Abstract

Although this editorial will be published in the February 2025 issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics, I am writing it in the run up to the Christmas and the winter holidays, after a busy term, and this is, for some of us, a time to reflect on the past year (although as an academic the year is only half-way through!). It is also the journal’s 50th anniversary in 2025. This prompts further reflection, thinking about how and why the journal started, where its focus has been and what the future holds for both the journal and the field of medical ethics more broadly. Healthcare, those who work in it and the systems in which it is delivered, are facing pressures and challenges of huge global proportions, global conflict, the climate crisis and, in England, ongoing austerity all exacerbate existing health inequities. The stark disparities in healthcare access between the global south and north, and within countries such as the UK, raise profound questions of social justice. The JME has addressed many of these in articles and editorials over the years. As well as these current concerns, critical issues at the beginning and end of life are still as pertinent today as they were when the journal was first published in 1975. Looking at the running order for this issue, many of the papers consider issues and dilemmas that would have been familiar to …