to respect young patients' autonomy and promote their well-being. This paper focuses on one such concern: the "argument from virtue." According to this view, Wegovy represents a morally problematic approach to weight loss because it circumvents the development of character traits-such as self-control and resilience-that are seen as integral to autonomy. We critically examine this argument, rejecting the claim that there is a single morally "right way" to lose weight, and argue that Wegovy, when prescribed within a supportive framework, may help children build and exercise autonomy. We review the drug's function and efficacy, analyze how it might promote or hinder autonomy, and offer recommendations to support ethical prescribing practices that align with respect for children's agency.
Pandemic vaccines and 'The Global Public Good': a call for distributive justice.
Swazo NK, Talukder MMH, Ahsan MK
Med Health Care Philos · 2026 Mar · PMID 41014466 · Publisher ↗
Whether (1) vaccines produced in response to a pandemic should be considered "global public goods" and whether (2) Big Pharma companies should waive intellectual property rights for pandemic disease vaccines are importan...
Whether (1) vaccines produced in response to a pandemic should be considered "global public goods" and whether (2) Big Pharma companies should waive intellectual property rights for pandemic disease vaccines are important questions in global health ethics and public health policy. The extended argument advanced here (a) affirms such vaccines are global public goods and (b) supports those among low- and middle-income nations who, during the COVID-19 pandemic, proposed waiver of intellectual property rights. As a matter of distributive justice, we argue that (c) Big Pharma, national regulatory agencies, and international intergovernmental organizations such as the World Health Organisation and the World Trade Organisation have a moral responsibility to ensure developing countries have equitable access to pandemic vaccines. Hence, (d) there should be appropriate technology transfer for production and distribution of pandemic-responsive vaccines in these nations.
End-of-life decisions and ethics on the big screen: reflecting narratives of 'a life fully lived'.
Wagensonner F, Sahm A, Frewer A
Med Health Care Philos · 2025 Dec · PMID 41004030 · Full text
The question of what constitutes a good life, whether a human existence is considered fulfilling and how to respond to a life perceived as no longer worth living has long been one of the great inquiries of medical ethics...
The question of what constitutes a good life, whether a human existence is considered fulfilling and how to respond to a life perceived as no longer worth living has long been one of the great inquiries of medical ethics. With the increasing liberalization of various forms of assisted dying worldwide, these fundamental questions are gaining renewed relevance. An emerging field of interest explores films as sociocultural laboratories, offering an intriguing approach to a more nuanced perspective on personal narratives. Applied to the subject of end-of-life decisions this practice turns abstract constructs such as the quest for a meaningful life into tangible plotlines and vivid case studies. Far more than conceptual discussions about morally right or wrong, the storyline on screen enables the viewer to gain a deep and unique insight into the personal life and contextual embeddedness of protagonists struggling with end-of-life decisions. This paper aims to explore the idea and narrative of 'a life fully lived' in the movies focussing on end-of-life decisions. It focuses on the implications, demands, and influences on choices concerning death and dying using the example of ten of the most impactful and most debated movies featuring end-of-life decisions. Using film analysis, commonly held assumptions and value judgments that influence public discourse about end-of-life decisions are to be revealed and made accessible for ethical reflection.
An overview of African philosophy and implications for nursing and midwifery practice: an African hermeneutic analysis.
Bayuo J
Med Health Care Philos · 2026 Mar · PMID 40996663 · Publisher ↗
While nursing and midwifery have long drawn from Western and Eastern philosophies, the transformative potential of African philosophy remains only a recent phenomenon, perpetuating a gap in culturally grounded care parad...
While nursing and midwifery have long drawn from Western and Eastern philosophies, the transformative potential of African philosophy remains only a recent phenomenon, perpetuating a gap in culturally grounded care paradigms. This scholarship addresses this lacuna by interrogating the nature of African philosophy and its implications for nursing and midwifery practice using an African hermeneutic approach. Six distinct approaches to defining African philosophy emerged. Across these schools, two unifying themes redefine core disciplinary concepts: communitarian personhood, which positions identity as a relational, moral achievement rather than an individual birthright; and holism, which interweaves physical, spiritual, social, and environmental well-being into an indivisible whole.
Correction: Reclaiming human dignity: a critical review of contemporary theories in light of ontological foundations.
Frantz P, Rego F, Barbas S
Med Health Care Philos · 2025 Dec · PMID 40892276 · Full text
Abstract loading — click title to view on PubMed.
Moral reasoning skills: what they are and how they can be furthered in health professions education.
Wienmeister A
Med Health Care Philos · 2025 Dec · PMID 40839177 · Full text
It is widely agreed that moral reasoning skills are an important aspect of ethical competency in the health professions and that students should acquire those skills. Nevertheless, ethics instructors might find it diffic...
It is widely agreed that moral reasoning skills are an important aspect of ethical competency in the health professions and that students should acquire those skills. Nevertheless, ethics instructors might find it difficult to choose specific exercises and methods to further those skills because there is no shared understanding of what the term "moral reasoning skills" implies. As a result, there is a didactical gap between learning objective and methodology. In this paper, I demonstrate that and why the term "moral reasoning" is an underdetermined concept in the didactics literature of the health professions. With reference to the discipline of informal logic I will introduce a definition of the term and quality criteria for good moral reasoning that facilitate didactical interventions. I introduce three basic suggestions that instructors can follow if they want to further moral reasoning skills in students. I show how the three suggestions translate into specific learning objectives, which help instructors design exercises and choose appropriate methods for teaching and learning. Towards the end, I will discuss the critical factor of time in educational settings.
Doing philosophy and the future of the 'good doctor' paradigm.
Tucker F
Med Health Care Philos · 2025 Dec · PMID 40828271 · Full text
The author argues for the substantive doing of philosophy (as opposed to learning about it) as part of medical training. The paper presents a view of medical education as diminishing the critical thinking skills and huma...
The author argues for the substantive doing of philosophy (as opposed to learning about it) as part of medical training. The paper presents a view of medical education as diminishing the critical thinking skills and humanistic values of future clinicians in favour of fact-recall and pattern recognition. This is due to increasingly assessment-driven curriculums and the need to meet extremely high, and rigorous, institutional and industry/sector standards. The author argues that current medical training favours a particular kind of learning, and therefore produces a particular kind of clinician, that may meet these standards and thrive in competitive and high-pressure practice but may not be best for patients. Furthermore, as artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies rapidly change the landscape of medicine, current medical training may also not be best for these clinicians. The 'good doctors' that we are currently training, face a 'survival of the fittest situation' whereby they are no longer able to survive in a changing landscape, and therefore medical education is failing our future 'good doctors'. Changes to the content and delivery of medical education need to happen now to mitigate this failing and give doctors: first, what they need to survive; and second, what they need to properly care for patients in a changing industry, increasingly served by AI. Doing philosophy has the potential to cultivate the thinking skills, inter-personal skills, personal attributes, and humanistic values needed by the 'good doctor' of the future.
The pitfalls of "toughing it out": mapping stoic attitudes in cancer patients. A scoping review.
Harerimana A, Pillay JD, Mchunu G
Med Health Care Philos · 2025 Dec · PMID 40828270 · Full text
Stoicism (with an upper-case 'S') as a life philosophy promotes resilience, self-control and rational acceptance of adversity. In contrast, lower-case stoicism, including pseudo-stoicism or stoic attitudes-characterised...
Stoicism (with an upper-case 'S') as a life philosophy promotes resilience, self-control and rational acceptance of adversity. In contrast, lower-case stoicism, including pseudo-stoicism or stoic attitudes-characterised by emotional suppression and the silent endurance of pain or hardship-has been linked to adverse health outcomes among cancer patients. Thus, further research is needed to understand the drawbacks of stoic attitudes in cancer patients. This scoping review aims to map stoic attitudes in cancer patients, particularly in relation to potential health consequences. The review adhered to Levac et al.'s framework for scoping reviews. A systematic search was conducted from five electronic databases: CINAHL, Emcare, Medline Ovid, Scopus, and Web of Science. Manual searches were conducted using Google and Google Scholar. A total of 955 records were identified, 526 were screened (title and abstracts), and 450 were excluded. After reviewing 76 full-text articles, 12 studies satisfied the inclusion criteria for data extraction and thematic analysis, consisting of five qualitative and seven quantitative studies. A time frame of 10 years was considered, ranging from 2014 to 2024. This scoping review revealed that pseudo-stoic attitudes in cancer patients often lead to emotional suppression, reduced social support, delayed help-seeking and poor management of symptoms such as pain. These attitudes were linked to poorer psychological outcomes and underreporting of symptoms, especially among older males and rural cancer patients. Studies found that stoic traits were sometimes associated with persistence and treatment adherence among cancer patients. Pseudo-stoicism hinders emotional expression and delays help-seeking, leading to adverse health outcomes; however, stoic attitudes are also associated with adaptive qualities, such as psychological endurance and a commitment to care. Therefore, it is vital to promote balanced coping strategies that honour resilience while encouraging open emotional engagement among cancer patients.
Exhaustion disorder: the genesis of a diagnosis that exists only in Sweden.
Svenaeus F
Med Health Care Philos · 2025 Dec · PMID 40828269 · Full text
In a scientific report published 2003 a psychiatric research group in Sweden proposed to the National Board of Health and Welfare that a new diagnosis with the name "exhaustion disorder" ("utmattningssyndrom") (ED) shoul...
In a scientific report published 2003 a psychiatric research group in Sweden proposed to the National Board of Health and Welfare that a new diagnosis with the name "exhaustion disorder" ("utmattningssyndrom") (ED) should be created in the Swedish diagnostic system. Two years later the board approved the proposal and the diagnosis was registred in the Swedish version of ICD-10. Since 2005 the prevalence of ED in Sweden has gradually increased and at the current date more than 40 000 people are on long-term sick leave as a result of the diagnosis. Interestingly, there is no corresponding medical diagnosis outside of Sweden, although patients in other countries are declared ill with similar symptoms, receiving other diagnoses, such as burnout, depression, acute stress or adjustment disorder. In this paper, the history of ED is told and an attempt is made to answer the question why it has come to exist and prevail in Sweden despite no evidence of validity. The analysis is performed by scrutinizing the criteria for the diagnosis and how it has been connected to the granting of sick leave in the Swedish social insurance system. In conjunction with this, a phenomenological analysis is provided of how ED has been named and interpreted in the Swedish society as a particular form of life-narrative pattern. This pattern of break-down and rebuild of a more in-tune-with-nature version of oneself in recovering from ED is found in Swedish popular culture, and it is supported by academic studies, self-help books and the strategies of rehabcenters.
Defining complementary and alternative medicine : Revisiting the Debate and Plea for a Strategy Based on Plausible Effectiveness.
Kremling A, Schildmann J
Med Health Care Philos · 2025 Dec · PMID 40802204 · Full text
Discourse about Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is also controversial in several respects, including terminology. Understanding and using the term 'CAM' precisely remains necessary in some discussions. This...
Discourse about Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is also controversial in several respects, including terminology. Understanding and using the term 'CAM' precisely remains necessary in some discussions. This article provides a contribution to a terminologically more reflected debate about CAM. Analytical methods are applied to analyse 'CAM' conceptually: reasons to define CAM are discussed, common definitions are critically analysed in light of argumentative plausibility, and typical conceptual needs in the debate about CAM are described. Based on this, an evidence definition of CAM is sketched. Complementary and alternative medicine is typically defined by positive attributes or (more usefully) by unconventionality. While the latter provides a viable definitional strategy, several questions remain regarding the logic and applicability. Attempts to improve CAM definitions should consider (a) presenting necessary and sufficient conditions, (b) separating 'complementary', 'alternative' and 'integrative', (c) understanding 'CAM' relative to specific diseases and (d) being explicit about possible changes of the CAM status. These requirements are used to develop a definition of CAM centring around the notion of probable specific effectiveness-a definitional strategy that might solve flaws in the current CAM discourse by spelling out some of the reasons why certain practices are not part of conventional treatment. The example of the cancer drug Imatinib serves to demonstrate the usefulness of focusing on plausibility of effectiveness instead of conventionality. Defining CAM in light of evidence properties might improve the debate. Independent of the terminological strategy pursued, articles and guidelines on CAM should at least reflect the implications and pros and cons of their own terminological decision. An evidence definition should be developed in detail.
Developing more inclusive approaches to animal research and patient involvement.
Azilagbetor DM, Davies G, Geneviève LD … +2 more , Shaw DM, Elger BS
Med Health Care Philos · 2025 Dec · PMID 40802203 · Full text
Doing scientific research with animals is a subject of intense societal debate, often involving polarized and public discussions with stakeholders and groups interested in animal research. Patients, given their medical c...
Doing scientific research with animals is a subject of intense societal debate, often involving polarized and public discussions with stakeholders and groups interested in animal research. Patients, given their medical conditions, have a high stake in biomedical research, including research involving animals. However, their perspectives are rarely heard in policy-related discussions on animal experiments. This essay discusses the positions and stakes of groups involved in public discourse and policy-relevant engagements. It further explores the legitimate interest of patients and the need for an all-inclusive approach to animal research policy. This subject is complex and democratic societies must address societal issues with an all-inclusive approach to reach policy decisions reflecting the interests of all stakeholders. The positions of groups-pro-animal research stakeholders and anti-animal-research advocates-with vested interests involved in animal research discourse considerably shape research policies. Animal research policies arguably affect patients. Through democratic ideals, inclusive approaches that are suitable for resolving science-driven societal issues, and initiatives currently guiding animal research policies, patients need to actively be involved in public discourses and policy-relevant decision-making processes in deciding the place of animal research in biomedical advancement as a society.
"Snip, snip, cure"? Philosophical, legal and biomedical perspectives on novel somatic genomic therapies.
Risse J, Pietrek L, Cantz T … +5 more , Krzemien M, Schnalke J, Eggenschwiler R, Heinemann T, Dederer HG
Med Health Care Philos · 2025 Sep · PMID 40788566 · Full text
The advent of innovative techniques, such as the CRISPR/Cas system, has opened up a new range of possibilities for modifying the genome, with the potential to address previously unmet therapeutic needs of patients with g...
The advent of innovative techniques, such as the CRISPR/Cas system, has opened up a new range of possibilities for modifying the genome, with the potential to address previously unmet therapeutic needs of patients with genetic diseases. These new possibilities have not only raised ethical concerns but also challenged existing classifications of genome modification techniques. While the legal status of some of these new therapies remains uncertain, there is an ongoing debate within philosophy of biology about the information-related metaphors adopted by scientists to describe and classify the genome and its therapeutic modification. Given the continuing advance of new genomic therapies, we show, employing an interdisciplinary approach, that a comprehensive framework for the classification of these technologies is needed to resolve legal and philosophical issues. The first section provides an analysis of the current state of novel genome-modifying techniques in medical genetics. In the second section, we assess the regulatory status of these techniques within the European regulatory framework for advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs). Drawing on these results, we argue in the third section from a philosophical perspective that metaphors, such as 'editing' the genome, which are based on a conception of the genome as linear information, cannot adequately capture the breadth of advanced genomic technologies. To accurately categorise these techniques in a manner that meets their diverse applications, we propose introducing the umbrella term 'somatic genomic therapies' (SGTs). Urging an integrative approach to defining and classifying new technologies in medical genetics, we advocate for the development of an integrative concept of SGTs.
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