colorful soap bubble bursting.

Introductory Editorial — Critical Psychedelic Studies: Correcting the Hype

By Neşe Devenot

Since the 2022 publication of “Preparing for the Bursting of the Psychedelic Hype Bubble,” a JAMA Psychiatry Viewpoint by David Yaden and colleagues, a wave of scholarship and commentaries has emphasized the ethical importance of nuanced science communication about the still-nascent field of psychedelic medicine.

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Concept illustration for changing laws: a pencil sketches half of the scales of justice.

Human Rights Report and Age of Consent for Sex Laws

By Katherine Drabiak

Recently, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) published a report advocating for significant revisions to criminal law, such as decriminalizing prostitution; intentional transmission of HIV; and purchasing and possessing drugs for personal use. Most notably, the report also calls to reexamine laws relating to consensual sexual conduct involving children under the age of majority and people with disabilities who ordinarily cannot “consent.”

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Flipping the Script: Adoption and Reproductive Justice

By Kimberly McKee

Adoption is a reproductive justice issue. Pretending otherwise ignores how adoption is used as a red herring in anti-abortion arguments. A recent invocation of this faulty logic occurred in Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s questions during the November 2021 oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Coney Barrett’s statements implied that the option to relinquish infants vis-à-vis adoption rendered abortion availability unnecessary. This line of thinking is one with which I am familiar, as both a Korean international, transracial adoptee, and a critical adoption studies scholar. 

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A Precautionary Approach to Touch in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy

By Neşe Devenot, Emma Tumilty, Meaghan Buisson, Sarah McNamee, David Nickles, and Lily Kay Ross

Amid accelerating interest in the use of psychedelics in medicine, a spate of recent exposés have detailed the proliferation of abuse in psychedelic therapy, underscoring the urgent need for ethical guidance in psychedelic-assisted therapies (P-AT), and particularly relating to touch and consent.

Acknowledging the need for such guidance, McLane et al. outline one set of approaches to touch in a recent Journal of Medical Ethics blog. However, we find their piece at odds with the available information in the fields of P-AT and psychotherapy. We explain three major concerns: consent and autonomy, risk mitigation, and evidence and reasoning. In our view, these concerns merit a precautionary approach to touch in P-AT, given the current state of research on touch-based interventions.

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