Hello, my Name is Osamu “Sam” Muramoto

I am a retired neurologist, a perpetual student, and a researcher of bioethics and philosophy. This website is for introducing my work and blog, mainly on bioethics and related areas. 

My academic interests in bioethics and the philosophy of medicine are diverse and evolving. My general orientation in ethics and philosophy is more toward relational ethics, care ethics, and a moral particularist approach than a principle-based universal approach. Below is the list of past and current areas of interest, with the more recent first. 

• Philosophy of medical technology: co-constitution of technology and morality and prudential interest (postphenomenology) 

• Philosophy of disability: well-being of living with disability

• Brain death and informed consent: the possibility of opting out of being diagnosed as brain death and dying only with circulatory death

• End-of-life care of dementia: relational decision-making

• Retrospective diagnosis of historical famous individuals: ontological, epistemological, and ethical issues

• Temporal lobe epilepsy and Geschwind syndrome: philosophical issues surrounding Socrates

• Religiosity and brain (dys)function

• Religion-based refusal of beneficial treatment: case of Jehovah’s Witnesses