Pär Segerdahl

Pär Segerdahl
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Editor the Ethics Blog & Etikbloggen
Pär Segerdahl investigates the often polarized ethical debate on embryonic stem cell research and explores more open-minded and contemplative ways of handling moral concerns about embryo destruction and donation for research. He holds a PhD in theoretical philosophy from Uppsala University (1993). He has previously investigated notions of nature and animals in animal ethics, animal welfare and philosophy, as well as in culture more generally. He was a guest researcher at the Centre for Gender Research at Uppsala University from 2007-2009, and 2013-2017 he worked part time there in the project “Becoming ‘human’: gender theory and animals in a more-than-human world.” Pär Segerdahl became associate professor of theoretical philosophy at Åbo Akademi University in 1998 and at Uppsala University in 2001. All his work concerns, in one way or another, the question what philosophy is and what it means to philosophize. Pär Segerdahl is involved in research communication for, among others, the Human Brain Project. He is the editor of The Ethics Blog and Etikbloggen.
E-mail: par.segerdahl@crb.uu.se
Phone: +46 18-471 61 72
PhD supervision
Pär Segerdahl on the Ethics Blog
- Encourage children to take responsibility for others? 2023-05-30
- When ordinary words get scientific uses 2023-05-16
- Resolving conflicts where they arise 2023-05-09
- Does the severity of an illness qualify the moral motivation to act? 2023-04-18
- The significance of the academic seminar 2023-04-11
- Ethical challenges when children with cancer are recruited for research 2023-03-28
- Digital biomarkers to test new drugs for mental health 2023-03-14
- Philosophers in democratic conversations about ethics, research and society 2023-03-07
- Longer hospital stays can worsen self-injurious behaviour 2023-02-21
- Misuse of co-authorship remains a problem despite educational measures 2023-01-31
ELSI-Service for BBMRI.se

We have run ELSI-Services for BBMRI.se (BioBanking and Molecular Resource Infrastructure of Sweden): a national effort for efficient and automated collection of biological material funded by the Swedish Research Council. Now replaced by Biobank Sweden.
Handling incidental findings

How should we handle incidental findings in biobank and -omics research? Jennifer Viberg Johansson's PhD project examined the arguments for and against disclosure of incidental findings.
Stem cell treatment of type 1 diabetes

We provide ethical and legal analysis and guidance on development of products for treating type 1 diabetes, using cells derived from human embryonic stem cells.
Neuroethics & Neurophilsophy

Any attempt at understanding how the mind and the brain work comes with a set of philosophical, ethical and social issues.
The Human Brain Project

The Human Brain Project is one of the European Community flagship projects and involves over 100 groups. Kathinka Evers leads the philosophical research.
Recent publications
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Debating Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Handling Moral Concerns More Gently
Part of Ethical Inquiries after Wittgenstein, p. 173-188, 2022.
DOI for Debating Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Handling Moral Concerns More Gently
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The Invisible Patient: Concerns about Donor Exploitation in Stem Cell Research
Part of Health Care Analysis, p. 240-253, 2022.
DOI for The Invisible Patient: Concerns about Donor Exploitation in Stem Cell Research Download full text (pdf) of The Invisible Patient: Concerns about Donor Exploitation in Stem Cell Research
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Intellectual Asceticism and Hatred of the Human, the Animal, and the Material
Part of Nordic Wittgenstein Review, p. 43-58, 2018.
DOI for Intellectual Asceticism and Hatred of the Human, the Animal, and the Material Download full text (pdf) of Intellectual Asceticism and Hatred of the Human, the Animal, and the Material
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Making sense of genetic risk: A qualitative focus-group study of healthy participants in genomic research
Part of Patient Education and Counseling, p. 422-427, 2018.
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Can an Ape Become Your Co-author?: Reflections on Becoming as a Presupposition of Teaching
Part of A Companion to Wittgenstein on Education, p. 539-553, 2017.
DOI for Can an Ape Become Your Co-author?: Reflections on Becoming as a Presupposition of Teaching
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Incidental Findings: The Time Is not yet Ripe for a Policy for Biobanks
Part of Ethics, Law and Governance of Biobanking, 2015.
Thinking about ethics
Why would a cancer patient agree to test a drug that might not be effective on their own disease? And are researchers responsible if their research can be used to develop biological weapons? This collection of texts might not provide the answers, but at least give you some food for thought.
Pär Segerdahl invites you on a journey through some of the issues that the Ethics Blog has dealt with in the recent years. He writes about researchers’ responsibilities, about participating in research and about information and integrity. But he also writes about ethics as such: What is it today, really? In this book you can read about data protection and population based biobank studies. But you can also read about apes writing articles and about the risk with knowing the risk.
This book contains a collection of Pär Segerdahl's posts from the Ethics Blog (ISBN: 978-91-506-2433-5). There is also a Swedish version of the book: Tänker om etik

Biobank and registry ethics & law
For many years, researchers at CRB have provided constructive advise on how to deal with ethical and legal aspects of research using human tissue material and personal data. We have collaborated with biomedical scientists and published our findings in peer reviewed journals. As a summary of this research we have compiled a list of publications with abstracts. We have grouped them thematically to help you find the ones you might be interested in reading. Our publications deal with ethical frameworks and policy, regulatory aspects of biobank and registry research, informed consent, ethical review, integrity concerns, trust, genetic testing, indicental findings, commercialization, public and patient perceptions, rare diseases, children & biobanks & genetics, and biobank studies.

Philosophy, talking apes and social media
Most of us know Pär Segerdahl from the Ethics Blog where he invites readers to philosophize about research regulation, the meaning of consent, human-animal relationships, and what it means to think. Find out what has to say about philosophy, talking apes and social media.
