OPIS publications and videos

• The Moral Blind Spot in AI Governance: Risks of Large-Scale Suffering written by David Veldran and Jonathan Leighton from OPIS, posted 8 July 2026
• A vision for building true peace in Israel-Palestine (Webinar panel discussion with 4 Israeli and Palestinian peace-builders, 17 January 2024, co-organised by OPIS)
  • Dr. Nimrod Rosler on the psychology of conflict & strategies to shift attitudes in Israel-Palestine (Presentation at a peace-building retreat in April 2024, co-organised by OPIS)
• Legalising Access to Psilocybin to End the Agony of Cluster Headaches (Policy paper, November 2020)
• A short story about cluster headaches (“suicide headaches”) (2-minute animated video for advocacy, 2020)
• Ending the Agony: Access to Morphine as an Ethical and Human Rights Imperative (Advocacy guide, March 2018)

Selected articles, references and videos related to OPIS’s mission

• Jonathan Leighton at EAGxAustralia 2023 – Unexpected Value: Prioritising the Urgency of Suffering (29-minute talk on a suffering-focused ethical framework at EAGxAustralia conference, Melbourne, 23 September 2023)
• Interviews with Jonathan Leighton by Adam Ford for his Science, Technology & the Future channel (at EAGxAustralia, Melbourne, 23 September 2023)
  • Part 1: OPIS, the primacy of suffering, ethical frameworks, asymmetry between happiness and suffering
  • Part 2: The Tango of Ethics, triage of suffering, engineering a utopia, compassionate governance
• The Battle for Compassion (20-minute film by Jonathan Leighton based on the book with this title, 2015)
• Sentientism podcast, Episode 185: “If you combine rationality & compassion you have the essence” – Jonathan Leighton @OPISOrg (2 February 2024)
• Transcending anger and blame: building a compassionate future for Israel and Palestine by Jonathan Leighton, OPIS
  • Part 1: OPIS, the primacy of suffering, ethical frameworks, asymmetry between happiness and suffering
  • Part 2: The Tango of Ethics, triage of suffering, engineering a utopia, compassionate governance
• For a compassionate rebellion against extinction by Jonathan Leighton, OPIS
• Thriving in the age of factory farming by Jonathan Leighton, OPIS
• Promoting compassionate longtermism by Jonathan Leighton, OPIS
• OPIS, a think-and-do tank for an ethic based on the prevention of suffering, interview with Jonathan Leighton, OPIS (English translation of an interview that originally appeared in French)
• Interests, preferences, pain and suffering by Manu Herrán, OPIS
• The Case for Suffering-Focused Ethics by Lukas Gloor
• Essays on Reducing Suffering by Brian Tomasik, co-founder and researcher at the Foundational Research Institute
• Suffering-Focused Ethics and The Principle of Sympathy for Intense Suffering by Magnus Vinding, author of Effective Altruism: How Can We Best Help Others?
• The Big Lie by Manu Herrán, OPIS (version française: Le grand mensonge)
• Why Access to Morphine is a Human Right by Jonathan Leighton, OPIS
• The Ethics of Impact by Jonathan Leighton, OPIS
• Suffering-Focused Ethics (SFE) Resources (last updated 2020)

Selected books related to OPIS’s mission

• The Tango of Ethics: Intuition, Rationality and the Prevention of Suffering (2023) by Jonathan Leighton, OPIS
• The Battle for Compassion: Ethics in an Apathetic Universe (2011) by Jonathan Leighton, OPIS
  • Chapter 9. Avoiding the Abyss (reflections on human, animal and non-biological suffering)
  • Chapter 6. Determinism: The Universe’s Marionette Show (reflections on the free will paradox: how can human beings really act freely in an apparently deterministic world of cause and effect?)
  • Chapter 7. The Illusion of Distinct Individual Identity (reflections on the nature of personal identity)
• Suffering-Focused Ethics: Defense and Implications (2020) by Magnus Vinding
• Reasoned Politics (2022) by Magnus Vinding
• The Hedonistic Imperative (1995), a web-based manifesto written by philosopher David Pearce, OPIS Advisor
• Avoiding the Worst: How to Prevent a Moral Catastrophe (2022) by Tobias Baumann
• Animal Liberation (1975) by Peter Singer, Professor of Philosopher at Princeton University and one of the world’s most influential ethicists (this book helped usher in the modern animal rights movement)
• Naître est-il dans l’intérêt de l’enfant? Idéologie de reproduction versus non-souffrance (2011) by Jean-Christophe Lurenbaum, OPIS (in French; English summary: Is Being Born in the Best Interest of the Child? The Ideology of Reproduction versus Non-Suffering)
• Seres que sienten (“Sentient beings”, in Spanish) (2019) by Manu Herrán, OPIS