An ethical justification of profit maximization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Koch, Carsten Allan

2010-01-01

In much of the literature on business ethics and corporate social responsibility, it is more or less taken for granted that attempts to maximize profits are inherently unethical. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether an ethical argument can be given in support of profit maximizing...... behaviour. It is argued that some form of consequential ethics must be applied, and that both profit seeking and profit maximization can be defended from a rule-consequential point of view. It is noted, however, that the result does not apply unconditionally, but requires that certain form of profit (and...... utility) maximizing actions are ruled out, e.g., by behavioural norms or formal institutions....

Un-National Normative Justification for European Union Foreign Policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Manners, Ian

2011-01-01

The European Union's foreign policy has traditionally been described in terms of national, supranational or transnational interests rather than being justified in terms of normative political theory. As European Commissioner Bonino declared over a decade ago, such differentiation between...... descriptive interests and normative ethics is unsustainable in European Union (EU) foreign policy. What are needed are normative justifications that can help inform political choices about foreign policy in the EU's democratic political order. In other words, what are the un-national normative justifications...

Justification and authority in institutional review board decision letters.

Science.gov (United States)

Clapp, Justin T; Gleason, Katharine A; Joffe, Steven

2017-12-01

While ethnographic study has described the discussions that occur during human subjects research ethics review, investigators have minimal access to the interactions of ethics oversight committees. They instead receive letters stipulating changes to their proposed studies. Ethics committee letters are central to the practice of research ethics: they change the nature of research, alter the knowledge it produces, and in doing so construct what ethical research is and how it is pursued. However, these letters have rarely been objects of analysis. Accordingly, we conducted a qualitative analysis of letters written by American institutional review boards (IRBs) overseeing biomedical and health behavioral research. We sought to clarify how IRBs exercise their authority by assessing the frequency with which they provided reasons for their stipulations as well as the nature of these reasons. We found that IRBs frequently do not justify their stipulations; rather, they often leave ethical or regulatory concerns implicit or frame their comments as boilerplate language replacements, procedural instructions, or demands for missing information. When they do provide justifications, their rationales exhibit substantial variability in explicitness and clarity. These rhetorical tendencies indicate that the authority of IRBs is grounded primarily in their role as bureaucratic gatekeepers. We conclude by suggesting that greater attention to justification could help shift the basis of the IRB-researcher relationship from compliance to mutual accountability. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Ethics of Immunization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verweij, M.F.; Quah, S.R.; Cockerham, W.C.

2017-01-01

Collective immunization can be highly effective in protecting societies against infectious diseases, but policy decisions about both the character and the content of immunization policies require ethical justification. This article offers an overview of ethical aspects that should be taken into

Getting the justification for research ethics review right.

Science.gov (United States)

Dunn, Michael

2013-08-01

Dyck and Allen claim that the current model for mandatory ethical review of research involving human participants is unethical once the harms that accrue from the review process are identified. However, the assumptions upon which the authors assert that this model of research ethics governance is justified are false. In this commentary, I aim to correct these assumptions, and provide the right justificatory account of the requirement for research ethics review. This account clarifies why the subsequent arguments that Dyck and Allen make in the paper lack force, and why the 'governance problem' in research ethics that they allude to ought to be explained differently.

Dilemmas of Justification in the Qualitative Study of Intimate Matters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tersbøl, Britt Pinkowski

2010-01-01

This chapter focuses on the special obligation researchers have to consider carefully the ethical and moral aspects of their work when undertaking qualitative field research on intimate matters. The chapter argues that the term "justification" is central to a discussion of several dimensions...

Virtue ethics and nursing: on what grounds?

Science.gov (United States)

Newham, Roger A

2015-01-01

Within the nursing ethics literature, there has for some time now been a focus on the role and importance of character for nursing. An overarching rationale for this is the need to examine the sort of person one must be if one is to nurse well or be a good nurse. How one should be to live well or live a/the good life and to nurse well or be a good nurse seems to necessitate a focus on an agent's character as well as actions because character is (for the most part) expressed in action (e.g. see Laird). This paper will give an overview of the reasons for the role and importance of character in nursing practice and explain its relation to nursing's frequent use of virtue ethics in order to recommend caution. While the paper agrees that the role of character is important in nursing caution is needed in both how much moral and thus normative, emphasis is being placed on the psychology of character and on the drift to virtue ethics. The psychological which may be explanatory needs to be linked with the normative, and a justification for the normative is needed. A justification as virtue ethics is contested, and nursing practice does not need to take on this explanatory and justificatory burden. A tentative proposal raised but not discussed in depth in this paper is that when an ultimate explanation or explanatory ground is needed, nursing practice leads quite naturally to a form of consequentialism as well as a realist metaethic. On this account, there are two levels of moral thinking, and nursing practice entails the virtues at one level and leads quite naturally to moral thinking at another more critical level of the criterion of what makes something right and good independently of character. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Ethics for pandemics beyond influenza: Ebola, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and anticipating future ethical challenges in pandemic preparedness and response.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Maxwell J; Silva, Diego S

2015-01-01

The unprecedented outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa has raised several novel ethical issues for global outbreak preparedness. It has also illustrated that familiar ethical issues in infectious disease management endure despite considerable efforts to understand and mitigate such issues in the wake of past outbreaks. To improve future global outbreak preparedness and response, we must examine these shortcomings and reflect upon the current state of ethical preparedness. To this end, we focus our efforts in this article on the examination of one substantial area: ethical guidance in pandemic plans. We argue that, due in part to their focus on considerations arising specifically in relation to pandemics of influenza origin, pandemic plans and their existing ethical guidance are ill-equipped to anticipate and facilitate the navigation of unique ethical challenges that may arise in other infectious disease pandemics. We proceed by outlining three reasons why this is so, and situate our analysis in the context of the EVD outbreak and the threat posed by drug-resistant tuberculosis: (1) different infectious diseases have distinct characteristics that challenge anticipated or existing modes of pandemic prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery, (2) clear, transparent, context-specific ethical reasoning and justification within current influenza pandemic plans are lacking, and (3) current plans neglect the context of how other significant pandemics may manifest. We conclude the article with several options for reflecting upon and ultimately addressing ethical issues that may emerge with different infectious disease pandemics.

Steps to strengthen ethics in organizations: research findings, ethics placebos, and what works.

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Pope, Kenneth S

2015-01-01

Research shows that many organizations overlook needs and opportunities to strengthen ethics. Barriers can make it hard to see the need for stronger ethics and even harder to take effective action. These barriers include the organization's misleading use of language, misuse of an ethics code, culture of silence, strategies of justification, institutional betrayal, and ethical fallacies. Ethics placebos tend to take the place of steps to see, solve, and prevent problems. This article reviews relevant research and specific steps that create change.

The ethical challenges of animal research.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferdowsian, Hope R; Gluck, John P

2015-10-01

In 1966, Henry K. Beecher published an article entitled "Ethics and Clinical Research" in the New England Journal of Medicine, which cited examples of ethically problematic human research. His influential paper drew attention to common moral problems such as inadequate attention to informed consent, risks, and efforts to provide ethical justification. Beecher's paper provoked significant advancements in human research policies and practices. In this paper, we use an approach modeled after Beecher's 1966 paper to show that moral problems with animal research are similar to the problems Beecher described for human research. We describe cases that illustrate ethical deficiencies in the conduct of animal research, including inattention to the issue of consent or assent, incomplete surveys of the harms caused by specific protocols, inequitable burdens on research subjects in the absence of benefits to them, and insufficient efforts to provide ethical justification. We provide a set of recommendations to begin to address these deficits.

The principle of justification as a humanization of common sense. An approach to the ethics of medical indications with ionizing radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arranz y Carrillo de Albornoz, L.

2016-01-01

The great difficulty for the prescriber to select a correct diagnostic imaging strategy is the large number of available scanners (there are over 800). The choice should be based on an aphorism of great tradition in medicine: First Do No Harm. Unfortunately many of the scans requested are not justified. According to the SERAM, up to 30% of the tests requested do not provide relevant information and many could be avoided and therefore patients were unnecessarily exposed to radiation. There is, therefore, an ethical responsibility the prescribing physician and the specialist physician of performing the examination or treatment, as well as by all the involved staff. Given the international consensus about the evidence of the effects of ionizing radiation, the ICRP summarized the scientific basis of this consensus with ethical and social sense and proposed the Radiation Protection System whose first principle is the justification. This system is based, apart from the well established scientific evidence and experience, on universally shared ethical values. It is necessary that the physicians could base their decision making on a procedure with ionizing radiation by having good formation, good experience, the best scientific knowledge and, above all, taking account the patient, respecting him, listening him and seeking their good. [es

Is nuclear energy ethically justifiable?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zuend, H.

1988-01-01

Nuclear technology brings the chance to provide an essential long term contribution to the energy supply of the world population and to use the raw materials uranium and thorium which have no other use. The use of nuclear energy is ethically justifiable providing certain simple fundamental rules for the design of nuclear facilities are observed. Such rules were clearly violated before the reactor accident at Chernobyl. They are, however, observed in our existing nuclear power plants. Compared with other energy systems nuclear energy has, with the exception of natural gas, the lowest risk. The consideration of the ethical justification of nuclear energy must also include the question of withdrawal. A withdrawal would have considerable social consequences for the industrial nations as well as for the developing countries. The problem of spreading alarm (and concern) by the opponents of nuclear energy should also be included in the ethical justification. 8 refs., 2 figs

Ethical issues in sports medicine: a review and justification for ethical decision making and reasoning.

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Greenfield, Bruce H; West, Charles Robert

2012-11-01

Ethical issues present a challenge for health care professionals working with athletes of sports teams. Health care professionals-including the team physician, the physical therapist, and the athletic trainer-are faced with the challenge of returning an athlete to competition as quickly as possible but as safely as possible. Conflicts of interest arise due to conflicting obligations of the team physician to the athlete and other members of the sports organization, including coaches and the team owner. The multiple stakeholders involved in sports teams challenge the traditional notion of confidentiality and autonomy. The aims of this article are to explicate the ethics of sports medicine, highlight the ethical issues, and provide some strategies and suggestions for ethical decision making.

The original risk: overtheologizing ethics and undertheologizing sin.

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Müller, Denis

2007-01-01

The project of articulating a theological ethics on the basis of liturgical anthropology is bound to fail if the necessary consequence is that one has to quit the forum of critical modern rationality. The risk of Engelhardt's approach is to limit rationality to a narrow vision of reason. Sin is not to be understood as the negation of human holiness, but as the negation of divine holiness. The only way to renew theological ethics is to understand sin as the anthropological and ethical expression of the biblical message of the justification by faith only. Sin is therefore a secondary category, which can only by interpreted in light of the positive manifestation of liberation, justification, and grace. The central issue of Christian ethics is not ritual purity or morality, but experience, confession and recognition of our own injustice in our dealing with God and men.

On Engster's care-justification of the specialness thesis about healthcare.

Science.gov (United States)

Rumbold, Benedict

2017-08-01

To say health is 'special' is to say that it has a moral significance that differentiates it from other goods (cars, say or radios) and, as a matter of justice, warrants distributing it separately. In this essay, I critique a new justification for the specialness thesis about healthcare (STHC) recently put forth by Engster. I argue that, regrettably, Engster's justification of STHC ultimately fails and fails on much the same grounds as have previous justifications of STHC. However, I also argue that Engster's argument still adds something valuable to the debate around STHC insofar as it reminds us that the moral significance of healthcare may be wider than simply its effect on the incidence of disability and disease: one further reason we may think healthcare is morally significant is because it concerns the treatment and care of those who are already unwell. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Ethics by opinion poll? The functions of attitudes research for normative deliberations in medical ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Salloch, Sabine; Vollmann, Jochen; Schildmann, Jan

2014-09-01

Empirical studies on people's moral attitudes regarding ethically challenging topics contribute greatly to research in medical ethics. However, it is not always clear in which ways this research adds to medical ethics as a normative discipline. In this article, we aim to provide a systematic account of the different ways in which attitudinal research can be used for normative reflection. In the first part, we discuss whether ethical judgements can be based on empirical work alone and we develop a sceptical position regarding this point, taking into account theoretical, methodological and pragmatic considerations. As empirical data should not be taken as a direct source for normative justification, we then delineate different ways in which attitudes research can be combined with theoretical accounts of normative justification in the second part of the article. Firstly, the combination of attitudes research with normative-ethical theories is analysed with respect to three different aspects: (a) The extent of empirical data which is needed, (b) the question of which kind of data is required and (c) the ways in which the empirical data are processed within the framework of an ethical theory. Secondly, two further functions of attitudes research are displayed which lie outside the traditional focus of ethical theories: the exploratory function of detecting and characterising new ethical problems, and the field of 'moral pragmatics'. The article concludes with a methodological outlook and suggestions for the concrete practice of attitudinal research in medical ethics. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Justification of novel practices involving radiation exposure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Webb, G.; Boal, T.; Mason, C.; Wrixon, T.

2006-01-01

development of an IAEA Safety Report. Following the experience gained in preparing the report, this paper describes a systematic approach to obtaining the necessary inputs to making decisions on justification and illustrates its possible application to some of the more controversial proposals, including some examples based on past and recent regulatory decisions. The systematic approach requires: a precise identification of the practice and the legal persons responsible for the proposal; identification of the body responsible for the justification decision and clarification of its procedures; the characterisation of the practice, including assessment of the benefits and detriments, both radiation and others; evaluation of alternatives not involving radiation exposure; assessment of ethical and legal aspects; stakeholder involvement; and communication with all parties involved, including an analysis of the practice that puts the exposures in context

Justification of novel practices involving radiation exposure

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Webb, G. [Radiation Protection Consul tant, Brighton (United Kingdom); Boal, T.; Mason, C.; Wrixon, T. [International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)

2006-07-01

development of an IAEA Safety Report. Following the experience gained in preparing the report, this paper describes a systematic approach to obtaining the necessary inputs to making decisions on justification and illustrates its possible application to some of the more controversial proposals, including some examples based on past and recent regulatory decisions. The systematic approach requires: a precise identification of the practice and the legal persons responsible for the proposal; identification of the body responsible for the justification decision and clarification of its procedures; the characterisation of the practice, including assessment of the benefits and detriments, both radiation and others; evaluation of alternatives not involving radiation exposure; assessment of ethical and legal aspects; stakeholder involvement; and communication with all parties involved, including an analysis of the practice that puts the exposures in context.

Why should ethics approval be required prior to publication of health promotion research?

Science.gov (United States)

Newson, Ainsley J; Lipworth, Wendy

2015-12-01

Most academic journals that publish studies involving human participants require evidence that the research has been approved by a human research ethics committee (HREC). Yet journals continue to receive submissions from authors who have failed to obtain such approval. In this paper, we provide an ethical justification of why journals should not, in general, publish articles describing research that has no ethics approval, with particular attention to the health promotion context. Using theoretical bioethical reasoning and drawing on a case study, we first rebut some potential criticisms of the need for research ethics approval. We then outline four positive claims to justify a presumption that research should, in most instances, be published only if it has been undertaken with HREC approval. We present four justifications for requiring ethics approval before publication: (1) HREC approval adds legitimacy to the research; (2) the process of obtaining HREC approval can improve the quality of an intervention being investigated; (3) obtaining HREC approval can help mitigate harm; and (4) obtaining HREC approval demonstrates respect for persons. This paper provides a systematic and comprehensive assessment of why research ethics approval should generally be obtained before publishing in the health promotion context. So what? Journals such as the Health Promotion Journal of Australia have recently begun to require research ethics approval for publishing research. Health promotion researchers will be interested in learning the ethical justification for this change.

[Applying Ethics, Placating Ethics, or Applying ourselves to Ethics? A Critical View of Environmental Ethics as Applied Ethics].

Science.gov (United States)

Serani Merlo, Alejandro

2016-01-01

There is actually a pervasive tendency to consider environmental ethics and bioethics as specific cases pertaining to a supposed kind of ″applied ethics″. Application can be understood in two different meanings: a concrete sense, as in technical applications, and a psychological meaning, as when we mentally apply ourselves to a task. Ethics has been always thought as a practical knowledge, in a ″praxical″ sense and not in a ″poietic″ one. Ethics has to do with ″ends″ not with ″means″; in this sense ethics is ″useless″. Since ethics has to do with the ultimate meaning of things, ethical choices give meaning to all practical activities. In that sense ethics instead of being useless must be considered as ″over-useful″ (Maritain). Nowadays politics tend to instrumentalize ethics in order to political objectives. The consequence has been the reconceptualization of specific ethics as applied ethics. Environmental ethics and bioethics are then submitted to politics following the logic of technical applications. Environmental ethics and bioethics considered as applied ethics are at risk to becoming not only useless, but also meaningless.

Morality, ethics, and law: introductory concepts.

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Horner, Jennifer

2003-11-01

The purpose of this article is to differentiate morality, ethics, and law. Morality refers to a set of deeply held, widely shared, and relatively stable values within a community. Ethics as a philosophical enterprise involves the study of values, and the justification for right and good actions, as represented by the classic works of Aristotle (virtue ethics), Kant (duty-based ethics), and Bentham and Mill (utilitarian and consequentialist ethics). Applied ethics, in contrast, is the use of ethics principles (e.g., respect for autonomy, beneficence, and nonmaleficence, justice) in actual situations, such as in professional and clinical life. Finally, law is comprised of concrete duties established by governments that are necessary for maintaining social order and resolving disputes, as well as for distributing social resources according to what people need or deserve.

Evidence, Ethics & Social Policy Dilemmas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven I. Miller

1993-07-01

Full Text Available Within the philosophy of the social sciences, the relationship between evidence, ethics, and social policy is in need of further analysis. The present paper is an attempt to argue that while important social policies can, and perhaps ought to be, grounded in ethical theory, they are seldom articulated in this fashion due to the ambiguity surrounding the "evidence condition." Using a consequentialist-utilitarian framework, and a case study of a policy dilemma, the authors analyze the difficulties associated with resolving policy-based dilemmas which must appeal to evidential support as a justification for an ethical stand. Implication for the relevance of ethics to social policy formulation are discussed in detail.

The Labours of Hercules: Ethical Embodiment and an Erasmian Justification for Higher Education

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De Barros, Eric L.

2014-01-01

In the early 1990s, a popular American dorm-room poster luminously asserted crass materialism as "JUSTIFICATION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION". Self-consciously premised on the paradoxical success of my failure or failure of my success as a professor of Renaissance literature and culture, this essay draws on Erasmus's educational theory of…

The Exploration Ethic: Its Historical-Intellectual Basis. Outlook for Space (1980 - 2000)

Science.gov (United States)

Priscoli, J. D.; Marney, M.

1975-01-01

Principle components of the exploration ethic are discussed. Attempts were made to justify both the historical and intellectual aspects of the concept. It was noted that intellectual justification is strongly grounded on: (1) the complementarity of objective and normative inquiry as to method, and (2) interdisciplinary alliance of ethics of adaptive systems with contemporary decision sciences, as a theoretical basis. Historical exploration justification was associated with: (1) periods of civilization transition, (2) changes in the process of exploration which cause change in types of rationals used, sponsors involved, and explorers interest, and (3) the incorrectness of proven prior cost/benefit calculations.

The use of nonhuman animals in biomedical research: necessity and justification.

Science.gov (United States)

Francione, Gary L

2007-01-01

Discourse about the use of animals in biomedical research usually focuses on two issues: its empirical and moral use. The empirical issue asks whether the use of nonhumans in experiments is required in order to get data. The moral issue asks whether the use of nonhumans can be defended as matter of ethical theory. Although the use of animals in research may involve a plausible necessity claim, no moral justification exists for using nonhumans in situations in which we would not use humans.

Ethical fundamentals in human subjects research : On equipoise and human dignity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Graaf - Verhave, R.

2010-01-01

In her PhD thesis Rieke van der Graaf has studied how we can ethically justify human subjects research. In particular she has studied two ethical fundamentals that play a key role in the justification process, that of equipoise and human dignity. Equipoise is often taken to mean that

Liberal democracy and nuclear despotism: two ethical foreign policy dilemmas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas E. Doyle

2013-09-01

Full Text Available This article advances a critical analysis of John Rawls's justification of liberal democratic nuclear deterrence in the post-Cold War era as found in The Law of Peoples. Rawls's justification overlooked how nuclear-armed liberal democracies are ensnared in two intransigent ethical dilemmas: one in which the mandate to secure liberal constitutionalism requires both the preservation and violation of important constitutional provisions in domestic affairs, and the other in which this same mandate requires both the preservation and violation of the liberal commitment to international legal arrangements and to the rule of law generally. On this view, the choice to violate constitutional provisions and international legal arrangements is evidence of nuclear despotism. Moreover, this choice does not imply that the ethical foreign policy dilemmas were resolved. Instead, it implies that the dilemmas force liberal democratic governments into implementing ethically paradoxical policy outcomes.

Ethical issues in neonatal research involving human subjects.

Science.gov (United States)

Fleischman, Alan R

2016-06-01

Research involving critically ill neonates creates many ethical challenges. Neonatal clinical research has always been hard to perform, is very expensive, and may generate some unique ethical concerns. This article describes some examples of historical and modern controversies in neonatal research, discusses the justification for research involving such vulnerable and fragile patients, clarifies current federal regulations that govern research involving neonates, and suggests ways that clinical investigators can develop and implement ethically grounded human subjects research. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Familiar ethical issues amplified: how members of research ethics committees describe ethical distinctions between disaster and non-disaster research.

Science.gov (United States)

Tansey, Catherine M; Anderson, James; Boulanger, Renaud F; Eckenwiler, Lisa; Pringle, John; Schwartz, Lisa; Hunt, Matthew

2017-06-28

The conduct of research in settings affected by disasters such as hurricanes, floods and earthquakes is challenging, particularly when infrastructures and resources were already limited pre-disaster. However, since post-disaster research is essential to the improvement of the humanitarian response, it is important that adequate research ethics oversight be available. We aim to answer the following questions: 1) what do research ethics committee (REC) members who have reviewed research protocols to be conducted following disasters in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) perceive as the key ethical concerns associated with disaster research?, and 2) in what ways do REC members understand these concerns to be distinct from those arising in research conducted in non-crisis situations? This qualitative study was developed using interpretative description methodology; 15 interviews were conducted with REC members. Four key ethical issues were identified as presenting distinctive considerations for disaster research to be implemented in LMICs, and were described by participants as familiar research ethics issues that were amplified in these contexts. First, REC members viewed disaster research as having strong social value due to its potential for improving disaster response, but also as requiring a higher level of justification compared to other research settings. Second, they identified vulnerability as an overarching concern for disaster research ethics, and a feature that required careful and critical appraisal when assessing protocols. They noted that research participants' vulnerabilities frequently change in the aftermath of a disaster and often in unpredictable ways. Third, they identified concerns related to promoting and maintaining safety, confidentiality and data security in insecure or austere environments. Lastly, though REC members endorsed the need and usefulness of community engagement, they noted that there are significant challenges in a disaster

Poland: biomedical ethics in a socialist state.

Science.gov (United States)

Szawarski, Zbigniew

1987-06-01

In one of a Hastings Center Report series of four country reports, a professor of ethics discusses the Polish approach to ethical issues in health care. Szawarski begins by outlining five factors that influence the practice of medicine in Poland: a socialist form of government, the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, an ongoing economic crisis, the legacy of the Nazi death camps, and a lack of formal instruction in biomedical ethics. He then discusses three current ethical concerns of physicians, patients, and the public: regulation of physician conduct, abortion, and in vitro fertilization. There is little formal public debate of the issues, however, and physicians seem committed to upholding traditional medical codes of ethics without analyzing underlying moral principles and justifications.

The Argentine Approach to Radiation Safety: Its Ethical Basis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gonzalez, A.J.

2011-01-01

The ethical bases of Argentina's radiation safety approach are reviewed. The applied principles are those recommended and established internationally, namely: the principle of justification of decisions that alters the radiation exposure situation; the principle of optimization of protection and safety; the principle of individual protection for restricting possible inequitable outcomes of optimized safety; and the implicit principle of inter generational prudence for protection future generations and the habitat. The principles are compared vis-a-vis the prevalent ethical doctrines: justification vis-a-vis teleology; optimization vis-a-vis utilitarianism; individual protection vis-a-vis de ontology; and, inter generational prudence vis-a-vis aretaicism (or virtuosity). The application of the principles and their ethics in Argentina is analysed. These principles are applied to All exposure to radiation harm; namely, to exposures to actual doses and to exposures to actual risk and potential doses, including those related to the safety of nuclear installations, and they are harmonized and applied in conjunction. It is concluded that building a bridge among all available ethical doctrines and applying it to radiation safety against actual doses and actual risk and potential doses is at the roots of the successful nuclear regulatory experience in Argentina.

Health Care Professionals' Attitudes About Physician-Assisted Death: An Analysis of Their Justifications and the Roles of Terminology and Patient Competency.

Science.gov (United States)

Braverman, Derek W; Marcus, Brian S; Wakim, Paul G; Mercurio, Mark R; Kopf, Gary S

2017-10-01

Health care professionals (HCPs) are crucial to physician-assisted death (PAD) provision. To quantitatively assess the favorability of justifications for or against PAD legalization among HCPs, the effect of the terms "suicide" and "euthanasia" on their views and their support for three forms of PAD. Our questionnaire presented three cases: physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia for a competent patient, and euthanasia for an incompetent patient with an advance directive for euthanasia. Respondents judged whether each case was ethical and should be legal and selected their justifications from commonly cited reasons. The sample included physician clinicians, researchers, nonphysician clinicians, and other nonclinical staff at a major academic medical center. Of 221 HCPs, the majority thought that each case was ethical and should be legal. In order of declining favorability, justifications supporting PAD legalization were relief of suffering, right to die, mercy, acceptance of death, nonabandonment, and saving money for the health care system; opposing justifications were the slippery slope argument, unnecessary due to palliative care, killing patients is wrong, religious views, and suicide is wrong. The use of suicide and euthanasia terminology did not affect responses. Participants preferred physician-assisted suicide to euthanasia for a competent patient (P euthanasia for an incompetent patient to euthanasia for a competent patient (P euthanasia language did not bias HCPs against PAD, challenging claims that such value-laden terms hinder dialogue. More research is required to understand the significance of competency in shaping attitudes toward PAD. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Simulator justifications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fairchild, B.T.

1990-01-01

For several years, the authors have been convinced by overwhelming evidence that dynamic simulators are justified for many applications where acceptance has been slow. They speculate as to why this situation has existed and list many benefits that accrue to those who use simulators for training and other purposes. This paper along may be sufficient to convince a receptive approval chain of the value of simulator ownership. It is intended primarily as an aid and supporting document for those who find it necessary to build a detailed justification for a specific simulator acquisition. The purchase of a simulator requires justification. For new military aircraft and for spacecraft, a simulator for training and performance evaluation is virtually assumed, value having been proven many times over. for commercial aircraft, safety is the overwhelming justification. For nuclear power plants, government regulations require operators to be licensed by examination on a certified simulator. For other applications, including air traffic control, biomedical, communications, electronic power transmission and distribution, emergency engineering and management, fossil power plants, gaming land vehicles, manufacturing, maintenance, marine vehicles, process plants, weapons, etc

Ethical aspects of trade subject to risk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gethmann, C.F.

1987-01-01

The paper pleads for unrestricted use of the requirement of rational risk comparison. The ethical aspects of the problem are that human beings cannot help expecting certain people to take risks and others to forsake them. Expectation of risk requires an ethical justification. Consideration of justification has of course to originate from the fact that both readiness to accept risk and also the preference system are subject to strong subjective variations. Consequently, intercession has to be made to compare the definition of subjective probability (competitiveness) and a subjective preference matrix as the basis for a rational definition of risk. General liability results first due to the fact that consistency can be expected from each individual in relation to the readiness to accept risk expected of him. According to the requirement for consistency introduced here, a readiness to accept risk may be expected of an individual which is otherwise already accepted. (orig.) [de

Justification of medical exposures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ditto, M.

2009-01-01

Justification of practices using ionising radiation is one of the principles of radiation protection, in addition to optimisation and limitation of dose. This contribution overviews the legal und practical implementation of the principle of justification of medical exposures taking into account the Austrian situation in particular. (orig.)

The justification of studies in genetic epidemiology - political scaling in China Medical City.

Science.gov (United States)

Sleeboom-Faulkner, Margaret

2018-04-01

Genetic epidemiology examines the role of genetic factors in determining health and disease in families and in populations to help addressing health problems in a responsible manner. This paper uses a case study of genetic epidemiology in Taizhou, China, to explore ways in which anthropology can contribute to the validation of studies in genetic epidemiology. It does so, first, by identifying potential overgeneralizations of data, often due to mismatching scale and, second, by examining it's embedding in political, historical and local contexts. The example of the longitudinal cohort study in Taizhou illustrates dimensions of such 'political scaling'. Political scaling is a notion used here to refer to the effects of scaling biases in relation to the justification of research in terms of relevance, reach and research ethics. The justification of a project on genetic epidemiology involves presenting a maximum of benefits and a minimum of burden for the population. To facilitate the delineation of political scaling, an analytical distinction between donating and benefiting communities was made using the notions of 'scaling of relevance', 'scaling of reach' and 'scaling of ethics'. Political scaling results at least partly from factors external to research. By situating political scaling in the context of historical, political and local discourses, anthropologists can play a complementary role in genetic epidemiology.

Ethical review of research on human subjects at Unilever: reflections on governance.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheehan, Mark; Marti, Vernon; Roberts, Tony

2014-07-01

This article considers the process of ethical review of research on human subjects at a very large multinational consumer products company. The commercial context of this research throws up unique challenges and opportunities that make the ethics of the process of oversight distinct from mainstream medical research. Reflection on the justification of governance processes sheds important, contrasting light on the ethics of governance of other forms and context of research. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

THE ETHICS OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY IN TURKEY: RESPONSIBILITY AND CONSENT TO RISK

OpenAIRE

Artvinli, Fatih

2016-01-01

Work-related diseases, injuries, risks and deaths are the issues that have been recently gaining importance especially in developing countries. The ethical dimensions of occupational health and safety have remained as relatively understudied areas. Concepts such as responsibility, consent, autonomy, paternalism, choice, and certain values or justifications that are used in medical ethics and bioethics are also applicable to occupational health and safety. This article examines the ethical iss...

Body Dysmorphic Disorder: Contraindication or Ethical Justification for Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery in Adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Spriggs, Merle; Gillam, Lynn

2016-11-01

Is Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery for an adolescent with Body Dysmorphic Disorder ever ethically justified? Cosmetic genital surgery (specifically labioplasty) for adolescent girls is one of the most ethically controversial forms of cosmetic surgery and Body Dysmorphic Disorder is typically seen as a contraindication for cosmetic surgery. Two key ethical concerns are (1) that Body Dysmorphic Disorder undermines whatever capacity for autonomy the adolescent has; and (2) even if there is valid parental consent, the presence of Body Dysmorphic Disorder means that cosmetic surgery will fail in its aims. In this article, we challenge, in an evidence-based way, the standard view that Body Dysmorphic Disorder is a contraindication for genital cosmetic surgery in adolescents. Our argument gathers together and unifies a substantial amount of disparate research in the context of an ethical argument. We focus on empirical questions about benefit and harm, because these are ethically significant. Answers to these questions affect the answer to the ethical question. We question the claim that there would be no benefit from surgery in this situation, and we consider possible harms that might be done if treatment is refused. For an adolescent with Body Dysmorphic Disorder, the most important thing may be to avoid harm. We find ourselves arguing for the ethical justifiability of cosmetic labioplasty for an adolescent with Body Dysmorphic Disorder, even though we recognize that it is a counter intuitive position. We explain how we reached our conclusion. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Role of Ethics Committees and Ethics Consultation in Allocation Decisions

Science.gov (United States)

Strech, Daniel; Hurst, Samia; Danis, Marion

2013-01-01

Background Decisions about the allocation and rationing of medical interventions likely occur in all health care systems worldwide. So far very little attention has been given to the question of what role ethics consultation and ethics committees could or should play in questions of allocation at the hospital level. Objectives and Methods This article argues for the need for ethics consultation in rationing decisions using empirical data about the status quo and the inherent nature of bedside rationing. Subsequently, it introduces a 4-stage process for establishing and conducting ethics consultation in rationing questions with systematic reference to core elements of procedural justice. Results Qualitative and quantitative findings show a significant demand for ethics consultation expressed directly by doctors, as well as additional indirect evidence of such a need as indicated by ethically challenging circumstances of inconsistent and structurally disadvantaging rationing decisions. To address this need, we suggest 4 stages for establishing and conducting ethics consultation in rationing questions we recommend: (1) training, (2) identifying actual scarcity-related problems at clinics, (3) supporting decision-making, and (4) evaluation. Conclusion This process of ethics consultation regarding rationing decisions would facilitate the achievement of several practical goals: (i) encouragement of an awareness and understanding of ethical problems in bedside rationing, (ii) encouragement of achieving efficiency along with rationing, (iii) reinforcement of consistency in inter- and intraindvidual decision-making, (iv) encouragement of explicit reflection and justification of the prioritization criteria taken into consideration, (v) improvement in internal (in-house) and external transparency, and (vi) prevention of the misuse of the corresponding consulting structures. PMID:20706163

The ethics of 'public understanding of ethics'--why and how bioethics expertise should include public and patients' voices.

Science.gov (United States)

Schicktanz, Silke; Schweda, Mark; Wynne, Brian

2012-05-01

"Ethics" is used as a label for a new kind of expertise in the field of science and technology. At the same time, it is not clear what ethical expertise consists in and what its political status in modern democracies can be. Starting from the "participatory turn" in recent social research and policy, we will argue that bioethical reasoning has to include public views of and attitudes towards biomedicine. We will sketch the outlines of a bioethical conception of "public understanding of ethics," addressing three different issues: (a) the methodological relevance of moral questions and problems raised by lay persons in everyday life regarding biomedicine and technology, (b) the normative relevance of such lay moralities for the justification of ethical decisions, and (c) the necessity of public deliberation in this context. Finally, we draw conclusions in view of the concepts and methods such a conception of "public understanding of ethics" should employ.

Ethics and Cost-Benefit Analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arler, Finn

The purpose of this research report is threefold. Firstly, the author traces the origins and justification of cost-benefit analysis in moral and political philosophy. Secondly, he explain some of the basic features of cost-benefit analysis as a planning tool in a step-bystep presentation. Thirdly......, he presents and discusses some of the main ethical difficulties related to the use of cost-benefit analysis as a planning tool....

A preliminary declaration of sustainability ethics: making peace with the ultimate bioexecutioner

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Cairns Jr.

2003-05-01

Full Text Available Sustainability is a utopian vision that requires living harmoniously with nature, which will exact harsh penalties on species that exceed Earth's carrying capacity and violate nature's laws. To make this vision a reality, humankind needs a global ethical consensus on sustainable use of the planet - sustainability ethics. Sustainability ethics has the goal of developing a sustainable, mutualistic relationship between humankind and the interdependent web of life that serves as Earth's ecological life support system. The quest for sustainable use of the planet is a value judgment that has more than one component. Arguably, the most important is increased attention to and compassion for posterity's quality of life, in short, leaving a habitable planet for future generations. This requires leaving natural capital and the ecosystem serves it provides undiminished at the least and increased at best. Although material possessions can be left to direct descendants, protecting the planet's ecological life support system must not only be for all of humankind's descendants but those of the 30+ million other species with which we share the planet. This is difficult because the recipients are distance (as individuals both temporally and spatially. Therefore, this quest will not be realised until an agreement emerges on the values and attitudes necessary to make sustainbility a reality. Science can then develop the standards and criteria necessary to reach this goal. In view of present unsustainable practices, a basis ethical consensus is necessary to develop sustainable practices.

Ethical and legal analyses of policy prohibiting tobacco smoking in enclosed public spaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Oriola, Taiwo A

2009-01-01

A spate of legislations prohibiting cigarette smoking in enclosed public spaces, mainly on grounds of public health protection, recently swept across cities around the world. This is in tandem with a raft of increasingly restrictive national laws that emerged on the back of the ratification of the WHO Framework for Tobacco Control by more than one 168 countries in 2005. The central debate on the increasingly restrictive tobacco laws revolves on the extent to which public health interests justification should ground political intervention in a private right as basic as tobacco smoking, which interestingly is often lumped in the food and beverage category. The pertinent legal and ethical questions therefore are the following: Is or should there be a general unrestricted right to tobacco smoking? If there were such a right, should public health or ethical considerations trump private right to smoke in enclosed public spaces? And if public health interests were so paramount, should they go farther and ground tobacco smoking proscription in all private and public spheres? Using ethical principles and rights-based arguments, the paper critically examines the legal and ethical ramifications of public health justification for tobacco smoking proscription in enclosed public spaces.

Students' Problem Solving and Justification

Science.gov (United States)

Glass, Barbara; Maher, Carolyn A.

2004-01-01

This paper reports on methods of students' justifications of their solution to a problem in the area of combinatorics. From the analysis of the problem solving of 150 students in a variety of settings from high-school to graduate study, four major forms of reasoning evolved: (1) Justification by Cases, (2) Inductive Argument, (3) Elimination…

Ethical problems in clinical psychopharmacology.

Science.gov (United States)

Müller-Oerlinghausen, B

1978-10-01

The present article originates from some intriguing problems which the author, working as a clinical pharmacologist and psychiatrist, was faced with during clinical investigations. Practical difficulties appearing at first glance as of a rather methodological nature often reveal themselves as ethical questions. Investigation of psychotropic drugs in normal volunteers as well as in psychiatric patients is taken as a model to exemplify certain fundamental ethical aspects of medical research. It is emphasized that the "solution" of ethical problems cannot be achieved by referring to a given code of norms which themselves depend on certain historical circumstances, but rather by recognizing and reasoning the conflicts which result from various moral maxims. Clinical psychopharmacology should not only be conscious of its methodological shortcomings and future goals but also accept the justification of discussions about the ethical and legal questions involved in its dealings and take an active part in these debates. With regard to the relationship between patient and investigator, "solidarity" [23] instead of ongoing paternalism or legal formalism, appears to be a realistic goal. This is also true in the area of psychopharmacological research.

Being Ethically Minded: Practising the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in an Ethical Manner

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ruth L. Healey

2013-09-01

case study that illustrates the complexity of ethical issues in SoTL. The Ethical SoTL Matrix is a flexible framework designed to support SoTL practitioners, particularly in the formative stages of their inquiries. Three dominant ethical traditions form the basis of the matrix: teleological or pragmatic, external, and deontological. The key message of the paper is that SoTL practitioners should reflect on different perspectives in their efforts to do what is right in any given situation. The matrix introduces three dominant ethical traditions, but SoTL practitioners may ultimately move beyond these traditions to explore a range of ethical considerations appropriate to their projects and disciplines.

Ethics-sensitivity of the Ghana national integrated strategic response plan for pandemic influenza.

Science.gov (United States)

Laar, Amos; DeBruin, Debra

2015-05-07

Many commentators call for a more ethical approach to planning for influenza pandemics. In the developed world, some pandemic preparedness plans have already been examined from an ethical viewpoint. This paper assesses the attention given to ethics issues by the Ghana National Integrated Strategic Plan for Pandemic Influenza (NISPPI). We critically analyzed the Ghana NISPPI's sensitivity to ethics issues to determine how well it reflects ethical commitments and principles identified in our review of global pandemic preparedness literature, existing pandemic plans, and relevant ethics frameworks. This paper reveals that important ethical issues have not been addressed in the Ghana NISPPI. Several important ethical issues are unanticipated, unacknowledged, and unplanned for. These include guidelines on allocation of scarce resources, the duties of healthcare workers, ethics-sensitive operational guidelines/protocols, and compensation programs. The NISPPI also pays scant attention to use of vaccines and antivirals, border issues and cooperation with neighboring countries, justification for delineated actions, and outbreak simulations. Feedback and communication plans are nebulous, while leadership, coordination, and budgeting are quite detailed. With respect to presentation, the NISPPI's text is organized around five thematic areas. While each area implicates ethical issues, NISPPI treatment of these areas consistently fails to address them. Our analysis reveals a lack of consideration of ethics by the NISPPI. We contend that, while the plan's content and fundamental assumptions provide support for implementation of the delineated public health actions, its consideration of ethical issues is poor. Deficiencies include a failure to incorporate guidelines that ensure fair distribution of scarce resources and a lack of justification for delineated procedures. Until these deficiencies are recognized and addressed, Ghana runs the risk of rolling out unjust and ethically

Limits Legal Ethics of Biotechnology in XXI Century

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melissa Cabrini Morgato

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The present paper discusses the ethical and legal consequences of developments in biotechnological science, with a focus on the field of genetic engineering. We classify situations originating from developments in biotechnological science depending on their ethical and legal justification, based on Habermas’ reflections in his work “The future of human nature”, and differentiate between negative eugenics, representing ethically and legally justified situations, given their therapeutic potential of bringing benefits to human beings; and positive eugenics, describing situations, which are not justified by Ethics and Law, since they represent risks for the ethical self-understanding of the human species and are also incompatible with the imperative nature of human life protection, which is struc- tured by the Ibero-American constitutional states. We conclude that all moral judgments must follow the principle of human dignity as a major guideline, because the prevention of harmful practices against human beings requires, apart from legal and ethical rules, the responsibility to exclusively employ technologies for therapeutic purposes and to impede that the consumer society and its by-products completely artificialize the human nature.

Application of the principles of justification and optimisation to products causing public exposure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fleishman, A.B.; Wrixon, A.D.

1980-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to explore the practical incorporation of the ICRP principles of justification and optimisation into a policy designed to control radioactive consumer products. ICRP recommends the use of cost benefit analysis and differential cost benefit analysis for justification and optimisation respectively, and expresses these procedures in simple mathematical forms. This might suggest that their application should involve quantification and therefore be objective. The problems which arise in such quantification are discussed. These include the derivation of a market demand curve for a given product and its adjustment to remove any distortion of perceived value or risk produced by advertising; the costing of detriment to those who receive no benefit (e.g., as a consequence of uncontrolled disposal); and the costs of the analyses themselves. Furthermore, both cost benefit and differential cost benefit analyses are dependent on availability of market and performance data. This is incompatible with prior approval schemes in which a decision must be made before the product is distributed. Ultimately criteria for product justification must therefore be based on judgements on the acceptability of risk that are political rather than scientific in nature. Optimisation must initially be carried out on an intuitive basis. However as experience is gained with similar products the opportunity for more formal optimisation and the setting of radiological protection standards arise. This requires further value judgements which are illustrated with reference to examples. (author)

The Ethical Justification of the Thesis that Separates Law from Morality Through John Austin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Galvão Rabelo

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The british legal philosopher John Austin stands at the threshold of the evolution of the legal positivist tradition. His work, which dates back to the first half of the 19th century, was especially important to establish the basic elements of this school of legal understanding. Among his contributions to the legal positivist doctrine, lies the creation of the thesis that separates morality from law. Under an ethical context, however, John Austin was an ardent utilitarian who defended the use of the principle of utility as the only rational criteria for the unveiling of superior moral standards (divine laws. Considering both dimensions of his understanding, it has long been wondered if his utilitarian ethics have influenced, somehow, his legal theory, especially in regards to the separation thesis. Said thesis, which is in the center of the legal positivist tradition, has been interpreted in different ways in contemporary legal debate. A particular branch, called ethical positivism, opened new perspectives to the study of this tradition, defending the legal positivism theory as a morally satisfactory theoretical model for the contemporary legal systems. Hence, using the main premise of ethical positivism (which states that there are moral reasons to defend the separation thesis as an interprative and methodological tool, this paper plans on revisiting the link between John Austins legal and ethical convictions, in order to comprehend what were the moral reasons which led him to defend the separation of what law is and what it should be.

A Reply to the Current Critiques Formulated Against Hoppe's Argumentation Ethics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marian Eabrasu

2009-03-01

Full Text Available This article responds to current critiques directed against Hoppe’s justification by performative contradiction of the self-ownership axiom. Maintaining that ethics should be grounded on sound principles, Hoppe observes that only self-ownership can pass the test of performative contradiction. From this idea, he concludes that only libertarianism (the ethical system grounded on the axiom of self-ownership can be justified. Any other ethic is self-defeating. An important debate in ethics was stimulated by numerous critiques formulated against the performative contradiction and more precisely against the use that Hoppe makes of it in justifying libertarianism. Without endorsing Hoppe’s argumentation, this article prevents some common misunderstandings, systemizes the types of critiques and thoroughly replies to them.

Ethics of international clinical research collaboration - the experience of AlloStem.

Science.gov (United States)

Chaplin, C

2006-02-01

This paper examines the ethics of international clinical collaboration in stem cell research by focusing on the AlloStem project. AlloStem is an international research programme, financed by the European Union under the Sixth Framework Programme, with the aim of advancing the use of stem cells in treating leukaemia and other haematological diseases. Several areas of ethical importance are explored. Research justification and the need to consider both deontological and teleological aspects are examined. Ethical sensitivity in research and the requirement to respond to areas of ethical concern identified by the European Commission, such as the involvement of human beings, the use of human tissue, and the use of animals are also explored. Ethical issues around project structure and management, such as ethical standardization in international research, and achieving set targets are discussed. The ethical importance of dissemination of findings and teaching in clinical research is also considered. Finally, the distribution of benefits is addressed and the importance of distributive justice is emphasized.

16 CFR 240.15 - Cost justification.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 16 Commercial Practices 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Cost justification. 240.15 Section 240.15 Commercial Practices FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION GUIDES AND TRADE PRACTICE RULES GUIDES FOR ADVERTISING ALLOWANCES AND OTHER MERCHANDISING PAYMENTS AND SERVICES § 240.15 Cost justification. It is no defense to a...

Patient prioritization in medical emergencies: an ethical analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Fortes, Paulo Antônio de Carvalho; Pereira, Patricia Cristina Andrade

2012-01-01

To identify and analyze, in the light of ethical considerations, the choices and justifications of public health professionals in hypothetical situations of patient prioritization in circumstances of limited resources during emergency medical care. Qualitative and quantitative study, carried out through interviews with 80 public health professionals, graduate students (MSc and PhD students) in public health who were faced with hypothetical situations involving the criteria of gender, age, and responsibility, asked to choose between alternatives that referred to the existence of people, equally submitted to life-threatening situations, who needed care in an emergency department. The choices prioritized children, young individuals, women, and married women, with decision-making invoking the ethical principles of vulnerability, social utility, and equity. The study shows a clear tendency to justify the choices that were made, guided by utilitarian ethics.

Justification and the Role of Technology and Algorithms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frush, D.P.

2015-01-01

Justification of the use of ionizing radiation is one of the pillars of radiation protection, including in medical practice. While there are often clear justifications for performing diagnostic imaging examinations, there are many situations in which justification is more arguable. Determining what is justified is an extremely complicated aspect of medical practice as it potentially involves multiple health care providers, with varying levels of experience, anecdotal based decision making and a broad variety of other forces. It is beyond the intent of this paper to fully dissect this aspect of justification in medical imaging. However, there are tools that are becoming available for improving evidence based medicine, including decision rules, practice guidelines and appropriateness criteria, and point-of-care decision support. Many of these advancements are becoming embedded in electronic health care systems. The following material will present background information, define some of the terminology involved in ‘algorithms’ for improving justification, address the current status, provide some of the challenges in implementing models for improved justification of medical imaging, and present some of the current needs. (author)

Paternalistic breaches of confidentiality in prison: mental health professionals' attitudes and justifications.

Science.gov (United States)

Elger, Bernice Simone; Handtke, Violet; Wangmo, Tenzin

2015-06-01

This manuscript presents mental health practitioners' (MHPs) practice, attitudes and justifications for breaching confidentiality when imprisoned patients disclose suicidal thoughts or abuse by others. 24 MHPs working in Swiss prisons shared their experiences regarding confidentiality practices. The data were analysed qualitatively and MHPs' attitudes and course of action were identified. Analysis revealed paternalistic breaches of confidentiality. When patients reported suicidal thoughts and abuse, MHPs believed that forgoing confidentiality is necessary to protect patients, providing several justifications for it. Patients were informed that such information will be transmitted without their consent to medical and non-medical prison personnel. With reference to suicidal attempts, MHPs resorted to methods that may reduce suicidal attempts such as transfer to hospital or internal changes in living arrangements, which would require provision of certain information to prison guards. In cases of abuse, some MHPs convinced patients to accept intervention or sometimes overrode competent patients' refusals to report. Also in the case of abuse, provision of limited information to other prison personnel was seen as an acceptable method to protect patients from further harm. Breaches of confidentiality, whether limited or full, remain unethical, when used for competent patients based solely on paternalistic justifications. Institutionalising ethical and legal procedures to address suicidal and abuse situations would be helpful. Education and training to help both medical and prison personnel to respond to such situations in an appropriate manner that ensures confidentiality and protects patients from suicide and abuse are necessary. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Diagnosis of autism, abortion and the ethics of childcare in Yoruba culture.

Science.gov (United States)

Fayemi, Ademola Kazeem

2014-01-01

This paper examines the ethics of childcare in Yoruba culture in the contexts of autism and abortion. The traditional Yoruba moral principles of ibikojuibi (equality of humans at birth) and ajowapo (solidarity) have been theoretically developed to establish the personhood of autistic children and provide a justification for not aborting foetuses with autism. Despite these justifications, this paper argues that there is a need for contextual rethinking, which would allow for: (i) prenatal genetic testing, as well as abortion of foetuses with a high risk of the autism mutation, and (ii) early clinical diagnosis and treatment of autistic children in contemporary Yoruba society.

Classical ethical positions and their relevance in justifying behavior: A model of prescriptive attribution.

OpenAIRE

Witte, E.H.

2002-01-01

This paper separates empirical research on ethics from classical research on morality and relates it to other central questions of social psychology and sociology, e.g., values, culture, justice, attribution. In addition, reference is made to some founding studies of ethical research and its historical development. Based on this line of tradition the development of prescriptive attribution research is introduced, which concentrates on the justification of actions by weighting the importance o...

The justification of a medical exposure - Who does it?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marsden, P.J.; Hardwick, J.; McHugh, K.

2001-01-01

It is widely acknowledged that the use of ionising radiation in medical exposures must be justified, but it has often been difficult to determine who makes that justification, and who is responsible for it. New legislation introduced in the UK following the European Union Medical Exposures Directive makes it necessary to ensure that justification takes place and to ensure that the individuals responsible for it are identified and are adequately trained. This paper presents an approach to justification which minimises the need for extra training by focussing responsibility for justification on professionals who have gained sufficient knowledge as part of their specialisation. By acknowledging the role of radiographers in the justification process and allowing them flexibility in their judgement, it is proposed that the justification process will become more robust and should screen out inappropriate referrals more effectively. (author)

Ethical issues related to professional exposure of pregnant women in the medical field: monitoring and limiting effective dose.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, J A M; Nunes, R

2011-03-01

The International Commission on Radiological Protection recommendations for occupational exposed pregnant women do not imply necessarily the complete avoidance of work with radiation or radioactive materials. Instead, a careful review of the exposure conditions, once the pregnancy is declared, as part of the exercise of the ICRP optimisation principle (based in a teleological ethics point of view) is suggested. The dose limitation (following a deontological ethics point of view) of the fetus/embryo is, however, not clearly well established as happens in the case of workers or members of the public. Also, the justification of practices (to continue to work or not with radiation or radioactive materials) is not clearly addressed in most national or international recommendations. An analysis of this justification (bearing in mind both teleological and deontological ethics) is examined in this work having in mind the best interest of the child-to-be as well as other existing social and economical factors.

Ethical issues related to professional exposure of pregnant women in the medical field: Monitoring and limiting effective dose

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santos, J. A. M.; Nunes, R.

2011-01-01

The International Commission on Radiological Protection recommendations for occupational exposed pregnant women do not imply necessarily the complete avoidance of work with radiation or radioactive materials. Instead, a careful review of the exposure conditions, once the pregnancy is declared, as part of the exercise of the ICRP optimisation principle (based in a teleological ethics point of view) is suggested. The dose limitation (following a deontological ethics point of view) of the fetus/embryo is, however, not clearly well established as happens in the case of workers or members of the public. Also, the justification of practices (to continue to work or not with radiation or radioactive materials) is not clearly addressed in most national or international recommendations. An analysis of this justification (bearing in mind both teleological and deontological ethics) is examined in this work having in mind the best interest of the child-to-be as well as other existing social and economical factors. (authors)

Law and ethics of strikes in the Nigerian health system | Mcfubara ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Despite that health services are essential, health sector strikes have continued. The purpose here was to examine the legal and ethical justification of strikes in the Nigerian health sector. Documentary analysis and literature reviews were carried out. It was found that the Trade Disputes Act and the National Health Act do not ...

Ethical issues, justification, referral criteria for budget limited and high-dose procedures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Corbett, R.H.

2008-01-01

This paper reviews some of the issues connected with questions of ethics, health economics, radiation dose and referral criteria arising from a workshop held under the auspices of the Sentinel Research Program FP6-012909. An extensive bibliography of further reading is included. (authors)

The Problem of Whistleblowing in Engineering Ethics

Science.gov (United States)

Ohishi, Toshihiro

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the features of whistleblowing by considering the arguments about whistleblowing in engineering ethics. First, I analyze the concept of ‘whistleblowing’ by defining the word as clearly as possible. Second, I examine the standard justification theory of whistleblowing by showing the problems of the theory. Finally, I analyze the dilemma about whistleblowing by revealing a prospective whistleblower‧s struggle to choose moral value or non-moral value.

Law and ethics in conflict over confidentiality?

Science.gov (United States)

Dickens, B M; Cook, R J

2000-09-01

Ethical principles that require the preservation of patients' confidential information are reinforced by principles found in several areas of law, such as law on contracts, negligence, defamation and fiduciary duty. However, laws sometimes compel disclosures of medical confidences, and more often may justify or excuse disclosures. Legally contentious issues concern patients' confidences regarding possible unlawful conduct, such as pregnancy termination, and the risk of spread of HIV and other infections. This article reviews the various legal bases of the duty of confidentiality, and legal challenges to the ethical obligation of non-disclosure. It addresses the justifications and limits of exchange of patients' health information among healthcare professionals and trainees, and considers legally recognized limits of confidential duties, and the scope of legitimate disclosure. An underlying theme is how to determine whether physicians are ethically justified in employing the discretion the law sometimes affords them to breach patients' expectations of confidentiality.

Justification and optimization in radiation protection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beninson, D.

1980-01-01

Two requirements of the system recommended by the ICRP for radiation protection are discussed: 1) justification of practices involving radiation exposures and 2) optimization of the level of protection for such practices. The ICRP recommended the use of cost-benefit analysis in justification and optimization. The application of cost-benefit analysis and the quantification of the radiation detriment are also discussed. (H.K.)

Ethics in psychiatry: a framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Lolas, Fernando

2006-10-01

Defining bioethics as the rational use of dialogue in the formulation, justification, and application of ethical principles, with the aim ofgenerating good practices in research, clinical practice, and advocacy, this paper focuses on methods for bioethical deliberation relevantto psychiatry. Stressing that bioethics fuses the two main ethical traditions in Western thought, the deontological and the teleological, thepaper emphasizes the three conditions that any intervention, if considered in the context of bioethics, should fulfil: it should be appropriateto the problem at hand, it should be good (in the sense that it does good to those who receive it but also to those who perform it),and it should be just (in the sense that its outcomes can be generalized to the whole of society). Some implications of these notions for thepractice and teaching of psychiatry are presented.

Ethics of the humanitarian intervention

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Savić Mile

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The main subject of this paper are the ethical aspects of humanitarian military intervention. Author shows the weaknesses and difficulties of consequentialistic and deontological justification of humanitarian intervention. He points to the impossibility of a coherent moral theory of humanitarian intervention and argues that the humanitarian interventions of the nineties of the 20th century do not compliance just war. In his opinion, they represent an attempt of the quasi moral masking the real politics which lead the most powerful states in order to protect their national interests. .

Empirical ethics, context-sensitivity, and contextualism.

Science.gov (United States)

Musschenga, Albert W

2005-10-01

In medical ethics, business ethics, and some branches of political philosophy (multi-culturalism, issues of just allocation, and equitable distribution) the literature increasingly combines insights from ethics and the social sciences. Some authors in medical ethics even speak of a new phase in the history of ethics, hailing "empirical ethics" as a logical next step in the development of practical ethics after the turn to "applied ethics." The name empirical ethics is ill-chosen because of its associations with "descriptive ethics." Unlike descriptive ethics, however, empirical ethics aims to be both descriptive and normative. The first question on which I focus is what kind of empirical research is used by empirical ethics and for which purposes. I argue that the ultimate aim of all empirical ethics is to improve the context-sensitivity of ethics. The second question is whether empirical ethics is essentially connected with specific positions in meta-ethics. I show that in some kinds of meta-ethical theories, which I categorize as broad contextualist theories, there is an intrinsic need for connecting normative ethics with empirical social research. But context-sensitivity is a goal that can be aimed for from any meta-ethical position.

Editorial: Ethics approval: responsibilities of journal editors, authors ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Meaningful progress of medicine depends on research that must ultimately involve human subjects. Obtaining ethical approval therefore, especially in medical sciences, should be a moral reflex for researchers. This unfortunately is not the case, with numerous researchers bypassing the ethics approval procedure, or simply ...

Ethical Consideration of Radiological Protection: Learning from Fukushima

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kurihara-Saio, Chieko

2013-01-01

Chieko Kurihara suggested the bio-ethics principles of autonomy, beneficence and justice as related and linked to those ones of radiological protection, justification, optimization and dose limit, by giving the bases for an introductory discussion around them and the RP system. The second part of the presentation focused on ethical considerations about actual issues which happened in Fukushima, by analyzing and studying them from different perspectives and points of view: logistics, communication, evacuation-return processes, aspects such as compensation, conflict of interests and future perspectives. For example a lack of logistic in repairing the facilities, evacuation and elimination of contaminated land contributed in the distrustfulness of public; lay-experts, learning from anti-nuke experts have been communicating about radiation risk; mandatory evacuation was criticized by considering other types of impact resulting from the evacuation itself. Also decision-making about returning is always difficult in view of the protection of vulnerable groups such as of elderly, children and fetus while hot discussions were opened on the basis of to which extent damage resulting from radiation exposure should be compensated and the level of epidemiological survey. A significant part of criticisms started about the conflict of interest among NPP related companies, government, students with great attention of the public. Within the conclusions it was highlighted the need to make RP system working well and properly, especially in emergency situations and this could be improved if the RP system, well before emergency situations, is understood at least by politicians and stakeholders and implemented in governmental policies and regulations, with ethical justifications

An Extension of the Theory of Reasoned Action in Ethical Decision Contexts: The Role of Normative Influence and Ethical Judgment

Science.gov (United States)

Celuch, Kevin; Dill, Andy

2011-01-01

The moral conduct of organizations is ultimately dependent on the discrete actions of individuals. The authors address the scholarly and managerial imperative of how individuals combine various cognitions in their ethical decision making. The study extends the understanding of ethical decision making by exploring relationships among Theory of…

Justification of radiographic examinations: What are the key issues?

OpenAIRE

Vom, Jason; Williams, Imelda

2017-01-01

Abstract Justification of radiographic examinations is the practice of evaluating requested radiological examinations to assess for clinical merit and appropriateness based on clinical notes and patient information. This implies that justification in radiography requires the evaluation of requested examinations, the justification of exposures being applied and determining whether patients fit the recommended criteria for the procedure. Medico?legal requirements by the professional registratio...

FuturICT — The road towards ethical ICT

Science.gov (United States)

van den Hoven, J.; Helbing, D.; Pedreschi, D.; Domingo-Ferrer, J.; Gianotti, F.; Christen, M.

2012-11-01

The pervasive use of information and communication technology (ICT) in modern societies enables countless opportunities for individuals, institutions, businesses and scientists, but also raises difficult ethical and social problems. In particular, ICT helped to make societies more complex and thus harder to understand, which impedes social and political interventions to avoid harm and to increase the common good. To overcome this obstacle, the large-scale EU flagship proposal FuturICT intends to create a platform for accessing global human knowledge as a public good and instruments to increase our understanding of the information society by making use of ICT-based research. In this contribution, we outline the ethical justification for such an endeavor. We argue that the ethical issues raised by FuturICT research projects overlap substantially with many of the known ethical problems emerging from ICT use in general. By referring to the notion of Value Sensitive Design, we show for the example of privacy how this core value of responsible ICT can be protected in pursuing research in the framework of FuturICT. In addition, we discuss further ethical issues and outline the institutional design of FuturICT allowing to address them.

The ethics of animal research: a UK perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Perry, Pauline

2007-01-01

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics, an independent body in the United Kingdom, has published a 2005 report titled The Ethics of Research Involving Animals. The Report, produced by a Working Party that represented a wide range of views, seeks to clarify the debate that surrounds this topic and aims to help people identify and analyze the relevant scientific and ethical issues. The Working Party considered the arguments surrounding whether animal research yields useful results, and recommends that its predictability and transferability should be evaluated more fully, particularly in controversial areas. Commonly encountered ethical questions and arguments were considered in order to understand what lies behind disagreement on the moral justification of animal research. Four possible ethical positions on animal research, which represent points on a continuum, are described. Despite the range of views that exist among members of the Working Party, the Report presents a "Consensus Statement" that identifies agreement on several important issues. Building on this statement, recommendations are made for improving the quality of the debate and promoting the 3Rs (refinement, reduction, and replacement).

Ethics commentary: subjects of knowledge and control in field primatology.

Science.gov (United States)

Malone, N M; Fuentes, A; White, F J

2010-09-01

Our primate kin are routinely displaced from their habitats, hunted for meat, captured for trade, housed in zoos, made to perform for our entertainment, and used as subjects in biomedical testing. They are also the subjects of research inquiries by field primatologists. In this article, we place primate field studies on a continuum of human and alloprimate relationships as a heuristic device to explore the unifying ethical implications of such inter-relationships, as well as address specific ethical challenges arising from common research protocols "in the field" (e.g. risks associated with habituation, disease transmission, invasive collection of biological samples, etc.). Additionally, we question the widespread deployment of conservation- and/or local economic development-based justifications for field-based primatological pursuits. Informed by decades of combined fieldwork experience in Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, we demonstrate the process by which the adherence to a particular ethical calculus can lead to unregulated and ethically problematic research agendas. In conclusion, we offer several suggestions to consider in the establishment of a formalized code of ethics for field primatology. (c) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Ethics approval: responsibilities of journal editors, authors and research ethics committees.

Science.gov (United States)

Bain, Luchuo Engelbert

2017-01-01

Meaningful progress of medicine depends on research that must ultimately involve human subjects. Obtaining ethical approval therefore, especially in medical sciences, should be a moral reflex for researchers. This unfortunately is not the case, with numerous researchers bypassing the ethics approval procedure, or simply unaware of its importance. Good research involves risks taken by research participants and uses tax payers' money in the process. These mandates the research endeavor to aim at attaining the highest degree of respect for the sacrifices made by others for science. Most researchers mistake scientific clearance or approval, for ethics approval. For a study to be ethical sound, it must be scientifically sound. This is only one of the activities carried out during protocol review. It is not uncommon for sensitive ethical concerns, especially in the social sciences to be overlooked and considered not to be accompanied by any serious risks for the research participants.The researcher has the responsibility of systematically consulting the competent ethics committee for advice and consequent approvals or ethical waivers. Journal editors and reviewers have the duty to systematically evaluate the ethical soundness of manuscripts submitted for review. Capacity building in research ethics and institutional support for Research Ethics Committees to speed up protocol review could reduce the incentive of carrying out research in human subjects without ethics approvals. It is hypocritical and idle to continue to expect optimal reviews on time and of good quality, from ethics committees functioning purely on altruistic grounds. Capacity building for researchers in research ethics, and institutional reforms and support for Research Ethics Committees appear not to have received the attention they truly deserve.

Justification and Optimization in Clinical Practice. Chapter 23

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sandborg, M. [Linköping University, Linköping (Sweden); Båth, M. [Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg (Sweden); Järvinen, H. [Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), Helsinki (Finland); Faulkner, K. [North East Strategic Health Authority, Newcastle upon Tyne (United Kingdom)

2014-09-15

All medical exposures must be subject to the principles of justification and optimization of radiological protection, which are common to all practices dealing with potential exposures of humans to ionizing radiation. Justification of medical exposures requires that all medical imaging exposures must show a sufficient net benefit when balanced against possible detriment that the examination might cause. For patients undergoing medical diagnosis or treatment, there are different levels of justification (see Section 23.2). The practice involving exposure to radiation must be justified in principle through the endorsement of relevant professional societies, as matters of effective medical practice will be central to this judgement. Also, each procedure should be subject to a further, case by case, justification by both the referring clinician who is responsible for the management of the patient and the radiologist who selects the most appropriate imaging examination to answer the referrer’s question.

Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request. Summary Justification

Science.gov (United States)

2009-05-01

SERVICES AND DEFENSE AGENCIES INTRODUCTION Services and Defense Agencies HIGHLIGHTS Overview The FY 2010 budget request organizes, trains...DoD FY 2010 Budget Request Summary Justification SPECIAL TOPICS INTRODUCTION Special Topics HIGHLIGHTS Overview The FY 2010 budget... MANGEMENT 2-48 DoD FY 2010 Budget Request Summary Justification SPECIAL TOPICS FINANCIAL MANGEMENT 2-49 While DoD has made progress in

Historical Perspectives in Marketing Education: Justification and Implementation

Science.gov (United States)

Petkus, Ed, Jr.

2010-01-01

This article provides a justification and an implementation plan for the establishment of a historical orientation across the undergraduate marketing curriculum. The justification for the historical perspective addresses three areas: tapping into the extensive body of knowledge in marketing history, practical implications, and critical thinking.…

A Pragmatic Approach to Ethical Decision-Making in Engineering Practice: Characteristics, Evaluation Criteria, and Implications for Instruction and Assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Qin; Jesiek, Brent K

2017-06-01

This paper begins by reviewing dominant themes in current teaching of professional ethics in engineering education. In contrast to more traditional approaches that simulate ethical practice by using ethical theories to reason through micro-level ethical dilemmas, this paper proposes a pragmatic approach to ethics that places more emphasis on the practical plausibility of ethical decision-making. In addition to the quality of ethical justification, the value of a moral action also depends on its effectiveness in solving an ethical dilemma, cultivating healthy working relationships, negotiating existing organizational cultures, and achieving contextual plausibility in everyday professional practice. This paper uses a cross-cultural ethics scenario to further elaborate how a pragmatic approach can help us rethink ethical reasoning, as well as ethics instruction and assessment. This paper is expected to be of interest to educators eager to improve the ability of engineers and other professional students to effectively and appropriately deal with the kinds of everyday ethical issues they will likely face in their careers.

Is nuclear energy ethically justifiable?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zuend, H.

1987-01-01

Nuclear technology offers the chance to make an extremely long term contribution to the energy supply of the earth. The use of nuclear energy is ethically justifiable, provided that several fundamental rules are obeyed during the technical design of nuclear installations. Such fundamental rules were unequivocally violated in the nuclear power plant Chernobyl. They are, however, fulfilled in the existing Swiss nuclear power plants. Improvements are possible in new nuclear power plants. Compared to other usable energy systems nuclear energy is second only to natural gas in minimal risk per generated energy unit. The question of ethical justification also may rightly be asked of the non-use of nuclear energy. The socially weakest members of the Swiss population would suffer most under a renunciation of nuclear energy. Future prospects for the developing countries would deteriorate considerably with a renunciation by industrial nations of nuclear energy. The widely spread fear concerning the nuclear energy in the population is a consequence of non-objective discussion. 8 refs., 2 figs

THE ETHICS OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY IN TURKEY: RESPONSIBILITY AND CONSENT TO RISK.

Science.gov (United States)

Artvinli, Fatih

2016-06-01

Work-related diseases, injuries, risks and deaths are the issues that have been recently gaining importance especially in developing countries. The ethical dimensions of occupational health and safety have remained as relatively understudied areas. Concepts such as responsibility, consent, autonomy, paternalism, choice, and certain values or justifications that are used in medical ethics and bioethics are also applicable to occupational health and safety. This article examines the ethical issues of responsibility and consent to occupational risk. It will first define the concepts of consent and risk, and then different views on responsibility and consent to risk will be discussed. The article will also examine the responsibility of the society and government regarding these concepts.

An Ethical Review of Euthanasia and Physician-assisted Suicide.

Science.gov (United States)

Banović, Božidar; Turanjanin, Veljko; Miloradović, Anđela

2017-02-01

In the majority of countries, active direct euthanasia is a forbidden way of the deprivation of the patients' life, while its passive form is commonly accepted. This distinction between active and passive euthanasia has no justification, viewed through the prism of morality and ethics. Therefore, we focused on attention on the moral and ethical implications of the aforementioned medical procedures. Data were obtained from the Clinical Hospital Center in Kragujevac, collected during the first half of the 2015. The research included 88 physicians: 57 male physicians (representing 77% of the sample) and 31 female physicians (23% of the sample). Due to the nature, subject and hypothesis of the research, the authors used descriptive method and the method of the theoretical content analysis. A slight majority of the physicians (56, 8%) believe that active euthanasia is ethically unacceptable, while 43, 2% is for another solution (35, 2% took a viewpoint that it is completely ethically acceptable, while the remaining 8% considered it ethically acceptable in certain cases). From the other side, 56, 8% of respondents answered negatively on the ethical acceptability of the physician-assisted suicide, while 33% of them opted for a completely ethic viewpoint of this procedure. Out of the remaining 10, 2% opted for the ethical acceptability in certain cases. Physicians in Serbia are divided on this issue, but a group that considers active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide as ethically unacceptable is a bit more numerous.

Justification: How to get referring physicians involved

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Remedios, D.

2011-01-01

Barriers to involvement of clinicians in the process of justification include an already overloaded knowledge base, lack of time, inconsistent guidance and disproportionate patient expectations. Strategies to improve referring physicians' input include education, use of imaging referral guidelines, clinical audit and regulation. This article discusses and reviews evidence for approaches to encourage greater participation in justification by clinicians. Approaches are best summarised by 'Awareness, appropriateness and audit'. (authors)

Justification of x-ray examinations: General principles and an Irish perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matthews, Kate; Brennan, Patrick C.

2008-01-01

The principles of justification and optimisation, and the establishment and use of Diagnostic Reference Levels are core tenets of the European Medical Exposures Directive [Council Directive 97/43], and ensuing legislation across Europe. In Ireland, the European Medical Exposures Directive [Council Directive 97/43] was enacted into national law in Statutory Instrument 478 of 2002. This series of three review articles discusses the status of justification and optimisation of X-ray examinations nationally, and progress with the establishment of Irish Diagnostic Reference Levels. The current article will outline the ICRP recommendations which preceded the European Medical Exposures Directive, describe how the Directive was transposed into Irish Statute, and review the literature associated with some of the justification concepts arising from the Statute in order to elucidate the prevailing practice regarding justification in Ireland. Three levels of justification are identified: general, generic and individual. The relationship between referral guidelines and generic justification is explored, and practical issues in the implementation of individual justification are considered with reference to the role of the radiographer. Two further articles in the series will adopt a similar approach in discussing optimisation, and the establishment and use of Diagnostic Reference Levels

Sustainable Growth and Ethics: A Study of Business Ethics in Vietnam between Business Students and Working Adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lam D. Nguyen

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Sustainable growth is not only the ultimate goal of business corporations but also the primary target of local governments as well as regional and global economies. One of the cornerstones of sustainable growth is ethics. An ethical organizational culture provides support to achieve sustain- able growth. Ethical leaders and employees have great potential for positive influence on decisions and behaviors that lead to sustainability. Ethical behavior, therefore, is expected of everyone in the modern workplace. As a result, companies devote many resources and training programs to make sure their employees live according to the high ethical standards. This study provides an analysis of Vietnamese business students’ level of ethical maturity based on gender, education, work ex- perience, and ethics training. The results of data from 260 business students compared with 704 working adults in Vietnam demonstrate that students have a significantly higher level of ethical maturity. Furthermore, gender and work experience are significant factors in ethical maturity. While more educated respondents and those who had completed an ethics course did have a higher level of ethical maturity, the results were not statistically significant. Analysis of the results along with suggestions and implications are provided.

Discussions About Lying With An Ethical Reasoning Robot

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lindner, Felix; Wächter, Laura; Bentzen, Martin Mose

2017-01-01

The conversational ethical reasoning robot Immanuel is presented. Immanuel is capable of defending multiple ethical views on morally delicate situations. A study was conducted to evaluate the acceptance of Immanuel. The participants had a conversation with the robot on whether lying is permissibile...... in a given situation. The robot first signaled uncertainty about whether lying is right or wrong in the situation, then disagreed with the participant’s view, and finally asked for justification. The results indicate that participants with a higher tendency to utilitarian judgments are initially more certain...... about their view as compared to participants with a higher tendency to deontological judgments. These differences vanish at the end of the dialogue. Lying is defended and argued against by both utilitarian and deontologically oriented participants. The diversity of the reported arguments gives an idea...

The paradox of imperfect duty in Kant's moral philosophy: A problem in 'applying' ethics'

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richter Phillip

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The Applied Ethics debate has not yet sufficiently clarified what application of ethics exactly is. The issue of application is considered to be especially problematic in Kantian ethics or in discourse ethics. This article describes the concept of applying ethics in Kant. In discussing the duty of helping others and the theory of its application in Metaphysics of Morals it is shown that a strict separation of justification and application in ethical theory results in the paradox of imperfect duty. The paradox says that the duty to help others would be fulfilled without ever being fulfilled in action. To overcome the paradox it is necessary to form submaximes of helping, which are not arbitrarily but instructed by a theory of casuistry. This casuistry, if it is considered as a doctrine of application in Kantian ethics, can overcome the paradox of imperfect duty. However, the casuistry can overcome this paradox only if it is understood as a philosophy of prudence, which can be found in Aristotle or Descartes.

Justification in radiation protection: a study on screening mammography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Faulkner, K.; Law, J.

2002-01-01

Justification was defined by the International Commission on Radiological Protection in publication 26 as no practice shall be adopted unless its introduction produces a positive net benefit. ICRP have subsequently refined this definition. In ICRP 60 justification is defined as no practice involving exposures to radiation should be adopted unless it produces sufficient benefit to the exposed individual or to society to offset the detriment it causes. (The justification of a practice). The European Commission have included justification in the recent medical exposures directive. This Directive distinguishes between individual medical exposures and medical practices. Justification is defined in the Medical Exposures Directive as showing a sufficient net benefit weighing the total potential diagnostic or therapeutic benefits it produces, including the direct health benefits to an individual and the benefits to society, against the individual detriment that the exposure might cause. Detriment is defined in the Medical Exposures Directive as clinically observable deleterious effects that are expressed in individuals or their descendants, the appearance of which is either immediate or delayed and, in the latter case, implies a probability, rather than a certainty, of appearance

R. S. Peters' "The Justification of Education" Revisited

Science.gov (United States)

Cuypers, Stefaan E.

2012-01-01

In his 1973 paper "The Justification of Education" R. S. Peters aspired to give a non-instrumental justification of education. Ever since, his so-called "transcendental argument" has been under attack and most critics conclude that it does not work. They have, however, thrown the baby away with the bathwater, when they furthermore concluded that…

Ethical aspect in medical radiation use

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kiefer, Juergen

2014-01-01

Medical radiation uses hold a specific position in radiation protection. Patients are purposely exposed to radiation while usually radiation exposure should be avoided. The radiation doses are (at least in principle) planned the risks may be estimated (again in principle). The hazards are justified by the medical benefit. Otherwise irradiation is a violation of physical integrity (article 2 Grundgesetz) that can be prosecuted. For patients no dose limits exist, the responsible physician decides on the real exposures. Justification and optimization are of predominant importance. The decision on the radiological measure, the applied technology is an ethically motivated decision besides the everyday routine.

The Effects of General System Justification on Corruption Perception and Intent.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Xuyun; Liu, Li; Huang, Zhenwei; Zheng, Wenwen; Liang, Yuan

2016-01-01

Previous research stresses that system justifying belief can weaken corruption perception, by this possibly fostering unjust behaviors. However, general results of the effect of general system justification on corruption are ambiguous, indicating also a lessening impact. We conducted a line of studies trying to elucidate these circumstances by testing the effect of general system justification on corruption perception and intention. In addition, we explored institutional trust as a possible mediator in this process. For this purpose, we conducted three studies. The first two studies examined the association between general system justification and corruption. In Study 1, a correlational design was run using questionnaires to assess the relation between general system justification and corruption perception as well as corruption intention. In Study 2, an experimental design was conducted manipulating general system justification via exposure to high or low system threat condition, then measuring its effect on corruption perception and corrupt intention. In Study 3, two sub-studies using correlational and experimental designs were run to explore the mediating role of institutional trust, respectively. Results replicated former studies showing that general system justification is negatively associated with corruption perception. However, they also showed a negative correlation with corrupt intention. Furthermore, they showed that institutional trust mediated the relation between general system justification and corruption. We suggest to consider these findings to further elucidate the psychological basis underlying different effects of general system justification on human behaviors.

The Effects of General System Justification on Corruption Perception and Intent

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xuyun Tan

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Previous research stresses that system justifying belief can weaken corruption perception, by this possibly fostering unjust behaviors. However, general results of the effect of general system justification on corruption are ambiguous, indicating also a lessening impact. We conducted a line of studies trying to elucidate these circumstances by testing the effect of general system justification on corruption perception and intention. In addition, we explored institutional trust as a possible mediator in this process. For this purpose we conducted three studies. The first two studies examined the association between general system justification and corruption. In Study 1, a correlational design was run using questionnaires to assess the relation between general system justification and corruption perception as well as corruption intention. In Study 2, an experimental design was conducted manipulating general system justification via exposure to high or low system threat condition, then measuring its effect on corruption perception and corrupt intention. In Study 3, two sub-studies using correlational and experimental designs were run to explore the mediating role of institutional trust, respectively. Results replicated former studies showing that general system justification is negatively associated with corruption perception. However, they also showed a negative correlation with corrupt intention. Furthermore, they showed that institutional trust mediated the relation between general system justification and corruption. We suggest to consider these findings to further elucidate the psychological basis underlying different effects of general system justification on human behaviors.

A gentle ethical defence of homeopathy.

Science.gov (United States)

Levy, David; Gadd, Ben; Kerridge, Ian; Komesaroff, Paul A

2015-06-01

Recent discourses about the legitimacy of homeopathy have focused on its scientific plausibility, mechanism of action, and evidence base. These, frequently, conclude not only that homeopathy is scientifically baseless, but that it is "unethical." They have also diminished patients' perspectives, values, and preferences. We contend that these critics confuse epistemic questions with questions of ethics, misconstrue the moral status of homeopaths, and have an impoverished idea of ethics-one that fails to account either for the moral worth of care and of relationships or for the perspectives, values, and preferences of patients. Utilitarian critics, in particular, endeavour to present an objective evaluation-a type of moral calculus-quantifying the utilities and disutilities of homeopathy as a justification for the exclusion of homeopathy from research and health care. But these critiques are built upon a narrow formulation of evidence and care and a diminished episteme that excludes the values and preferences of researchers, homeopaths, and patients engaged in the practice of homeopathy. We suggest that homeopathy is ethical as it fulfils the needs and expectations of many patients; may be practiced safely and prudentially; values care and the virtues of the therapeutic relationship; and provides important benefits for patients.

Hospital pharmacy: what is ethical?

Science.gov (United States)

Veatch, R M

1989-01-01

Characteristics of ethical evaluations as they apply to the dilemmas faced by the pharmacist in the workplace are described, and the general principles and theories of Western normative ethics are discussed. Because ethical dilemmas are commonplace in pharmacy practice, pharmacists must develop a working knowledge of formal and systematic ethical analysis, as well as learn to distinguish ethical issues from social, psychological, political, and legal issues. Ethical evaluations are distinguished by three characteristics: They are ultimate, they possess universality, and they treat the good of everyone alike. Ethical analyses can be thought of as having four different and successive stages. The first stage is ensuring that all parties understand the facts of the specific case. If controversy remains after the facts are clear, parties to the dispute can proceed through three successive stages of general moral reflection: (1) the level of moral rules, (2) the level of ethical principles, and (3) the level of ethical theories. Specific moral rules cover groups of cases, and they generally are regarded as being derived from a shorter list of abstract moral principles. An ethical theory is a systematic position about which principles are morally significant, how the principles relate to each other, and how they should be tested. Pursuit of ethical dilemmas through the full hierarchy of levels of analysis exposes simplistic or irrational moral decisions and clarifies the nature of disputes.

Mandatory influenza vaccination for all healthcare personnel: a review on justification, implementation and effectiveness.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Tiffany L; Jing, Ling; Bocchini, Joseph A

2017-10-01

As healthcare-associated influenza is a serious public health concern, this review examines legal and ethical arguments supporting mandatory influenza vaccination policies for healthcare personnel, implementation issues and evidence of effectiveness. Spread of influenza from healthcare personnel to patients can result in severe harm or death. Although most healthcare personnel believe that they should be vaccinated against seasonal influenza, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that only 79% of personnel were vaccinated during the 2015-2016 season. Vaccination rates were as low as 44.9% in institutions that did not promote or offer the vaccine, compared with rates of more than 90% in institutions with mandatory vaccination policies. Policies that mandate influenza vaccination for healthcare personnel have legal and ethical justifications. Implementing such policies require multipronged approaches that include education efforts, easy access to vaccines, vaccine promotion, leadership support and consistent communication emphasizing patient safety. Mandatory influenza vaccination for healthcare personnel is a necessary step in protecting patients. Patients who interact with healthcare personnel are often at an elevated risk of complications from influenza. Vaccination is the best available strategy for protecting against influenza and evidence shows that institutional policies and state laws can effectively increase healthcare personnel vaccination rates, decreasing the risk of transmission in healthcare settings. There are legal and ethical precedents for institutional mandatory influenza policies and state laws, although successful implementation requires addressing both administrative and attitudinal barriers.

Institutional Justification in Frames

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baden, Christian; Schultz, Friederike

consensus. It extents research on framing in mass communication by applying institutional theory and Boltanski and Thévenot’s (2006) theory on justification in order to explain how the success and failure of proposed interpretations depend on the mobilization of accepted social institutions to justify...

Qualitative analysis of healthcare professionals' viewpoints on the role of ethics committees and hospitals in the resolution of clinical ethical dilemmas.

Science.gov (United States)

Marcus, Brian S; Shank, Gary; Carlson, Jestin N; Venkat, Arvind

2015-03-01

Ethics consultation is a commonly applied mechanism to address clinical ethical dilemmas. However, there is little information on the viewpoints of health care providers towards the relevance of ethics committees and appropriate application of ethics consultation in clinical practice. We sought to use qualitative methodology to evaluate free-text responses to a case-based survey to identify thematically the views of health care professionals towards the role of ethics committees in resolving clinical ethical dilemmas. Using an iterative and reflexive model we identified themes that health care providers support a role for ethics committees and hospitals in resolving clinical ethical dilemmas, that the role should be one of mediation, rather than prescription, but that ultimately legal exposure was dispositive compared to ethical theory. The identified theme of legal fears suggests that the mediation role of ethics committees is viewed by health care professionals primarily as a practical means to avoid more worrisome medico-legal conflict.

The System Justification Conundrum : Re-Examining the Cognitive Dissonance Basis for System Justification

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Owuamalam, Chuma K.; Rubin, Mark; Spears, Russell

2016-01-01

In a landmark 1994 publication in the British Journal of Social Psychology, Jost and Banaji proposed the existence of a novel, fundamental system justification motive that drives social behaviors. More specifically, they proposed (a) that people have an epistemic need to support social hierarchies

Justification: theory and application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rowe, W.D.

1979-01-01

The concept of justification implies that a specific decision as to the relative merits of benefits and costs and detriment be made whenever: (1) a new practice is introduced that involves an indirect or direct increase in radiation exposure; or (2) an existing practice affecting radiation exposure is modified; or (3) an increase in radiation protection of an existing practice is to be considered. Such decisions are imprecise and involve intangible values. ICRP has, however, developed a mathematical model to express the structure of such decisions. The utility of this model for making the key paramters of justification decisions visible is explored in this paper in two ways. First, the structure of the model and its implications are explored in the abstract. Secondly, several specific applications are studied to determine if the model has utility in structuring application decisions, and the extent to which conclusions can be evolved in a meaningful, visible manner. (author)

Sustainable Growth and Ethics: A Study of Business Ethics in Vietnam between Business Students and Working Adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lam D. Nguyen

2013-05-01

Full Text Available 1024x768 Sustainable growth is not only the ultimate goal of business corporations but also the primary target of local governments as well as regional and global economies. One of the cornerstones of sustainable growth is ethics. An ethical organizational culture provides support to achieve sustainable growth. Ethical leaders and employees have great potential for positive influence on decisions and behaviors that lead to sustainability. Ethical behavior, therefore, is expected of everyone in the modern workplace. As a result, companies devote many resources and training programs to make sure their employees live according to the high ethical standards. This study provides an analysis of Vietnamese business students’ level of ethical maturity based on gender, education, work experience, and ethics training. The results of data from 260 business students compared with 704 working adults in Vietnam demonstrate that students have a significantly higher level of ethical maturity. Furthermore, gender and work experience are significant factors in ethical maturity. While more educated respondents and those who had completed an ethics course did have a higher level of ethical maturity, the results were not statistically significant. Analysis of the results along with suggestions and implications are provided. Normal 0 false false false IN X-NONE X-NONE

Ethical issues in public health promotion

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2014-05-02

May 2, 2014 ... Health promotion has three main ethical issues: (i) what are the ultimate goals for public .... construction of new norms, the shaping of existing norms, the .... despite the fact that we know they are bad for people's health. There.

In between St. Augustine and Luther: Grace and justification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael M. Ramos

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The view presented in this study emphasized grace as a cause of spiritual strength and justification of man. In understanding the deep meaning and nature of grace, this paper analyzes the formations given on the subject by two great minds, St. Augustine and Martin Luther. Because of the great influence of their work on the theology of grace and justification, this paper attempts to seek whether man’s understanding and belief of prudence would mean nothing at all, that any good that he will perform on his behalf would do nothing for his own justification. Thus it raises the question on the purpose of man’s freedom if his proprium is nothing and that divine prudence is the source of everything good. This led to the idea that grace is the primary energy source of man to make good, not by his own, but by divine prudence to obtain justification. Therefore, in this sense there is nothing good in man.

New ethical issues for radiation protection in diagnostic radiology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malone, J.F.

2008-01-01

The ethical basis for many medical practices has been challenged over the last two decades. Radiology has seen enormous growth during the same period. Many practices and equipment types, now commonplace, did not exist a generation ago. Yet the fundamental ethical basis for these practices has not seen a corresponding level of development. This is possibly an oversight, and may be particularly important given that these innovations have taken place over a period of changing social attitudes. Areas of concern include, for example, issues around justification, consent/authorisation, inadvertent irradiation of the foetus/embryo during pregnancy and the place of paternalism/individual autonomy in the structure of practice. This paper provides the background to a workshop on these issues held in late-2006 and presents a summary of its findings. (authors)

Ethical concerns arising from screening procedures such as mammography and self-referral

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Faulkner, K.

2009-01-01

Shortly after the discovery of X-rays, their harmful effects became apparent. While the harmful effects of ionising radiation were recognised at an early stage, it took some time before a systematic approach to radiation protection evolved. This began with the development of simple rules to reduce the risk of stochastic effects (such as cancer induction) and the occurrence of deterministic injuries (e.g. cataract formation). These rules have evolved into the basic principles of radiation protection, one of which is the concept of justification, which in its simplest form may be taken as doing more benefit than harm. The concept of justification has particular ethical concerns when applied to population screening procedures. These problems are described in this paper with a particular emphasis on the cases of screening and self-referral procedures. (authors)

Public Health Ethics, Legitimacy, and the Challenges of Industrial Wind Turbines: The Case of Ontario, Canada

Science.gov (United States)

Shain, Martin

2011-01-01

While industrial wind turbines (IWTs) clearly raise issues concerning threats to the health of a few in contrast to claimed health benefits to many, the trade-off has not been fully considered in a public health framework. This article reviews public health ethics justifications for the licensing and installation of IWTs. It concludes that the…

Modern environmental ethics and the possible implications for radiation protection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Persson, Lars

1996-01-01

Environmental ethics is concerned with the moral relations that hold between humans and the natural world. The ethical principles governing those relations determine our duties, obligations, and responsibilities with regard to the Earth's natural environment and the animals and plants that inhabit it. When a life-centered view is accepted as has been done by Taylor, the obligations and responsibilities we have with respect to the wild animals and plants of the Earth are seen to arise from certain moral relations between ourselves and the natural world itself. Considering the shift of ethical values that have occurred in the world, we may now be at a point in history when it is timely and when there also exist scientific reasons to set up a protection policy equivalent to the ICRP principles for protection of humans (justification, optimisation and dose limits) for the protection of environment (including animals) against the harmful effects of radiation

Radiation protection: Some philosophical and ethical issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sia, Santiago; Chhem, Rethy K.; Czarwinski, Renate

2010-01-01

The ethical issue of justification has become an urgent issue in radiology. There has been a shift in emphasis in the discussion from what has been regarded as a rather paternalistic attitude of practitioners to one that stresses the rights of the individual patient. This article comments on this current move on the part of the profession by offering certain relevant philosophical considerations. Using a medical scenario as the context to comment on this shift, it discusses important and fundamental issues, such as the autonomy and the rights of the patient in addition to the question of consent on the patient's part.

Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (FUSEE): Torchbearers for a new fire management paradigm

Science.gov (United States)

Timothy Ingalsbee; Joseph Fox; Patrick Withen

2007-01-01

Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (FUSEE) is a nonprofit organization promoting safe, ethical, ecological wildland fire management. FUSEE believes firefighter and community safety are ultimately interdependent with ethical public service, wildlands protection, and ecological restoration of fire-adapted ecosystems. Our members include current, former,...

References to Human Rights in Codes of Ethics for Psychologists: Critical Issues and Recommendations. Part 1

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Жанель Готье

2018-12-01

Full Text Available There are codes of ethics in psychology that explicitly refer to human rights. There are also psychologists interested in the protection and promotion of human rights who are calling for the explicit inclusion of references to human rights in all psychology ethics codes. Yet, references to human rights in ethics documents have rarely been the focus of attention in psychological ethics. This article represents the first part of a two-part article series focusing on critical issues associated with the inclusion of references to human rights in the ethical codes of psychologists, and recommendations about how psychological ethics and the human rights movement can work together in serving humanity. The first part of the article series examines issues pertaining to the interpretation of references to human rights in codes of ethics for psychologists, and the justifications for including these references in psychological ethics codes. The second part of the article series examines how the Universal Declaration of Ethical Principles for Psychologists can be used to extend or supplement codes of ethics in psychology, how ethical principles and human rights differ and complement each other, and how psychological ethics and the human rights movement can work together in serving humanity and improving the welfare of both persons and peoples.

The oil industry and climate change: strategies and ethical dilemmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hove, S. van den; Le Menestrel, M.; Bettignies, H.C. de

2002-01-01

This paper explores the different climate change strategies chosen by three major multinational oil corporations: ExxonMobil, TotalFinaElf and BP Amoco. They are referred to, as the 'fight against emission constraints,' 'wait and see,' and 'proactive' strategies, respectively. The justifications given to support these strategies are identified. They cover the business, scientific, political, economic, technological and social dimensions. In a business ethics framework, the issue of climate change brings forth an ethical dilemma for the oil industry, in the form of a tension between profits and CO 2 emissions. The strategies are analysed as three attitudes towards this dilemma: (i) placing priority on the business consequences while weakening the perception that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are causing climate change; (ii) avoiding responsibility; and (iii) placing priority on the need for a modification of the business process while limiting the negative effect in terms of business consequences. In conclusion, we propose that beyond the ethical issues proper to climate change itself, additional ethical issues are raised if society at large is instrumentalised by an industry in its search for profit. Publicly gauging and valorising the ethical commitment of a corporation appear as ways of inducing more collaborative and proactive attitudes by business actors. (Author)

The oil industry and climate change. Strategies and ethical dilemmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van den Hove, S.; Le Menestrel, Marc; De Bettignies, Henri-Claude

2002-01-01

This paper explores the different climate change strategies chosen by three major multinational oil corporations: ExxonMobil, TotalFinaElf and BP Amoco. They are referred to, as the 'fight against emission constraints,' 'wait and see', and 'proactive' strategies, respectively. The justifications given to support these strategies are identified. They cover the business, scientific, political, economic, technological and social dimensions. In a business ethics framework, the issue of climate change brings forth an ethical dilemma for the oil industry, in the form of a tension between profits and CO2 emissions. The strategies are analysed as three attitudes towards this dilemma: (1) placing priority on the business consequences while weakening the perception that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are causing climate change; (2) avoiding responsibility; and (3) placing priority on the need for a modification of the business process while limiting the negative effect in terms of business consequences. In conclusion, we propose that beyond the ethical issues proper to climate change itself, additional ethical issues are raised if society at large is instrumentalised by an industry in its search for profit. Publicly gauging and valorising the ethical commitment of a corporation appear as ways of inducing more collaborative and proactive attitudes by business actors

Justifications for caregiving in white, Asian American, and native Hawaiian grandparents raising grandchildren.

Science.gov (United States)

Yancura, Loriena A

2013-01-01

Race has been found to predict justifications for caregiving in family caregivers for older adults. However, little is known about this relationship in another type of family caregiver, Grandparents Raising Grandchildren (GRG). This study examined relationships between race and justifications for caregiving in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and White GRG. A sample of 259 GRG registered as students' primary caregivers with a public school system completed a modified version of the 10-item Cultural Justifications for Caregiving (CJCG) scale. CJCG items did not load onto a single analytic factor. Two factors, custom and responsibility, emerged. Race was predictive of custom, with Native Hawaiian GRG having significantly higher scores than White or Asian American GRG. Native Hawaiian GRG also scored higher than Asian American, but not White, GRG on responsibility. Justifications for raising grandchildren appear to differ among groups based on racial identification. Findings elucidate cultural justification for caregiving in understudied GRG populations and suggest that justifications for caregiving are configured differently in GRG and family caregivers for older adults. Future studies should examine justifications for caregiving in GRG of other races.

When ethical leader behavior breaks bad: How ethical leader behavior can turn abusive via ego depletion and moral licensing.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Szu-Han Joanna; Ma, Jingjing; Johnson, Russell E

2016-06-01

The literature to date has predominantly focused on the benefits of ethical leader behaviors for recipients (e.g., employees and teams). Adopting an actor-centric perspective, in this study we examined whether exhibiting ethical leader behaviors may come at some cost to leaders. Drawing from ego depletion and moral licensing theories, we explored the potential challenges of ethical leader behavior for actors. Across 2 studies which employed multiwave designs that tracked behaviors over consecutive days, we found that leaders' displays of ethical behavior were positively associated with increases in abusive behavior the following day. This association was mediated by increases in depletion and moral credits owing to their earlier displays of ethical behavior. These results suggest that attention is needed to balance the benefits of ethical leader behaviors for recipients against the challenges that such behaviors pose for actors, which include feelings of mental fatigue and psychological license and ultimately abusive interpersonal behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

System justification: A motivational process with implications for social conflict

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jost, J. T.; Liviatan, I.; van der Toorn, J.; Ledgerwood, A.; Mandisodza, A.; Nosek, B. A.

2012-01-01

According to system justification theory, people are motivated to defend and legitimize the social systems that affect them. In this chapter, we review 15 years of theory and empirical research demonstrating the motivational underpinnings of system justification processes. We begin by explaining why

A Framework for Ethics in Radiological Protection? Considerations from Elsewhere

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boniolo, Giovanni

2013-01-01

The lecturer started by presenting the principles of biomedical ethics of autonomy, justice, non-maleficence and beneficence and the Ethical theories, taking into consideration the Ethics of Conduct (what sort of actions should be performed) by incorporating consequentialism and deontology and the Ethics of Character (what sort of people should we be?) which converges into Aristotelianism. Together with justification, optimization and limitation, another important aspect is the informed consent, in its three constituents of information, voluntarism and decisional capacity. The participation pact, with the ethical counselling, is suggested in view of a real patient empowerment, putting the patient at the heart of services. The presentation introduced the ACCE model process (Analytical validity, Clinical validity, Clinical utility, Ethical, legal and social implication), used for evaluating genetic tests and structured with a standard set of 44 targeted questions which address disorder, testing and clinical scenario, as well as associated ethical, legal and social issues, since an important 'byproduct' of this model is the identification of gaps in knowledge, which may help to define future agendas. As 'Innovation happens elsewhere' is often a reality and in any case a good point of reflection and view, a scheme similar to ACCE is tentatively proposed for RP, in biomedicine, by discussing the aspects of Analytical validity, Clinical validity, Clinical utility and Empowerment of the patient, together with the suggestion to address targeted questions concerning the aspects of importance in RP

EUGENICS, THE GIRARDIAN THEORY OF SACRIFICE, AND THE NEW DARWINIAN ETHICS

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THOMAS RYBA

2011-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper I argue that, though many ethical systems recognizesacrifice as moral action, the utilitarian appropriation of Neo-Darwinian theory especially as it justifies eugenics as a “winnowing of the human stock” is in Girardian terms analogous to the sacrificial scapegoating of innocents. This argument is accomplished in four steps. (1 I show that within some ethical systems sacrifice is recognized as moral behavior driven by a specific axiology (or theory of value (2 I discuss some of the meta-ethical problems connected with Neo-Darwinian naturalism and naturalism, in general. (3 I show how modern varieties of naturalism and Darwinian naturalism, inparticular are especially inclined to lead to a moral justification of eugenic scapegoating and how Girardian theory is helpful in identifying the moral disorder connected with eugenics. (4 Finally, I conclude by arguing that Darwin’s thought is susceptible to another kind of interpretation, one that need not lead to the valorization of eugenics.

Inclusion of ethical issues in dementia guidelines: a thematic text analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Knüppel, Hannes; Mertz, Marcel; Schmidhuber, Martina; Neitzke, Gerald; Strech, Daniel

2013-08-01

Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) aim to improve professionalism in health care. However, current CPG development manuals fail to address how to include ethical issues in a systematic and transparent manner. The objective of this study was to assess the representation of ethical issues in general CPGs on dementia care. To identify national CPGs on dementia care, five databases of guidelines were searched and national psychiatric associations were contacted in August 2011 and in June 2013. A framework for the assessment of the identified CPGs' ethical content was developed on the basis of a prior systematic review of ethical issues in dementia care. Thematic text analysis and a 4-point rating score were employed to assess how ethical issues were addressed in the identified CPGs. Twelve national CPGs were included. Thirty-one ethical issues in dementia care were identified by the prior systematic review. The proportion of these 31 ethical issues that were explicitly addressed by each CPG ranged from 22% to 77%, with a median of 49.5%. National guidelines differed substantially with respect to (a) which ethical issues were represented, (b) whether ethical recommendations were included, (c) whether justifications or citations were provided to support recommendations, and (d) to what extent the ethical issues were explained. Ethical issues were inconsistently addressed in national dementia guidelines, with some guidelines including most and some including few ethical issues. Guidelines should address ethical issues and how to deal with them to help the medical profession understand how to approach care of patients with dementia, and for patients, their relatives, and the general public, all of whom might seek information and advice in national guidelines. There is a need for further research to specify how detailed ethical issues and their respective recommendations can and should be addressed in dementia guidelines. Please see later in the article for the Editors

Promotion of ethical principles in provision of medication therapy management services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah E. Kelling

2014-01-01

Full Text Available As pharmacists move toward more patient-centered care through medication therapy management (MTM, important issues and conflicts may arise within the therapeutic relationship, requiring pharmacists to use ethical knowledge and skills toward conflict-resolution. The purpose of this paper is to explore practical strategies that pharmacists and other champions of MTM may utilize to support the ethical principles of autonomy, veracity, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice, along with an ethic of care during the provision of MTM services. With a deeper understanding of ethical principles and the Code of Ethics for Pharmacists, pharmacists may be more prepared to make difficult ethical decisions, and ultimately, guide better patient care.   Type: Idea Paper

Using typing techniques in a specific outbreak: the ethical reflection of public health professionals.

Science.gov (United States)

Rump, B; Cornelis, C; Woonink, F; VAN Steenbergen, J; Verweij, M; Hulscher, M

2017-05-01

Typing techniques are laboratory methods used in outbreak management to investigate the degree to which microbes found within an outbreak are related. Knowledge about relational patterns between microbes benefits outbreak management, but inevitably also tells us something about the relational patterns of the people hosting them. Since the technique is often used without explicit consent of all individuals involved, this may raise ethical questions. The aim of this study was to unravel the complex ethical deliberation of professionals over the use of such techniques. We organised group discussions (n = 3) with Dutch outbreak managers (n = 23). The topic list was based on previously identified ethical issues and discussions were analysed for recurrent themes. We found that outbreak managers first and foremost reflect on the balance of individual harm with public health benefit. This key question was approached by way of discussing four more specific ethical themes: (1) justification of governmental intervention, (2) responsibility to prevent infections, (3) scientific uncertainty and (4) legal consequences. The themes found in this study, rephrased into accessible questions, represent the shared ethical understanding of professionals and can help to articulate the ethical dimensions of using molecular science in response to infectious disease outbreaks.

Epistemic Beliefs about Justification Employed by Physics Students and Faculty in Two Different Problem Contexts

Science.gov (United States)

Çağlayan Mercan, Fatih

2012-06-01

This study examines the epistemic beliefs about justification employed by physics undergraduate and graduate students and faculty in the context of solving a standard classical physics problem and a frontier physics problem. Data were collected by a think-aloud problem solving session followed by a semi-structured interview conducted with 50 participants, 10 participants at freshmen, seniors, masters, PhD, and faculty levels. Seven modes of justification were identified and used for exploring the relationships between each justification mode and problem context, and expertise level. The data showed that justification modes were not mutually exclusive and many respondents combined different modes in their responses in both problem contexts. Success on solving the standard classical physics problem was not related to any of the justification modes and was independent of expertise level. The strength of the association across the problem contexts for the authoritative, rational, and empirical justification modes fell in the medium range and for the modeling justification mode fell in the large range of practical significance. Expertise level was not related with the empirical and religious justification modes. The strength of the association between the expertise level and the authoritative, rational, experiential, and relativistic justification modes fell in the medium range, and the modeling justification mode fell in the large range of practical significance. The results provide support for the importance of context for the epistemic beliefs about justification and are discussed in terms of the implications for teaching and learning science.

Genetic counseling and the ethical issues around direct to consumer genetic testing.

Science.gov (United States)

Hawkins, Alice K; Ho, Anita

2012-06-01

Over the last several years, direct to consumer(DTC) genetic testing has received increasing attention in the public, healthcare and academic realms. DTC genetic testing companies face considerable criticism and scepticism,particularly from the medical and genetic counseling community. This raises the question of what specific aspects of DTC genetic testing provoke concerns, and conversely,promises, for genetic counselors. This paper addresses this question by exploring DTC genetic testing through an ethic allens. By considering the fundamental ethical approaches influencing genetic counseling (the ethic of care and principle-based ethics) we highlight the specific ethical concerns raised by DTC genetic testing companies. Ultimately,when considering the ethics of DTC testing in a genetic counseling context, we should think of it as a balancing act. We need careful and detailed consideration of the risks and troubling aspects of such testing, as well as the potentially beneficial direct and indirect impacts of the increased availability of DTC genetic testing. As a result it is essential that genetic counselors stay informed and involved in the ongoing debate about DTC genetic testing and DTC companies. Doing so will ensure that the ethical theories and principles fundamental to the profession of genetic counseling are promoted not just in traditional counseling sessions,but also on a broader level. Ultimately this will help ensure that the public enjoys the benefits of an increasingly genetic based healthcare system.

College Students; Justification for Digital Piracy: A Mixed Methods Study

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Szde

2012-01-01

A mixed methods project was devoted to understanding college students' justification for digital piracy. The project consisted of two studies, a qualitative one and a quantitative one. Qualitative interviews were conducted to identify main themes in students' justification for digital piracy, and then the findings were tested in a quantitative…

The science of ethics: Deception, the resilient self, and the APA code of ethics, 1966-1973.

Science.gov (United States)

Stark, Laura

2010-01-01

This paper has two aims. The first is to shed light on a remarkable archival source, namely survey responses from thousands of American psychologists during the 1960s in which they described their contemporary research practices and discussed whether the practices were "ethical." The second aim is to examine the process through which the American Psychological Association (APA) used these survey responses to create principles on how psychologists should treat human subjects. The paper focuses on debates over whether "deception" research was acceptable. It documents how members of the committee that wrote the principles refereed what was, in fact, a disagreement between two contemporary research orientations. The paper argues that the ethics committee ultimately built the model of "the resilient self" into the APA's 1973 ethics code. At the broadest level, the paper explores how prevailing understandings of human nature are written into seemingly universal and timeless codes of ethics. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Justification and Rationality from the perspective of the Dual System Theory of Reasoning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonatan García-Campos

2009-04-01

Full Text Available A common assumption in epistemology is that there is an important connection between the notions of justification and rationality. However, this connection is unclear since there is no consensus about what rationality is or what a “correct” notion of justification would be. The purpose of this paper is to explain how the dual system theory of reasoning can build a “bridge” between justification and rationality. We argue that the dual system theory of reasoning supports, to a certainextent, an externalist notion of justification and a consequentialist view of rationality.

The Role of Business Schools in Ethics Education in Iceland

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sigurjonsson, Throstur Olaf; Vaiman, Vlad; Arnardottir, Audur Arna

2014-01-01

should not be held responsible for employees’ unethical behavior. Nevertheless, managers believe that business schools should assist future employees in understanding ethics by including business ethics in teaching curricula. Second, managers believe that the workplace is not where ethics are learned......This article explores managers’ views on various ways in which business schools can contribute to providing solid ethics education to their students, who will ultimately become the next generation of business leaders. One thousand top level managers of Icelandic firms were approached and asked......, while also insisting that former students should already have strong ethical standards when entering the workplace. Third, managers call for business schools not only to contribute more to influencing students’ ethical standards, but also to reshape the knowledge and capabilities of practicing managers...

A Second Opinion: A Case Narrative on Clinical Ethics Mediation.

Science.gov (United States)

Weinstein, Michael S

2015-01-01

Contrasting traditional and common forms of ethics consultation with bioethics mediation, I describe the case of a "second opinion" consultation in the care of a patient with advanced cancer for whom treatment was futile. While the initial ethics consultation, performed by a colleague, led to a recommendation that some may deem ethical, the process failed to involve key stakeholders and failed to explore the underlying values and reasons for the opinions voiced by various stakeholders. The process of mediation ultimately led to creative solutions in which all stakeholders could reach consensus on a plan of care. Copyright 2015 The Journal of Clinical Ethics. All rights reserved.

Mandatory influenza immunization for health care workers--an ethical discussion.

Science.gov (United States)

Steckel, Cynthia M

2007-01-01

Influenza is a serious vaccine-preventable disease affecting 20% of the U.S. population each year. Vaccination of high-risk groups has been called the single most important influenza control measure by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Studies show that vaccination can lead to decreases in flu-related illness and absenteeism among health care workers, as well as fewer acute care outbreaks and reduced patient mortality in long-term care settings. However, to date, voluntary programs have achieved only a 40% vaccination rate among health care workers, causing concern among government and infectious disease organizations. This article addresses the ethical justification for mandating influenza vaccination for health care workers. Health care workers' attitudes toward vaccination are presented, as well as historical and legal perspectives on compulsory measures. The ethical principles of effectiveness, beneficence, necessity, autonomy, justice, and transparency are discussed.

Conjoined Twins: Philosophical Problems and Ethical Challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Savulescu, Julian; Persson, Ingmar

2016-02-01

We examine the philosophical and ethical issues associated with conjoined twins and their surgical separation. In cases in which there is an extensive sharing of organs, but nevertheless two distinguishable functioning brains, there are a number of philosophical and ethical challenges. This is because such conjoined twins: 1. give rise to puzzles concerning our identity, about whether we are identical to something psychological or biological; 2. force us to decide whether what matters from an ethical point of view is the biological life of our organisms or the existence of our consciousness or mind; 3. raise questions concerning when, if ever, it is morally acceptable to sacrifice one of us to save another; 4. force us to reflect on the conditions for ownership of organs and the justification of removal of organs for transplantation which causes the death of the donor; 5. raise questions about who should take decisions about life-risking treatments when this cannot be decided by patients themselves. We examine and suggest answers to these questions. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy Inc. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Evaluating Ethical Responsibility in Inverse Decision Support

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad M. Kabil

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Decision makers have considerable autonomy on how they make decisions and what type of support they receive. This situation places the DSS analyst in a different relationship with the client than his colleagues who support regular MIS applications. This paper addresses an ethical dilemma in “Inverse Decision Support,” when the analyst supports a decision maker who requires justification for a preconceived selection that does not correspond to the best option that resulted from the professional resolution of the problem. An extended application of the AHP model is proposed for evaluating the ethical responsibility in selecting a suboptimal alternative. The extended application is consistent with the Inverse Decision Theory that is used extensively in medical decision making. A survey of decision analysts is used to assess their perspective of using the proposed extended application. The results show that 80% of the respondents felt that the proposed extended application is useful in business practices. 14% of them expanded the usability of the extended application to academic teaching of the ethics theory. The extended application is considered more usable in a country with a higher Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (TICPI than in a country with a lower one.

Understanding ill-structured engineering ethics problems through a collaborative learning and argument visualization approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffmann, Michael; Borenstein, Jason

2014-03-01

As a committee of the National Academy of Engineering recognized, ethics education should foster the ability of students to analyze complex decision situations and ill-structured problems. Building on the NAE's insights, we report about an innovative teaching approach that has two main features: first, it places the emphasis on deliberation and on self-directed, problem-based learning in small groups of students; and second, it focuses on understanding ill-structured problems. The first innovation is motivated by an abundance of scholarly research that supports the value of deliberative learning practices. The second results from a critique of the traditional case-study approach in engineering ethics. A key problem with standard cases is that they are usually described in such a fashion that renders the ethical problem as being too obvious and simplistic. The practitioner, by contrast, may face problems that are ill-structured. In the collaborative learning environment described here, groups of students use interactive and web-based argument visualization software called "AGORA-net: Participate - Deliberate!". The function of the software is to structure communication and problem solving in small groups. Students are confronted with the task of identifying possible stakeholder positions and reconstructing their legitimacy by constructing justifications for these positions in the form of graphically represented argument maps. The argument maps are then presented in class so that these stakeholder positions and their respective justifications become visible and can be brought into a reasoned dialogue. Argument mapping provides an opportunity for students to collaborate in teams and to develop critical thinking and argumentation skills.

Ethical Challenges of Medicine and Health on the Internet: A Review

Science.gov (United States)

2001-01-01

Knowledge and capabilities, particularly of a new technology or in a new area of study, frequently develop faster than the guidelines and principles needed for practitioners to practice ethically in the new arena; this is particularly true in medicine. The blending of medicine and healthcare with e-commerce and the Internet raises many questions involving what sort of ethical conduct should be expected by practitioners and developers of the medical Internet. Some of the early pioneers in medical and healthcare Web sites pushed the ethical boundaries with questionable, even unethical, practices. Many involved with the medical Internet are now working to reestablish patient and consumer trust by establishing guidelines to determine how the fundamentals of the medical code of ethical conduct can best be adapted for the medical/healthcare Internet. Ultimately, all those involved in the creation, maintenance, and marketing of medical and healthcare Web sites should be required to adhere to a strict code of ethical conduct, one that has been fairly determined by an impartial international organization with reasonable power to regulate the code. This code could also serve as a desirable, recognizable label-of-distinction for ethical Web sites within the medical and healthcare Internet community. One challenge for those involved with the medical and healthcare Internet will be to determine what constitutes "Medical Internet Ethics" or "Healthcare Internet Ethics," since the definition of medical ethics can vary from country to country. Therefore, the emerging field of Medical/ Healthcare Internet Ethics will require careful thought and insights from an international collection of ethicists in many contributing areas. This paper is a review of the current status of the evolving field of Medical/Healthcare Internet Ethics, including proposed definitions and identification of many diverse areas that may ultimately contribute to this multidisciplinary field. The current role

Ethical challenges of medicine and health on the Internet: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Dyer, K A

2001-01-01

Knowledge and capabilities, particularly of a new technology or in a new area of study, frequently develop faster than the guidelines and principles needed for practitioners to practice ethically in the new arena; this is particularly true in medicine. The blending of medicine and healthcare with e-commerce and the Internet raises many questions involving what sort of ethical conduct should be expected by practitioners and developers of the medical Internet. Some of the early pioneers in medical and healthcare Web sites pushed the ethical boundaries with questionable, even unethical, practices. Many involved with the medical Internet are now working to reestablish patient and consumer trust by establishing guidelines to determine how the fundamentals of the medical code of ethical conduct can best be adapted for the medical/healthcare Internet. Ultimately, all those involved in the creation, maintenance, and marketing of medical and healthcare Web sites should be required to adhere to a strict code of ethical conduct, one that has been fairly determined by an impartial international organization with reasonable power to regulate the code. This code could also serve as a desirable, recognizable label-of-distinction for ethical Web sites within the medical and healthcare Internet community. One challenge for those involved with the medical and healthcare Internet will be to determine what constitutes "Medical Internet Ethics" or "Healthcare Internet Ethics," since the definition of medical ethics can vary from country to country. Therefore, the emerging field of Medical/ Healthcare Internet Ethics will require careful thought and insights from an international collection of ethicists in many contributing areas. This paper is a review of the current status of the evolving field of Medical/Healthcare Internet Ethics, including proposed definitions and identification of many diverse areas that may ultimately contribute to this multidisciplinary field. The current role

Ethical Components in Radiological Protection Communication: First Feedbacks from Switzerland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bochud, Francois

2013-01-01

The presentation started by underlying that moral philosophy relates to deontology, virtues and utilitarianism: deontology defines the way an actor is acting; an actor is judged based on the virtues of his actions and the actions are judged by their consequences (Utilitarianism). The presentation then moves on by talking about ethical history in medicine and focusing the attention on the three basic principles of bio-ethics: Autonomy (deontology), Beneficence or non-maleficence (utilitarianism) and Justice (deontology). The three principles of radiation protection: justification, optimization and limitation were then framed within the ICRP publications 103 and 105 and discussed with reference to the bio-ethics basic of deontology, virtue and utilitarianism. For a practical application of these principles, the lecturer used different examples to demonstrate the difficulties encountered in applying them and the degree of flexibility needed in doing so. Examples were related to: back scattering images (airplane boarding); annual effective dose related to the decision to leave the house; person genetically more radiosensitive (risk of leukaemia) and people tobacco smoking. The scheme to present the examples is the same in three steps: 1. First answers to a question involving moral or ethical elements; 2. Rephrasing the same question with an ethical perspective; 3. Second answers to the rephrased question. Finally the first and second answers are compared and commented. After the discussion around these examples, the following conclusions can be drawn: Ethical principles are enshrined in radiation protection and in medicine; Ethical decisions need to be taken with the help of different schools of moral philosophy and Ethics and radiation protection are dynamic (Now and here versus tomorrow and there)

Business ethics founded on christian moral theology: Perspectives for the 21st century

OpenAIRE

Mele, Domenec

2000-01-01

Religion influences the world of business through its influence on people's moral conscience and motivation, so it would be unrealistic not to take it into account. Theology does not see itself as being opposed to philosophy but, rather, as building on it. Through its rational and systematic justification of faith, theology opens up new horizons for business ethics. Furthermore, if public debate requires the contribution of acknowledged authorities on moral issues, then there is clearly a pla...

Ethics and risk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruh, H.

1991-01-01

The author attempts a systematic approach towards the ethical aspects of risk and proposes that the problem be locked at on different levels: The highest level might conceivably pertain to the problem of the survival of the human race and other species. This is the level on which the history of the human race and nature are to be looked at with reference to an ethics of ecology. From the anthropocentric perspective, a fundamental question of ecological ethics is formulated: The generations to directly follow us should have a basis of existence which is comparable to ours; this basis must be preserved for them in such a way that irreparable developments can be avoided and they can take full responsibility for their own future. Since there is no justification for taking risks which endanger the basis of the existence of the species, speculation on the probability of occurrence becomes irrelevant as well. On this level, on which we are concerned with natural history and the history of the human race, it is absolutely forbidden to even consider taking such risks. As regards partial but serious damage on a lower level (examples Chernobyl, Bophal) speculation on the probability of occurrence might have some degree of validity, but two additional criteria must be taken into account: 1. Codetermination: From an ethical point of view, such risks are only justified if those who are potentially affected by them have given their consent of their own free will in a democratic decision-making procedure and have knowledge of the facts relevant to the issue. 2. The argument of serious affliction: Most important of all, codetermination must operate on the basis of a clear knowledge of potential suffering. On a level on which the destruction of the basis of existence is not at stake, serious affliction might also be viewed as something which would make taking risks which might potentially incur such affliction totally inacceptable. (orig./HSCH) [de

Control of Antimicrobial Resistance Requires an Ethical Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ben Parsonage

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Ethical behavior encompasses actions that benefit both self and society. This means that tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR becomes an ethical obligation, because the prospect of declining anti-infectives affects everyone. Without preventive action, loss of drugs that have saved lives over the past century, will condemn ourselves, people we know, and people we don’t know, to unacceptable risk of untreatable infection. Policies aimed at extending antimicrobial life should be considered within an ethical framework, in order to balance the choice, range, and quality of drugs against stewardship activities. Conserving availability and effectiveness for future use should not compromise today’s patients. Practices such as antimicrobial prophylaxis for healthy people ‘at risk’ should receive full debate. There are additional ethical considerations for AMR involving veterinary care, agriculture, and relevant bio-industries. Restrictions for farmers potentially threaten the quality and quantity of food production with economic consequences. Antibiotics for companion animals do not necessarily spare those used for humans. While low-income countries cannot afford much-needed drugs, pharmaceutical companies are reluctant to develop novel agents for short-term return only. Public demand encourages over-the-counter, internet, black market, and counterfeit drugs, all of which compromise international control. Prescribers themselves require educational support to balance therapeutic choice against collateral damage to both body and environment. Predicted mortality due to AMR provides justification for international co-operation, commitment and investment to support surveillance and stewardship along with development of novel antimicrobial drugs. Ethical arguments for, and against, control of antimicrobial resistance strategies are presented and discussed in this review.

[Ethical principles of clinical trials in minors].

Science.gov (United States)

Koch, H J; Raschka, C

2002-12-05

Clinical trials in volunteers and patients are essential to ensure rational treatment of patients. As a rule, drugs are routinely developed for adults, but children are excluded. A major reason for this restriction are ethical justifications, in particular the lack of autonomy on the part of children. The principle of fairness, however, requires that everyone should benefit from progress. Industry, science and society are therefore called upon to find ways of making available safe and adequate treatment for children as quickly as possible, by defining the required conditions for pediatric clinical trials. Important principles are minimal risk, minimal invasivity, rapid decision-making, and careful documentation of trial results. Dynamic ethical principles, such as autonomy and competence in adolescents must be considered on equal footing with existing international GCP guidelines. Aspects of child psychology indicate that the autonomy of adolescents should be respected. Where economic incentives for such trials are absent, for example, in the case of non-pharmacological problems, pediatric trials must be considered a task for society as a whole.

Minors and euthanasia: a systematic review of argument-based ethics literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Cuman, Giulia; Gastmans, Chris

2017-07-01

Euthanasia was first legalised in the Netherlands in 2002, followed by similar legislation in Belgium the same year. Since the beginning, however, only the Netherlands included the possibility for minors older than 12 years to request euthanasia. In 2014, the Belgian Act legalising euthanasia was amended to include requests by minors who possess the capacity of discernment. This amendment sparked great debate, and raised difficult ethical questions about when and how a minor can be deemed competent. We conducted a systematic review of argument-based literature on euthanasia in minors. The search process followed PRISMA guidelines. Thirteen publications were included. The four-principle approach of medical ethics was used to organise the ethical arguments underlying this debate. The justification for allowing euthanasia in minors is buttressed mostly by the principles of beneficence and respect for autonomy. Somewhat paradoxically, both principles are also used in the literature to argue against the extension of legislation to minors. Opponents of euthanasia generally rely on the principle of non-maleficence. The present analysis reveals that the debate surrounding euthanasia in minors is at an early stage. In order to allow a more in-depth ethical discussion, we suggest enriching the four-principle approach by including a care-ethics approach. What is Known: • The Netherlands and Belgium are the only two countries in the world with euthanasia legislation making it possible for minors to receive euthanasia. • This legislation provoked great debate globally, with ethical arguments for and against this legislation. What is New: • A systematic description of the ethical concepts and arguments grounding the debate on euthanasia in minors, as reported in the argument-based ethics literature. • A need has been identified to enrich the debate with a care-ethics approach to avoid oversimplifying the ethical decision-making process.

The acceptability of conducting data linkage research without obtaining consent: lay people's views and justifications.

Science.gov (United States)

Xafis, Vicki

2015-11-17

A key ethical issue arising in data linkage research relates to consent requirements. Patients' consent preferences in the context of health research have been explored but their consent preferences regarding data linkage specifically have been under-explored. In addition, the views on data linkage are often those of patient groups. As a result, little is known about lay people's views and their preferences about consent requirements in the context of data linkage. This study explores lay people's views and justifications regarding the acceptability of conducting data linkage research without obtaining consent. A qualitative study explored lay people's views regarding consent requirements in data linkage via four hypothetical data linkage scenarios of increasing complexity. Prior to considering the scenarios, participants were provided with information regarding best practice data linkage processes via discussion and a diagrammatic representation of the process. Lay people were able to understand the intricate processes involved in data linkage and the key protections afforded within a short amount of time. They were supportive of data linkage research and, on the whole, believed it should be conducted without consent provided a data linkage organization de-identifies the data used so that researchers do not handle identifiable data. Many thought that de-identified data holds a different status to identifiable data and should be used without specific consent in research that aims to benefit society. In weighing up conflicting values and interests, participants shifted consent preferences before arriving at their final consent preference for each scenario and provided justifications for their choices. They considered the protection of people's information, societal benefits, and the nature and constraints of research and recognized that these need to be balanced. With some exposure to the features of data linkage, lay people have the capacity to understand the

Speaking Up: Veterinary Ethical Responsibilities and Animal Welfare Issues in Everyday Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Hernandez, Elein; Fawcett, Anne; Brouwer, Emily; Rau, Jeff

2018-01-01

Simple Summary Veterinarians have an ethical obligation to provide good care for the animals that they see in practice. However, at times, there may be conflicts between the interests of animal caregivers or owners, the interests of veterinarians and the interests of animals. We provide an overview of why and how veterinary ethics is taught to veterinary students, as well as providing a context for thinking about veterinary ethical challenges and animal welfare issues. We argue that veterinarians are ethically obliged to speak up and ask questions when problems arise or are seen and provide a series of clinical case examples in which there is scope for veterinarians to improve animal welfare by ‘speaking up’. Abstract Although expectations for appropriate animal care are present in most developed countries, significant animal welfare challenges continue to be seen on a regular basis in all areas of veterinary practice. Veterinary ethics is a relatively new area of educational focus but is thought to be critically important in helping veterinarians formulate their approach to clinical case management and in determining the overall acceptability of practices towards animals. An overview is provided of how veterinary ethics are taught and how common ethical frameworks and approaches are employed—along with legislation, guidelines and codes of professional conduct—to address animal welfare issues. Insufficiently mature ethical reasoning or a lack of veterinary ethical sensitivity can lead to an inability or difficulty in speaking up about concerns with clients and ultimately, failure in their duty of care to animals, leading to poor animal welfare outcomes. A number of examples are provided to illustrate this point. Ensuring that robust ethical frameworks are employed will ultimately help veterinarians to “speak up” to address animal welfare concerns and prevent future harms. PMID:29361786

ICRP Publication 138: Ethical Foundations of the System of Radiological Protection.

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, K-W; Cantone, M-C; Kurihara-Saio, C; Le Guen, B; Martinez, N; Oughton, D; Schneider, T; Toohey, R; ZöLzer, F

2018-02-01

Despite a longstanding recognition that radiological protection is not only a matter of science, but also ethics, ICRP publications have rarely addressed the ethical foundations of the system of radiological protection explicitly. The purpose of this publication is to describe how the Commission has relied on ethical values, either intentionally or indirectly, in developing the system of radiological protection with the objective of presenting a coherent view of how ethics is part of this system. In so doing, it helps to clarify the inherent value judgements made in achieving the aim of the radiological protection system as underlined by the Commission in Publication 103. Although primarily addressed to the radiological protection community, this publication is also intended to address authorities, operators, workers, medical professionals, patients, the public, and its representatives (e.g. NGOs) acting in the interest of the protection of people and the environment. This publication provides the key steps concerning the scientific, ethical, and practical evolutions of the system of radiological protection since the first ICRP publication in 1928. It then describes the four core ethical values underpinning the present system: beneficence/ non-maleficence, prudence, justice, and dignity. It also discusses how these core ethical values relate to the principles of radiological protection, namely justification, optimisation, and limitation. The publication finally addresses key procedural values that are required for the practical implementation of the system, focusing on accountability, transparency, and inclusiveness. The Commission sees this publication as a founding document to be elaborated further in different situations and circumstances.

A Second Opinion: A Case Narrative on Clinical Ethics Mediation.

Science.gov (United States)

Weinstein, Michael S

2015-01-01

Contrasting traditional and common forms if ethics consultation with bioethics mediation. I describe the case of a "second opinion" consultation in the care of a patient with advanced cancer for whom treatment was futile. While the initial ethics consultation, performed by a colleague, let to a recommendation that some may deem ethical, the process failed to involve key stakeholders and failed to explore the underlying values and reasons for the opinions voiced by various stakeholders. The process of mediation ultimately led to creative solutions in which all stakeholders could reach consensus on a plan of care.

Minimum Age of Sale for Tobacco Products and Electronic Cigarettes: Ethical Acceptability of US "Tobacco 21 Laws".

Science.gov (United States)

Morain, Stephanie Rubino; Malek, Janet

2017-09-01

Several US jurisdictions have recently passed laws that raise the minimum age of sale for tobacco products and electronic cigarettes to 21 years (Tobacco 21 laws). Although these laws have been demonstrated to be an effective means to reduce youth smoking initiation, their passage and potential expansion have provoked controversy. Critics have objected to these laws, claiming that they unduly intrude on individual freedom and that they irrationally and paternalistically restrict the freedom of those aged 18 to 20 years, who were previously able to legally purchase tobacco products. We have examined the ethical acceptability of Tobacco 21 laws. First, we have described ethical support for such a restriction grounded in its public health benefit. We have then offered arguments that raise doubts about the soundness of critics' objections to these regulations and described an additional ethical justification arising from concern about preventing harm to others. On the basis of this analysis, we conclude that Tobacco 21 laws are ethically justifiable.

13 CFR 130.460 - Budget justification.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 13 Business Credit and Assistance 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Budget justification. 130.460 Section 130.460 Business Credit and Assistance SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT...) Cost principles. Principles for determining allowable costs are contained in OMB Circulars A-21 (cost...

What's the matter with business ethics?

Science.gov (United States)

Stark, A

1993-01-01

The more business ethics secures its status in campuses across the country, the more bewildering it appears to actual managers. It's not that managers dislike the idea of doing the right thing. As University of Toronto Assistant Professor Andrew Stark argues, far too many business ethicists just haven't offered them the practical advice they need. Before business ethics became a formal discipline, advocates of corporate social responsibility claimed that the market would ultimately reward ethical behavior. But ethics and interests did not always intersect so fruitfully in the real world. And when they did not, managers were left in the dark to grope for the right ethical course. In the 1970s, the brand-new field of business ethics came onto the scene to address this issue. Critical of the "ethics pays" approach, academics held that ethics and interests can and do conflict. Still, scholars took an equally unrealistic line. To them, a manager's motivation could be either altruistic or self-interested, but never both. In short, ethicists still weren't addressing the difficult moral dilemmas that managers face on a day-to-day basis, and only recently have they begun to do so. After some initial stumbles, ethicists are getting their hands dirty and seriously considering the costs of doing the right thing. Finally, a new business ethics is emerging that acknowledges and accepts the messy world of mixed motives. As a result, novel concepts are springing up: moderation, pragmatism, minimalism, among others.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Virtue ethics as an alternative to deontological and consequential reasoning in the harm reduction debate.

Science.gov (United States)

Christie, Timothy; Groarke, Louis; Sweet, William

2008-02-01

There is strong evidence that harm reduction interventions such as Supervised Injection Sites and Needle Exchange Programs prevent many of the negative consequences of problematic substance use. Yet many governments, including the United States and Canada, still do not endorse these interventions, claiming that they do not get people off of drugs and send a mixed message. This paper will analyze objections to harm reduction in light of the ethical theories of John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant and Aristotle. The most important ethical issue in the abstinence vs. harm reduction debate is whether harm reduction - because it does not require individuals to either reduce their consumption of illicit substances or to abstain from illicit substance use - can be ethically justified. Harm reduction interventions are clearly justified on Utilitarian grounds because, based on the evidence, such policies would produce the greatest good for the greatest number. However, Kant would not think that the values guiding harm reduction are ethical because the justification of harm reduction interventions focuses exclusively on examining consequences. Virtue Ethics seeks to find the proper balance between harm reduction and abstinence. We claim that the virtue of compassion would provide a defense of harm reduction.

The historical context of business ethics: implications for choices and challenges in wound care.

Science.gov (United States)

Gallagher, S M

1999-08-01

Wound care clinicians are regularly asked to make decisions of an ethical nature within their work settings. Business and business practices are influenced by a number of factors, such as history, culture, and individual choices. This article describes business practices and ultimately business ethics from an historical context, the meaning of business culture within the dominant culture, and the debate over business ethics as it relates to choices and challenges for wound care clinicians.

Well-Founded Belief and Perceptual Justification

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Broncano-Berrocal, Fernando

2016-01-01

According to Alan Millar, justified beliefs are well-founded beliefs. Millar cashes out the notion of well-foundedness in terms of having an adequate reason to believe something and believing it for that reason. To make his account of justified belief compatible with perceptual justification he...

Radiation Ethics in a Globalized World

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zoelzer, Friedo

2013-01-01

The presentation focused on implications to the ethics in RP, in a world more and more globalized and it challenges the present status of the moral philosophy underlying the ICRP recommendations, which appears to be preferentially based on western ethics. After presenting evident data showing that the center of gravity for existing and new nuclear plants is more and more toward far east populated countries, Friedo Zolzer asked himself if there is something like a 'common morality' to approach moral questions from very different cultural perspectives. Reference was made to the studies of Beauchamp and Childress with their identification of four principles and their claim that 'all persons committed to morality' would agree with their four principles. Common morality, for the author, cannot be defined via a 'Universal poll', but by studying cultures and religions practiced by the different populations in the past ages. He stated the need to develop common morality into 'cross cultural ethics' and the presentation went on by finding a relationship between the three RP principles (Justification, Optimization, Limitation) with the four principles of biomedical ethics (as part of the common morality). The lecturer then asked himself if the common morality can be of help in cases where the three RP principles are not directly applicable and after discussing three different cases, he concluded that common morality can provide us with additional criteria for certain problems not covered by the main RP principles. This approach, open to new different cultural backgrounds, seems to give a fresh inside to some problems, which cannot be addressed only on the basis of the current mix of utilitarian and deontological approaches in RP

Dispute Resolution and Technology: Revisiting the Justification of Conflict Management

OpenAIRE

Koulu, Riikka

2016-01-01

This study, Dispute Resolution and Technology: Revisiting the Justification of Conflict Management, belongs to the fields of procedural law, legal theory and law and technology studies. In this study the changes in dispute resolution caused by technology are evaluated. The overarching research question of this study is how does implementing technology to dispute resolution challenge the justification of law as a legitimised mode of violence? Before answering such an abstract research question...

The Just War Tradition: A Model for Healthcare Ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Connolly, Chaplain John D

2018-06-01

Healthcare ethics committees, physicians, surgeons, nurses, families, and patients themselves are constantly under pressure to make appropriate medically ethical decisions concerning patient care. Various models for healthcare ethics decisions have been proposed throughout the years, but by and large they are focused on making the initial ethical decision. What follows is a proposed model for healthcare ethics that considers the most appropriate decisions before, during, and after any intervention. The Just War Tradition is a model that is thorough in its exploration of the ethics guiding a nation to either engage in or refuse to engage in combatant actions. In recent years, the Just War Tradition has expanded beyond the simple consideration of going to war or not to include how the war is conducted and what the post-war phase would look like ethically. This paper is an exploration of a healthcare ethics decision making model using the tenets of the Just War Tradition as a framework. It discusses the initial consult level of decision making prior to any medical intervention, then goes further in considering the ongoing ethical paradigm during medical intervention and post intervention. Thus, this proposal is a more holistic approach to healthcare ethics decision making that encourages healthcare ethics committees to consider alternate models and ways of processing so that ultimately what is best for patient, family, staff, and the environment is all taken into consideration.

Ethical issues in radiology: Perspectives from the Christian tradition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hogan, L.

2009-01-01

The Christian ethical tradition introduces a number of key values into the clinical context. Moreover, although some denominational differences exist, these are essentially differences of emphasis rather than of substance. Among the central values which the Christian tradition promotes are: the dignity of the person, the individual as embodied spirit and the importance of the common good. Within the evolving discourse, social justice considerations have come to the fore as a critical concern within bio-ethics. In radiology, like most fields of clinical practice, practitioners frequently encounter conflicts and tensions of an ethical nature. Moreover, the manner in which these conflicts are articulated, conceptualised and ultimately resolved will depend, not only on how the scientific data are analysed and interpreted, but also on how different ethical frameworks are invoked in these disputes. The concern in this brief paper is to discuss the Christian ethical tradition as it is expressed in Roman Catholic and 'Protestant' denominations in the western church, considering the values and norms that underlie Christian ethical engagements with applied questions. (authors)

Confucian ethics and emotions%儒家伦理与情感

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

王云萍

2008-01-01

The Confucian understanding of emotions and their ethical importance confirms and exemplifies the contemporary Western renewed understanding of the nature of emotions. By virtue of a systematic conceptual analysis of Confucian ethics, one can see that, according to Confucians, the ethical significance of emotions, lies in that an ethical life is also emotional and virtues are inclinational. And a further exploration shows that the reason for the ethical significance is both that emotions are heavenly-endowed and that there exists a union of emotions and reason in Confucian ethics. This will constitute a challenge to the so-called mainstream ethical theories which have been popularly engaged in seeking justifications for abstract moral rules.%儒家伦理学对情感的理解,印证了当代西方伦理学对情感的性质及其伦理重要性的某些理解.对儒家伦理进行系统的概念分析可见,情感的伦理重要性不仅表现在伦理生活就是情感丰富的生活,而且儒家品德本身就是内在倾向性的;进一步的探索还表明,儒家伦理对情感重要性的强调源于情感的天赋性及情感与理性的联合.这可能会对一向着重论证抽象伦理原则的主流伦理理论形成一种挑战.

Working class conservatism: a system justification perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Jost, John T

2017-12-01

Working class conservatism is a perennial issue in social science, but researchers have struggled to provide an adequate characterization. In social psychology, the question has too often been framed in 'either/or' terms of whether the disadvantaged are more or less likely to support the status quo than the advantaged. This is a crude rendering of the issue obscuring the fact that even if most working class voters are not conservative, millions are-and conservatives could not win elections without their support. System justification theory highlights epistemic, existential, and relational needs to reduce uncertainty, threat, and social discord that are shared by everyone-and that promote conservative attitudes. I summarize qualitative and quantitative evidence of system justification among the disadvantaged and consider prospects for more constructive political activity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Global Ethics Applied: Global Ethics, Economic Ethics

OpenAIRE

Stückelberger, Christoph

2016-01-01

Global Ethics Applied’ in four volumes is a reader of 88 selected articles from the author on 13 domains: Vol. 1 Global Ethics, Economic Ethics; Vol. 2 Environmental Ethics; Vol. 3 Development Ethics, Political Ethics, Dialogue and Peace Ethics, Innovation and Research Ethics, Information and Communication Ethics; Vol. 4 Bioethics and Medical Ethics, Family Ethics and Sexual Ethics, Leadership Ethics, Theological Ethics and Ecclesiology, Methods of Ethics. It concludes with the extended Bibli...

Publication ethics and the ghost management of medical publication.

Science.gov (United States)

Sismondo, Sergio; Doucet, Mathieu

2010-07-01

It is by now no secret that some scientific articles are ghost authored - that is, written by someone other than the person whose name appears at the top of the article. Ghost authorship, however, is only one sort of ghosting. In this article, we present evidence that pharmaceutical companies engage in the ghost management of the scientific literature, by controlling or shaping several crucial steps in the research, writing, and publication of scientific articles. Ghost management allows the pharmaceutical industry to shape the literature in ways that serve its interests. This article aims to reinforce and expand publication ethics as an important area of concern for bioethics. Since ghost-managed research is primarily undertaken in the interests of marketing, large quantities of medical research violate not just publication norms but also research ethics. Much of this research involves human subjects, and yet is performed not primarily to increase knowledge for broad human benefit, but to disseminate results in the service of profits. Those who sponsor, manage, conduct, and publish such research therefore behave unethically, since they put patients at risk without justification. This leads us to a strong conclusion: if medical journals want to ensure that the research they publish is ethically sound, they should not publish articles that are commercially sponsored.

Stripped of illusions? Exploring system justification processes in capitalist and post-Communist societies.

Science.gov (United States)

Cichocka, Aleksandra; Jost, John T

2014-02-01

Sociologists and political scientists have often observed that citizens of Central and Eastern Europe express high levels of disillusionment with their social, economic and political systems, in comparison with citizens of Western capitalist societies. In this review, we analyze system legitimation and delegitimation in post-Communist societies from a social psychological perspective. We draw on system justification theory, which seeks to understand how, when and why people do (and do not) defend, bolster and justify existing social systems. We review some of the major tenets and findings of the theory and compare research on system-justifying beliefs and ideologies in traditionally Capitalist and post-Communist countries to determine: (1) whether there are robust differences in the degree of system justification in post-Communist and Capitalist societies, and (2) the extent to which hypotheses derived from system justification theory receive support in the post-Communist context. To this end, we summarize research findings from over 20 countries and cite previously unpublished data from a public opinion survey conducted in Poland. Our analysis confirms that there are lower levels of system justification in post-Communist countries. At the same time, we find that system justification possesses similar social and psychological antecedents, manifestations and consequences in the two types of societies. We offer potential explanations for these somewhat complicated patterns of results and conclude by addressing implications for theory and research on system justification and system change (or transition). © 2013 International Union of Psychological Science.

Stalking the ultimate particle

CERN Multimedia

2003-01-01

If you missed the ARTE programme entitled "L'Ultime Particule" broadcast in February, you have another chance to catch it in CERN's Main Auditorium on 13 March. "L'Ultime Particule" is a documentary by the French director Michel Andrieu that seeks to explain particle physics through a contemplative quest for the research physicists of matter of today and yesteryear. Invariably kitted out in a red parka and a soft hat, the programme's investigator scours the planet and the archives in search of the research physicists who are stalking the ultimate particle, the Higgs boson, in their quest to understand the structure of matter. Naturally enough, CERN is an important stage of his journey where Michel Andrieu and his team spent several days last year. Both from the physics and metaphysical points of view, "L'Ultime Particule" is worth seeing. The film's director, Michel Andrieu, will introduce his documentary and answer questions from the audience after the documentary has been shown. L'Ultime Particule by Mic...

Ethical Implications of Social Stigma Associated with the Promotion and Use of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis for HIV Prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

Herron, Patrick D

2016-04-01

Identifying sources of and eliminating social stigma associated with the promotion and use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for the prevention of sexually acquired HIV infection among men who have sex with men (MSM) is both a moral imperative and necessary requirement to ensure that public health objectives of HIV prevention can be met. This article will examine and address ethical concerns and criticisms regarding the use of PrEP, barriers to its promotion, and use among MSM and examine the types of social stigma associated with PrEP. An ethical justification for both healthcare and LGBT communities to address and overcome social stigma regarding the use of PrEP among MSM is offered.

JUSTIFICATION FOR INDIRECT DISCRIMINATION IN EU

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cătălina-Adriana Ivănuş

2014-11-01

Full Text Available The right to non-discrimination is very important for a civilized society. EU legislation establishes direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment, instruction to discriminate and any less favourable treatment of a woman related to pregnancy or maternity leave as forms of discrimination. The law and the Court of Justice permit the justification of indirect discrimination.

JUSTIFICATION FOR INDIRECT DISCRIMINATION IN EU

OpenAIRE

Cătălina-Adriana Ivănuş

2014-01-01

The right to non-discrimination is very important for a civilized society. EU legislation establishes direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment, instruction to discriminate and any less favourable treatment of a woman related to pregnancy or maternity leave as forms of discrimination. The law and the Court of Justice permit the justification of indirect discrimination.

Can context justify an ethical double standard for clinical research in developing countries?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Landes Megan

2005-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The design of clinical research deserves special caution so as to safeguard the rights of participating individuals. While the international community has agreed on ethical standards for the design of research, these frameworks still remain open to interpretation, revision and debate. Recently a breach in the consensus of how to apply these ethical standards to research in developing countries has occurred, notably beginning with the 1994 placebo-controlled trials to reduce maternal to child transmission of HIV-1 in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. The design of these trials sparked intense debate with the inclusion of a placebo-control group despite the existence of a 'gold standard' and trial supporters grounded their justifications of the trial design on the context of scarcity in resource-poor settings. Discussion These 'contextual' apologetics are arguably an ethical loophole inherent in current bioethical methodology. However, this convenient appropriation of 'contextual' analysis simply fails to acknowledge the underpinnings of feminist ethical analysis upon which it must stand. A more rigorous analysis of the political, social, and economic structures pertaining to the global context of developing countries reveals that the bioethical principles of beneficence and justice fail to be met in this trial design. Conclusion Within this broader, and theoretically necessary, understanding of context, it becomes impossible to justify an ethical double standard for research in developing countries.

Nursing Ethics: A Lifelong Commitment.

Science.gov (United States)

Gibbons, Susanne W; Jeschke, E Ann

2016-01-01

Over the past 30 years, the health-care context as well as the roles and responsibilities of nurses have drastically changed. Leaders in nursing around the world recognize that the health-care system is stressed and the well-being of the nursing workforce plagued by the pressures and challenges it faces in everyday practice. We do not intend to make a strong normative argument for why nursing ethics education should be done in a certain way, but instead show from where we have come and to where we can go, so that educators are positioned to address some of the current shortcomings in ethics education. Our goal is to provide an illustration of ethics education as an interwoven, ongoing, and essential aspect of nursing education and professional development. By developing professional identity as character, we hope that professional nurses are given the skills to stand in the face of adversity and to act in a way that upholds the core competencies of nursing. Ultimately, health-care organizations will thrive because of the support they provide nurses and other health-care professionals.

Informed consent: still a useful tool in research ethics - DOI: 10.3395/reciis.v2.Sup1.208en

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Florencia Luna

2008-12-01

Full Text Available This article dicusses informed consent (IC: its evolution, its main challenges, and its theoretical assumptions. This process involves the interrelation of IC with the history and evolution of research ethics, and with some abuses committed in biomedical research. The article also presents the objections to IC, especially those related to its implementation in developing countries. It also approaches the epistemological problems and those related to the capacity of acting, given the background conditions in which IC is obtained. Furthermore, the article exposes the traditional justification of IC as conveyed by the Belmont Report, as well as a frequent simplification of this justification that focuses only on the deliberative aspect of IC, in which the emphasis on the autonomy or deliberation supposes an inadequate view of research subjects.

The concept of 'vulnerability' in research ethics: an in-depth analysis of policies and guidelines.

Science.gov (United States)

Bracken-Roche, Dearbhail; Bell, Emily; Macdonald, Mary Ellen; Racine, Eric

2017-02-07

The concept of vulnerability has held a central place in research ethics guidance since its introduction in the United States Belmont Report in 1979. It signals mindfulness for researchers and research ethics boards to the possibility that some participants may be at higher risk of harm or wrong. Despite its important intended purpose and widespread use, there is considerable disagreement in the scholarly literature about the meaning and delineation of vulnerability, stemming from a perceived lack of guidance within research ethics standards. The aim of this study was to assess the concept of vulnerability as it is employed in major national and international research ethics policies and guidelines. We conducted an in-depth analysis of 11 (five national and six international) research ethics policies and guidelines, exploring their discussions of the definition, application, normative justification and implications of vulnerability. Few policies and guidelines explicitly defined vulnerability, instead relying on implicit assumptions and the delineation of vulnerable groups and sources of vulnerability. On the whole, we found considerable richness in the content on vulnerability across policies, but note that this relies heavily on the structure imposed on the data through our analysis. Our results underscore a need for policymakers to revisit the guidance on vulnerability in research ethics, and we propose that a process of stakeholder engagement would well-support this effort.

Hegel’s justification of the human right to non-domination

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Westphal Kenneth R.

2017-01-01

Full Text Available ‘Hegel’ and ‘human rights’ are rarely conjoined, and the designation ‘human rights’ appears rarely in his works. Indeed, Hegel has been criticised for omitting civil and political rights all together. My surmise is that readers have looked for a modern Decalogue, and have neglected how Hegel justifies his views, and hence just what views he does justify. Philip Pettit (1997 has refocused attention on republican liberty. Hegel and I agree with Pettit that republican liberty is a supremely important value, but appealing to its value, or justifying it by appeal to reflective equilibrium, are insufficient both in theory and in practice. By reconstructing Kant’s Critical methodology and explicating the social character of rational justification in non-formal domains, Hegel shows that the republican right to non-domination is constitutive of the equally republican right to justification (Forst 2007 - both of which are necessary requirements for sufficient rational justification in all non-formal domains, including both claims to rights or imputations of duties or responsibilities. That is the direct moral, political and juridical implication of Hegel’s analysis of mutual recognition, and its fundamental, constitutive role in rational justification. Specific corollaries to the fundamental republican right to non-domination must be determined by considering what forms of illicit domination are possible or probable within any specific society, in view of its social, political and economic structures and functioning.

“We’re the Ones that Stand Up and Tell You the Truth”: Necessity of Ethical Intelligence Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nathan J. Phillips

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The concept of ethical intelligence is sometimes cited as an oxymoron. However, as the ultimate responsibility for intelligence agencies work lies with the government of the day, it is posited that intelligence-related decisions are ethically sound. This is because ethical standards provide the confidence that decisions can be judged fairly, giving governments legitimacy to carrying out what may otherwise be considered questionable activities.

Investigating the Development of Chinese Oral Explanation and Justification in Singapore Primary Students

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Jing

2016-01-01

Explanation and justification require cognitive ability which selects and organises relevant information in a logical way, and linguistic ability which enables speakers to encode the information with linguistic knowledge. This study aims to investigate the development of Chinese oral explanation and justification in Singapore primary students. The…

The justification principle applied to Computed tomography exams

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Machado Tejeda, A.; Mora Machado, R. de la; Garcia Moreira, T.; Hing Perdomo, J.

2008-01-01

The increasing use of imaging technologies and the installation of more sophisticated equipment in radiology services, such as multi-slice CT scanners have consequently increased the number of treated patients, as well as the collective doses to population. Radiation doses received from CT exams are higher than those received in conventional radiology. The optimal use of CT equipment, considering optimized techniques, and the justification of examinations, are imperative in order to minimize the undesirable effects of radiation. In this paper we do set out to the assessment of justification criteria applied for CT exams in a Cuban Hospital. The justification of prescribed tests by physicians was analyzed, assessing its incidence depending on the kind of studies and percentage (%) of positive and negative cases. The study was carried out in a Clinical Surgical Hospital in Havana City. This hospital has installed a Shimadzu SCT-7800TC helical single-slice device. The sample is made up of 81 patients, between 24 and 80 years old, both men and women. For all of them the pathology that causes the order of the exam as well as the existence of other previous tests, were considered. As a result of the assessment, the 56.8% of all cases turned out to be positives; the 55.5% only confirmed the pathologies and the 1.23% produced new evidences. On the other hand, the remaining 43.2% were negatives noting that the 65.3% of the patients there were not previous imaging tests. Skull exam was the most incidences compiling the 67.7% of cases, and it was the headache the most frequent clinical problem to perform the 41.1%. In terms of justification, the evaluation of prescriptions evidenced that CT exams were not justified in 43.2% of cases. As part of this last group, it was also found that 46.9% of clinical studies were negative. (author)

Values, Watersheds and Justification

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wiberg, Katrina

2015-01-01

concerning HOW. Together, this also hold potentials of achieving multiple benefits and action promoting resilience and liveability in urban landscapes. One way of approaching the value disputes is by asking if some conception of the common good in case of HOW can be justified at the same time...... as the plurality and diversity of values are recognised. Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot ́s concept of a plurality of regimes of justification -conflicting but also enabling compromise gives an affirmative answer to this question which is exemplified in the final parts of the paper....

Effect of ethical leadership and climate on effectiveness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amos S. Engelbrecht

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Orientation: The increasing prevalence of theft, sabotage and other deviant behaviours in the workplace has disastrous effects for organisations, such as lowered effectiveness, escalated costs and the organisation’s declining reputation. Research purpose: The purpose of the research was to design and investigate the relationships among perceived leader effectiveness, ethical climate and ethical leadership. A further objective of the investigation was to validate a conceptual model clarifying the structural associations among the latent constructs in the South African corporate domain. Motivation for the study: A successful leader is both an ethical and an effective leader. An organisation’s leadership is seen as the most critical element in establishing and maintaining an ethical climate in organisations. Research design, approach and method: A convenient and multi-cultural sample comprised of 224 employees from various organisations in South Africa. The structure and content of the variables were analysed through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA, beside item analysis. Main findings: Satisfactory reliability was found for all the measurement scales. The results of CFA demonstrated acceptable fit with the data for the refined measurement and structural models. The results of structural equation modelling (SEM indicated positive relationships among ethical leadership, ethical climate and leader effectiveness. Practical implications: Organisational leaders should take full responsibility for cultivating ethics through ethical leader behaviour and an ethical climate. By reinforcing these aspects, perceived leader effectiveness can be advanced, which will ultimately decrease corruption and other forms of counterproductive behaviour in South African organisations. Contribution: The study provides further theoretical and empirical evidence that leadership effectiveness can be realised through instilling an ethical organisational climate in which

Exploring the Application of Capital Facility Investment Justification Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marijan Karić

2013-07-01

Full Text Available For decades now, the models for identifying and quantifying the level of risk of investment projects and investment justification evaluation have been the subject of investigation by members of professional and research communities. It is important to quantify the level of risk because by evaluating investment justification in terms of the risks involved, the decision-maker (investor is able to choose from available alternatives the one that will achieve the most favourable ratio of expected profit to the assumed risk. In this way, the economic entity can raise its productivity, profitability and the quality of business operation in general. The aim of this paper was to investigate the extent to which medium and large companies have been using modern methods of investment justification evaluation in their decision-making process and determine the level of quality of the application of the selected methods in practice. The study was conducted on a sample of medium and large enterprises in the eastern Croatia during 2011 and 2012, and it was established that despite the fact that a large number of modern investment project profitability and risk assessment models have been developed, the level of their application in practice is not high enough. The analyzed investment proposals included only basic methods of capital budgeting without risk assessment. Hence, it was concluded that individual investors were presented with low-quality and incomplete investment justification evaluation results on the basis of which the decisions of key importance for the development of the economic entity as a whole were made. This paper aims to underline the need for financial managers to get informed and educate themselves about contemporary investment project profitability and risk assessment models as well as the need to create educational programmes and computer solutions that will encourage key people in companies to acquire new knowledge and apply modern

[AN EVALUATION OF JUSTICE AND RIGHT TO HEALTH CONCEPTS IN THE PERSPECTIVES OF ETHICAL THEORIES].

Science.gov (United States)

Ekmekçi, Perihan Elif; Arda, Berna

Right to health is considered as a fundamental human right. However the realization of right to health is facing obstacles due to the scarce resources which are needed for the provision of health services. Besides the vast technological improvements in medical area leads to the development of diagnosis and treatment possibilities each and every day. Thus, the provision of health services becomes a subject of distributive justice. To define the concept of justice, first one should identify the conditions of demanding right to have something and then determine how and who is obliged to give the deserved. Ethical theories form their own paradigms of acting right regarding their anchor points and priority values. The basic concepts such as justice or right to health are considered and conceptualized within the paradigms of the ethical theories. Thus some ethical theories consider right to health as a natural constituent of human being, while some may consider it contextual and others may reject it completely. In a similar vein, justice and related concepts of justice such as formal and material principles of justice differ regarding the paradigm of the ethical theory in which we position ourselves. The paradigms of ethical theories demand different approaches from each other both in defining the concepts and implementations in practical life. This paper sets forth how justice and right to health is conceptualized in the virtue ethics, deontological ethics, liberal ethical theory and communitarian ethical theories. To this end first the general frame of each ethical theory and how justice is conceptualized within this frame is defined. Following that a discussion of the possibility of justification of the right to health within the context of ethical theory is perused.

[Pedagogical strategies for developing ethical and political competence in nursing education].

Science.gov (United States)

Burgatti, Juliane Cristina; Leonello, Valéria Marli; Bracialli, Luzmarina Aparecida Doretto; Oliveira, Maria Amélia de Campos

2013-01-01

This study presents a theoretical reflection that aims at identifying teaching strategies for the development of ethical-political dimension of professional competence from the perspective of critical reflection. Professional competence has two dimensions - technical and political, mediated by ethics. Critical reflection renew search ways of thinking and doing in health, with the ultimate goal of intervention in social reality, to improve the living conditions and health of communities. Highlights some educational tools such as portfolio, the field journal and written narratives, which allow producing a clear and objective account of the experience and assigning meaning and significance of what was accomplished. Based on a critical reflection, such instruments helped develop ethical-political dimension of professional competence.

The ethics in qualitative health research: special considerations.

Science.gov (United States)

Peter, Elizabeth

2015-09-01

A sound knowledge of the nature of qualitative research, along with an appreciation of some special ethical considerations, is needed for rigorous reviews to be conducted. The overall character of qualitative research is described with an emphasis on the tendency of qualitative researchers to explore sensitive topics using theoretically informed methods. A number of specific features of qualitative that require additional ethical attention and awareness are also examined including the following: 1) participants are frequently quite vulnerable and require protection because the data collection methods, such as in-depth interviews, can delve into personally and politically charged matters; 2) naturalistic observation can raise concerns regarding privacy and consent; 3) the potential for the identifiability of the results of this research may require extra efforts to maintain confidentiality. Ultimately, Reseach Ethics Committee members must be knowledgeable about qualitative approaches to be able to assess the potential harms and benefits in a protocol carefully. Without this knowledge gaining ethics approval can be overly difficult for researchers and the best practices for protecting human participants can be overlooked.

The ethics in qualitative health research: special considerations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elizabeth Peter

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract A sound knowledge of the nature of qualitative research, along with an appreciation of some special ethical considerations, is needed for rigorous reviews to be conducted. The overall character of qualitative research is described with an emphasis on the tendency of qualitative researchers to explore sensitive topics using theoretically informed methods. A number of specific features of qualitative that require additional ethical attention and awareness are also examined including the following: 1 participants are frequently quite vulnerable and require protection because the data collection methods, such as in-depth interviews, can delve into personally and politically charged matters; 2 naturalistic observation can raise concerns regarding privacy and consent; 3 the potential for the identifiability of the results of this research may require extra efforts to maintain confidentiality. Ultimately, Reseach Ethics Committee members must be knowledgeable about qualitative approaches to be able to assess the potential harms and benefits in a protocol carefully. Without this knowledge gaining ethics approval can be overly difficult for researchers and the best practices for protecting human participants can be overlooked.

From mirror self-recognition to the looking-glass self: exploring the Justification Hypothesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Shaffer, Leigh S

2005-01-01

In his Tree of Knowledge (ToK) System, Henriques (2003) posits that the human ego or "self" has evolved because human beings are the only animals that have had to justify their behavior to others. This essay provides evidence for this Justification Hypothesis (JH) from everyday life sociology, starting with the work of George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley, and focuses on research related to the concept of the "looking-glass self." Special emphasis is given to the pragmatics of speech acts, the presentation of self in interaction rituals, the accounts given by actors in justification of their actions, and the role of social norms and conformity in the large-scale justification systems commonly called "culture."

Action-Based Jurisprudence: Praxeological Legal Theory in Relation to Economic Theory, Ethics, and Legal Practice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Konrad Graf

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Action-based legal theory is a discrete branch of praxeology and the basis of an emerging school of jurisprudence related to, but distinct from, natural law. Legal theory and economic theory share content that is part of praxeology itself: the action axiom, the a priori of argumentation, universalizable property theory, and counterfactual-deductive methodology. Praxeological property-norm justification is separate from the strictly ethical “ought” question of selecting ends in an action context. Examples of action-based jurisprudence are found in existing “Austro-libertarian” literature. Legal theory and legal practice must remain distinct and work closely together if justice is to be found in real cases. Legal theorizing was shaped in religious ethical contexts, which contributed to confused field boundaries between law and ethics. The carrot and stick influence of rulers on theorists has distorted conventional economics and jurisprudence in particular directions over the course of centuries. An action-based approach is relatively immune to such sources of distortion in its methods and conclusions, but has tended historically to be marginalized from conventional institutions for this same reason.

Managers’ Perception of the Role of Business Schools in Ethics Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sigurjonsson, Olaf; Arnardottir, Audur Arna; Rikhardsson, Pall

This research deals with a multitude of perspectives on ethics education in business schools, seen by the eyes of top level managers. This paper deals with Icelandic managers’ perception of the role business schools can play in ethics education. The authors examine whether ethics education or more...... precisely, the lack hereof, played any role in the financial collapse of Iceland in 2008, and whether business schools should contribute to developing the moral characters of their students, who will ultimately become the next generation of business leaders. By surveying a sample of more than 400 managers...... of the largest Icelandic private and public organizations, this research verifies that business schools are partly to blame for the unethical business behavior displayed by their graduates. Furthermore, managers demand that Icelandic Universities take active responsibility in fostering students’ business ethics...

Team-based learning and ethics education in nursing.

Science.gov (United States)

Hickman, Susan E; Wocial, Lucia D

2013-12-01

This report describes the use of team-based learning concepts in an undergraduate nursing applied ethics course using established reporting guidelines. Team-based learning relies on actively engaging students in the learning process through small-group activities that facilitate the development of skills, including concept analysis, critical thinking, and problem solving. Students are divided into teams of five to seven members who collaborate throughout the semester to work through activities that build on ethics concepts introduced through reading and lectures. Nurse educators are challenged to develop educational approaches that will engage students and help them to apply what they learn from the study of ethics to the lived experience of clinical practice. The ultimate goal is to help students to develop into morally sensitive and competent professionals. Team-based learning represents a novel way to teach these skills to undergraduate nursing students. Copyright 2013, SLACK Incorporated.

Ethical aspects of long-lived waste disposal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McCombie, C.

1996-01-01

Independent of the long debate on the use of nuclear power, waste management specialists have a clear, unassailable set of environmental goals aimed at protecting the public and workers from any unjustifiable exposure to radiation. It is recognized that releases to the environment must be minimized, operational doses from waste handling kept low, and storage facilities constructed and operated with very high levels of safety. A philosophy of how to make best use of the available resources is embedded into the established principles of the ICRP, requiring justification of practices, limitation of doses and optimization. The situation is different when we consider the particular case of disposal of long-lived radioactive waste. Properly designed and sited repositories will present only low levels of risk - but these risks are predicted to peak only after many thousands of years. It is obvious, therefore, that this disposal involves the present and immediately following generations investing resources into the protection of far-future individuals. Attention has focused upon this intergeneration issue in recent years, leading to intensified debate on all ethical aspects of waste disposal. In this paper, I will try to provide a short overview of recent relevant work, to indicate the ethical principles agreed upon and to highlight the currently most controversial issues. (author)

The "Buy One, Get One Free" Ethics of Investing Public and Philanthropic Funds in Health and Climate.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaidi, Ali A

2017-12-01

This article applies various ethical frameworks to inform decision making about investment in two specific goods-strengthening public health and stabilizing the global climate. I begin by outlining how these goods traditionally competed for common and constrained resources. I then discuss how this view of competition has been rendered more problematic by emerging and compelling ethical justifications for investment in both goods based on utilitarian, Rawlsian, and communitarian analyses. I conclude by showing that these goods no longer compete head-to-head in a zero-sum way. Changes in science, technology, and society mean that investment in either good has the potential to advance both goods-that is, the goods have become synergistic. As a result, the case for investing in both is better. © 2017 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.

Flux scaling: Ultimate regime

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

First page Back Continue Last page Overview Graphics. Flux scaling: Ultimate regime. With the Nusselt number and the mixing length scales, we get the Nusselt number and Reynolds number (w'd/ν) scalings: and or. and. scaling expected to occur at extremely high Ra Rayleigh-Benard convection. Get the ultimate regime ...

Nonaltruistic kidney donations in contemporary Jewish law and ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Grazi, Richard V; Wolowelsky, Joel B

2003-01-27

In 2000, the Consensus Statement on the Live Organ Donor reported that "direct financial compensation for an organ from a living donor remains controversial and illegal in the United States" and took note of the position of the Transplantation Society that "Organs and tissue should be given without commercial consideration or commercial profit." Christian authorities insist that organ donors must not accrue economic advantage, and "selling" organs deprives the donation of its ethical quality. The writings of major contemporary authorities of Jewish law and ethics whose halakhic positions on bioethical issues are regularly considered by Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform ethicists were reviewed. Their positions on this issue were contrasted with those of various contemporary secular and religious authorities. These Jewish authorities reject the notion that generosity and charity, rather than monetary gain and greed, must serve as the exclusive basis for donation of functioning organs. Although nonaltruistic sale of kidneys may be theoretically ethical, ultimately its ethical status in Jewish ethics and law is inextricably connected to solving a series of pragmatic programs, such as creating a system that ensures that potential vendors and donors are properly informed and not exploited. Lacking such arrangements, ethical nonaltruistic kidney donations remain but a theoretical possibility.

Public titles of clinical trials should have ethics review.

Science.gov (United States)

Saenz, Carla; Reveiz, Ludovic; Tisdale, John F

2015-09-01

A key aspect to guarantee that research with human subjects is ethical is being overlooked. Ethics review committees invest great effort examining the informed consent documents of research protocols to ensure that potential participants can provide consent validly and are not deluded into thinking that the experimental intervention they may sign up for is already known to be therapeutic. However, these efforts to avoid what is called the "therapeutic misconception" might be in vain if the title with which the studies are being introduced to the potential participants escapes ethics review. Research participants might be deceived by clinical trials entitled "novel therapy" when the point of the trial is precisely to find out whether the intervention at stake is therapeutic or not. Providing potential research participants with such misleading information hampers their ability to make informed decisions. The well-established scrutiny that ethics review committees exercise with regard to consent forms is limited if the registration of clinical trials, for which a public title is chosen, constitutes a process that is independent from the ethics review. In this article, we examine this problem, assess recent measures to integrate clinical trial registration with ethics review processes, and provide specific recommendations to solve the problem and ultimately enhance the accountability, transparency, and ethics of research with human subjects. Copyright © 2015 Pan American Health Organization. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Animal abolitionism meets moral abolitionism : cutting the Gordian knot of applied ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Marks, Joel

2013-12-01

The use of other animals for human purposes is as contentious an issue as one is likely to find in ethics. And this is so not only because there are both passionate defenders and opponents of such use, but also because even among the latter there are adamant and diametric differences about the bases of their opposition. In both disputes, the approach taken tends to be that of applied ethics, by which a position on the issue is derived from a fundamental moral commitment. This commitment in turn depends on normative ethics, which investigates the various moral theories for the best fit to our moral intuitions. Thus it is that the use of animals in biomedical research is typically defended by appeal to a utilitarian theory, which legitimates harm to some for the greater good of others; while the opposition condemns that use either by appeal to the same theory, but disagreeing about the actual efficacy of animal experimentation, or by appeal to an alternative theory, such as the right of all sentient beings not to be exploited. Unfortunately, the normative issue seems likely never to be resolved, hence leaving the applied issue in limbo. The present essay seeks to circumvent this impasse by dispensing altogether with any moral claim or argument, thereby cutting the Gordian knot of animal ethics with a meta-ethical sword. The alternative schema defended is simply to advance relevant considerations, whereupon "there is nothing left but to feel." In a word, motivation replaces justification.

German law on circumcision and its debate: how an ethical and legal issue turned political.

Science.gov (United States)

Aurenque, Diana; Wiesing, Urban

2015-03-01

The article aims to illuminate the recent debate in Germany about the legitimacy of circumcision for religious reasons. The aim is both to evaluate the new German law allowing religious circumcision, and to outline the resulting conflict between the surrounding ethical and legal issues. We first elucidate the diversity of legal and medical views on religious circumcision in Germany. Next we examine to what extent invasive and irreversible physical interventions on infant boys unable to given their consent should be carried out for non-medical reasons. To this end, the potential benefits and harms of circumcision for non-medical reasons are compared. We argue that circumcision does not provide any benefits for the 'child as a child' and poses only risks to boys. We then set out to clarify and analyse political (rather than ethical) justifications of the new circumcision law. We demonstrate through this analysis how the circumcision debate in Germany has been transformed from a legal and ethical problem into a political issue, due at least in part to Germany's unique historical context. Although such a particular political sensibility is entirely comprehensible, it raises particular problems when it comes to framing and responding to medical ethical issues - as in the case of religious circumcision. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Report of a consultation on justification of patient exposures in medical imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malone, J.

2009-01-01

Radiation protection in medicine is underpinned by the concepts of justification and optimisation. Over the last 20 y much successful work has been devoted to developing and consolidating approaches to optimisation. A substantial knowledge base and a set of practical approaches have now been created to give effect to it. With respect to justification, less effort has been applied and the efforts applied have not yet been as successful. Authoritative sources suggest that a substantial fraction of radiological examinations may be unnecessary. In addition, a mainstream general medical journal has identified that few of those responsible for prescribing or performing examinations were familiar with the units used to specify the amount of radiation (and risk) received. This report sets out the conclusions of a consultation held in Vienna, by the International Atomic Energy Agency, dealing with the nature of justification and how to give effect to it in practice. (authors)

Moral Reasoning among HEC Members: An Empirical Evaluation of the Relationship of Theory and Practice in Clinical Ethics Consultation.

Science.gov (United States)

Wasserman, Jason Adam; Stevenson, Shannon Lindsey; Claxton, Cassandra; Krug, Ernest F

2015-01-01

In light of the ongoing development and implementation of core competencies in bioethics, it is important to proceed with a clear sense of how bioethics knowledge is utilized in the functioning of hospital ethics committees (HECs). Without such an understanding, we risk building a costly edifice on a foundation that is ambiguous at best. This article examines the empirical relationship between traditional paradigms of bioethics theory and actual decision making by HEC members using survey data from HEC members. The assumption underlying the standardization of qualifications and corresponding call for increased education of HEC members is that they will base imminent case decisions on inculcated knowledge. Our data suggest, however, that HEC members first decide intuitively and then look for justification, thereby highlighting the need to re-examine the pedagogical processes of ethics education in the process of standardizing and improving competencies. Copyright 2015 The Journal of Clinical Ethics. All rights reserved.

e-Government Ethics : a Synergy of Computer Ethics, Information Ethics, and Cyber Ethics

OpenAIRE

Arief Ramadhan; Dana Indra Sensuse; Aniati Murni Arymurthy

2011-01-01

Ethics has become an important part in the interaction among humans being. This paper specifically discusses applied ethics as one type of ethics. There are three applied ethics that will be reviewed in this paper, i.e. computer ethics, information ethics, and cyber ethics. There are two aspects of the three applied ethics that were reviewed, i.e. their definition and the issues associated with them. The reviewing results of the three applied ethics are then used for defining e-Government eth...

Justification beliefs of violence, myths about love and cyber dating abuse.

Science.gov (United States)

Borrajo, Erika; Gámez-Guadix, Manuel; Calvete, Esther

2015-01-01

Distorted beliefs about violence and love are often associated with the presence of violence in dating relationships. This study analyzes the relationship between beliefs that justify violence and myths about love in two types of cyber dating abuse (control and direct aggression). The sample consisted of 656 young people between the ages of 18 and 30 years (79.5% women). Regression analysis showed that justification of cyber dating abuse was significantly associated with a higher likelihood of direct aggression in online dating relationships. Myths about love were associated with a greater likelihood of control in online dating relationships. Furthermore, the relationship between justification of cyber dating abuse and perpetration of direct aggression was stronger in women. The relationship between myths about love and perpetration of online control was stronger among the youngest individuals. The justification of abuse and myths about love are important aspects in the development of different kinds of online abuse among young couples. This finding has important implications for the prevention of and intervention in these behaviors.

The importance of meta-ethics in engineering education.

Science.gov (United States)

Haws, David R

2004-04-01

Our shared moral framework is negotiated as part of the social contract. Some elements of that framework are established (tell the truth under oath), but other elements lack an overlapping consensus (just when can an individual lie to protect his or her privacy?). The tidy bits of our accepted moral framework have been codified, becoming the subject of legal rather than ethical consideration. Those elements remaining in the realm of ethics seem fragmented and inconsistent. Yet, our engineering students will need to navigate the broken ground of this complex moral landscape. A minimalist approach would leave our students with formulated dogma--principles of right and wrong such as the National Society for Professional Engineers (NSPE) Code of Ethics for Engineers--but without any insight into the genesis of these principles. A slightly deeper, micro-ethics approach would teach our students to solve ethical problems by applying heuristics--giving our students a rational process to manipulate ethical dilemmas using the same principles simply referenced a priori by dogma. A macro-ethics approach--helping students to inductively construct a posteriori principles from case studies--goes beyond the simple statement or manipulation of principles, but falls short of linking personal moral principles to the larger, social context. Ultimately, it is this social context that requires both the application of ethical principles, and the negotiation of moral values--from an understanding of meta-ethics. The approaches to engineering ethics instruction (dogma, heuristics, case studies, and meta-ethics) can be associated with stages of moral development. If we leave our students with only a dogmatic reaction to ethical dilemmas, they will be dependent on the ethical decisions of others (a denial of their fundamental potential for moral autonomy). Heuristics offers a tool to deal independently with moral questions, but a tool that too frequently reduces to casuistry when rigidly

Ethical principles for physician rating sites.

Science.gov (United States)

Strech, Daniel

2011-12-06

During the last 5 years, an ethical debate has emerged, often in public media, about the potential positive and negative effects of physician rating sites and whether physician rating sites created by insurance companies or government agencies are ethical in their current states. Due to the lack of direct evidence of physician rating sites' effects on physicians' performance, patient outcomes, or the public's trust in health care, most contributions refer to normative arguments, hypothetical effects, or indirect evidence. This paper aims, first, to structure the ethical debate about the basic concept of physician rating sites: allowing patients to rate, comment, and discuss physicians' performance, online and visible to everyone. Thus, it provides a more thorough and transparent starting point for further discussion and decision making on physician rating sites: what should physicians and health policy decision makers take into account when discussing the basic concept of physician rating sites and its possible implications on the physician-patient relationship? Second, it discusses where and how the preexisting evidence from the partly related field of public reporting of physician performance can serve as an indicator for specific needs of evaluative research in the field of physician rating sites. This paper defines the ethical principles of patient welfare, patient autonomy, physician welfare, and social justice in the context of physician rating sites. It also outlines basic conditions for a fair decision-making process concerning the implementation and regulation of physician rating sites, namely, transparency, justification, participation, minimization of conflicts of interest, and openness for revision. Besides other issues described in this paper, one trade-off presents a special challenge and will play an important role when deciding about more- or less-restrictive physician rating sites regulations: the potential psychological and financial harms for

Religious and Philosophical Justifications for War: A Synthesis of Selected Literature

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Martzen, E

2000-08-15

The Critical Issues Forum (CIF) is a cooperative education program supported in part by the Department of Energy's Defense Programs. The Science and Technology Education Program (STEP) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory manages one component of this program. CIF engages high school students and teachers regarding issues of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, arms control, and international security. These issues are viewed in light of their scientific, economic, socio-cultural, and political/geopolitical influences and implications. This year CIF's focus is on chemical and biological weapons (CBW). CBW is becoming more of a threat today than ever before. Many countries are developing these weapons. CBW also presents certain ethical dilemmas for many individuals, especially if those individuals feel it is their religious duty to use or avoid the use of such weapons. Religion has become an important determining factor in international security because many cultures, and even governments make decisions based on religious traditions. This paper is an attempt to look at these religions and philosophical traditions with an emphasis on views of ''just war''. The ultimate purpose of this paper is to promote awareness about religion's influence on international security issues. This paper was written by Cadet Ernst ''Mitch'' Martzen, AFROTC. He is an intern with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Science and Technology Education Program, under the guidance of Dr. Stephen C. Sesko, the director of LLNL's CIF program. Every major religion and ethical system has developed a societal concept of ''just war''. Today, the world's largest religions include Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Each faith lays claim to a heritage rich with thousands of years of history, and the power of great minds to support its ethical and moral beliefs. These religions

Justification of Individual Medical Exposures for Diagnosis: A HERCA Position Paper

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2014-01-01

Improving the application of the justification principle in medical imaging is the responsibility of many stakeholders. This document is intended to provide clarity on the regulator's approach to the roles and responsibilities of the undertaking as well as a range of professionals involved in medical exposures. In doing so it considers the requirements of the new European Basic Safety Standards (BSS) Directive 2013/59/Euratom and discusses a number of emerging challenges associated with efficient, effective and rapidly changing health care systems. In summary, - the justification process should be completed prior to the exposure taking place and include consideration of the following: - adequate information regarding the clinical condition(s) of the patient, relevant to the imaging request -this must be available including known possible contraindications (e.g. pregnancy, breast feeding) - the diagnostic question(s) to be addressed - where practicable, information, with regard to possible previous/concurrent examinations - the decision on the appropriate imaging procedure including the option of one that does not involve ionising radiation - traceability of the above to the referrer and practitioner, - the role of the regulator is to provide, through regulations and associated guidance, a clear and unambiguous regulatory framework including requirements for the justification process and accountability within local procedures - these will be subject to inspection, - the role of the undertaking and the professionals involved is to demonstrate compliance with regulations through procedures and documentation associated with each individual exposure, showing beyond reasonable doubt that the elements of the justification process have been completed, and by whom, in accordance with the responsibilities laid down in procedures

Conscientious objection or fear of social stigma and unawareness of ethical obligations.

Science.gov (United States)

Faúndes, Anibal; Duarte, Graciana Alves; Osis, Maria José Duarte

2013-12-01

Conscientious objection is a legitimate right of physicians to reject the practice of actions that violate their ethical or moral principles. The application of that principle is being used in many countries as a justification to deny safe abortion care to women who have the legal right to have access to safe termination of pregnancy. The problem is that, often, this concept is abused by physicians who camouflage under the guise of conscientious objection their fear of experiencing discrimination and social stigma if they perform legal abortions. These colleagues seem to ignore the ethical principle that the primary conscientious duty of OB/GYNs is-at all times-to treat, or provide benefit and prevent harm to, the patients for whose care they are responsible. Any conscientious objection to treating a patient is secondary to this primary duty. One of the jobs of the FIGO Working Group for the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion is to change this paradigm and make our colleagues proud of providing legal abortion services that protect women's life and health, and concerned about disrespecting the human rights of women and professional ethical principles. Copyright © 2013 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ethics and mental illness research.

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Laura Weiss

2002-09-01

ethical issues are recognized as inextricably linked: science as a human activity carries complex ethical meanings and responsibilities, and ethics itself is subject to scrutiny and amenable to scientific inquiry. Building a broader, more versatile, and more effective repertoire of safeguards will be increasingly important, and safeguards, in this view, represent a modest price for the privilege of studying serious illnesses--diseases that cause grave suffering and yet are a source of both vulnerability and strength. In this paradigm, attention to ethics safeguards is no longer understood as a barrier to scientific advancement, but rather as the means by which psychiatric research may be conducted with broad societal support, honorably and, ultimately, with the expectation of bringing benefit to millions of people with mental illness.

Kierkegaard, Justification and the Integrity of Christian Education

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, Andrew W.

2015-01-01

The doctrine of justification is frequently interpreted in a manner that excludes our active involvement in the drama of salvation. This reading has a detrimental effect on Christian education concerned to enable the learner's attentive, reasonable and responsible understanding of the Gospel. Taking its lead from Kierkegaard's account of…

First steps in the computation of root justifications

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Meyer, T

2010-08-01

Full Text Available in section 3. The method is based on the notion of root justifications which we define and discuss. The approach we describe is applicable to a wide class of DLs. We don’t provide a comprehensive formal introduction to DLs, but rather point the reader...

"Should We Kill the Grey Squirrels?" A Study Exploring Students' Justifications and Decision-Making

Science.gov (United States)

Evagorou, Maria; Jimenez-Aleixandre, Maria Pilar; Osborne, Jonathan

2012-01-01

A problem that is still unexplored in the field of socioscientific issues (SSI) and that was explored in this study is how different students decide upon a SSI they are discussing, how their justifications change during the instruction and how they use (or not) the evidence from the learning environment to support their justifications. For the…

IS ETHICAL HACKING ETHICAL?

OpenAIRE

MUHAMMAD NUMAN ALI KHAN; DANISH JAMIL,

2011-01-01

This paper explores the ethics behind ethical hacking and whether there are problems that lie with this new field of work. Since ethical hacking has been a controversial subject over the past few years, the question remains of the true intentions of ethical hackers. The paper also looks at ways in which future research could be looked intoto help keep ethical hacking, ethical.

Scientists' perspectives on the ethical issues of stem cell research.

Science.gov (United States)

Longstaff, Holly; Schuppli, Catherine A; Preto, Nina; Lafrenière, Darquise; McDonald, Michael

2009-06-01

This paper describes findings from an ethics education project funded by the Canadian Stem Cell Network (SCN). The project is part of a larger research initiative entitled "The Stem Cell Research Environment: Drawing the Evidence and Experience Together". The ethics education study began with a series of focus groups with SCN researchers and trainees as part of a "needs assessment" effort. The purpose of these discussions was to identify the main ethical issues associated with stem cell (SC) research from the perspective of the stem cell community. This paper will focus on five prominent themes that emerged from the focus group data including: (1) the source of stem cells; (2) the power of stem cells; (3) working within a charged research environment; (4) the regulatory context; and (5) ethics training for scientists. Additional discussions are planned with others involved in Canadian stem cell research (e.g., research ethics board members, policy makers) to supplement initial findings. These assessment results combined with existing bioethics literature will ultimately inform a web-based ethics education module for the SCN. We believe that our efforts are important for those analyzing the ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) in this area because our in depth understanding of stem cell researcher perspectives will enable us to develop more relevant and effective education material, which in turn should help SC researchers address the important ethical challenges in their area.

Justifications and comparisons in the division of household labor: the relevance of gender ideology.

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez, Carmen; Paterna, Consuelo; Yago, Carmen

2010-05-01

This study tests the direct relevance of justifications and social comparisons (predictors of perceptions of fairness) on different types of household labour distribution, and the importance of masculinity ideology and neosexism on these variables. The participants were heterosexual dual-earner couples. Our results showed that both men and women use more justifications when their housework distribution is not equal, but only women use social comparisons associated with the ways of distributing domestic work. In addition, we observe that, in both men and women, justifications are related to a traditional masculine ideology, but a different model appears in relation to comparisons which are associated with neosexism in men and with traditional masculine ideology in women. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Inoculating against Pro-Plagiarism Justifications: Rational and Affective Strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Compton, Josh; Pfau, Michael

2008-01-01

Student plagiarism continues to threaten academic integrity. This investigation assessed whether an inoculation message strategy could combat university plagiarism by protecting student attitudes against pro-plagiarism justification arguments. Additionally, we sought theoretical confirmation of previous findings on involvement and accessibility in…

Animal Models in Forensic Science Research: Justified Use or Ethical Exploitation?

Science.gov (United States)

Mole, Calvin Gerald; Heyns, Marise

2018-05-01

A moral dilemma exists in biomedical research relating to the use of animal or human tissue when conducting scientific research. In human ethics, researchers need to justify why the use of humans is necessary should suitable models exist. Conversely, in animal ethics, a researcher must justify why research cannot be carried out on suitable alternatives. In the case of medical procedures or therapeutics testing, the use of animal models is often justified. However, in forensic research, the justification may be less evident, particularly when research involves the infliction of trauma on living animals. To determine how the forensic science community is dealing with this dilemma, a review of literature within major forensic science journals was conducted. The frequency and trends of the use of animals in forensic science research was investigated for the period 1 January 2012-31 December 2016. The review revealed 204 original articles utilizing 5050 animals in various forms as analogues for human tissue. The most common specimens utilized were various species of rats (35.3%), pigs (29.3%), mice (17.7%), and rabbits (8.2%) although different specimens were favored in different study themes. The majority of studies (58%) were conducted on post-mortem specimens. It is, however, evident that more needs to be done to uphold the basic ethical principles of reduction, refinement and replacement in the use of animals for research purposes.

From Ethical Justification to Delimitation of Boundaries between Country Power and Individual Rights：A Settlement Way of the Particular Ethical Conflict in Public Health%从伦理辩护到国家权力、个人权利界限的划定--公共卫生领域特殊伦理冲突的和解之道

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

张珊; 路绪锋

2014-01-01

In epidemic prevention work ,in order to protect public health we have no choice but to infringe the right of infectious disease patients ,this is a particular ethical conflict in public health which is different from clinical medicine . Although some scholars argue in favor of the priority of public health according to utilitarianism ,difference principle and the priority of public good ,all of these are not consistent with the individual perspective of medical ethics . In fact , upholding single theoretical perspective is the maximal obstacle on the road to reconciliation of ethical conflict ,only change the single perspective can we open the compatibility of theory .We have to transform ethical justification to practical wisdom ,that is to say ,country power and individual rights should stick to each boundary ,so as to achieve harmonious status between them .%在流行病防控等公共卫生工作中，为了维护公共健康不得不侵犯传染病患者的个人权利，这是公共卫生领域不同于临床医学的特殊伦理冲突。虽然有学者分别依据“效果论”、“差异原则”和“公共善优先”为公共健康的优先性进行了辩护，但都不能与医学伦理学的个体论视角相融洽。实际上，固守单一的理论视角是伦理冲突和解的最大障碍，只有改变单一视角，才能开启理论的兼容性。伦理辩护必须转化为实践智慧，即必须在公共卫生实践中实现国家权力与个人权利的有序协调，使国家权力和个人权利坚守各自的界限。

[Grounding public health policies in ethics and economic efficiency. SESPAS report 2010].

Science.gov (United States)

Ramiro Avilés, Miguel A; Lobo, Félix

2010-12-01

In recent times, various voices in Spain have questioned public health policies as an assault to personal freedom. The present article aims to respond to these voices with ethical and economic arguments. The scope and characteristics of this current of opinion are described. Then, starting with John Stuart Mill, the ethical principles of non-maleficence, beneficence, personal autonomy and justice, as well as related concepts taken from economic efficiency, such as externalities, monopoly, incomplete and asymmetric information, agency relationship, public goods and adverse selection, are discussed. A short mention is made of equity in economics, the welfare state and public health systems. The justification for paternalist actions by the state, as well as limits to these actions, are briefly discussed. Respect for individual freedom does not exclude the implementation of public health actions but rather demands the adoption of such policies. If these actions comply with certain conditions, they do not limit individual freedom but rather serve to protect it. Copyright © 2010 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

A Comparison of Social Dominance Theory and System Justification: The Role of Social Status in 19 Nations.

Science.gov (United States)

Vargas-Salfate, Salvador; Paez, Dario; Liu, James H; Pratto, Felicia; Gil de Zúñiga, Homero

2018-07-01

This study tests specific competing hypotheses from social dominance theory/realistic conflict theory (RCT) versus system justification theory about the role of social status. In particular, it examines whether system justification belief and effects are stronger among people with low socioeconomic status, and in less socially developed and unequal nations than among better-off people and countries. A cross-national survey was carried out in 19 nations from the Americas, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia, and Oceania using representative online samples ( N = 14,936, 50.15% women, M age = 41.61 years). At the individual level, system justification beliefs, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, national identification, sociopolitical conservatism, sex, age, and social status were measured. At the national level, the human development index and the Gini index were used. Multilevel analyses performed indicated that results fit better with the social dominance/RCT approach, as system justification was higher in high-status and developed nations; further, associations between legitimizing ideologies and system justification were stronger among high-status people.

The Concept of Ethics in the Intensive Care

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kutay Alpir

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The concept of ethics in the intensive care unit has developed in the last 50 years along with the advancements and regulations in this area of medicine. Especially by the use of life-supportive equipment in the intensive care units and the resulting elongation in the terminal stage of life has led to newly described clinical conditions. These conditions include vegetative state, brain death, dissociated heart death. The current trend aiming to provide the best health care facilities with optimal costs resulted with regulations. The conflicts in the patient-physician relations resulting from these regulations has resolved to some extent by the studies of intensive care unit ethics. The major ethical topics in the intensive care are the usage of autonomy right, the selection of patients to be admitted to the intensive care unit and the limitation of the treatment. The patient selection is optimized by triage and allocation, the limitation of the treatment is done by the means of withdrawal and withhold, and the usage of autonomy right is tried to be solved by proxy, living will and ethics committee regulations. The ethical regulations have found partial solutions to the conflicts. For the ultimate solution much work about the subject has to be done. (Journal of the Turkish Society of Intensive Care 2010; 8: 77-84

The dream of an ultimate theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weinberg, S.

1997-10-01

Steven Weinberg describes how the dream of an ultimate theory began when one tried to unify the fundamental laws governing the stars constellations as elementary particles: electromagnetism, weak-electro theory then standard model which gives only one quantity out of its fields, the gravitation. He tries to explain to what an ultimate theory could look like. but the dream of an ultimate theory is not yet realized, there are some elementary particles to find before and then to build superconducting super colliders. The europe made it. the dream of an ultimate theory became an european dream. (N.C.)

Reflective equilibrium and empirical data: third person moral experiences in empirical medical ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

De Vries, Martine; Van Leeuwen, Evert

2010-11-01

In ethics, the use of empirical data has become more and more popular, leading to a distinct form of applied ethics, namely empirical ethics. This 'empirical turn' is especially visible in bioethics. There are various ways of combining empirical research and ethical reflection. In this paper we discuss the use of empirical data in a special form of Reflective Equilibrium (RE), namely the Network Model with Third Person Moral Experiences. In this model, the empirical data consist of the moral experiences of people in a practice. Although inclusion of these moral experiences in this specific model of RE can be well defended, their use in the application of the model still raises important questions. What precisely are moral experiences? How to determine relevance of experiences, in other words: should there be a selection of the moral experiences that are eventually used in the RE? How much weight should the empirical data have in the RE? And the key question: can the use of RE by empirical ethicists really produce answers to practical moral questions? In this paper we start to answer the above questions by giving examples taken from our research project on understanding the norm of informed consent in the field of pediatric oncology. We especially emphasize that incorporation of empirical data in a network model can reduce the risk of self-justification and bias and can increase the credibility of the RE reached. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

An integrated ethical approach to bioethical decision-making: A proposed model for ministers

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Magdalena C. de Lange

2012-10-01

Full Text Available This article outlined a model for guidance in ‘doing’ bioethics in a Reformed context. The proposed model suggested that in order to arrive at responsible ethical decisions, one must refer to both contextual elements and theory. The theoretical grounding for this model was based on the integration of a deontological and virtue ethics approach, arguing that virtue enables persons to know and desire the right moral ends and motivates them to carry out appropriate action toward achieving these ends. An integrative model opens up the possibility whereby bioethics as a systematic tool provides the individual decision-maker with the critical-reflective skills and justification for the ultimate choice that is lacking in the general decision-making processes. This could lead to clearer thinking and increased confidence in the justification of decisions within the Reformed tradition. The proposed hermeneutical perspective on ethical decision-making represents a shift in views about the nature of knowledge and the process of how we come to know. The key to this hermeneutical approach is to acknowledge the dialectic between the universal and the subjectivity of human relations. Working in specific religious communities, one needs to take cognisance of the fact that knowledge is situated in the context of human relationships in which the interpreter participates when articulating the meaning of bioethical experiences. Another aspect that is anticipated lies in the realisation that people struggling with bioethical dilemmas should not be viewed as isolated individuals, but as members of a broader faith community. ‘n Geïntegreerde etiese benadering tot bioetiese besluitneming: Voorgestelde model vir predikante. Hierdie artikel het ‘n model geskets wat moontlike riglyne aantoon vir die  beoefening  van  bioetiek  binne  ‘n  Gereformeerde  konteks.  Die  voorgestelde  model argumenteer dat verwysing na beide kontekstuele elemente en teorie

Seriously ill patients as living unspecified kidney donors: rationale and justification.

Science.gov (United States)

Rakké, Yannick S; Zuidema, Willij C; Hilhorst, Medard T; Erdman, Ruud A M; Massey, Emma K; Betjes, Michiel G H; Dor, Frank J M F; IJzermans, Jan N M; Weimar, Willem

2015-01-01

Between 2000 and December 2013, 106 live donor nephrectomies from anonymous living-donors were performed at the Erasmus MC Rotterdam; five of the donors (5.4%) had a life-threatening disease. The aim of the present report is to give the rational and justification for this procedure. All five donors underwent the national standard living-donor screening procedure. Additionally, motivation to donate and psychologic stability were assessed by a psychologist using in-depth interview techniques and a psychologic complaints questionnaire. Post-donor nephrectomy follow-up consisted of standard questionnaires and clinical check-ups. One patient had cerebral and caudal ependymomas, one had severe and progressive emphysema, two had Huntington's disease and one had a grade 2 oligodendroglioma. The psychologic screening revealed genuine motivation, adequate risk perception, and normal sense of reality. No contraindications for donation were found. The five donor nephrectomies made nine kidney transplantations possible. All donors were satisfied with the donation procedure. Three donors died during follow-up (0.6-4.9 years) as a result of their disease. In the absence of apparent additional health risks, medical, and psychologic contraindications, we consider it ethically justified to accept an offer from a cognitively competent patient with a life-threatening disease in view of their self-reported satisfaction during follow-up. Although based on a limited number of patients, we conclude that a stricter psychologic screening for seriously ill donors compared to healthy unspecified anonymous donors to unspecified patients is not necessary.

The Ethics of Producing In Vitro Meat.

Science.gov (United States)

Schaefer, G Owen; Savulescu, Julian

2014-05-01

The prospect of consumable meat produced in a laboratory setting without the need to raise and slaughter animals is both realistic and exciting. Not only could such in vitro meat become popular due to potential cost savings, but it also avoids many of the ethical and environmental problems with traditional meat productions. However, as with any new technology, in vitro meat is likely to face some detractors. We examine in detail three potential objections: 1) in vitro meat is disrespectful, either to nature or to animals; 2) it will reduce the number of happy animals in the world; and 3) it will open the door to cannibalism. While each objection has some attraction, we ultimately find that all can be overcome. The upshot is that in vitro meat production is generally permissible and, especially for ethical vegetarians, worth promoting.

What Provides Justification for Cheating : Producing or Observing Counterfactuals?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bassarak, C.; Leib, M.; Mischkowski, D.; Strang, S.; Glöckner, A.; Shalvi, S.

2017-01-01

When people can profit financially by lying, they do so to the extent to which they can justify their lies. One type of justification is the observation and production of desirable counterfactual information. Here, we disentangle observing and producing of desired counterfactuals and test whether

Les justifications en faveur de l'allocation universelle : une présentation critique

OpenAIRE

Philippe Quirion

1996-01-01

National audience; The universal grant proposal has been championed by many authors. It consists in supplying each citizen with a benefit which is unconditional and can be drawn concurrently to every other resource. This paper builds a typology of the various justifications that have been provided for this proposal, and submits them to a critical examination. Justifications in which a universal grant is a cure for unemployment and thus a way to provide a right to work appear to be weakly-foun...

Ethical Perspectives of Equal Opportunities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Traian PALADE

2016-07-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses on the analysis of the fair equality of the concept of opportunity from the perspective of the moral and reasonable justifications brought to support positive discrimination. Although contemporary democratic societies guarantee the absence of discrimination by securing the formal equality of opportunity, this seems to be insufficient to balance opportunities. The Rawlsian model has gained ground, by advancing a redistribution of the resources to support the disadvantaged ones, which is implemented through special measures. The compulsory quotas for admission to higher education or public institutions, addressed to some disadvantaged groups, are one of the effective means of implementing fairness. As this system has shattered the principle of reward judging by one‟s merits, and ending up as a form of inverse discrimination of the majority groups, it is necessary that we analyse the arguments and the boomerang effects of the special measures. The undertaking proposed by the present paper is structured around highlighting the ethical aspects, as well as the consequences resulting from the arguments in favour of positive discrimination. Do we have the moral obligation to make up for the past inequalities suffered by some groups? Does preferential treatment really ensure the genuine integration of such groups? Do special measures contribute in creating social justice? Without the claim of having responded definitively and exhaustively to these questions, this paper attempts to emphasise the ethical dilemma that raises when special measures favour one group or another, when a group is protected judging by only one criterion, or when only an implementation area is selected.

Implementing the Precautionary Principle through Stakeholder Engagement for Product and Service Development

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Pierre de Coninck

2007-05-01

Full Text Available The precautionary principle is a sustainable development principle that attempts to articulate an ethic in decision making since it deals with the notion of uncertainty of harm. Uncertainty becomes a weakness when it has to serve as a predictor by which to take action. Since humans are responsible for their actions, and ethics is based in action, then decisions based in uncertainty require an ethical framework. Beyond the professional deontological responsibility, there is a need to consider the process of conception based on an ethic of the future and therefore to develop a new ethical framework which is more global and fundamental. This will expose the justifications for choices, present these in debates with other stakeholders, and ultimately adopt an axiology of decision making for conception. Responsibility and participative discourse for an equal justice among actors are a basis of such an ethic. By understanding the ethical framework of this principle and applying this knowledge towards design or innovation, the precautionary principle becomes operational. This paper suggests that to move towards sustainability, stakeholders must adopt decision making processes that are precautionary. A commitment to precaution encourages a global perspective and the search for alternatives. Methods such as alternative assessment and precautionary deliberation through stakeholder engagement can assist in this shift towards sustainability.

Concussion Prevalence in Competitive Ultimate Frisbee Players

Science.gov (United States)

Lazar, Damien J.; Lichtenstein, Jonathan D.; Tybor, David J.

2018-01-01

Background: Ultimate Frisbee (ultimate) is a fast-growing, popular sport played nationally by over 4 million athletes. While several studies have examined injury rates in ultimate, no work has investigated the prevalence of concussions specifically or players’ knowledge and management of those injuries. Purpose: To estimate the lifetime prevalence of concussions in ultimate and to assess players’ knowledge of concussions as well as their concussion management behaviors. Study Design: Descriptive epidemiology study. Methods: From June to November 2015, we collected ultimate-related concussion data via an anonymous web-based survey, the Concussion in Ultimate Frisbee Survey, from a convenience sample of 787 male and female ultimate players across the United States. Results: There were 553 male and 234 female respondents included in the analysis; 26.58% of men and 24.79% of women reported that they had sustained at least 1 concussion while playing ultimate, with 45.58% and 43.10% of those men and women, respectively, reporting multiple concussions. A total of 67.81% of men and 78.21% of women stated that they would remove themselves from play after sustaining a given concussion, although 45.99% of men and 37.62% of women indicated that they had returned to play in the same game or practice. Conclusion: Our preliminary data suggest that concussions do commonly occur in competitive ultimate and that better education and management of concussions in ultimate athletes are needed. This study is an important first step in deepening our understanding of these issues. PMID:29552572

The ultimate quotable Einstein

CERN Document Server

2011-01-01

Here is the definitive new edition of the hugely popular collection of Einstein quotations that has sold tens of thousands of copies worldwide and been translated into twenty-five languages. The Ultimate Quotable Einstein features 400 additional quotes, bringing the total to roughly 1,600 in all. This ultimate edition includes new sections--"On and to Children," "On Race and Prejudice," and "Einstein's Verses: A Small Selection"--as well as a chronology of Einstein's life and accomplishments, Freeman Dyson's authoritative foreword, and new commentary by Alice Calaprice.

National Survey on Justification of CT-examinations in Sweden

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Almen, Anja; Leitz, Wolfram; Richter, Sven

2009-02-01

All examinations in diagnostic radiology shall be justified to avoid unnecessary irradiation of the patients. The objective of the study was to investigate the degree of justification for CT-examinations in Sweden. Referrals for all examinations performed during one day were retrospectively evaluated by a group of physicians. The study was designed and conducted by a project group lead by prof. Haakan Jorulf. The authors of this report have derived the results and conclusions on the basis of the data and are responsible for the content of this report. The principle result was that approximately 20 % of all examinations were not justified. The degree of justification varied strongly with organ examined, moderately with prescriber affiliation and weakly with geographical region. If unjustified examinations could be avoided a large dose reduction for the population would be achieved. This study shows that there is a need for improvements and the authority will continue to work with this issue

National Survey on Justification of CT-examinations in Sweden

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Almen, Anja; Leitz, Wolfram; Richter, Sven

2009-02-15

All examinations in diagnostic radiology shall be justified to avoid unnecessary irradiation of the patients. The objective of the study was to investigate the degree of justification for CT-examinations in Sweden. Referrals for all examinations performed during one day were retrospectively evaluated by a group of physicians. The study was designed and conducted by a project group lead by prof. Haakan Jorulf. The authors of this report have derived the results and conclusions on the basis of the data and are responsible for the content of this report. The principle result was that approximately 20 % of all examinations were not justified. The degree of justification varied strongly with organ examined, moderately with prescriber affiliation and weakly with geographical region. If unjustified examinations could be avoided a large dose reduction for the population would be achieved. This study shows that there is a need for improvements and the authority will continue to work with this issue

The necessary guidance on the application of JUSTIFICATION and ALARA by the nuclear authorities, using 'Accountability for Reasonableness' as a decision making process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Veuchelen, Ludo

2008-01-01

Full text: In all branches of law, but foremost in international nuclear law, the global economic system brings along a vast record of Soft Law covering General Principles and Standards. For a part we can find these Soft Law Principles and Standards back in the clothing of hard law, or in the licensing procedures, at the national level. The larger part however is never 'transposed' into national laws and especially the harmonization, the implementation and control of such Principles and Standards remain doubtful. In this paper the focus lies on JUSTIFICATION and ALARA, as the main nuclear safety principles, accepted world-wide. The regulatory guidance and demonstration of these Principles, indicating which (numerical) safety levels or safety objectives are mandatory and which are only guidance should be undertaken by the international regulators and authorities, but are often lacking. It is the aim of this paper to come up with a better procedural framework for a priority setting process by nuclear authorities. Establishing a fair process for priority setting is easier than agreeing on principles. We use the idea of 'Accountability for Reasonableness', developed in the field of Health Care Management. An ideal model of priority setting within the JUSTIFICATION/ALARA approach will need to specify what should be done (i.e. justified ethically) and how it can be done (i.e. based in empirical reality and on benchmarking), to reach optimal levels of nuclear safety. (author)

Ethics in science: ecotoxicology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Cairns Jr.

2003-05-01

Full Text Available Predictive ecotoxicology emphasizes the probable environmental outcome of exposure to toxics, rather than the mere appraisal of existing damage, and in so doing raises some complex but interesting ethical issues. Awareness of endocrine-disrupting chemicals is blurring the line between humankind and other life forms in toxicity testing by providing evidence that both humans and wildlife suffer adverse reproductive and developmental effect. There is a wide variety of chemicals that have been reported as potential endocrine disruptors. Finally, with the increasing loss of wildlife habitat, protecting the quality and ultimate fate of the remaining habitat from the effects of toxis substances becomes increasingly important to the moral quest for sustainable use of the planet.

Lower Pay for Women's Coaches: Refuting Some Common Justifications.

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Joseph P.

1995-01-01

The two standard justifications for different salaries paid to male and female coaches under 1963 and 1964 civil rights/equal pay legislation must fail under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which independently prohibits gender discrimination in employment and mandates equal athletic opportunity for female students. Some suggestions…

Is there anything unique in the ethics of synthetic biology?

Science.gov (United States)

Heyd, David

2012-01-01

Synthetic biology does not create any ethical dilemmas that have not already been raised in the development of practices such as genetic screening, genetic engineering, and other interventions in the evolutionary processes. The issue is, nevertheless, ethically serious. Two different angles are examined: the philosophical legitimacy of human intervention in the shaping of human nature, and the more pragmatic (though by no means less important) question of the risks involved in such a novel line of research. As for the first, the claim made here is that in principle there is no constraint in human intervention in the world, since ultimately the source of any value lies in human interests, welfare, and values. This is an approach that is opposite to Habermas's. As for the practical problem of risk, research in synthetic biology calls for particular caution, since in at least the first stages of a new research or program, there is no social regulation, and society is wholly dependent on the scientist's ethical integrity.

Victim derogation and victim enhancement as alternate routes to system justification.

Science.gov (United States)

Kay, Aaron C; Jost, John T; Young, Sean

2005-03-01

Abstract-Numerous studies have documented the potential for victim-blaming attributions to justify the status quo. Recent work suggests that complementary, victim-enhancing stereotypes may also increase support for existing social arrangements. We seek to reconcile these seemingly contradictory findings by proposing that victim derogation and victim enhancement are alternate routes to system justification, with the preferred route depending on the perception of a causal link between trait and outcome. Derogating "losers" (and lionizing "winners") on traits (e.g., intelligence) that are causally related to outcomes (e.g., wealth vs. poverty) serves to increase system justification, as does compensating "losers" (and downgrading "winners") on traits (e.g., physical attractiveness) that are causally unrelated to those outcomes. We provide converging evidence using system-threat and stereotype-activation paradigms.

Ethics in human resource management: potential for burnout among healthcare workers in ART and community care centres.

Science.gov (United States)

Mala, Ramanathan; Santhosh, Kumar M; Anshul, Avijit; Aarthy, R

2010-01-01

This paper examines ethical dilemmas in providing care for people with HIV/AIDS. Healthcare providers in this sector are overworked, particularly in the high prevalence states. They are faced with the dual burden of the physical and the emotional risks of providing this care. The emotional risks result from their inability to control their work environment, while having to deal with the social and cultural dimensions of patients' experiences. The physical risk is addressed to some extent by post exposure prophylaxis. But the emotional risk is largely left to the individual and there is little by way of institutional responsibility for minimising this. The guidelines for training workers in care and support programmes do not include any detailed institutional mechanisms for reducing workplace stress. This aspect of the programme needs to be examined for its ethical justification. The omission of institutional mechanisms to reduce the emotional risks experienced by healthcare providers in the HIV/AIDS sector could be a function of lack of coordination across different stakeholders in programme development. This can be addressed in further formulations of the programme. Whatever the reasons may be for overlooking these needs, the ethics of this choice need to be carefully reviewed.

Gutting’s critical View to the Truth-Independent Justification Models on Believe in God

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reza Akbari

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Justification of believe in God had been one of the most challenging problem throughout history of philosophy. The problem is "is believe in god epistemically justified?" Gutting's theory in justification of theism is combined of two parts. He critiques Witgenstainian's view firstly, and then considers Aquinas’, Plantinga's, and some other views as incorrect views on theism. Gutting says that Witgenstainians and Tomistic approaches cannot draw a religious language exactly. He also considers Plantinga's view as an incorrect view, because it is completely possible that the viewpoint of believers in believing to the existence of God to be evaluate epistemological as true as the non-believers’ view to the nonexistence of God. Discussing his own view, Gutting justifies believing in God regarding the religious experience. This article explains Gutting's critique of Witgenstainian's, Thomistic and Planting's approach on justification of believe in God.

System justification, the denial of global warming, and the possibility of "system-sanctioned change".

Science.gov (United States)

Feygina, Irina; Jost, John T; Goldsmith, Rachel E

2010-03-01

Despite extensive evidence of climate change and environmental destruction, polls continue to reveal widespread denial and resistance to helping the environment. It is posited here that these responses are linked to the motivational tendency to defend and justify the societal status quo in the face of the threat posed by environmental problems. The present research finds that system justification tendencies are associated with greater denial of environmental realities and less commitment to pro-environmental action. Moreover, the effects of political conservatism, national identification, and gender on denial of environmental problems are explained by variability in system justification tendencies. However, this research finds that it is possible to eliminate the negative effect of system justification on environmentalism by encouraging people to regard pro-environmental change as patriotic and consistent with protecting the status quo (i.e., as a case of "system-sanctioned change"). Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Shear wall ultimate drift limits

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duffey, T.A.; Goldman, A.; Farrar, C.R.

1994-04-01

Drift limits for reinforced-concrete shear walls are investigated by reviewing the open literature for appropriate experimental data. Drift values at ultimate are determined for walls with aspect ratios ranging up to a maximum of 3.53 and undergoing different types of lateral loading (cyclic static, monotonic static, and dynamic). Based on the geometry of actual nuclear power plant structures exclusive of containments and concerns regarding their response during seismic (i.e.,cyclic) loading, data are obtained from pertinent references for which the wall aspect ratio is less than or equal to approximately 1, and for which testing is cyclic in nature (typically displacement controlled). In particular, lateral deflections at ultimate load, and at points in the softening region beyond ultimate for which the load has dropped to 90, 80, 70, 60, and 50 percent of its ultimate value, are obtained and converted to drift information. The statistical nature of the data is also investigated. These data are shown to be lognormally distributed, and an analysis of variance is performed. The use of statistics to estimate Probability of Failure for a shear wall structure is illustrated

Sexual Assault Perpetrators’ Justifications for Their Actions: Relationships to Rape Supportive Attitudes, Incident Characteristics, and Future Perpetration

Science.gov (United States)

Wegner, Rhiana; Abbey, Antonia; Pierce, Jennifer; Pegram, Sheri E.; Woerner, Jacqueline

2015-01-01

Perpetrators use rape supportive attitudes and sexual assault incident characteristics to justify forcing sex on their victims. Perpetrators who can justify their behaviors are at increased risk for future perpetration. This study examined the relationships between rape supportive attitudes, sexual assault incident characteristics, and the post-assault justifications of 183 men sampled from the community who self-reported committing at least one act of sexual aggression. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that rape supportive attitudes, expectations for having sex, misperceptions of sexual intent, victims’ alcohol consumption, attempts to be alone with her, and the number of consensual sexual activities prior to the unwanted sex were significant predictors of perpetrators’ post-assault use of justifications. Greater use of justifications was a significant predictor of sexual aggression over a 1-year follow-up interval. These findings demonstrate the need for further research exploring when and why perpetrators use post-assault justifications and whether they are amenable to change. PMID:26056162

Sexual Assault Perpetrators' Justifications for Their Actions: Relationships to Rape Supportive Attitudes, Incident Characteristics, and Future Perpetration.

Science.gov (United States)

Wegner, Rhiana; Abbey, Antonia; Pierce, Jennifer; Pegram, Sheri E; Woerner, Jacqueline

2015-08-01

Perpetrators use rape supportive attitudes and sexual assault incident characteristics to justify forcing sex on their victims. Perpetrators who can justify their behaviors are at increased risk for future perpetration. This study examined the relationships between rape supportive attitudes, sexual assault incident characteristics, and the post-assault justifications of 183 men sampled from the community who self-reported committing at least one act of sexual aggression. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that rape supportive attitudes, expectations for having sex, misperceptions of sexual intent, victims' alcohol consumption, attempts to be alone with her, and the number of consensual sexual activities prior to the unwanted sex were significant predictors of perpetrators' post-assault use of justifications. Greater use of justifications was a significant predictor of sexual aggression over a 1-year follow-up interval. These findings demonstrate the need for further research exploring when and why perpetrators use post-assault justifications and whether they are amenable to change. © The Author(s) 2015.

Student-inspired activities for the teaching and learning of engineering ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Alpay, E

2013-12-01

Ethics teaching in engineering can be problematic because of student perceptions of its subjective, ambiguous and philosophical content. The use of discipline-specific case studies has helped to address such perceptions, as has practical decision making and problem solving approaches based on some ethical frameworks. However, a need exists for a wider range of creative methods in ethics education to help complement the variety of activities and learning experiences within the engineering curriculum. In this work, a novel approach is presented in which first-year undergraduate students are responsible for proposing ethics education activities of relevance to their peers and discipline area. The students are prepared for the task through a short introduction on engineering ethics, whereby generic frameworks for moral and professional conduct are discussed, and discipline and student-relevance contexts provided. The approach has been used in four departments of engineering at Imperial College London, and has led to the generation of many creative ideas for wider student engagement in ethics awareness, reflection and understanding. The paper presents information on the premise of the introductory sessions for supporting the design task, and an evaluation of the student experience of the course and task work. Examples of proposals are given to demonstrate the value of such an approach to teachers, and ultimately to the learning experiences of the students themselves.

Negotiating Ethical Paradoxes in Conducting a Randomized Controlled Trial: Aligning Intervention Science with Participatory Values.

Science.gov (United States)

Javdani, Shabnam; Singh, Sukhmani; Sichel, Corianna E

2017-12-01

In this article, we describe ethical tensions we have faced in the context of our work as intervention scientists, where we aim to promote social justice and change systems that impact girls involved in the juvenile legal system. These ethical tensions are, at their core, about resisting collusion with systems of control while simultaneously collaborating with them. Over the course of designing and implementing a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of an ecological advocacy intervention for girls, called ROSES, ethical paradoxes crystalized and prompted us to engage in critical reflection and action toward the aim of moving away from conducting research on legal-system-involved girls and moving toward a more democratic, participatory process of inquiry with girls. Our experience revealed two intertwined paradoxes that ultimately served generative purposes. First, in collaborating with legal system stakeholders, we observed a single story of girls' pathology narrated for girls, without girls, and ultimately internalized by girls. Second, in reflecting critically on the ethical implications of our study design, it became clear that the design was grounded in a medical model of inquiry although the intervention we sought to evaluate was based, in part, on resistance to the medical model. We describe emergent ethical tensions and the solutions we sought, which center on creating counternarratives and counterspaces that leverage, extend, and disrupt our existing RCT. We detail these solutions, focusing on how we restructured our research team to enhance structural competence, shifted the subject of inquiry to include the systems in which youth are embedded, and created new opportunities for former research participants to become co-researchers through formal roles on an advisory board. © Society for Community Research and Action 2017.

Ultimate and proximate explanations of strong reciprocity.

Science.gov (United States)

Vromen, Jack

2017-08-23

Strong reciprocity (SR) has recently been subject to heated debate. In this debate, the "West camp" (West et al. in Evol Hum Behav 32(4):231-262, 2011), which is critical of the case for SR, and the "Laland camp" (Laland et al. in Science, 334(6062):1512-1516, 2011, Biol Philos 28(5):719-745, 2013), which is sympathetic to the case of SR, seem to take diametrically opposed positions. The West camp criticizes advocates of SR for conflating proximate and ultimate causation. SR is said to be a proximate mechanism that is put forward by its advocates as an ultimate explanation of human cooperation. The West camp thus accuses advocates of SR for not heeding Mayr's original distinction between ultimate and proximate causation. The Laland camp praises advocates of SR for revising Mayr's distinction. Advocates of SR are said to replace Mayr's uni-directional view on the relation between ultimate and proximate causes by the bi-directional one of reciprocal causation. The paper argues that both the West camp and the Laland camp misrepresent what advocates of SR are up to. The West camp is right that SR is a proximate cause of human cooperation. But rather than putting forward SR as an ultimate explanation, as the West camp argues, advocates of SR believe that SR itself is in need of ultimate explanation. Advocates of SR tend to take gene-culture co-evolutionary theory as the correct meta-theoretical framework for advancing ultimate explanations of SR. Appearances notwithstanding, gene-culture coevolutionary theory does not imply Laland et al.'s notion of reciprocal causation. "Reciprocal causation" suggests that proximate and ultimate causes interact simultaneously, while advocates of SR assume that they interact sequentially. I end by arguing that the best way to understand the debate is by disambiguating Mayr's ultimate-proximate distinction. I propose to reserve "ultimate" and "proximate" for different sorts of explanations, and to use other terms for distinguishing

Physical demands in competitive ultimate frisbee

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krustrup, Peter; Mohr, Magni

2015-01-01

The objective was to study game demands in competitive ultimate Frisbee by performing match analysis during a game. Thirteen moderately trained (Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test levels 1 and 2 [Yo-Yo IR1 and IR2] performance: 1790 ± 382 m and 657 ± 225 m, respectively) competitive male ultimate...... = 0.74, p ≤ 0.05). Ultimate Frisbee is an intense intermittent team sport with high cardiovascular loading and clear indications of fatigue toward the end of each half. Yo-Yo IR test performances correlate with physical match performance....

Uterus transplantation: ethical and regulatory challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Arora, Kavita Shah; Blake, Valarie

2014-06-01

Moving forward rapidly in the clinical research phase, uterus transplantation may be a future treatment option for women with uterine factor infertility, which accounts for three per cent of all infertility in women. This new method of treatment would allow women, who currently rely on gestational surrogacy or adoption, to gestate and birth their own genetic offspring. Since uterus transplantation carries significant risk when compared with surrogacy and adoption as well as when compared with other organ transplants, it requires greater justification because its goals are quality of life, not life-saving, in their scope. It is important to address questions regarding the physical, psychosocial and ethical risks and benefits of uterus transplantation for all three parties involved--the patient, the donor and the potential child--as well as discuss the regulatory implications as research on uterus transplantations moves forward. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Motivation, justification, normalization: talk strategies used by Canadian medical tourists regarding their choices to go abroad for hip and knee surgeries.

Science.gov (United States)

Cameron, Keri; Crooks, Valorie A; Chouinard, Vera; Snyder, Jeremy; Johnston, Rory; Casey, Victoria

2014-04-01

Contributing to health geography scholarship on the topic, the objective of this paper is to reveal Canadian medical tourists' perspectives regarding their choices to seek knee replacement or hip replacement or resurfacing (KRHRR) at medical tourism facilities abroad rather than domestically. We address this objective by examining the 'talk strategies' used by these patients in discussing their choices and the ways in which such talk is co-constructed by others. Fourteen interviews were conducted with Canadians aged 42-77 who had gone abroad for KRHRR. Three types of talk strategies emerged through thematic analysis of their narratives: motivation, justification, and normalization talk. Motivation talk referenced participants' desires to maintain or resume physical activity, employment, and participation in daily life. Justification talk emerged when participants described how limitations in the domestic system drove them abroad. Finally, being a medical tourist was talked about as being normal on several bases. Among other findings, the use of these three talk strategies in patients' narratives surrounding medical tourism for KRHRR offers new insight into the language-health-place interconnection. Specifically, they reveal the complex ways in which medical tourists use talk strategies to assert the soundness of their choice to shift the site of their own medical care on a global scale while also anticipating, if not even guarding against, criticism of what ultimately is their own patient mobility. These talk strategies provide valuable insight into why international patients are opting to engage in the spatially explicit practice of medical tourism and who and what are informing their choices. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stereotypes as justifications of prejudice.

Science.gov (United States)

Crandall, Christian S; Bahns, Angela J; Warner, Ruth; Schaller, Mark

2011-11-01

Three experiments investigate how stereotypes form as justifications for prejudice. The authors created novel content-free prejudices toward unfamiliar social groups using either subliminal (Experiment 1, N = 79) or supraliminal (Experiment 2, N = 105; Experiment 3, N = 130) affective conditioning and measured the consequent endorsement of stereotypes about the groups. Following the stereotype content model, analyses focused on the extent to which stereotypes connoted warmth or competence. Results from all three experiments revealed effects on the warmth dimension but not on the competence dimension: Groups associated with negative affect were stereotyped as comparatively cold (but not comparatively incompetent). These results provide the first evidence that-in the absence of information, interaction, or history of behavioral discrimination-stereotypes develop to justify prejudice.

The ethics of socio-ecohydrological catchment management: towards hydrosolidarity

Science.gov (United States)

Falkenmark, M.; Folke, Carl

This paper attempts to clarify key biophysical issues and the problems involved in the ethics of socio-ecohydrological catchment management. The issue in managing complex systems is to live with unavoidable change while securing the capacity of the ecohydrological system of the catchment to sustain vital ecological goods and services, aquatic as well as terrestrial, on which humanity depends ultimately. Catchment management oriented to sustainability has to be based on ethical principles: human rights, international conventions, sustaining crucial ecological goods and services, and protecting ecosystem resilience, all of which have water linkages. Many weaknesses have to be identified, assessed and mitigated to improve the tools by which the ethical issues can be addressed and solved: a heritage of constraining tunnel vision in both science and management; inadequate shortcuts made in modern scientific system analyses (e.g. science addressing sustainability issues); simplistic technical-fix approaches to water and ecosystems in land/water/ecosystem management; conventional tools for evaluation of scientific quality with its focus on "doing the thing right" rather than "doing the right thing". The new ethics have to incorporate principles that, on a catchment basis, allow for proper attention to the hungry and poor, upstream and downstream, to descendants, and to sites and habitats that need to be protected.

Ethical aspects of radioactive waste management and public information. The Belgian situation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Minon, J.P.

1996-01-01

Belgium has a well-developed nuclear programme and has elaborated several research and nuclear fuel cycle facilities on its territory since the beginning of the nineteen fifties. About 60 per cent of the electricity produced is of nuclear origin. All these facilities produce waste. In 1980, waste management was entrusted by law to the ONDRAF. The Agency new controls all aspects of waste management and has indicated the direction for final disposal of waste. Both public information and the justification, from an ethical point of view, of the solutions proposed have become an essential topic in radioactive waste management. The situation as it exists today in Belgium is described in this paper. The paper indicates that all decision-making process now pass through an objective information phase, involving the public and the various decision makers. This is intended to provoke discussion and encourage the public to become more active and responsible, and should be based on new ethical concepts. We need to be sure that we put into place for the future, systems based on passive technology, full information and with sufficient financial provision for future needs. (authors)

Regulating Gamete Donation in the U.S.: Ethical, Legal and Social Implications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maya Sabatello

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This article explores the practice of gamete donation in the U.S. having in mind the larger question of what do we as a society owe children born as a result (donor-conceived children. Do recipient-parents have a duty to tell their donor-conceived child about his/her genetic origins? Should the identity of the donor be disclosed or remain anonymous? Does the child have a right to know her conception story and to receive information, including identifying information, about the donor? Furthermore, if a donor-conceived child has a right to know, who has the duty to tell her/him about it? The Article underscores the ethical, legal and social dilemmas that arise, comparing and contrasting with international developments in this arena. It highlights the market-based and more specific medical justifications for regulating this field, explores the emerging so-called right of the child to know his/her genetic origins (“the right to know”, and considers the challenges such a right evokes to existing legal culture and principles of medical ethics in the U.S. as well as other broader societal implications of such a right.

Regulating Gamete Donation in the U.S.: Ethical, Legal and Social Implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Sabatello, Maya

2015-09-01

This article explores the practice of gamete donation in the U.S. having in mind the larger question of what do we as a society owe children born as a result (donor-conceived children). Do recipient-parents have a duty to tell their donor-conceived child about his/her genetic origins? Should the identity of the donor be disclosed or remain anonymous? Does the child have a right to know her conception story and to receive information, including identifying information, about the donor? Furthermore, if a donor-conceived child has a right to know, who has the duty to tell her/him about it? The Article underscores the ethical, legal and social dilemmas that arise, comparing and contrasting with international developments in this arena. It highlights the market-based and more specific medical justifications for regulating this field, explores the emerging so-called right of the child to know his/her genetic origins ("the right to know"), and considers the challenges such a right evokes to existing legal culture and principles of medical ethics in the U.S. as well as other broader societal implications of such a right.

The genesis of public health ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Bayer, Ronald; Fairchild, Amy L

2004-11-01

As bioethics emerged in the 1960s and 1970s and began to have enormous impacts on the practice of medicine and research--fuelled, by broad socio-political changes that gave rise to the struggles of women, African Americans, gay men and lesbians, and the antiauthoritarianism impulse that characterised the New Left in democratic capitalist societies--little attention was given to the question of the ethics of public health. This was all the more striking since the core values and practices of public health, often entailing the subordination of the individual for the common good, seemed opposed to the ideological impulses of bioethics. Of what relevance is autonomy-focused bioethics for public health, with its mix of justifications including those that are either implicitly or explicitly paternalistic or that seek to impose strictures on individuals and communities in the name of collective welfare? To examine the deep divide between the central commitments of bioethics and the values that animate the practice of public health, we focus on a series of controversies implicating the concepts of privacy, liberty, and paternalism. Recognising the role of moral values in decision-making was a signal contribution of bioethics in its formative period. Over the past three decades a broad array of perspectives emerged under the rubric of bioethics but individualism remains central. As we commence the process of shaping an ethics of public health, it is clear that bioethics is the wrong place to start when thinking about the balances required in defence of the public's health.

Justification for measurement equation: a fundamental issue in theoretical metrology

OpenAIRE

Aleksander V. Prokopov

2013-01-01

A review and a critical analysis of the specialized literature on justification for the measurement equation and an estimation of a methodical error (uncertainty) of the measurement result are presented in the paper, and some prospects for solving of the issue are discussed herein.

Redundancy of Redundancy in Justifications of Verdicts of Polish The Constitutional Tribuna

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jan Winczorek

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The results of an empirical study of 150 justifications of verdicts of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal (CT are discussed. CT justifies its decisions mostly on authoritative references to previous decisions and other doxa- type arguments. It thus does not convince the audience of a decision's validity, but rather documents it. Further, the methodology changes depending on features of the case. The results are analysed using a conceptual    framework    of sociological systems theory. It is shown that CT's justification methodology ignores the redundancy (excess of references and dependencies of the legal system, finding redundancy redundant. This is a risky strategy of decision- making, enabling political influence.

Men's response to their wives' participation in microfinance: perpetration and justification of intimate partner violence in Bangladesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Murshid, N S

2016-12-01

The present study adds to extant literature on the association between microfinance participation and intimate partner violence (IPV) by assessing a national sample of men married to microfinance participants. The key objective was to assess whether there was a positive association between wives' microfinance participation and men's perpetration and justification of IPV in urban areas of Bangladesh. This study is based on a population-based secondary data analysis. In this cross-sectional study, data from a national sample of men from the 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey were analysed using logistic regression analyses. IPV perpetration was measured using a modified Conflict Tactics Scale and justification of IPV was measured based on 'justification of wife beating' statements with which men agreed or disagreed. Men married to microfinance participants were not significantly different from men married to non-participants of microfinance in terms of IPV perpetration in both urban and rural areas. However, the interaction effect of wives' microfinance participation and urban living on men's justification of IPV revealed a significant and positive beta coefficient. Specifically, wives' participation in microfinance was positively associated with men's justification of IPV in urban areas (β = 0.51, P men and women. Copyright © 2016 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Justification for Continued Operation for Tank 241-Z-361

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

BOGEN, D.M.

1999-09-01

This justification for continued operations (JCO) summarizes analyses performed to better understand and control the potential hazards associated with Tank 241-2-361. This revision to the JCO has been prepared to identify and control the hazards associated with sampling the tank using techniques developed and approved for use in the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) at Hanford.

Justification for Continued Operation for Tank 241-Z-361

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

BOGEN, D.M.

1999-01-01

This justification for continued operations (JCO) summarizes analyses performed to better understand and control the potential hazards associated with Tank 241-2-361. This revision to the JCO has been prepared to identify and control the hazards associated with sampling the tank using techniques developed and approved for use in the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) at Hanford

Medical ethics and ethical dilemmas.

Science.gov (United States)

Iyalomhe, G B S

2009-01-01

Ethical problems routinely arise in the hospital and outpatient practice settings and times of dilemma do occur such that practitioners and patients are at cross-roads where choice and decision making become difficult in terms of ethics. This paper attempts a synopsis of the basic principles of medical ethics, identifies some ethical dilemmas that doctors often encounter and discusses some strategies to address them as well as emphasizes the need for enhanced ethics education both for physicians and patients particularly in Nigeria. Literature and computer programmes (Medline and PsychoInfo databases) were searched for relevant information. The search showed that the fundamental principles suggested by ethicists to assist doctors to evaluate the ethics of a situation while making a decision include respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. Although the above principles do not give answers as to how to handle a particular situation, they serve as a guide to doctors on what principles ought to apply to actual circumstances. The principles sometimes conflict with each other leading to ethical dilemmas when applied to issues such as abortion, contraception, euthanasia, professional misconduct, confidentiality truth telling, professional relationship with relatives, religion, traditional medicine and business concerns. Resolution of dilemmas demand the best of the doctor's knowledge of relevant laws and ethics, his training and experience, his religious conviction and moral principles as well as his readiness to benefit from ethics consultation and the advice of his colleagues. Ethics education should begin from the impressionable age in homes, continued in the medical schools and after graduation to ensure that doctors develop good ethical practices and acquire the ability to effectively handle ethical dilemmas. Also, education of patients and sanction of unethical behaviour will reduce ethical dilemmas.

The Ethics of Doing Ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Hansson, Sven Ove

2017-02-01

Ethicists have investigated ethical problems in other disciplines, but there has not been much discussion of the ethics of their own activities. Research in ethics has many ethical problems in common with other areas of research, and it also has problems of its own. The researcher's integrity is more precarious than in most other disciplines, and therefore even stronger procedural checks are needed to protect it. The promotion of some standpoints in ethical issues may be socially harmful, and even our decisions as to which issues we label as "ethical" may have unintended and potentially harmful social consequences. It can be argued that ethicists have an obligation to make positive contributions to society, but the practical implications of such an obligation are not easily identified. This article provides an overview of ethical issues that arise in research into ethics and in the application of such research. It ends with a list of ten practical proposals for how these issues should be dealt with.

Justification for measurement equation: a fundamental issue in theoretical metrology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aleksander V. Prokopov

2013-11-01

Full Text Available A review and a critical analysis of the specialized literature on justification for the measurement equation and an estimation of a methodical error (uncertainty of the measurement result are presented in the paper, and some prospects for solving of the issue are discussed herein.

[Continuing education in ethics: from clinical ethics to institutional ethics].

Science.gov (United States)

Brazeau-Lamontagne, Lucie

2012-01-01

The mandate of the Ethics Committee of the Conseil de médecins, dentistes et pharmaciens (CMDP) at the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS), Sherbrooke, Quebec is three-fold: to guide the clinical decision; to address the institutional ethical function; to create the program for continuing education in ethics (Formation éthique continue or FEC). Might FEC be the means of bridging from individual ethics to institutional ethics at a hospital? To take the FEC perspectives considered appropriate for doctors and consider them for validation or disproving in the context of those of other professionals. Situate the proposed FEC mandate in a reference framework to evaluate (or triangulate) the clinical decision and the institutional ethic. CONVICTION: Sustainable professional development for doctors (DPD) includes ethics; it cannot be ignored. Without constant attention to upgrading one's abilities in professional ethics, these suffer the same fate as other professional aptitudes and competences (for example, techniques and scientific knowledge): decay.

Ethical Orientations for Understanding Business Ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Phillip V.; Speck, Henry E., III

1990-01-01

Argues that history provides the necessary framework in which both to discuss and to seek answers to the three necessary and sequential questions about business ethics: (1) What is ethics and what does it mean to be ethical? (2) Why be ethical?; and (3) How can one be ethical? (SG)

Revisiting eco-ethics and econ-ethics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Otto Kinne

2002-11-01

Full Text Available Modern humanity can survive only if traditional ethics are extended to include eco-ethics and econ-ethics. Success or failure in developing and implementing these new ethical constructs will affect the fate of our species Homo sapiens and that of millions of other forms of life. In the long run failure to accept and apply eco-ethics and econ-ethics would reduce the capacities of Planet Earth to support life.

Ethics and technology - criteria for the systematic application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Korff, W.

1983-01-01

All man's endeavours pursue an ethical legitimacy: man regards himself as a self-burdened and self contingent creature his power of intellect allocating him a liability by reason of that intellect. His actions are governed by good and bad. This applies equally to the possibilities which are open to him, which in an elementary understanding can be termed technology, namely processes and instruments with which he can produce, accomplish and achieve. Technology in any form basically concerns man's environment in which it is applied and which it alters. The environmental consequences make technology decisions simultaneously moral decisions. An additional aspect augmenting the problem is the fact that some of these decisions are fundamental for man's existence in a technical world. This applies ultimately to decisions relating to energy questions. To provide some clarity the author examines the problem complex from three specific ethical view-points. (orig.) [de

Committees for Ethics in Research involving human subjects.

Science.gov (United States)

Hossne, William Saad; Vieira, Sonia; De Freitas, Corina Bontempo Duca

2008-01-01

In Brazil since October 1996 there have been guidelines for research involving human subjects. Now human subjects know when their treatment is part of research. Deceit is no longer tolerated. But is not enough to say we offer an explanation to the potential subject and we offer a choice before he or she is confronted with an informed consent form. As in all professional activity, scientific investigation needs social controls. In Brazil, the ultimate responsibility of an investigation lies on the investigator, but in every institution where research is carried out there is a Committee for Ethics in Research. All Committees are subordinated to the National Commission of Ethics in Research, which is submitted to the Brazilian Institute of Health. During 2005 around 17,000 protocols involving 700,000 human subjects were revised by 475 Committees distributed all over the country. Approximately 7,000 people are now working in these Committees.

Design and economic justification of group blanks application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Todić

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Within the manufacturing process planning, blanks are either selected or designed, respectively forms of input material for the manufacture of products. Reviewed in this paper are three types of group blanks: group castings, group forgings manufactured by closed die forging and free forging, and group blanks manufactured by pressing melted metal in casts. The paper also presents requisites for design and evaluation of economic justification of group blanks application.

Machine Ethics: Creating an Ethical Intelligent Agent

OpenAIRE

Anderson, Michael; Anderson, Susan Leigh

2007-01-01

The newly emerging field of machine ethics (Anderson and Anderson 2006) is concerned with adding an ethical dimension to machines. Unlike computer ethics -- which has traditionally focused on ethical issues surrounding humans' use of machines -- machine ethics is concerned with ensuring that the behavior of machines toward human users, and perhaps other machines as well, is ethically acceptable. In this article we discuss the importance of machine ethics, the need for machines that represent ...

Ethics issues and research in vulnerable communities: a case study from the North West province of South Africa

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Smith, R

2014-10-01

Full Text Available meet with the target group. Therefore, upon arrival at Ramatlabama, the research team’s first stop was the Tribal Office to introduce themselves to the Chief, Mr G.G. Shole and to explain the purpose of the visit. Mr Shole was abroad at the time..., precluded them from sharing this information with outside parties. This decision was ultimately accepted, although it caused serious internal institutional concern because it violated standard financial, rather than ethical procedures. Research ethics...

Financial Toxicity of Cancer Drugs: Possible Remedies from an Ethical Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Marckmann, Georg; In der Schmitten, Jürgen

2017-05-01

Spiraling costs of cancer treatments have become a major concern for the payers in the health care system and for individual patients suffering from the cancer drugs' financial toxicity. This article discusses possible solutions from an ethical perspective. First, it gives some orientation about what constitutes a fair price for innovative anticancer agents. While a definitive answer remains difficult, there are good reasons to enter into price negotiations with the pharmaceutical companies to align the price with the R&D costs and the added value of the product. Information about the drug's cost-effectiveness should be available, a fixed threshold, however, seems ethically problematic. Rather, a 'signal cost-effectiveness threshold' should indicate when the drug price requires special justification. Further strategies include an improved benefit assessment after market authorization by independent publicly financed studies, which will provide a valid basis for price negotiations and clinical decision-making at the micro level. Last but not least, cancer treatments should be tailored not only to the biology of the tumor but also to the preferences of the patient. Primarily mandated by the respect for autonomy, promoting patient-centered care has the potential to improve quality of care and enable a wise use of scarce health care resources.

Translational ethics: an analytical framework of translational movements between theory and practice and a sketch of a comprehensive approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Bærøe, Kristine

2014-09-30

Translational research in medicine requires researchers to identify the steps to transfer basic scientific discoveries from laboratory benches to bedside decision-making, and eventually into clinical practice. On a parallel track, philosophical work in ethics has not been obliged to identify the steps to translate theoretical conclusions into adequate practice. The medical ethicist A. Cribb suggested some years ago that it is now time to debate 'the business of translational' in medical ethics. Despite the very interesting and useful perspective on the field of medical ethics launched by Cribb, the debate is still missing. In this paper, I take up Cribb's invitation and discuss further analytic distinctions needed to base an ethics aiming to translate between theory and practice. The analytic distinctions needed to base an ethics aiming to translate between theory and practice are identified as 'movements of translation'. I explore briefly what would constitute success and limitations to these intended translational movements by addressing the challenges of the epistemological gap between philosophical and practical ethics. The categories of translational movements I suggest can serve as a starting point for a systematic, collective self-inspection and discussion of the merits and limitations of the various academic and practical activities that bioethicists are engaged in. I further propose that translational ethics could be considered as a new discipline of ethical work constructively structured around compositions of translational movements. Breaking the idea of translational ethics into distinct translational movements provide us with a nuanced set of conditions to explore and discuss the justification and limitations of various efforts carried out in the field of bioethics. In this sense, the proposed framework could be a useful vehicle for augmented collective, self-reflexivity among both philosophers and practitioners who are 'doing bioethics'. Also

Maintaining professionalism in today's business environment: ethical challenges for the pain medicine specialist.

Science.gov (United States)

Lebovits, Allen

2012-09-01

There are many external influences in today's market force that impair the relationship between the pain medicine specialist and the patient, and ultimately prevent optimal quality of care. This article explores the ethical challenges facing the pain medicine specialist in today's increasingly "business" environment and will offer solutions for maintaining the professionalism of pain medicine. Four commonly encountered bioethical principles in the practice of pain medicine are reviewed: beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, and autonomy. The following ethical challenges of the pain medicine specialist are reviewed: practicing outside ones specialty area, practice characteristics, the consultant role, the economic lure of aggressive intervention, not evaluating for and treating comorbid psychopathology, reimbursement pressures, workers' compensation, and use of unproven methods. Solutions offered include collegial associations, social responsibility, legislative initiatives, pain education, interdisciplinary evaluation and treatment, improved relationships with third-party payers, reduced racial disparities, and ethics education. Ethics is the "roadmap" that enables the pain medicine specialist to navigate the increasingly murky waters of practicing pain management today by maintaining the professionalism necessary to combat today's "business" pressures. Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Justification and quality control in radiodiagnostics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dalen, A. van

1989-01-01

The role of the radiodiagnostician in justification of x-ray examination is discussed. Under the final responsibility of the radio-diagnostician the more common examinations are performed by laboratory assistants. A justification judgement before by the radio-diagnostician does not take place. In case of complicated examinations often previous consultation between radio-diagnostician and clinician is necessary. The fast development of new techniques like CT, echography and MRI has as result that the modern radio-diagnostician develops more and more into a imaging-specialist. In the consultation with the clinician he advises about the optimal diagnostics for a certain patient, taking optimally into account the risks of x-radiation. The justifying role of the radio-diagnostician depends further upon the relation with the requiring physician. In general the inter-collegial consultation is assumed to be sufficient within the hospitals, however the feedback to general practitioners seems to be improvable in some cases. With regard to quality assurance it is remarked that the quality of the examination may not be endangered by a too strong emphasis upon radiation reduction. Aspects like education level, protocol learning, dose limits, degressive tariffs, information-transfer, radiation passport, analysis between 'blue' ton, centralization of x-ray examination and quality of apparatus, are discussed. From the Government primarily a constraint setting policy is expected, in which rule-giving with respect to quality of education and apparatus is highly important. A stimulation of inter-collegial consulting may be expected, in particular in financial sense. A permission policy has to be managed, which ensures centralization of apparatus and centrally performance of x-ray examination as much as possible. Finally warning is given for the effects of excessive fear for radiation which causes refraining of medical necessary examination. The various risk have to be weighed up

Business ethics in ethics committees?

Science.gov (United States)

Boyle, P

1990-01-01

The "Ethics committees" column in this issue of the Hastings Center Report features an introduction by Cynthia B. Cohen and four brief commentaries on the roles hospital ethics committees may play in the making of institutional and public health care policy in the 1990s. The pros and cons of a broader, more public role for ethics committees in reconciling the business and patient care aspects of health care delivery are debated by Cohen in "Ethics committees as corporate and public policy advocates," and by Philip Boyle in this article. Boyle is an associate for ethical studies at The Hastings Center.

Extricating Justification Scheme Theory in Middle School Mathematical Problem Solving

Science.gov (United States)

Matteson, Shirley; Capraro, Mary Margaret; Capraro, Robert M.; Lincoln, Yvonna S.

2012-01-01

Twenty middle grades students were interviewed to gain insights into their reasoning about problem-solving strategies using a Problem Solving Justification Scheme as our theoretical lens and the basis for our analysis. The scheme was modified from the work of Harel and Sowder (1998) making it more broadly applicable and accounting for research…

Engineer Ethics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Dae Sik; Kim, Yeong Pil; Kim, Yeong Jin

2003-03-01

This book tells of engineer ethics such as basic understanding of engineer ethics with history of engineering as a occupation, definition of engineering and specialized job and engineering, engineer ethics as professional ethics, general principles of ethics and its limitation, ethical theory and application, technique to solve the ethical problems, responsibility, safety and danger, information engineer ethics, biotechnological ethics like artificial insemination, life reproduction, gene therapy and environmental ethics.

The ethics of socio-ecohydrological catchment management: towards hydrosolidarity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Falkenmark

2002-01-01

Full Text Available This paper attempts to clarify key biophysical issues and the problems involved in the ethics of socio-ecohydrological catchment management. The issue in managing complex systems is to live with unavoidable change while securing the capacity of the ecohydrological system of the catchment to sustain vital ecological goods and services, aquatic as well as terrestrial, on which humanity depends ultimately. Catchment management oriented to sustainability has to be based on ethical principles: human rights, international conventions, sustaining crucial ecological goods and services, and protecting ecosystem resilience, all of which have water linkages. Many weaknesses have to be identified, assessed and mitigated to improve the tools by which the ethical issues can be addressed and solved: a heritage of constraining tunnel vision in both science and management; inadequate shortcuts made in modern scientific system analyses (e.g. science addressing sustainability issues; simplistic technical-fix approaches to water and ecosystems in land/water/ecosystem management; conventional tools for evaluation of scientific quality with its focus on “doing the thing right” rather than “doing the right thing”. The new ethics have to incorporate principles that, on a catchment basis, allow for proper attention to the hungry and poor, upstream and downstream, to descendants, and to sites and habitats that need to be protected. Keywords: catchment, hydrosolidarity, ecosystem, water determinants, resilience, green water, blue water, sustainability science

An Ethical Foreign Policy? Globalism as a Threat to the US National Interest

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wassim Daghrir

2015-07-01

Full Text Available An ethical foreign policy can have no objectives other than those that are of service to its own people. An unethical foreign policy, however, may pursue objectives that enhance the nation as a power, seeking dominance for its own sake, for the honor, glory and wealth of the state or a minority within the state, or spreading its ideology out of missionary fervor. The mainstream wisdom in the United States is that the US foreign policy agendas are virtuous and ethical, since they are oriented mainly towards the protection and enhancement of the American ‘National Interest’. Nevertheless, the orthodox perception among many foreign observers is that the American foreign policy is by no means ethical, since it is oriented exclusively towards the promotion of the Americans’ interests at the expense of the rest of the world. My thesis is that the US foreign policy is unethical and anti-democratic mainly because it is causing a lot of harm to the American taxpayers’ interests. I esteem that the American people are the real permanent victims of their country’s globalist stance. This article is based on an argumentative criticism of the mainstream American perception of U.S. foreign policy as well as a criticism of the foreign observers’ perception of American foreign policy. In a nutshell, this article tries to highlight the unethical nature of the American foreign policy with a focus on the complex justifications for such an undemocratic globalist agenda.

Reciprocity and Ethical Tuberculosis Treatment and Control.

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, Diego S; Dawson, Angus; Upshur, Ross E G

2016-03-01

This paper explores the notion of reciprocity in the context of active pulmonary and laryngeal tuberculosis (TB) treatment and related control policies and practices. We seek to do three things: First, we sketch the background to contemporary global TB care and suggest that poverty is a key feature when considering the treatment of TB patients. We use two examples from TB care to explore the role of reciprocity: isolation and the use of novel TB drugs. Second, we explore alternative means of justifying the use of reciprocity through appeal to different moral and political theoretical traditions (i.e., virtue ethics, deontology, and consequentialism). We suggest that each theory can be used to provide reasons to take reciprocity seriously as an independent moral concept, despite any other differences. Third, we explore general meanings and uses of the concept of reciprocity, with the primary intention of demonstrating that it cannot be simply reduced to other more frequently invoked moral concepts such as beneficence or justice. We argue that reciprocity can function as a mid-level principle in public health, and generally, captures a core social obligation arising once an individual or group is burdened as a result of acting for the benefit of others (even if they derive a benefit themselves). We conclude that while more needs to be explored in relation to the theoretical justification and application of reciprocity, sufficient arguments can be made for it to be taken more seriously as a key principle within public health ethics and bioethics more generally.

Improving Ethical Attitudes or Simply Teaching Ethical Codes? The Reality of Accounting Ethics Education

Science.gov (United States)

Cameron, Robyn Ann; O'Leary, Conor

2015-01-01

Ethical instruction is critical in accounting education. However, does accounting ethics teaching actually instil core ethical values or simply catalogue how students should act when confronted with typical accounting ethical dilemmas? This study extends current literature by distinguishing between moral/ethical and legal/ethical matters and then…

Justifying decisions in social dilemmas: justification pressures and tacit coordination under environmental uncertainty.

Science.gov (United States)

de Kwaadsteniet, Erik W; van Dijk, Eric; Wit, Arjaan; De Cremer, David; de Rooij, Mark

2007-12-01

This article investigates how justification pressures influence harvesting decisions in common resource dilemmas. The authors argue that when a division rule prescribes a specific harvest level, such as under environmental certainty, people adhere more strongly to this division rule when they have to justify their decisions to fellow group members. When a division rule does not prescribe a specific harvest level, such as under environmental uncertainty, people restrict their harvests when they have to justify their decisions to fellow group members. The results of two experimental studies corroborate this line of reasoning. The findings are discussed in terms of tacit coordination. The authors specify conditions under which justification pressures may or may not facilitate efficient coordination.

Ethics rounds: An appreciated form of ethics support.

Science.gov (United States)

Silén, Marit; Ramklint, Mia; Hansson, Mats G; Haglund, Kristina

2016-03-01

Ethics rounds are one way to support healthcare personnel in handling ethically difficult situations. A previous study in the present project showed that ethics rounds did not result in significant changes in perceptions of how ethical issues were handled, that is, in the ethical climate. However, there was anecdotal evidence that the ethics rounds were viewed as a positive experience and that they stimulated ethical reflection. The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of how the ethics rounds were experienced and why the intervention in the form of ethics rounds did not succeed in improving the ethical climate for the staff. An exploratory and descriptive design with a qualitative approach was adopted, using individual interviews. A total of 11 healthcare personnel, working in two different psychiatry outpatient clinics and with experience of participating in ethics rounds, were interviewed. The study was based on informed consent and was approved by one of the Swedish Regional Ethical Review Boards. The participants were generally positive about the ethics rounds. They had experienced changes by participating in the ethics rounds in the form of being able to see things from different perspectives as well as by gaining insight into ethical issues. However, these changes had not affected daily work. A crucial question is whether or not increased reflection ability among the participants is a good enough outcome of ethics rounds and whether this result could have been measured in patient-related outcomes. Ethics rounds might foster cooperation among the staff and this, in turn, could influence patient care. By listening to others during ethics rounds, a person can learn to see things from a new angle. Participation in ethics rounds can also lead to better insight concerning ethical issues. © The Author(s) 2014.

Case Study on Justification: High Intensity Discharge Lamps. Annex II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2016-01-01

High intensity discharge lamps produce bright white light of a high intensity in an energy efficient manner. These lamps are typically used in large numbers in public and professional settings such as shops, warehouses, hotels and offices. They are also used in outdoor applications to illuminate streets, buildings, statues, flags and gardens and further as architectural lighting. They also have applications associated with film projection in cinemas, manufacture of semiconductors, fluorescence endoscopy and microscopy, schlieren photography, hologram projection, ultraviolet curing, sky beamers and car headlights. Some types of high intensity discharge lamp, as well as certain other consumer products for lighting, contain radioactive substances for functional reasons. The radionuclides that are typically incorporated into high intensity discharge lamps are 85 Kr and 232 Th. Given the wide range of uses, specific decisions on justification may be required for different applications. A small number of safety assessments for high intensity discharge lamps have been carried out and published. No published decisions at the national level specifically addressing the justification of the use of high intensity discharge lamps have been identified

The essential role of medical ethics education in achieving professionalism: the Romanell Report.

Science.gov (United States)

Carrese, Joseph A; Malek, Janet; Watson, Katie; Lehmann, Lisa Soleymani; Green, Michael J; McCullough, Laurence B; Geller, Gail; Braddock, Clarence H; Doukas, David J

2015-06-01

This article-the Romanell Report-offers an analysis of the current state of medical ethics education in the United States, focusing in particular on its essential role in cultivating professionalism among medical learners. Education in ethics has become an integral part of medical education and training over the past three decades and has received particular attention in recent years because of the increasing emphasis placed on professional formation by accrediting bodies such as the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Yet, despite the development of standards, milestones, and competencies related to professionalism, there is no consensus about the specific goals of medical ethics education, the essential knowledge and skills expected of learners, the best pedagogical methods and processes for implementation, and optimal strategies for assessment. Moreover, the quality, extent, and focus of medical ethics instruction vary, particularly at the graduate medical education level. Although variation in methods of instruction and assessment may be appropriate, ultimately medical ethics education must address the overarching articulated expectations of the major accrediting organizations. With the aim of aiding medical ethics educators in meeting these expectations, the Romanell Report describes current practices in ethics education and offers guidance in several areas: educational goals and objectives, teaching methods, assessment strategies, and other challenges and opportunities (including course structure and faculty development). The report concludes by proposing an agenda for future research.

Business Ethics and Military Ethics ： A Study in Comparative Applied Ethics

OpenAIRE

Shaw, William H.

2012-01-01

In the past three decades, philosophers have delved into applied ethics, pursuing a surprisingly wide range of practically oriented normative questions, and a number of fields of applied ethical research and teaching are flourishing. There have, however, been few comparative studies of different fields in applied ethics, but such studies can, I believe, teach us something. Accordingly, this essay compares and contrasts business ethics and military ethics as distinct disciplinar...

The Christian Environmental Ethic of the Russian Pomor

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen Brain

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This article revisits Lynn White's famous 1967 article that placed the blame forenvironmental problems in the Western world on the Judeo-Christian belief system, anddiscusses the case of the Pomor, a Russian sub-ethnicity who settled on the shores ofthe White Sea in the twelfth century. Although maintaining their Orthodox faith aftermigrating to the edge of the Slavic cultural zone, the Pomor adopted an entirely newway of life suited to the climate of the far north. Rather than concentrating onagriculture, which proved unreliable at the extreme northern latitude, they turned theirattention to the exploitation of marine resources: fishing, sealing, and whaling.Contending with the harsh elements on a daily basis, the Pomor developed a worldviewcalled "sacral geography," which fused animism with Christian eschatology. Sacralgeography, in addition to providing an interpretive system for the natural world, alsoobligated the Pomor to observe and respect the natural world by limiting their economicstrategies. The result was a unique environmental ethic. In the late nineteenth centuryand early twentieth century, the Pomor environmental ethic came under direct criticismfrom larger social forces-first the local business community and then the Soviet statebecauseof its low productivity. Ultimately, Stalin's aggressive economic and politicalpolicies succeeded in eliminating the Pomor environmental ethic as an effective curb onresource exploitation.

Transcendence, ethics, and Mobil Oil: a rhetorical investigation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Williamson, L.A.

1982-01-01

Since 1970 the Mobil Oil Corporation has been widely recognized as the self-appointed champion of corporate America's right to advocate. Corporate advocacy, as distinguished from other forms of external corporate communication, is concerned with the modification of corporate images and those social and political issues directly linked to the well-being of the corporation. Kenneth Burke's theory of transcendence serves as the central critical referent in the critique of Mobil's advocacy. By evoking elaborate transcendent frames of reference, Mobil seeks to identify its actions with higher syntheses that allow them to transcend the guilt produced by identifications with lesser orders. Mobil evokes two ultimate frames which are recurrent in their transcendent identifications: American energy independence and freedom of expression. In the latter part of this investigation, Sidney Hook's ethics of controversy was offered as an ethical referent. Two levels of analysis were conducted: first, three major types of arguments against Mobil's advocacy were evaluated; second, Mobil's discourse was evaluated. The conclusion was reached that Mobil's advocacy is largely an ethical form of American democratic discourse. In the final section of this investigation, the heuristic values of this critique were discussed.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Morality: Deontological, Consequentialist, and Emotive Language Use in Justifications Across Foundation-Specific Moral Violations.

Science.gov (United States)

Wheeler, Melissa A; Laham, Simon M

2016-09-01

Morality is inherently social, yet much extant work in moral psychology ignores the central role of social processes in moral phenomena. To partly address this, this article examined the content of persuasive moral communication-the way people justify their moral attitudes in persuasive contexts. Across two studies, we explored variation in justification content (deontological, consequentialist, or emotive) as a function of moral foundations. Using justification selection techniques (Study 1) and open-ended justification production (Study 2), results demonstrate a preference (a) for deontological appeals in justifications for the sanctity foundation, (b) for consequentialist appeals for the individualizing foundations (care and fairness), and (c) for emotive appeals in justifications for the binding foundations (loyalty, authority and sanctity). The present research questions the generality of inferences about the primacy of emotions/intuition in moral psychology research and highlights the important role of reasons in persuasive moral communication. © 2016 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

41 CFR 102-5.95 - Is the comfort and/or convenience of an employee considered sufficient justification to authorize...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... convenience of an employee considered sufficient justification to authorize home-to-work transportation? 102-5...-to-Work Transportation § 102-5.95 Is the comfort and/or convenience of an employee considered sufficient justification to authorize home-to-work transportation? No, the comfort and/or convenience of an...

Mechanisms Linking Ethical Leadership to Ethical Sales Behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Yu-Chi

2017-06-01

This study investigated the relationship between ethical leadership and ethical sales behavior. A total of 248 matched surveys with participant responses from insurance agents and their customers were collected. The insurance agents were asked to rate the ethical leadership of their leaders, the ethical climate in their organization, and their individual moral identity. Customers were asked to rate the perceived ethical sales behavior of the insurance agents. This empirical study utilized moderated mediation techniques to analyze the data. Results indicated that ethical climate mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and ethical sales behavior when moral identity was high, however, did not when moral identity was low. The research framework including contextual effects (i.e., ethical climate) and individual differences in moral judgment (i.e., moral identity) can provide a comprehensive picture of how ethical leadership influences ethical sales behavior. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are also discussed.

Legal and medical aspects of the ethics committee’s work relating to abortion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ponjavić Zoran

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper analyses the legal and medical aspects of the work of ethics committees on abortion. According to the legislation of the Republic of Serbia, these committees are competent to determine justifiable terms for abortion after the twentieth week of the fetus. It is well known that abortion is not only a medical but a legal, ethic, social and demographic problem as well. A liberal solution in view of abortion in the first trimester has been accepted in most European countries, as by the legislature of the Republic of Serbia. Since prenatal diagnosis cannot always determine the fetus state with certainty but at times may do so at a later stage, abortion is then required when the child is already capable of extrauterine life. The necessity for performing abortion in the third trimester is thus a result of good knowledge of techno-medicine but also from the limited information it provides. In such situations, the physician needs confirmation and justification of his standpoint with respect to abortion through a legal formulation which should contain "minimum moral". Society has found a way to protect and help him through moral and ethic forms of prevention without anybody’s emotions being affected. Ethics committees should thus help the physician in view of determining the terms for performing late abortion, since the rules of doctor’s ethics are not sufficient in this case. The article especially analyses the work of the Ethics Committee of the Clinical Center in Kragujevac in the period 2000-2010. It is stated that the largest number of cases referred to determined diseases or fetus anomalies while only a negligible number (11.29% to the illness of the mother. There were no requests for abortions due to legal reasons (pregnancies from criminal offences. A significant number (40.28% of requests submitted to the Ethics Committee related to pregnancies under the 24th week of pregnancy. Since a pregnancy of 24 weeks represents a boundary

Pharmacological cognitive enhancement-how neuroscientific research could advance ethical debate.

Science.gov (United States)

Maslen, Hannah; Faulmüller, Nadira; Savulescu, Julian

2014-01-01

THERE ARE NUMEROUS WAYS PEOPLE CAN IMPROVE THEIR COGNITIVE CAPACITIES: good nutrition and regular exercise can produce long-term improvements across many cognitive domains, whilst commonplace stimulants such as coffee temporarily boost levels of alertness and concentration. Effects like these have been well-documented in the medical literature and they raise few (if any) ethical issues. More recently, however, clinical research has shown that the off-label use of some pharmaceuticals can, under certain conditions, have modest cognition-improving effects. Substances such as methylphenidate and modafinil can improve capacities such as working memory and concentration in some healthy individuals. Unlike their more mundane predecessors, these methods of "cognitive enhancement" are thought to raise a multitude of ethical issues. This paper presents the six principal ethical issues raised in relation to pharmacological cognitive enhancers (PCEs)-issues such as whether: (1) the medical safety-profile of PCEs justifies restricting or permitting their elective or required use; (2) the enhanced mind can be an "authentic" mind; (3) individuals might be coerced into using PCEs; (4), there is a meaningful distinction to be made between the treatment vs. enhancement effect of the same PCE; (5) unequal access to PCEs would have implications for distributive justice; and (6) PCE use constitutes cheating in competitive contexts. In reviewing the six principal issues, the paper discusses how neuroscientific research might help advance the ethical debate. In particular, the paper presents new arguments about the contribution neuroscience could make to debates about justice, fairness, and cheating, ultimately concluding that neuroscientific research into "personalized enhancement" will be essential if policy is to be truly informed and ethical. We propose an "ethical agenda" for neuroscientific research into PCEs.

"Because I Am Worth It" : A Theoretical Framework and Empirical Review of a Justification-Based Account of Self-Regulation Failure

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Witt Huberts, Jessie C.; Evers, Catharine; De Ridder, Denise T D

Self-regulation failure is often explained as being overwhelmed by impulse. The present article proposes a novel pathway, presenting a theoretical framework and empirical review of a justification-based account of self-regulation failure. With justification we refer to making excuses for one's

Professional Ethics of Software Engineers: An Ethical Framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Lurie, Yotam; Mark, Shlomo

2016-04-01

The purpose of this article is to propose an ethical framework for software engineers that connects software developers' ethical responsibilities directly to their professional standards. The implementation of such an ethical framework can overcome the traditional dichotomy between professional skills and ethical skills, which plagues the engineering professions, by proposing an approach to the fundamental tasks of the practitioner, i.e., software development, in which the professional standards are intrinsically connected to the ethical responsibilities. In so doing, the ethical framework improves the practitioner's professionalism and ethics. We call this approach Ethical-Driven Software Development (EDSD), as an approach to software development. EDSD manifests the advantages of an ethical framework as an alternative to the all too familiar approach in professional ethics that advocates "stand-alone codes of ethics". We believe that one outcome of this synergy between professional and ethical skills is simply better engineers. Moreover, since there are often different software solutions, which the engineer can provide to an issue at stake, the ethical framework provides a guiding principle, within the process of software development, that helps the engineer evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different software solutions. It does not and cannot affect the end-product in and of-itself. However, it can and should, make the software engineer more conscious and aware of the ethical ramifications of certain engineering decisions within the process.

The development of computer ethics: contributions from business ethics and medical ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, K; Steinke, G

2000-04-01

In this essay, we demonstrate that the field of computer ethics shares many core similarities with two other areas of applied ethics. Academicians writing and teaching in the area of computer ethics, along with practitioners, must address ethical issues that are qualitatively similar in nature to those raised in medicine and business. In addition, as academic disciplines, these three fields also share some similar concerns. For example, all face the difficult challenge of maintaining a credible dialogue with diverse constituents such as academicians of various disciplines, professionals, policymakers, and the general public. Given these similarities, the fields of bioethics and business ethics can serve as useful models for the development of computer ethics.

Proceedings of the First European workshop on the ethical dimensions of the radiological protection system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2013-12-01

The System of radiological protection develops gradually integrating advances in knowledge about the effects of radiation, the feedback from its practical implementation in all relevant domains, as well as the evolution of the ethical and social values that shape community life in modern societies. Although there is a long tradition of ICRP to consider such values in the development of its Recommendations, there is a need to make them explicit. This should facilitate the understanding of the system for specialists and non-specialists in radiological protection and allow a renewed dialogue on its foundations, its objectives and rationality. It should also encourage the emergence of informed behaviours in society vis-a-vis radiations. In this perspective, ICRP has initiated a reflection in the recent years on the ethical dimensions of the radiological protection system. This reflection has highlighted the links between the fundamental principles of radiation protection (justification, optimization, limitation) and the theories of normative ethics. The recommendations of the Commission are designed to respect individual rights (deontological ethics), to promote the collective interest (utilitarian ethics) and favour vigilance and equity (virtue ethics). This reflection it also identified the interest for the analysis of the radiological protection system to distinguish the ethical values defining the standards by which action should be taken, the ethical procedures for integrating these values in decision making and in the implementation of the decisions, and the ethical behaviour corresponding to the values that are supposed to guide the conduct of the various actors. Because the radiation protection system is intended to be international, the reflection also emphasized the importance of promoting through the Recommendations, values common to different cultures such as autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence and justice. The objective of the Workshop is to explore

Ultimate - a new generation of gasoline and diesel fuels; Ultimate - eine neue Generation von Otto- und Dieselkraftstoffen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Strempel, G. [Aral Forschung/Global Fuels Technology, Bochum (Germany); Beckwith, P. [BP Fuels Management Group, Pangbourne (United Kingdom); Froehling, J. [Aral Forschung, Bochum (Germany). Labor/Analytik; Baron, U. [Aral Forschung, Bochum (Germany). Motor- und Fahrzeuglaboratorium; Sauermann, P.; Balfanz, U. [Aral Forschung, Bochum (Germany). Produktentwicklung; Doermer, W. [Aral Forschung, Bochum (Germany). Produktqualitaet

2005-06-01

With the launch of Ultimate 100 gasoline and Ultimate Diesel, motorists in Germany now have the opportunity to choose new advanced performance fuels designed to get the very best from their engines. This article gives details of the technical development behind these fuels, their wide range of benefits, and how it is possible to manufacture fuels which meet the considerable technical challenge of achieving both more performance and less pollution. (orig.)

Finding common ground: environmental ethics, social justice, and a sustainable path for nature-based health promotion

Science.gov (United States)

Viniece Jennings; Jessica Yun; Lincoln  Larson

2016-01-01

Decades of research have documented continuous tension between anthropocentric needs and the environment’s capacity to accommodate those needs and support basic human welfare. The way in which society perceives, manages, and ultimately utilizes natural resources can be influenced by underlying environmental ethics, or the moral relationship that humans share with the...

American Sterilization: The Racist Justifications for Sterilization in the United States

OpenAIRE

Trevor Price

2016-01-01

An investigative analysis into anthropometrics, sterilization, eugenics, and other forms of scientific racism used to justify white supremacy and racial thought in the 19th and 20th centuries in the United States. The Tuskegee syphilis study, Darwinistic ideals, and neo-Lamarckian thoughts are critically analyzed as justifications for institutional racism.

Business Reporting: How Transparency becomes a Justification Mechanism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Christian

2004-01-01

through linking disclosure to value creation is emphasized. As transparency is in the eye of the beholder, the process of developing corporate reporting practices must be concerned with reaching a common understanding and agreement between producers and consumers of such disclosures. Transparency...... is perceived as both a key objective and outcome of comprehensive business reporting. However, the concept of transparency seems to be an empty concept merely constituting a justification mechanism for actual behaviour, i.e. that disclosure instead is driven by the signalling value for the individual company...

Imaginative ethics--bringing ethical praxis into sharper relief.

Science.gov (United States)

Hansson, Mats G

2002-01-01

The empirical basis for this article is three years of experience with ethical rounds at Uppsala University Hospital. Three standard approaches of ethical reasoning are examined as potential explanations of what actually occurs during the ethical rounds. For reasons given, these are not found to be satisfying explanations. An approach called "imaginative ethics", is suggested as a more satisfactory account of this kind of ethical reasoning. The participants in the ethical rounds seem to draw on a kind of moral competence based on personal life experience and professional competence and experience. By listening to other perspectives and other experiences related to one particular patient story, the participants imagine alternative horizons of moral experience and explore a multitude of values related to clinical practice that might be at stake. In his systematic treatment of aesthetics in the Critique of Judgement, Kant made use of an operation of thought that, if applied to ethics, will enable us to be more sensitive to the particulars of each moral situation. Based on this reading of Kant, an account of imaginative ethics is developed in order to bring the ethical praxis of doctors and nurses into sharper relief. The Hebraic and the Hellenic traditions of imagination are used in order to illuminate some of the experiences of ethical rounds. In conclusion, it is argued that imaginative ethics and principle-based ethics should be seen as complementary in order to endow a moral discourse with ethical authority. Kantian ethics will do the job if it is remembered that Kant suggested only a modest, negative role of principle-based deliberation.

Ethical considerations for the design and implementation of child injury prevention interventions: the example of delivering and installing safety equipment into the home.

Science.gov (United States)

Scholtes, Beatrice; Schröder-Bäck, Peter

2017-12-11

Public health ethics is a growing field of academic interest but ethical discussion of injury prevention seems to have received limited attention. Interventions that promise to be effective are not necessarily-without explicit justification-'good' and 'right' interventions in every sense. This paper explores public health ethics in the context of child injury prevention with the objective to initiate interdisciplinary dialogue on the ethics of child safety interventions. A framework of seven public health ethics principles (non-maleficence, health maximisation, beneficence, respect for autonomy, justice, efficiency and proportionality) were applied to an intervention to promote child safety in the home. Preventing child injury in the home is ethically challenging due to the requirement for the state to intervene in the private sphere. Non-maleficence and beneficence are difficult to judge within this intervention as these are likely to be highly dependent on the nature of intervention delivery, in particular, the quality of communication. Respect for autonomy is challenged by an intervention occurring in the home. The socioeconomic gradient in child injury risk is an important factor but a nuanced approach could help to avoid exacerbating inequalities or stigmatisation. Equally, a nuanced approach may be necessary to accommodate the principles of proportionality and efficiency within the local context. We conclude that this intervention is justifiable from an ethical perspective but that this type of reflection loop is helpful to identify the impact of interventions beyond effectiveness. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Peter Koslowski’s Ethics and Economics or Ethical Economy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rendtorff, Jacob Dahl

2016-01-01

This paper presents the concept of ethical economy (Wirtschaftsethik) and the relation between ethics and economics on the basis of the work of the German ethical economist Peter Koslowski. The concept of ethical economy includes three levels: micro, meso and macro levels; and it also deals...... with the philosophical analysis of the ethical foundations of the economy. After the discussion of these elements of the ethical economy, the paper presents some possible research topics for a research agenda about economic ethics or ethical economy....

How Should Ethical Theories Be Dealt with in Engineering Ethics?

Science.gov (United States)

Ohishi, Toshihiro

Contemporary engineering ethics scholars deal with contesting several ethical theories without criticizing them radically and try to use them to solve ethical problems. In this paper I first show that a conflict between ethical theories is not superficial, and pragmatic methods are adopted in engineering ethics. Second, I claim that the way to deal with contesting ethical theories in contemporary engineering ethics has an unacceptable side which does not accord with my argument that a conflict between ethical theories is not superficial and pragmatic methods are adopted in engineering ethics. Finally, I conclude that this inconsistency in contemporary engineering ethics should be corrected to make contemporary engineering ethics consistent.

Pharmacological cognitive enhancement—how neuroscientific research could advance ethical debate

Science.gov (United States)

Maslen, Hannah; Faulmüller, Nadira; Savulescu, Julian

2014-01-01

There are numerous ways people can improve their cognitive capacities: good nutrition and regular exercise can produce long-term improvements across many cognitive domains, whilst commonplace stimulants such as coffee temporarily boost levels of alertness and concentration. Effects like these have been well-documented in the medical literature and they raise few (if any) ethical issues. More recently, however, clinical research has shown that the off-label use of some pharmaceuticals can, under certain conditions, have modest cognition-improving effects. Substances such as methylphenidate and modafinil can improve capacities such as working memory and concentration in some healthy individuals. Unlike their more mundane predecessors, these methods of “cognitive enhancement” are thought to raise a multitude of ethical issues. This paper presents the six principal ethical issues raised in relation to pharmacological cognitive enhancers (PCEs)—issues such as whether: (1) the medical safety-profile of PCEs justifies restricting or permitting their elective or required use; (2) the enhanced mind can be an “authentic” mind; (3) individuals might be coerced into using PCEs; (4), there is a meaningful distinction to be made between the treatment vs. enhancement effect of the same PCE; (5) unequal access to PCEs would have implications for distributive justice; and (6) PCE use constitutes cheating in competitive contexts. In reviewing the six principal issues, the paper discusses how neuroscientific research might help advance the ethical debate. In particular, the paper presents new arguments about the contribution neuroscience could make to debates about justice, fairness, and cheating, ultimately concluding that neuroscientific research into “personalized enhancement” will be essential if policy is to be truly informed and ethical. We propose an “ethical agenda” for neuroscientific research into PCEs. PMID:24999320

Just War Theory v/s Unconventional Weapon. An Analysis from Ethical Moral and Legal Perspective

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Sindhu Vijaya Kumar

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Just war theory deals withthe justification of how and why wars are fought. Thejustification can be either theoretical or historical. The theoretical aspect is concerned with ethicallyjustifying war and the forms that warfare may or may not take. The historical aspect, or the “just wartradition,” deals with the historical body of rules or agreements that have applied in various warsacross the ages. For instance, international agreements such as the Geneva and Hague conventions arehistorical rules aimed at limiting certain kinds of warfare which lawyers may refer to in prosecutingtransgressors, but it is the role of ethics to examine these institutional agreements for theirphilosophical coherence as well as to inquire into whether aspects of the conventions ought to bechanged. The just war tradition may also consider the thoughts of various philosophers and lawyersthrough the ages and examine both their philosophical visions of war’s ethical limits (or absence ofand whether their thoughts have contributed to the body of conventions that have evolved to guidewar, especially nuclear warfare which is an unconventional weapon. The seriousness of suchprohibited weapon was a debatable issue not only in the contemporary law of armed conflict but, alsoin the ancient law of war. This paper shall try to evaluate the essence of just war theory in a newdimension interlinking it with ethics and moral value to judge the use of unconventional weapon andcondemn it as inhuman and against the theory of just war.

The problem of final storage of radioactive waste - ethical considerations of the goods and evils

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Korff, W.; Feldhaus, S.

1996-01-01

The handling of radioactive remains proves to be separate, by now increasingly dominating problem in the discussion about nuclear energy. The application of the practical and concrete-ethical methodology of deliberation on goods and evils to the problems of permanent disposal, which is systematically expounded in the text, was able to show the following: 1. In the judgement on permanent disposal of nuclear waste we have to do with a prcedural-ethical process of deliberation as well. A morally justifiable and therefore responsible handling of our options has to be carried out in context of the individual, social and ecological requirements of the day as a continuous process of optimisation. Everywhere findable, on principle orientated attitudes of refusal against deliberation don't constitute an adequate solution of the problem. 2. The problems of permanent disposal have to be considered in the all-embracing context of the problems of waste disposal, in that occasion the waste disposal form of reprocessing has to be included into deliberation apart from that one of interim diposal, which is normally placed before permanent disposal. 3. The issue of permanent disposal can be discussed only in the extensive context of nuclear energy use and the problems of its ethical legitimation. 4. The problems of social acceptance of the nuclear energy use, fixed today essentially to the issue of permanent disposal of radioactive remains, cannot be easily equated with the question for its ehtical justification. (orig.) [de

Predictions of Actions and Their Justifications in False-Belief Tasks: The Role of Executive Function

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Putko Adam

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The main objective of this study was to examine whether children’s ability to justify their action predictions in terms of mental states is related, in a similar way as the ability to predict actions, to such aspects of executive function (EF as executive control and working memory. An additional objective was to check whether the frequency of different types of justifications made by children in false-belief tasks is associated with aforementioned aspects of EF, as well as language. The study included 59 children aged 3-4 years. The ability to predict actions and to justify these predictions was measured with false-belief tasks. Luria’s hand-game was used to assess executive control, and the Counting and Labelling dual-task was used to assess working memory capacity. Language development was controlled using an embedded syntax test. It was found that executive control was a significant predictor of the children’s ability to justify their action predictions in terms of mental states, even when age and language were taken into account. Results also indicated a relationship between the type of justification in the false-belief task and language development. With the development of language children gradually cease to justify their action predictions in terms of current location, and they tend to construct irrelevant justifications before they begin to refer to beliefs. Data suggest that executive control, in contrast to language, is a factor which affects the development of the children’s ability to justify their action predictions only in its later phase, during a shift from irrelevant to correct justifications.

Ethics Management: How to Achieve Ethical Organizations and Management?

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Carita Lilian Snellman

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The last decades’ serious organizational scandals that mainly stem from corruption and conflicting interests but also from bribery, favoritism and other wrongdoings have ac-centuated the need for finding instruments for achieving more ethical organizations and management. Ethics management is particularly important in the public sector because public employees and holders of public office are responsible for increasing wellbeing and providing common good for all citizens. Only accountable management striving for integrity through ethical practices and decision making will guarantee ethical organiza-tional behavior. In spite of increasing research on ethics in general and ethics manage-ment in particular, increase in organizational scandals indicates that there is knowledge gap concerning ethical instruments that help to solve ethical problems. The aim of this paper is to shed light on ethical theories and instruments, and wrongdoings in public sec-tor organizations. The main questions are; why is there so much wrongdoing; how can it be reduced; and how can more ethical organization and management be achieved. This is a review paper aiming to provide a review of ethical theories and instruments and dis-cuss serious wrongdoings and the role of ethics in the public sector. The paper contrib-utes to the fields of management and organization, ethics, and public management.

Ethical issues in implementation research: a discussion of the problems in achieving informed consent

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Eccles Martin P

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Improved quality of care is a policy objective of health care systems around the world. Implementation research is the scientific study of methods to promote the systematic uptake of clinical research findings into routine clinical practice, and hence to reduce inappropriate care. It includes the study of influences on healthcare professionals' behaviour and methods to enable them to use research findings more effectively. Cluster randomized trials represent the optimal design for evaluating the effectiveness of implementation strategies. Various codes of medical ethics, such as the Nuremberg Code and the Declaration of Helsinki inform medical research, but their relevance to cluster randomised trials in implementation research is unclear. This paper discusses the applicability of various ethical codes to obtaining consent in cluster trials in implementation research. Discussion The appropriate application of biomedical codes to implementation research is not obvious. Discussion of the nature and practice of informed consent in implementation research cluster trials must consider the levels at which consent can be sought, and for what purpose it can be sought. The level at which an intervention is delivered can render the idea of patient level consent meaningless. Careful consideration of the ownership of information, and rights of access to and exploitation of data is required. For health care professionals and organizations, there is a balance between clinical freedom and responsibility to participate in research. Summary While ethical justification for clinical trials relies heavily on individual consent, for implementation research aspects of distributive justice, economics, and political philosophy underlie the debate. Societies may need to trade off decisions on the choice between individualized consent and valid implementation research. We suggest that social sciences codes could usefully inform the consideration of

THE ULTIMATE STATE CONCEPT APPLIED TO TUNNEL SUPPORT

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Mladen Hudec

2000-12-01

Full Text Available The most questionable are the values of pressures between rock and support resulting from common deformations on the contact area between rock and support. Therefore the modelling and design of the tunnel support is not reliable, if it is based on active rock pressure resulting from this common deformations. The inversion of the design procedure is proposed. Instead of the active extreme pressure of the rock on support, the influence of ultimate reaction of the support on the rock has to be analysed. This procedure can be performed using the ultimate load principle, as proposed by Eurocodc 7 (Geotechnies. Normally, the rock has the tendency to increase the common conver¬gence until the support reaches its ultimate state. So, loading of profile boundary with the ultimate possible reaction of the support is very plausible. The reactive support pressures have to be probable and itself in equilibrium. The ultimate reactive load has to be reduced by Euro-code safety factor for structural elements and applied on the rock with given properties, or alternatively (as proposed by Eurocode 7 the soil or rock properties have to be diminished and calculated with full ultimate support pressures. If the rock with given (or proposed pro¬perties and loaded with ultimate reactive pressures resulting from supposed support, satisfy its failure criterion, then is the compound system support-rock verificatcd. By this procedure, the number of relevant material properties is reduce to the primary stress ratio and the constants defining the failure criterion. The verification can be performed by any of numerical methods, but we prefer here used boundary elements method (the paper is published in Croatian.

Ethical Ideology and Ethical Judgments of Accounting Practitioners in Malaysia

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Suhaiza Ismail

2011-09-01

Full Text Available The paper intends to explore the ethical ideology and ethical judgments of accounting practitioners in Malaysia. The objectives of this study are twofold. First, the paper intends to examine the factors that contribute to the different ethical ideology among Malaysian accounting practitioners. Second, it aims to investigate the influence of demographic factors and ethical ideology on ethical judgments of accounting practitioners. The study used Forsyth’s (1980 Ethics Position Questionnaire instrument to examine the ethical ideology of the accountants and adopted ethics vignettes used by Emerson et al. (2007 to assess the ethical judgments of the respondents. From the statistical analysis, this study found that age and gender have a significant impact on ethical judgment but not on ethical ideology. In addition, idealism and relativism have a significant influence on ethical judgment, especially in a legally unethical situation.

Verification or Proof: Justification of Pythagoras' Theorem in Chinese Mathematics Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Rongjin

2005-01-01

This paper presents key findings of my research on the approaches to justification by investigating how a sample of teachers in Hong Kong and Shanghai taught the topic Pythagoras theorem. In this study, 8 Hong Kong videos taken from TIMSS 1999 Video Study and 11 Shanghai videos videotaped by the researcher comprised the database. It was found that…

The ethics of managing affective and emotional states to improve informed consent: autonomy, comprehension, and voluntariness.

Science.gov (United States)

Braude, Hillel; Kimmelman, Jonathan

2012-03-01

Over the past several decades the 'affective revolution' in cognitive psychology has emphasized the critical role affect and emotion play in human decision-making. Drawing on this affective literature, various commentators have recently proposed strategies for managing therapeutic expectation that use contextual, symbolic, or emotive interventions in the consent process to convey information or enhance comprehension. In this paper, we examine whether affective consent interventions that target affect and emotion can be reconciled with widely accepted standards for autonomous action. More specifically, the ethics of affective consent interventions is assessed in terms of key elements of autonomy, comprehension and voluntariness. While there may appear to be a moral obligation to manage the affective environment to ensure valid informed consent, in circumstances where volunteers may be prone to problematic therapeutic expectancy, this moral obligation needs to be weighed against the potential risks of human instrumentalization. At this point in time we do not have enough information to be able to justify clearly the programmatic manipulation of human subjects' affective states. The lack of knowledge about affective interventions requires corresponding caution in its ethical justification. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Ultimate disposal of radioactive wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roethemeyer, H.

1991-01-01

The activities developed by the Federal Institution of Physical Engineering PTB and by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) concentrated, among others, on work to implement ultimate storage facilities for radioactive wastes. The book illuminates this development from site designation to the preliminary evaluation of the Gorleben salt dome, to the preparation of planning documents proving that the Konrad ore mine is suitable for a repository. The paper shows the legal provisions involved; research and development tasks; collection of radioactive wastes ready for ultimate disposal; safety analysis in the commissioning and post-operational stages, and product control. The historical development of waste management in the Federal Republic of Germany and international cooperation in this area are outlined. (DG) [de

Theological reflections on the ethics of pain control among the terminally ill.

Science.gov (United States)

Purdy, W

1992-01-01

Explores the reality of pain thru explications of the theological notions of "justification by pain," "justification by death," and "justification by faith." Notes particularly the facilitating role of the hospital chaplain in the understanding of pain and its possible Christian meanings.

Teaching ethics to paediatrics residents: the centrality of the therapeutic alliance.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Holly A; McDonald, Erin L; Moon, Margaret; Hughes, Mark T; Carrese, Joseph A

2009-10-01

Previous research on ethical issues encountered by medical professionals in training and practice have presented the thematic content of the cases they encounter rather than the activities in which clinicians engage and in which they most often encounter ethical issues. We conducted a direct observation study of paediatrics residents and their preceptors seeing patients in an out-patient general paediatrics clinic. Our objectives were to describe the everyday ethics-related issues paediatrics residents encounter as they interact with patients. Our ultimate goal is to use this knowledge to enhance current efforts to teach ethics to paediatrics residents. The study team directly observed paediatrics residents discussing patients with their faculty preceptors (19 half-day sessions, 76 hours) in an out-patient general paediatrics clinic located in an urban academic medical centre. Each interaction between resident and preceptor about a single patient was considered a case for further analysis. A total of 247 cases were recorded. Forty-one of the cases were coded as having ethics-related content. A constant comparative method of qualitative data analysis revealed that residents were most likely to encounter ethical issues when engaged in the following activities: (i) maintaining a therapeutic alliance with the caregiver (e.g. the parent); (ii) prioritising patient or family needs; (iii) adjusting to the power embodied by the role of doctors, and (iv) distinguishing suboptimal care from abuse or neglect. In addition, our findings indicate that it is through their efforts to maintain the therapeutic alliance with the caregivers of their patients that residents engage in and integrate three processes: developing their medical knowledge; adhering to professional norms, and balancing the power inherent in the doctor's role with their responsibility to serve the patient's interests. Medical faculty tasked with teaching ethics to paediatrics residents can utilise the results

Combining Theory of Institutional Logics and Theory of Justification in Understanding Ambiguous Decision Making

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Westenholz, Ann

I propose to understand decision making by combining theory of institutional logics (Friedland; Thornton, Ocasio & Lounsbury) and theory of justification (Boltanski and Thévenot). These two theoretical approaches are different but, at the same time, deal with the socially constructed plurality...... companies have located part of their business in Denmark. Finally I conclude and discuss why theory of institutional logics needs theory of justification and vice versa....... of the world nesting a macro-meso-micro level analysis. My argument is that both theories may learn from each other and enrich the study of ambiguous decision making. In the paper I describe, compare and combine the two theoretical approaches. I then illustrate the combined approach by a case where Chinese...

A system justification view of sexual violence: legitimizing gender inequality and reduced moral outrage are connected to greater rape myth acceptance.

Science.gov (United States)

Chapleau, Kristine M; Oswald, Debra L

2014-01-01

Rape is a pervasive social problem that causes serious physical and psychological repercussions. Rape victims' recovery is often complicated by the public's failure to believe the victim and restore justice. This study applied system justification theory to examine whether the justification of gender inequality is related to moral outrage (an emotional precursor to corrective action) and rape myth acceptance; we also examined whether rape myth acceptance is associated with moral outrage at injustice. Results showed that gender-specific system justification correlated with less moral outrage at human suffering as well as greater rape myth acceptance. The relationships between these variables were similar for men and for women, a finding that suggests that rape myths are system justifying for women. When we controlled for gender-specific system justification, rape myth acceptance correlated with less moral outrage. Results are discussed in the context of how legitimizing ideologies reduce moral outrage at injustice and perpetuate a system of sexual violence.

Ethical Awareness and Ethical Orientation of Turkish Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Gökçe, Asiye Toker

2013-01-01

This study inquires ethical evaluation of teachers, investigating their moral reasoning to ethical decision making, in Turkey. Specifically three hypotheses were tested: Overall ethical awareness of teachers is high; Teachers will identify reasons for ethical evaluation related to philosophical values such as justice, deontology, utilitarianism,…

An ethics model to develop an ethical organisation

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Hendrik R. Lloyd

2010-11-01

Research purpose: The main aim of the paper is to analyse the impact of business ethics in the Eastern Cape Motor Industry Cluster (ECMIC and the different perceptions regarding such ethics. This is based on the main research question, namely, whether a business ethics model should be developed to assist in creating an ethical organisation. Motivation of the study: The motivation for this study is based on the question of whether there is a dedicated drive within the motor industry to establish an ethical organisation and, if such is the case, what benefits would accrue to the organisations in ECMIC. Research design, approach and method: An empirical study was conducted within ECMIC to test the proposed ethics intervention model. A questionnaire, as the main measuring instrument, was developed and 150 questionnaires were distributed. Statistical hypothesis testing was used, with a significance level set at 5%. The aim of the hypothesis testing was to test whether the percentage responses in certain categories were significantly higher than a pre-determined test-value. Main findings: The research results substantiate the fact that the majority of the surveyed organisations do not implement specific ethics interventions. Nevertheless, the majority of respondents acknowledge the importance of ethical behaviour in the organisation, especially with regard to their financial positions. Practical/managerial implications: From this study it became clear that the implementation of a code of ethics would create a platform for ethical behaviour in organisations. It is also concluded from this study that all organisations must strive towards creating an ethical organisation which would have long-term rewards for the organisation, especially from a financial perspective. Contribution/value-add: This study highlights the fact that although ethics and ethical behaviour in organisations are emphasised and receive wide-spread media coverage, not enough action is linked to this task

Ethical leadership, professional caregivers' well-being, and patients' perceptions of quality of care in oncology.

Science.gov (United States)

Gillet, Nicolas; Fouquereau, Evelyne; Coillot, Hélène; Bonnetain, Franck; Dupont, Sophie; Moret, Leïla; Anota, Amélie; Colombat, Philippe

2018-04-01

Although quality of care and caregivers' well-being are important issues in their own right, relatively few studies have examined both, especially in oncology. The present research thus investigated the relationship between job-related well-being and patients' perceptions of quality of care. More specifically, we examined the indirect effects of ethical leadership on patients' perceived quality of care through caregivers' well-being. A cross-sectional design was used. Professional caregivers (i.e., doctors, nurses, assistant nurses, and other members of the medical staff; n = 296) completed a self-report questionnaire to assess perceptions of ethical leadership and well-being, while patients (n = 333) competed a self-report questionnaire to assess their perceptions of quality of care. The study was conducted in 12 different oncology units located in France. Results revealed that ethical leadership was positively associated with professional caregivers' psychological well-being that in turn was positively associated with patients' perceptions of quality of care. Professional caregivers' well-being is a psychological mechanism through which ethical leadership relates to patients' perceptions of quality of care. Interventions to promote perceptions of ethical leadership behaviors and caregivers' mental health may thus be encouraged to ultimately enhance the quality of care in the oncology setting. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Four Roles of Ethical Theory in Clinical Ethics Consultation.

Science.gov (United States)

Magelssen, Morten; Pedersen, Reidar; Førde, Reidun

2016-09-01

When clinical ethics committee members discuss a complex ethical dilemma, what use do they have for normative ethical theories? Members without training in ethical theory may still contribute to a pointed and nuanced analysis. Nonetheless, the knowledge and use of ethical theories can play four important roles: aiding in the initial awareness and identification of the moral challenges, assisting in the analysis and argumentation, contributing to a sound process and dialogue, and inspiring an attitude of reflexivity. These four roles of ethical theory in clinical ethics consultation are described and their significance highlighted, while an example case is used as an illustration throughout.

What research ethics should learn from genomics and society research: lessons from the ELSI Congress of 2011.

Science.gov (United States)

Henderson, Gail E; Juengst, Eric T; King, Nancy M P; Kuczynski, Kristine; Michie, Marsha

2012-01-01

Research on the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of human genomics has devoted significant attention to the research ethics issues that arise from genomic science as it moves through the translational process. Given the prominence of these issues in today's debates over the state of research ethics overall, these studies are well positioned to contribute important data, contextual considerations, and policy arguments to the wider research ethics community's deliberations, and ultimately to develop a research ethics that can help guide biomedicine's future. In this essay, we illustrate this thesis through an analytic summary of the research presented at the 2011 ELSI Congress, an international meeting of genomics and society researchers. We identify three pivotal factors currently shaping genomic research, its clinical translation, and its societal implications: (1) the increasingly blurred boundary between research and treatment; (2) uncertainty--that is, the indefinite, indeterminate, and incomplete nature of much genomic information and the challenges that arise from making meaning and use of it; and (3) the role of negotiations between multiple scientific and non-scientific stakeholders in setting the priorities for and direction of biomedical research, as it is increasingly conducted "in the public square." © 2012 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.

Investigation Clinical Competence and Its Relationship with Professional Ethics and Spiritual Health in Nurses

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Elahe Ramezanzade Tabriz

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background and Objectives: Study of clinical competence in nursing helps determine the quality of health care delivered to patients. Given the priority of observance of principles over caretaking and necessity of spirituality existence at the core of health care provision, this study was conducted to investigate clinical competence and its relationship with professional ethics and spiritual health in nurses. Methods: In this cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational study, 281 nurses were enrolled by consensus sampling. Sampling was conducted from February, 2016 till June, 2016. The data were gathered by a demographics questionnaire, a self-assessment scale of clinical competence, a nursing ethics questionnaire, and a spiritual health questionnaire, and analyzed by descriptive statistics and t-test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, ANOVA, and linear regression analysis in SPSS 21. Results: The total scores for self-assessment scale of nurses' clinical competence, professional ethics, and spiritual health were moderate. In the light of the results of Spearman's correlation coefficient, there was a significant and positive correlation between clinical competence and spiritual health. Moreover, a significant positive correlation was observed between professional ethics and spiritual health but there was no correlation between professional ethics and clinical competence. Conclusion: Managers' and personnel's Knowledge about the level of nurses clinical competence, professional ethics, and spiritual health in teaching health care centers provides valuable information to develop in-service and efficacious education programs and ultimately to improve the quality of nursing services.

Are Business Ethics Ethical? Do company ethics live up to what they claim?

OpenAIRE

Berge-Venter, Maud-Ellen

2013-01-01

The following Master's thesis is an analysis of the terms used in both the ethical guidelines and values espoused by companies, weighed up against classical philosophical texts and normative ethical theories, as well as traditional business ethics.

The Ethical Dilemmas and Ethical Choices in Atonement

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

陈晶

2017-01-01

Atonement, as the representative work of British writer Ian McEwan, is of high educational significance. This article wil adopt Ethical Literary Criticism to analyze the ethical dilemmas and ethical choices of two characters in the novel: Briony and Robbie. By putting the characters into diversified ethical problems, the writer has strengthened the necessity of reflection and atonement in real life, and also the moral responsibilities one should bear. The analysis of characters' ethical problems can better highlight the writer's moral value.

The Contribution of Islamic Ethics Towards Ethical Accounting Practices

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Rochania Ayu Yunanda

2011-12-01

and also increase public confidence in the profession. However, the efforts to integrate ethical values in educational system will not work well if there are no moral commitments implanted in the individuals.  Islam with its divine values plays the notable role to embed cognitive ethical values. It emphasizes on the unity of God, the accountability to God and the concept of maslahah (public benefits to be the foundations of ethics. Incorporating Islamic ethics into the system will be a significant contribution towards generating ethical accounting education. This paper attempts to elucidate how the Islamic ethics contribute its role towards ethical accountants as the products of accounting education.

Chinese Children's Justifications for Sharing Resources: Why Do We Have to Share?

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Mun

2011-01-01

Gilligan argued that Kohlberg's justice-based stage theory of morality reflects only one type of morality and does not consider people's tendency to use care-based moral judgements. This study examines Chinese children's tendency to use justice-based and care-based justifications for moral reasoning. Children's attitudes to conforming to the…

Economic Science and Postmodernism: Ethics Return

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Cosmin MARINESCU

2011-05-01

Full Text Available The ideas have a fundamental importance for world’s destiny. Within the human civilization world of thinking, the scientific ideas represent the essence of logical structure of human mind and the truths about the human action and society that can be discovered by man. In this approach, I will argue why the scholar honest-mindedness must be his principle in life. In world’s vision about post-modernity, the only faith today is that everything is relative or otherwise stated that there is no ultimate criterion for making absolute hierarchies in order to distinguish truth from false. Thus has gradually appeared the less desired idea that ethical standards represent simple social conventions, fact that would impede the possibility of ethically validating a multitude of “alternative institutional arrangements”, including the ones contradictory with human nature and individual freedom. This study represents a plea for the virtues of logic and faith in truth and justice. Moreover, the original signification of the word “science” – scientia – is correct knowledge. Bearing this clarification in mind, the researchers would maybe become more responsible in calling any approach as being a “scientific” one and implicitly they would become more exigent with their own creations.

A Calvinist account of nursing ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Cusveller, Bart

2013-11-01

A relatively small but intellectually robust strand in the Christian religion is the Reformed tradition. Especially, its Calvinist sensibilities inform this Protestant stance towards human culture in general and vocations in particular. Correspondingly, there are some small but robust contributions to academic discourse in nursing ethics. So far there has been no attempt to bring those together as a distinct approach. This article suggests such a Reformed Christian, especially Calvinist, account of nursing ethics. Central to the Reformed perspective is the notion that God is sovereign over all of creation and culture and hence that there can be no religiously or morally neutral area in human life. Consequently, nursing is not seen as professional to the extent it is based on research evidence or theoretical models, but to the extent it serves the ultimate purpose of the practice of care. In the Reformed view, this purpose is fostering the well-being of human beings in need as intrinsically valuable. Nurses are professionals who accept this responsibility, that is, the whole of expectations holding for personal qualities, conduct and outcomes, required to serve the purpose of care. As this is a moral purpose, succeeding or failing to live up to these expectations is the source of moral issues in nursing.

Heritage ethics: Toward a thicker account of nursing ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Fowler, Marsha D

2016-02-01

The key to understanding the moral identity of modern nursing and the distinctiveness of nursing ethics resides in a deeper examination of the extensive nursing ethics literature and history from the late 1800s to the mid 1960s, that is, prior to the "bioethics revolution". There is a distinctive nursing ethics, but one that falls outside both biomedical and bioethics and is larger than either. Were, there a greater corpus of research on nursing's heritage ethics it would decidedly recondition the entire argument about a distinctive nursing ethics. It would also provide a thicker account of nursing ethics than has been afforded thus far. Such research is dependent upon identifying, locating, accessing and, more importantly, sharing these resources. A number of important heritage ethics sources are identified so that researchers might better locate them. In addition, a bibliography of heritage ethics textbooks and a transcript of the earliest known journal article on nursing ethics in the US are provided. © The Author(s) 2015.

Research ethics in dissertations: ethical issues and complexity of reasoning.

Science.gov (United States)

Kjellström, S; Ross, S N; Fridlund, B

2010-07-01

Conducting ethically sound research is a fundamental principle of scientific inquiry. Recent research has indicated that ethical concerns are insufficiently dealt with in dissertations. To examine which research ethical topics were addressed and how these were presented in terms of complexity of reasoning in Swedish nurses' dissertations. Analyses of ethical content and complexity of ethical reasoning were performed on 64 Swedish nurses' PhD dissertations dated 2007. A total of seven ethical topics were identified: ethical approval (94% of the dissertations), information and informed consent (86%), confidentiality (67%), ethical aspects of methods (61%), use of ethical principles and regulations (39%), rationale for the study (20%) and fair participant selection (14%). Four of those of topics were most frequently addressed: the majority of dissertations (72%) included 3-5 issues. While many ethical concerns, by their nature, involve systematic concepts or metasystematic principles, ethical reasoning scored predominantly at lesser levels of complexity: abstract (6% of the dissertations), formal (84%) and systematic (10%). Research ethics are inadequately covered in most dissertations by nurses in Sweden. Important ethical concerns are missing, and the complexity of reasoning on ethical principles, motives and implications is insufficient. This is partly due to traditions and norms that discount ethical concerns but is probably also a reflection of the ability of PhD students and supervisors to handle complexity in general. It is suggested that the importance of ethical considerations should be emphasised in graduate and post-graduate studies and that individuals with capacity to deal with systematic and metasystematic concepts are recruited to senior research positions.

Teaching Business Ethics or Teaching Business Ethically?

Science.gov (United States)

Stablein, Ralph

2003-01-01

Notes that one of the most important contexts for ethical decision-making is the nature and operation of "contemporary capitalisms." Suggests that rather than issuing a call for teaching business ethics, the author emphasizes the need for more ethical business teaching. (SG)

Ethics and Ethical Theories from an Islamic Perspective

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AL-HASAN AL-AIDAROS

2013-12-01

Full Text Available With the collapse of many organizations, many researchers are increasingly paying attention to such phenomenon. But ethical issues are not always clear cut; there are many grey areas that need to be threaded with care by organizations. To determine whether an action or decision is ethically carried out, ethical theories, developed mainly by Western scholars, are the current theoretical framework organizations have at their disposal. Theories such as relativism, utilitarianism, egoism, deontology, the divine command theory, and the virtue ethics, are all products of Western understanding of what ethics are and how they are applicable to help one’s decision making process. Despite their utility, this paper intends to argue that the Western concepts and understanding of what ethics are limited and incomprehensive in explaining what is right and what is wrong. In its place, this paper argues that to understand the concepts of ethics that can extend beyond time and space. It has to be analysed from an Islamic perspective. Toward this purpose, this paper will compare and contrast between Islamic and Western perspectives of ethics, and highlight the main weaknesses and limitations of the former. Then, an argument on why Islam can provide the best understanding of ethics will be made.

Peter Koslowski’s Ethics and Economics or Ethical Economy: A Framework for a research agenda in business ethics

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Jacob Dahl Rendtorff

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the concept of ethical economy (Wirtschaftsethik and the relation between ethics and economics on the basis of the work of the German ethical economist Peter Koslowski. The concept of ethical economy includes three levels: micro, meso and macro levels; and it also deals with the philosophical analysis of the ethical foundations of the economy. After the discussion of these elements of the ethical economy, the paper presents some possible research topics for a research agenda about economic ethics or ethical economy.

Clinical ethics and values: how do norms evolve from practice?

Science.gov (United States)

Spranzi, Marta

2013-02-01

Bioethics laws in France have just undergone a revision process. The bioethics debate is often cast in terms of ethical principles and norms resisting emerging social and technological practices. This leads to the expression of confrontational attitudes based on widely differing interpretations of the same principles and values, and ultimately results in a deadlock. In this paper I would like to argue that focusing on values, as opposed to norms and principles, provides an interesting perspective on the evolution of norms. As Joseph Raz has convincingly argued, "life-building" values and practices are closely intertwined. Precisely because values have a more indeterminate meaning than norms, they can be cited as reasons for action by concerned stakeholders, and thus can help us understand how controversial practices, e.g. surrogate motherhood, can be justified. Finally, norms evolve when the interpretations of the relevant values shift and cause a change in the presumptions implicit in the norms. Thus, norms are not a prerequisite of the ethical solution of practical dilemmas, but rather the outcome of the decision-making process itself. Struggling to reach the right decision in controversial clinical ethics situations indirectly causes social and moral values to change and principles to be understood differently.

The interaction of economic and pedagogical ideals in the context of workplace learning in Germany: a framework for empirical research - inspired by business ethics

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Tina Röbel

2016-10-01

Full Text Available As an effect of marketisation, the importance of workplace learning in Germany has increased. The article follows up on the long-standing discourse around the question of how economic and pedagogical ideals interact in this context. In order to develop a theoretical framework for empirical research, three major positions of the discipline of business ethics are introduced. Business ethics in more abstract ways deals with the very same question, namely how do ideas such as profit orientation interact with other norms and values? The new perspectives show that the discourse has been hitherto based on a specific understanding of economy. In order to derive an empirical answer to the research question, the question is re-formulated as follows: Which values are inherent in the decisions taken? Consequently, it suggests using the concept of "rationalities of justification" for empirical research. The article shows how this concept can be applied by conducting a test run.

The Illusion of Argument Justification

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, Matthew; Keil, Frank

2013-01-01

Argumentation is an important way to reach new understanding. Strongly caring about an issue, which is often evident when dealing with controversial issues, has been shown to lead to biases in argumentation. We suggest that people are not well calibrated in assessing their ability to justify a position through argumentation, an effect we call the illusion of argument justification. Furthermore we find that caring about the issue further clouds this introspection. We first show this illusion by measuring the difference between ratings before and after producing an argument for one’s own position. The strength of the illusion is predicted by the strength of care for a given issue (Study 1). The tacit influences of framing and priming do not override the effects of emotional investment in a topic (Study 2). However, explicitly considering counterarguments removes the effect of care when initially assessing the ability to justify a position (Study 3). Finally, we consider our findings in light of other recent research and discuss the potential benefits of group reasoning. PMID:23506085

(The Ethics of) Teaching Science and Ethics: A Collaborative Proposal.

Science.gov (United States)

Kabasenche, William P

2014-12-01

I offer a normative argument for a collaborative approach to teaching ethical issues in the sciences. Teaching science ethics requires expertise in at least two knowledge domains-the relevant science(s) and philosophical ethics. Accomplishing the aims of ethics education, while ensuring that science ethics discussions remain grounded in the best empirical science, can generally best be done through collaboration between a scientist and an ethicist. Ethics as a discipline is in danger of being misrepresented or distorted if presented by someone who lacks appropriate disciplinary training and experience. While there are exceptions, I take philosophy to be the most appropriate disciplinary domain in which to gain training in ethics teaching. Science students, who must be prepared to engage with many science ethics issues, are poorly served if their education includes a misrepresentation of ethics or specific issues. Students are less well prepared to engage specific issues in science ethics if they lack an appreciation of the resources the discipline of ethics provides. My collaborative proposal looks at a variety of ways scientists and ethicists might collaborate in the classroom to foster good science ethics education.

(The Ethics of Teaching Science and Ethics: A Collaborative Proposal

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William P. Kabasenche

2014-10-01

Full Text Available I offer a normative argument for a collaborative approach to teaching ethical issues in the sciences. Teaching science ethics requires expertise in at least two knowledge domains—the relevant science(s and philosophical ethics. Accomplishing the aims of ethics education, while ensuring that science ethics discussions remain grounded in the best empirical science, can generally best be done through collaboration between a scientist and an ethicist. Ethics as a discipline is in danger of being misrepresented or distorted if presented by someone who lacks appropriate disciplinary training and experience. While there are exceptions, I take philosophy to be the most appropriate disciplinary domain in which to gain training in ethics teaching. Science students, who must be prepared to engage with many science ethics issues, are poorly served if their education includes a misrepresentation of ethics or specific issues. Students are less well prepared to engage specific issues in science ethics if they lack an appreciation of the resources the discipline of ethics provides. My collaborative proposal looks at a variety of ways scientists and ethicists might collaborate in the classroom to foster good science ethics education.

Behavioral Ethics and Teaching Ethical Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Drumwright, Minette; Prentice, Robert; Biasucci, Cara

2015-01-01

Business education often renders students less likely to act ethically. An infusion of liberal learning in the form of behavioral ethics could improve this situation by prompting students to develop higher levels of professionalism that encompass ethics, social responsibility, self-critical reflection, and personal accountability. More…

Uncertainty and equipoise: at interplay between epistemology, decision making and ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Djulbegovic, Benjamin

2011-10-01

In recent years, various authors have proposed that the concept of equipoise be abandoned because it conflates the practice of clinical care with clinical research. At the same time, the equipoise opponents acknowledge the necessity of clinical research if there are unresolved uncertainties about the effects of proposed healthcare interventions. As equipoise represents just 1 measure of uncertainty, proposals to abandon equipoise while maintaining a requirement for addressing uncertainties are contradictory and ultimately not valid. As acknowledgment and articulation of uncertainties represent key scientific and moral requirements for human experimentation, the concept of equipoise remains the most useful framework to link the theory of human experimentation with the theory of rational choice. In this article, I show how uncertainty (equipoise) is at the intersection between epistemology, decision making and ethics of clinical research. In particular, I show how our formulation of responses to uncertainties of hoped-for benefits and unknown harms of testing is a function of the way humans cognitively process information. This approach is based on the view that considerations of ethics and rationality cannot be separated. I analyze the response to uncertainties as it relates to the dual-processing theory, which postulates that rational approach to (clinical research) decision making depends both on analytical, deliberative processes embodied in scientific method (system II), and good human intuition (system I). Ultimately, our choices can only become wiser if we understand a close and intertwined relationship between irreducible uncertainty, inevitable errors and unavoidable injustice.

Expertise, Ethics Expertise, and Clinical Ethics Consultation: Achieving Terminological Clarity

Science.gov (United States)

Iltis, Ana S.; Sheehan, Mark

2016-01-01

The language of ethics expertise has become particularly important in bioethics in light of efforts to establish the value of the clinical ethics consultation (CEC), to specify who is qualified to function as a clinical ethics consultant, and to characterize how one should evaluate whether or not a person is so qualified. Supporters and skeptics about the possibility of ethics expertise use the language of ethics expertise in ways that reflect competing views about what ethics expertise entails. We argue for clarity in understanding the nature of expertise and ethics expertise. To be an ethics expert, we argue, is to be an expert in knowing what ought to be done. Any attempt to articulate expertise with respect to knowing what ought to be done must include an account of ethics that specifies the nature of moral truth and the means by which we access this truth or a theoretical account of ethics such that expertise in another domain is linked to knowing or being better at judging what ought to be done and the standards by which this “knowing” or “being better at judging” is determined. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our analysis for the literature on ethics expertise in CEC. We do think that there are clear domains in which a clinical ethics consultant might be expert but we are skeptical about the possibility that this includes ethics expertise. Clinical ethics consultants should not be referred to as ethics experts. PMID:27256848

Large ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Chambers, David W

2008-01-01

This essay presents an alternative to the traditional view that ethics means judging individual behavior against standards of right and wrong. Instead, ethics is understood as creating ethical communities through the promises we make to each other. The "aim" of ethics is to demonstrate in our own behavior a credible willingness to work to create a mutually better world. The "game" of ethics then becomes searching for strategies that overlap with others' strategies so that we are all better for intending to act on a basis of reciprocal trust. This is a difficult process because we have partial, simultaneous, shifting, and inconsistent views of the world. But despite the reality that we each "frame" ethics in personal terms, it is still possible to create sufficient common understanding to prosper together. Large ethics does not make it a prerequisite for moral behavior that everyone adheres to a universally agreed set of ethical principles; all that is necessary is sufficient overlap in commitment to searching for better alternatives.

Perspectives on Applied Ethics

OpenAIRE

2007-01-01

Applied ethics is a growing, interdisciplinary field dealing with ethical problems in different areas of society. It includes for instance social and political ethics, computer ethics, medical ethics, bioethics, envi-ronmental ethics, business ethics, and it also relates to different forms of professional ethics. From the perspective of ethics, applied ethics is a specialisation in one area of ethics. From the perspective of social practice applying eth-ics is to focus on ethical aspects and ...

Inducing Attitude Change toward Online Gaming among Adolescent Players Based on Dissonance Theory: The Role of Threats and Justification of Effort

Science.gov (United States)

Wan, Chin-Sheng; Chiou, Wen-Bin

2010-01-01

The negative impact of online gaming on adolescents has received much attention. The question of how to reduce their pathological use of online gaming is a critical issue. Based on the concept of external justification in dissonance theory, this experimental study aimed to examine whether severity of threat and justification of effort would impact…

Ultimate fate of constrained voters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vazquez, F; Redner, S

2004-01-01

We examine the ultimate fate of individual opinions in a socially interacting population of leftists, centrists and rightists. In an elemental interaction between agents, a centrist and a leftist can both become centrists or both become leftists with equal rates (and similarly for a centrist and a rightist). However leftists and rightists do not interact. This interaction step between pairs of agents is applied repeatedly until the system can no longer evolve. In the mean-field limit, we determine the exact probability that the system reaches consensus (either leftist, rightist or centrist) or a frozen mixture of leftists and rightists as a function of the initial composition of the population. We also determine the mean time until the final state is reached. Some implications of our results for the ultimate fate in a limit of the Axelrod model are discussed

Ultimate fate of constrained voters

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vazquez, F [Department of Physics, Center for BioDynamics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215 (United States); Redner, S [Department of Physics, Center for Polymer Studies, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215 (United States)

2004-09-03

We examine the ultimate fate of individual opinions in a socially interacting population of leftists, centrists and rightists. In an elemental interaction between agents, a centrist and a leftist can both become centrists or both become leftists with equal rates (and similarly for a centrist and a rightist). However leftists and rightists do not interact. This interaction step between pairs of agents is applied repeatedly until the system can no longer evolve. In the mean-field limit, we determine the exact probability that the system reaches consensus (either leftist, rightist or centrist) or a frozen mixture of leftists and rightists as a function of the initial composition of the population. We also determine the mean time until the final state is reached. Some implications of our results for the ultimate fate in a limit of the Axelrod model are discussed.

A Bayesian Justification for Random Sampling in Sample Survey

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Glen Meeden

2012-07-01

Full Text Available In the usual Bayesian approach to survey sampling the sampling design, plays a minimal role, at best. Although a close relationship between exchangeable prior distributions and simple random sampling has been noted; how to formally integrate simple random sampling into the Bayesian paradigm is not clear. Recently it has been argued that the sampling design can be thought of as part of a Bayesian's prior distribution. We will show here that under this scenario simple random sample can be given a Bayesian justification in survey sampling.

How to challenge a culturalization of human existence? Promoting interculturalism and ethical thinking in education

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Frédérique Brossard Børhaug

2016-04-01

fundamental uniqueness of each subject, defined as both a concrete and irreplaceable human being. Although Levinasian ethics is demanding and does not provide any concrete guidance to educators, it adds a necessary dimension of definition and justification to our responsibility towards the other beyond any categorization. Consequently, a pedagogy of ethical disruption and the event of ethical subjectivity is made possible through the exploration of intercultural education.

The Idea of a Socially Responsible Global Citizen and its Ethical and Philosophical Basis

OpenAIRE

Isao, Takagi

2012-01-01

An idea of a socially responsible global citizen is required to the emerging global community in order to make it with diversity, sustainability, prosperity, equity and justice. The ethical basis and qualities of a socially responsible global citizen could be provided through introducing some ideas and philosophy consisting of responsible well-being by R. Chambers and philosophy of value creation, global citizenship and creative coexistence by D. Ikeda. Ultimately a comprehensive framework fo...

Integrating ethical and technical considerations in the energy debate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pickering, G.W.

1980-01-01

A study being carried out by the author on analyzing and integrating ethical and technical considerations in formulating an energy policy for the United States, with special emphasis on nuclear issues, is reviewed. Beginning with an overview of the historical development of the American nuclear program and the emergence of an organized politcal opposition to that program, seven outstanding issues are identified: institutional adequacy, radiation, reactor safety, waste disposal, economics and reliability, international consequences, and alternative energy sources, and an attempt is made to identify the range of dispute in relation to each. A framework is proposed for analyzing these issues by introducing guidelines for defining a social justice problem. Suggestions are made about how to get morally serious about such issues, and this framework is applied to four issues: radiation, reactor safety, waste disposal, and institutional adequacy. Ultimately it is a political choice whether or not to include nuclear power in a nations's energy policy. It is important, however, that such choices be made using the best technical and ethical assessments of the consequences. (LL)

Scepticism about the virtue ethics approach to nursing ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Holland, Stephen

2010-07-01

Nursing ethics centres on how nurses ought to respond to the moral situations that arise in their professional contexts. Nursing ethicists invoke normative approaches from moral philosophy. Specifically, it is increasingly common for nursing ethicists to apply virtue ethics to moral problems encountered by nurses. The point of this article is to argue for scepticism about this approach. First, the research question is motivated by showing that requirements on nurses such as to be kind, do not suffice to establish virtue ethics in nursing because normative rivals (such as utilitarians) can say as much; and the teleology distinctive of virtue ethics does not transpose to a professional context, such as nursing. Next, scepticism is argued for by responding to various attempts to secure a role for virtue ethics in nursing. The upshot is that virtue ethics is best left where it belongs - in personal moral life, not professional ethics - and nursing ethics is best done by taking other approaches.

Code of ethics: principles for ethical leadership.

Science.gov (United States)

Flite, Cathy A; Harman, Laurinda B

2013-01-01

The code of ethics for a professional association incorporates values, principles, and professional standards. A review and comparative analysis of a 1934 pledge and codes of ethics from 1957, 1977, 1988, 1998, 2004, and 2011 for a health information management association was conducted. Highlights of some changes in the healthcare delivery system are identified as a general context for the codes of ethics. The codes of ethics are examined in terms of professional values and changes in the language used to express the principles of the various codes.

Business Ethics

OpenAIRE

Duong, Thi

2016-01-01

The goal of this paper is to present examples of business ethics issues. What is business ethics, things concerned in this field are and why it is needed and important when doing business? The concept of business ethics has connotations to provision, rules and standards in directing the behavior of actors in the business. Business ethics involves compliance with the law, the implementation of ethical responsibilities of a business, the protection of the rights of those who are related to the ...

Ultimate Lateral Capacity of Rigid Pile in c- φ Soil

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wei-min

2018-03-01

To date no analytical solution of the pile ultimate lateral capacity for the general c- φ soil has been obtained. In the present study, a new dimensionless embedded ratio was proposed and the analytical solutions of ultimate lateral capacity and rotation center of rigid pile in c- φ soils were obtained. The results showed that both the dimensionless ultimate lateral capacity and dimensionless rotation center were the univariate functions of the embedded ratio. Also, the ultimate lateral capacity in the c- φ soil was the combination of the ultimate lateral capacity ( f c ) in the clay, and the ultimate lateral capacity ( f φ ) in the sand. Therefore, the Broms chart for clay, solution for clay ( φ=0) put forward by Poulos and Davis, solution for sand ( c=0) obtained by Petrasovits and Awad, and Kondner's ultimate bending moment were all proven to be the special cases of the general solution in the present study. A comparison of the field and laboratory tests in 93 cases showed that the average ratios of the theoretical values to the experimental value ranged from 0.85 to 1.15. Also, the theoretical values displayed a good agreement with the test values.

A 'good' ethical review: audit and professionalism in research ethics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Douglas-Jones, Rachel

2015-01-01

How does one conduct, measure and record a ‘good’ ethical review of biomedical research? To what extent do ethics committees invoke professionalism in researchers and in themselves, and to what extent do they see competence as adherence to a set of standard operating procedures for ethical review......? Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with the Forum of Ethics Review Committees of Asia and the Pacific (FERCAP), a capacity-building NGO that runs ethics committee trainings and reviews in the Asia Pacific region, I develop an analysis of ethical review and its effects. I focus on a ‘second-order audit’ run...... readings of ‘ethics’. I begin and end with a reflection on the ethical effects of a measurement practice that takes ethics itself as its object....

Chinese insurance agents in "bad barrels": a multilevel analysis of the relationship between ethical leadership, ethical climate and business ethical sensitivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Na; Zhang, Jian

2016-01-01

The moral hazards and poor public image of the insurance industry, arising from insurance agents' unethical behavior, affect both the normal operation of an insurance company and decrease applicants' confidence in the company. Contrarily, these scandals may demonstrate that the organizations were "bad barrels" in which insurance agents' unethical decisions were supported or encouraged by the organization's leadership or climate. The present study brings two organization-level factors (ethical leadership and ethical climate) together and explores the role of ethical climate on the relationship between the ethical leadership and business ethical sensitivity of Chinese insurance agents. Through the multilevel analysis of 502 insurance agents from 56 organizations, it is found that organizational ethical leadership is positively related to the organizational ethical climate; organizational ethical climate is positively related to business ethical sensitivity, and organizational ethical climate fully mediates the relationship between organizational ethical leadership and business ethical sensitivity. Organizational ethical climate plays a completely mediating role in the relationship between organizational ethical leadership and business ethical sensitivity. The integrated model of ethical leadership, ethical climate and business ethical sensitivity makes several contributions to ethics theory, research and management.

Ultimate Educational Aims, Overridingness, and Personal Well-Being

Science.gov (United States)

Haji, Ishtiyaque; Cuypers, Stefaan E.

2011-01-01

Discussion regarding education's aims, especially its ultimate aims, is a key topic in the philosophy of education. These aims or values play a pivotal role in regulating and structuring moral and other types of normative education. We outline two plausible strategies to identify and justify education's ultimate aims. The first associates these…

Premortem interventions in dying children to optimise organ donation: an ethical analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Brierley, Joe; Shaw, David

2016-07-01

A range of interventions in dying patients can improve both the possibility of successful organ donation and the likely long-term success of transplantation. The ethical and legal issues surrounding such interventions, which most frequently occur in the context of donation after circulatory determination of death, are complex, controversial and many remain unresolved. This is true with adults, but even more so with children, where the issue of organ donation and premortem interventions to facilitate it, are highly sensitive. Essentially, such interventions are being undertaken in dying children who cannot medically benefit from them, though arguments have been advanced that becoming a donor might be in a child's extended best interest. However, certain interventions carry a potential risk, although small, of direct harm and of course overall objections to child donation after circulatory determination of death per se are still expressed in the literature. But, unlike the case in critically ill adults, those giving permission for such interventions are normally able to fully participate in decision-making, and indeed to consent, to both donation and premortem interventions. We review the issue of the use of premortem interventions in dying children to facilitate organ donation, including decision-making and ethical justification. Individual interventions are then considered, including an ethical analyse of their use. Finally, we recommend an approach using a combination of welfare checklist strategy, coupled with the establishment of an agreed zone of parental discretion about individual interventions which might be used in dying children to increase the possibility of successful organ donation. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Research Ethics in Behavioral Interventions Among Special Populations: Lessons From the Peer Approaches to Lupus Self-Management Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Faith, Trevor D; Egede, Leonard; Williams, Edith M

2018-02-01

Research involving a homogenous cohort of participants belonging to a special population must make considerations to recruit and protect the subjects. This study analyses the ethical considerations made in the peer approaches to lupus self-management project which pilot tested a peer mentoring intervention for African American women with systemic lupus erythematosus. Considerations made at the outset of the project are described and their justifications and reasoning are given. Through analysis of feedback from a postintervention focus group and mentors' logs, implications on program outcomes and participant satisfaction are discussed. Feedback indicated the importance of recruiting and training capable mentors, consistent contact from study staff to avert adverse events and avert fear or mistrust and careful consideration that must go into the pairing of mentors and mentees. Participant feedback also indicated that sensitive topics must be addressed carefully to prevent distress and dissatisfaction. Applying the lessons learned from this work as well as the considerations that proved successful may improve the contextualization and ethical conduct of behavioral interventions in special populations resulting in improved tailoring and acceptability toward historically underserved individuals. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Gerwirth's ethical rationalism and abortion: a response.

Science.gov (United States)

Jun, N

2000-01-01

In the preface to his seminal work, Reason and Morality (1978), Alan Gerwith writes: "The most important and difficult problem of philosophical ethics is whether a substantial moral principle can be rationally justified." After summarizing his methodology, I demonstrate that (1) Gerwith's attempt to quantify personhood is unrealistic; (2) that his position on abortion rests on the unintelligible notion of "comparable conflict" between mother and unborn; and (3) that he implicitly assumes that personhood is naturally, and not functionally, defined--thereby contradicting himself. Ultimately, I outline an alternative view of personhood, one which avoids the criticism to which Gerwith's theory is particularly susceptible--namely, that personhood is a natural component of human beings from the start, rather than a gradually acquired trait.

[Discussion forum on medical ethics. A1. Basic forms in ethics].

Science.gov (United States)

Löw, R

1990-05-01

Medical ethics should not be subsumed under the classical types of ethical reasoning (e.g. Aristotle, Kant) nor the modern ethical versions of utilitarianism, deontology or ethics of discourse. All of them may contribute to medical ethics; but these should be goaled by general ethics in the meaning of how to lead a senseful life in its whole.

[The ethics of principles and ethics of responsibility].

Science.gov (United States)

Cembrani, Fabio

2016-01-01

In his brief comment, the author speculates if ethics in health-care relationship it still has a practical sense.The essay points out the difference between principles ethics and ethics of responsibility, supporting the latter and try to highlight its constitutive dimensions.

Christian ethic of love and Hindu ethic of dharma: comparative analysis

OpenAIRE

Pavenkov Oleg Vladimirovich

2014-01-01

This article is devoted to comparative analysis of two ethic systems: Hindu ethic of dharma and Christian ethic of love. If Christian ethic is the ethic of love, love is in the center of Christian moral values, then Hindu ethic is an example of ethic of law. The moral behavior of gods and humans is determined by Karma and cycle of samsara, which is impossible in Christianity. However forgiveness, self-restraint, non-stealing, purity are common moral obligations for Christians and Hindus.

Nigerian Building Professionals’ Ethical Ideology and Perceived Ethical Judgement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Oko Ameh

2010-10-01

Full Text Available In recent years, Nigeria is often cited in the international media in connection with corruption and other unethical practices. The professionals in the Nigerian building industry are not immune from the national trend in ethical erosion. Moral philosophy or ethical ideology has been used to explain individuals’ reasoning about moral issues and consequent behaviour. This study examines building industry professionals’ ethical ideologies with a view to understanding their ethical behaviour in professional practice.  In carrying out this investigation, building professionals in clients’ organisations, contracting and consultancy organisations within the industry were asked to respond to the Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ designed by Forsyth in order to determine their idealism and relativism level. Subsequently, they were classified into one of four groups, representing different ethical ideologies. The result indicates that the dominant ethical ideology of building industry professionals is situationism. The study predicts that the attitude of building industry professionals in practice, given the current socio-political and economic situation of Nigeria would possibly be unethical because of the extreme influence situational factors have on their behaviour. This finding is a bold step and necessary benchmark for resolving ethical issues within the industry and should be of interest to policy makers. It is also useful for intra professional ethical comparison.

Pharmacological cognitive enhancement – how future neuroscientific research could advance ethical debate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hannah eMaslen

2014-06-01

Full Text Available There are numerous ways people can improve their cognitive capacities: good nutrition and regular exercise can produce long-term improvements across many cognitive domains, whilst commonplace stimulants such as coffee temporarily boost levels of alertness and concentration. Effects like these have been well-documented in the medical literature and they raise few (if any ethical issues. More recently, however, clinical research has shown that the off-label use of some pharmaceuticals can, under certain conditions, have modest cognition-improving effects. Substances such as methylphenidate and modafinil can improve capacities such as working memory and concentration in some healthy individuals. Unlike their more mundane predecessors, these methods of ‘cognitive enhancement’ are thought to raise a multitude of ethical issues. This paper presents the six principal ethical issues raised in relation to pharmacological cognitive enhancers (PCEs – issues such as whether: (1 the medical safety-profile of PCEs justifies restricting or permitting their elective or required use; (2 the enhanced mind can be an ‘authentic’ mind; (3 individuals might be coerced into using PCEs; (4, there is a meaningful distinction to be made between the treatment versus enhancement effect of the same PCE; (5 unequal access to PCEs would have implications for distributive justice; and (6 PCE use constitutes cheating in competitive contexts. In reviewing the six principal issues, the paper discusses how future neuroscientific research might help advance the ethical debate. In particular, the paper presents new arguments about the contribution neuroscience could make to debates about justice, fairness and cheating, ultimately concluding that neuroscientific research into ‘personalised enhancement’ will be essential if policy is to be truly informed and ethical. We propose an ‘ethical agenda’ for neuroscientific research into PCEs.

Furthering the sceptical case against virtue ethics in nursing ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Holland, Stephen

2012-10-01

In a recent article in this journal I presented a sceptical argument about the current prominence of virtue ethics in nursing ethics. Daniel Putman has responded with a defence of the relevance of virtue in nursing. The present article continues this discussion by clarifying, defending, and expanding the sceptical argument. I start by emphasizing some features of the sceptical case, including assumptions about the nature of sceptical arguments, and about the character of both virtue ethics and nursing ethics. Then I respond to objections of Putman's such as that, according to virtue ethics, virtue is relevant to the whole of a human life, including one's behaviour in a professional context; and that eudaimonia should be central in explaining and motivating a nurse's decision to enter the profession. Having argued that these objections are not compelling, I go on to discuss an interesting recent attempt to reassert the role of virtue ethics in the ethics of professions, including nursing. This centres on whether role-specific obligations - e.g. the obligations that arise for a moral agent qua lawyer or mother - can be accommodated in a virtue ethics approach. Sean Cordell has argued that the difficulty of accommodating role-specific obligations results in an 'institution-shaped gap' in virtue ethics. He suggests a way of meeting this difficulty that appeals to the ergon of institutions. I endorse the negative point that role-specific obligations elude virtue ethics, but argue that the appeal to the ergon of institutions is unsuccessful. The upshot is further support for scepticism about the virtue ethics approach to nursing ethics. I end by gesturing to some of the advantages of a sceptical view of virtue ethics in nursing ethics. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

System justification and the defense of committed relationship ideology.

Science.gov (United States)

Day, Martin V; Kay, Aaron C; Holmes, John G; Napier, Jaime L

2011-08-01

A consequential ideology in Western society is the uncontested belief that a committed relationship is the most important adult relationship and that almost all people want to marry or seriously couple (DePaulo & Morris, 2005). In the present article, we investigated the extent to which the system justification motive may contribute to the adoption of this ideology. In Studies 1 and 2, we examined whether a heightened motive to maintain the status quo would increase defense of committed relationship values. In Study 3, we examined the reverse association, that is, whether a threat to committed relationship ideology would also affect sociopolitical system endorsement. As past research has found that the justification of political systems depends upon how much these systems are perceived as controlling, in Study 4 we tested whether the defense of the system of committed relationships would also increase when framed as controlling. Results from Studies 1-4 were consistent with our hypotheses, but only for men. In Study 5, using cross-cultural data, we sought to replicate these findings correlationally and probe for a cause of the gender effect. Results from more than 33,000 respondents indicated a relationship (for men) between defense of the sociopolitical system and defense of marriage in countries where the traditional advantages of men over women were most threatened. In Studies 6 and 7, we investigated when this gender difference disappears. Results revealed that when we measured (Study 6) or manipulated (Study 7) personal relationship identity rather than relationship ideology, effects also emerge for women.

What is the Business of Ethics in Business Ethics?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lystbæk, Christian Tang

For the last decades, business ethics have spread from a new brand of a few socially and environmentally benevolent companies to the corporate mainstream. Thus, today, business ethics have become a central concern for both business managers and researchers in order to manage the cultural value base...... of the organization, stakeholder relations, etc.. Throughout the history of business ethics, though, and especially in the last decade, a series of studies have criticized the dominant view of business ethics for being instrumental and reductive. This critique often dismisses business ethics altogether. This paper...... addresses these “movements” or approaches to business ethics. It argues that business ethics is caught between two conceptions of what it is for. The first movement promotes the idea that it can be a reassuring and satisfying set of ideas that reminds us how to do the right thing in order to manage...

Christian ethic of love and Hindu ethic of dharma: comparative analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pavenkov Oleg Vladimirovich

2014-10-01

Full Text Available This article is devoted to comparative analysis of two ethic systems: Hindu ethic of dharma and Christian ethic of love. If Christian ethic is the ethic of love, love is in the center of Christian moral values, then Hindu ethic is an example of ethic of law. The moral behavior of gods and humans is determined by Karma and cycle of samsara, which is impossible in Christianity. However forgiveness, self-restraint, non-stealing, purity are common moral obligations for Christians and Hindus.

Agricultural Ethics, Environmental Ethics, and Bioethics : the Major Issues of Agricultural Ethics

OpenAIRE

畠中, 和生

2002-01-01

It is the aim of the paper is to make the major issues of agricultural ethics clear by comparing them with the ones of environmental ethics and bioethics. The main topics in this paper are following. 1. The major issues of the debate over agricultural ethics are (1) agricultural threats to public health and safety; (2) government responsibility for controlling agricultural resource depletion; (3) agricultural contributions to ecological disturbance; (4) government responsibility for preservin...

Beyond a code of ethics: phenomenological ethics for everyday practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Greenfield, Bruce; Jensen, Gail M

2010-06-01

Physical therapy, like all health-care professions, governs itself through a code of ethics that defines its obligations of professional behaviours. The code of ethics provides professions with a consistent and common moral language and principled guidelines for ethical actions. Yet, and as argued in this paper, professional codes of ethics have limits applied to ethical decision-making in the presence of ethical dilemmas. Part of the limitations of the codes of ethics is that there is no particular hierarchy of principles that govern in all situations. Instead, the exigencies of clinical practice, the particularities of individual patient's illness experiences and the transformative nature of chronic illnesses and disabilities often obscure the ethical concerns and issues embedded in concrete situations. Consistent with models of expert practice, and with contemporary models of patient-centred care, we advocate and describe in this paper a type of interpretative and narrative approach to moral practice and ethical decision-making based on phenomenology. The tools of phenomenology that are well defined in research are applied and examined in a case that illustrates their use in uncovering the values and ethical concerns of a patient. Based on the deconstruction of this case on a phenomenologist approach, we illustrate how such approaches for ethical understanding can help assist clinicians and educators in applying principles within the context and needs of each patient. (c) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

ETHICS, VALUES AND BELONGING. BUILDING AN ETHICAL CULTURE

OpenAIRE

David King

2013-01-01

What is an ethical culture, and why should companies bother about it? An ethical company is a business that helps people know the right thing to do, understand their code of ethics and uphold the organisation’s principles. As a result, the organisation protects itself against the kind of ethical contraventions and scandals that have affected many sectors, putting businesses in the news for all the wrong reasons and undermining the trust of customers, employees and investors. How can companies...

Justifications on social ineaqualities. Notes on the Salvadoran case

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irene Lungo Rodríguez

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This note presents the theoretical and methodological guidelines of my phd dissertation, which is under preparation. My concern is about cultural aspects that underlie social inequalities in contemporary El Salvador. Currently, this country is characterized by the primacy of neoliberal acumulation model, the rise of an unprecedented democracy, processes of reconcentration of capital and the persistence of high levels of social exclusion. Specifically, I study the justification of inequalities from the case of the “elite” middle classes in El Salvador. This research is inscribed whitin the sociological debates on the cultural aspects after reproduction of stratification and inequality.

Future global ethics: environmental change, embedded ethics, evolving human identity.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

D.R. Gasper (Des)

2014-01-01

markdownabstract__Abstract__ Work on global ethics looks at ethical connections on a global scale. It should link closely to environmental ethics, recognizing that we live in unified social-ecological systems, and to development ethics, attending systematically to the lives and interests of

Balancing Ethics and Quality in Educational Research--The Ethical Matrix Method

Science.gov (United States)

Tangen, Reidun

2014-01-01

This paper addresses ethical issues in educational research with a focus on the interplay between research ethics and both internal and external quality of research. Research ethics is divided into three domains: (1) ethics "within" the research community; (2) ethics concerning relationships with "individuals and groups directly…

Evaluating programs that address ideological issues: ethical and practical considerations for practitioners and evaluators.

Science.gov (United States)

Lieberman, Lisa D; Fagen, Michael C; Neiger, Brad L

2014-03-01

There are important practical and ethical considerations for organizations in conducting their own, or commissioning external, evaluations and for both practitioners and evaluators, when assessing programs built on strongly held ideological or philosophical approaches. Assessing whether programs "work" has strong political, financial, and/or moral implications, particularly when expending public dollars, and may challenge objectivity about a particular program or approach. Using a case study of the evaluation of a school-based abstinence-until-marriage program, this article discusses the challenges, lessons learned, and ethical responsibilities regarding decisions about evaluation, specifically associated with ideologically driven programs. Organizations should consider various stakeholders and views associated with their program to help identify potential pitfalls in evaluation. Once identified, the program or agency needs to carefully consider its answers to two key questions: Do they want the answer and are they willing to modify the program? Having decided to evaluate, the choice of evaluator is critical to assuring that ethical principles are maintained and potential skepticism or criticism of findings can be addressed appropriately. The relationship between program and evaluator, including agreements about ownership and eventual publication and/or promotion of data, should be addressed at the outset. Programs and organizations should consider, at the outset, their ethical responsibility when findings are not expected or desired. Ultimately, agencies, organizations, and programs have an ethical responsibility to use their data to provide health promotion programs, whether ideologically founded or not, that appropriately and effectively address the problems they seek to solve.

Teaching practical wisdom in medicine through clinical judgement, goals of care, and ethical reasoning.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaldjian, Lauris Christopher

2010-09-01

Clinical decision making is a challenging task that requires practical wisdom-the practised ability to help patients choose wisely among available diagnostic and treatment options. But practical wisdom is not a concept one typically hears mentioned in medical training and practice. Instead, emphasis is placed on clinical judgement. The author draws from Aristotle and Aquinas to describe the virtue of practical wisdom and compare it with clinical judgement. From this comparison, the author suggests that a more complete understanding of clinical judgement requires its explicit integration with goals of care and ethical values. Although clinicians may be justified in assuming that goals of care and ethical values are implicit in routine decision making, it remains important for training purposes to encourage habits of clinical judgement that are consciously goal-directed and ethically informed. By connecting clinical judgement to patients' goals and values, clinical decisions are more likely to stay focused on the particular interests of individual patients. To cultivate wise clinical judgement among trainees, educational efforts should aim at the integration of clinical judgement, communication with patients about goals of care, and ethical reasoning. But ultimately, training in wise clinical judgement will take years of practice in the company of experienced clinicians who are able to demonstrate practical wisdom by example. By helping trainees develop clinical judgement that incorporates patients' goals of care and ethical reasoning, we may help lessen the risk that 'clinical judgement' will merely express 'the clinician's judgement.'

Experimental investigation of ultimate loads

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Petersen, S M; Larsen, G C; Antoniou, I; Lind, S O; Courtney, M [Risoe National Lab., Wind Energy and Atmospheric Physics, Roskilde (Denmark)

1999-03-01

Verification of the structural integrity of a wind turbine involves analysis of fatigue loading as well as ultimate loading. With the trend of persistently growing turbines, the ultimate loading seems to become relatively more important. For wind turbines designed according to the wind conditions prescribed in the IEC-61400 code, the ultimate load is often identified as the leading load parameter. Exemplified by the use of an extensive measurement campaign a procedure for evaluation of the extreme flap-wise bending moments, occurring during normal operating of a wind turbine, is presented. The structural measurements are made on a NEG Micon 650 kW wind turbine erected at a complex high wind site in Oak Creek, California. The turbine is located on the top of a ridge. The prevailing wind direction is perpendicular to the ridge, and the annual mean wind speed is 9.5 m/s. The associated wind field measurement, are taken from two instrumented masts erected less than one rotor diameter in front of the turbine in direction of the prevailing wind direction. Both masts are instrumented at different heights in order to gain insight of the 3D-wind speed structure over the entire rotor plane. Extreme distributions, associated with a recurrence period of 10 minutes, conditioned on the mean wind speed and the turbulence intensity are derived. Combined with the wind climate model proposed in the IEC standard, these distributions are used to predict extreme distributions with recurrence periods equal to one and fifty years, respectively. The synthesis of the conditioned PDF`s and the wind climate model is performed by means of Monte Carlo simulation. (au)

Ethical difficulties in nursing, educational needs and attitudes about using ethics resources.

Science.gov (United States)

Leuter, Cinzia; Petrucci, Cristina; Mattei, Antonella; Tabassi, Gianpietro; Lancia, Loreto

2013-05-01

Ethical difficulties arise in healthcare practices. However, despite extensive research findings that demonstrate that most nurses are involved in recurrent ethical problems, institutions are not always able to effectively support nursing care professionals. The limited availability of ethics consultation services and traditional nursing training fails to meet the frequent and strong requests by health workers to support their ethical dilemmas. A questionnaire was administered to 374 nurses attending a specialist training and a lifetime learning programme in Italy. The respondents reported a high frequency of ethically sensitive situations, and they described the poor development of ethics support and a scarcity of ethics training programmes. The results suggest the importance of promoting ethics services that include consultation and ethics training. A need for systematic ethics educational activities was identified for improving the capacity of nurses to manage ethical issues in patient care.

'Wicked' ethics: Compliance work and the practice of ethics in HIV research.

Science.gov (United States)

Heimer, Carol A

2013-12-01

Using ethnographic material collected between 2003 and 2007 in five HIV clinics in the US, South Africa, Uganda, and Thailand, this article examines "official ethics" and "ethics on the ground." It compares the ethical conundrums clinic staff and researchers confront in their daily work as HIV researchers with the dilemmas officially identified as ethical issues by bioethicists and people responsible for ethics reviews and compliance with ethics regulations. The tangled relation between ethical problems and solutions invites a comparison to Rittel and Webber's "wicked problems." Official ethics' attempts to produce universal solutions often make ethics problems even more wickedly intractable. Ethics on the ground is in part a reaction to this intractability. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

IN-BETWEEN THE OTHER AND THE THING EMBEDDING ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION IN AN ETHICAL DISPOSITION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iris Aravot

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Whereas traditionally proper conduct on the part of the architect implied loyalty to a patron and to a craft-guild, in Modernism ethics came to constitute a major component of the normative approach of architecture towards form and design principles. Since the 1960s, this approach has been severely criticized for its contents. However, the conviction that architecture needs an ethical backbone has persisted unequivocally. This paper suggests that prior to form and design principles, which necessarily vary in place and time, an ethical disposition should be cultivated that relates architecture to a larger sense of life. The paper outlines a platform for such an ethically oriented architectural disposition, rooted in the triple cornerstone of “I”, “The Other” and “Thing” - major phenomenological concepts in the writings of Husserl, Levinas and Merleau-Ponty. Although these universal concepts are ultimately irreconcilable, they are strongly recommended as part of architectural education precisely because architectural acts are so particular and specific. Nobel laureate Herbert A. Simon, whose research focused on the nature of intelligence, problem-solving and decision making, classified architecture as one of the “sciences of the artificial,” centered on the intentional action of design (Simon, 1969. Architecture, unlike science, is not about the world but involved in the world, intending to transform it through projects grounded in intentions, ends, and values (d’Anjou, 2004:211. As such, architecture necessarily embodies an ethical dimension; a nexus of ethics that is embedded in architecture (Wasserman et al., Spector, 2001; Ray 2005 The nexus has a history (Bell, 1990:25 and a current situation, and it is against the backdrop of this current situation that this paper aims to outline an ethical platform for architectural education.

BUSINESS ETHICS

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Nelu BURCEA

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Through this study we seek to explore the concept of business ethics, in those aspects that we consider to be essential and concrete. We started from a few questions: Could the two concepts be compatible? If not, why not? If yes, could they be complementary? How real is the use of ethics in the profits of a business? How can be business ethics be exemplified and what principles are essential in doing business? How does the business environment react to the concept? These are some of the elements that will form the basis of this scientific study. Lately, business ethics has been becoming an increasingly popular topic. Set against the global economic crisis, the companies’ credibility could become a major concern. Business ethics also becomes a challenge for training and informing employees and employers, in order to make not only economical, but also ethical decisions regarding their profits. In the study we shall also address the ethical standards required in a business world interested in fundamental values that can make the difference in 21st century business. Also, according to a study conducted by the authors, we shall address the two most important ethical values that prove to be essential to a business.

Ethical aspects in tissue research: thematic analysis of ethical statements to the research ethics committee

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background Many studies have been published about ethics committees and the clarifications requested about the submitted applications. In Finland, ethics committees require a separate statement on ethical aspects of the research in applications to the ethics committee. However, little is known about how researchers consider the ethical aspects of their own studies. Methods The data were collected from all the applications received by the official regional ethics committee in the Hospital District of Northern Savo during 2004–2009 (n = 688). These included a total of 56 studies involving research on tissue other than blood. The statements by the researchers about the ethics about their own research in these applications were analyzed by thematic content analysis under the following themes: recruitment, informed consent, risks and benefits, confidentiality and societal meaning. Results The researchers tended to describe recruitment and informed consent process very briefly. Usually these descriptions simply stated who the recruiter was and that written consent would be required. There was little information provided on the recruitment situation and on how the study recruiters would be informed. Although most of the studies were clinical, the possibility was hardly ever discussed that patients could fail to distinguish between care and research. Conclusion The written guidelines, available on the webpages of the ethics committee, do not seem to be enough to help researchers achieve this goal. In addition to detailed guidelines for researchers, investigators need to be taught to appreciate the ethical aspects in their own studies. PMID:22873761

After Ethics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shepherd, Nick; Haber, Alejandro

While books on archaeological and anthropological ethics have proliferated in recent years, few attempt to move beyond a conventional discourse on ethics to consider how a discussion of the social and political implications of archaeological practice might be conceptualized differently....... The conceptual ideas about ethics posited in this volume make it of interest to readers outside of the discipline; in fact, to anyone interested in contemporary debates around the possibilities and limitations of a discourse on ethics. The authors in this volume set out to do three things. The first is to track...... the historical development of a discussion around ethics, in tandem with the development and “disciplining” of archaeology. The second is to examine the meanings, consequences and efficacies of a discourse on ethics in contemporary worlds of practice in archaeology. The third is to push beyond the language...

Ethical Considerations Regarding the Use of Smart Home Technologies for Older Adults: An Integrative Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Jane; Demiris, George; Thompson, Hilaire J

2016-01-01

With the wide adoption and use of smart home applications, there is a need for examining ethical issues regarding smart home use at the intersection of aging, technology, and home environment. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of ethical considerations and the evidence on these ethical issues based on an integrative literature review with regard to the utilization of smart home technologies by older adults and their family members. REVIEW DESIGN AND METHODS: We conducted an integrative literature review of the scientific literature from indexed databases (e. g., MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO). The framework guiding this review is derived from previous work on ethical considerations related to telehealth use for older adults and smart homes for palliative care. Key ethical issues of the framework include privacy, informed consent, autonomy, obtrusiveness, equal access, reduction in human touch, and usability. Six hundred and thirty-five candidate articles were identified between the years 1990 and 2014. Sixteen articles were included in the review. Privacy and obtrusiveness issues appear to be the most important factors that can affect smart home technology adoption. In addition, this article recommends that stigmatization and reliability and maintenance of the system are additional factors to consider. When smart home technology is used appropriately, it has the potential to improve quality of life and maintain safety among older adults, ultimately supporting the desire of older adults for aging in place. The ability to respond to potential ethical concerns will be critical to the future development and application of smart home technologies that aim to enhance safety and independence.

Is mandatory research ethics reviewing ethical?

Science.gov (United States)

Dyck, Murray; Allen, Gary

2013-08-01

Review boards responsible for vetting the ethical conduct of research have been criticised for their costliness, unreliability and inappropriate standards when evaluating some non-medical research, but the basic value of mandatory ethical review has not been questioned. When the standards that review boards use to evaluate research proposals are applied to review board practices, it is clear that review boards do not respect researchers or each other, lack merit and integrity, are not just and are not beneficent. The few benefits of mandatory ethical review come at a much greater, but mainly hidden, social cost. It is time that responsibility for the ethical conduct of research is clearly transferred to researchers, except possibly in that small proportion of cases where prospective research participants may be so intrinsically vulnerable that their well-being may need to be overseen.

How "moral" are the principles of biomedical ethics?--a cross-domain evaluation of the common morality hypothesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Christen, Markus; Ineichen, Christian; Tanner, Carmen

2014-06-17

The principles of biomedical ethics - autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice - are of paradigmatic importance for framing ethical problems in medicine and for teaching ethics to medical students and professionals. In order to underline this significance, Tom L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress base the principles in the common morality, i.e. they claim that the principles represent basic moral values shared by all persons committed to morality and are thus grounded in human moral psychology. We empirically investigated the relationship of the principles to other moral and non-moral values that provide orientations in medicine. By way of comparison, we performed a similar analysis for the business & finance domain. We evaluated the perceived degree of "morality" of 14 values relevant to medicine (n1 = 317, students and professionals) and 14 values relevant to business & finance (n2 = 247, students and professionals). Ratings were made along four dimensions intended to characterize different aspects of morality. We found that compared to other values, the principles-related values received lower ratings across several dimensions that characterize morality. By interpreting our finding using a clustering and a network analysis approach, we suggest that the principles can be understood as "bridge values" that are connected both to moral and non-moral aspects of ethical dilemmas in medicine. We also found that the social domain (medicine vs. business & finance) influences the degree of perceived morality of values. Our results are in conflict with the common morality hypothesis of Beauchamp and Childress, which would imply domain-independent high morality ratings of the principles. Our findings support the suggestions by other scholars that the principles of biomedical ethics serve primarily as instruments in deliberated justifications, but lack grounding in a universal "common morality". We propose that the specific manner in which the principles

Medical Ethics

Science.gov (United States)

... area in medicine that doesn't have an ethical aspect. For example, there are ethical issues relating to End of life care: Should ... orders? Abortion: When does life begin? Is it ethical to terminate a pregnancy with a birth defect? ...

Ultimate internal pressure capacity of concrete containment structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krishnaswamy, C.N.; Namperumal, R.; Al-Dabbagh, A.

1983-01-01

Lesson learned from the accident at Three-Mile Island nuclear plant has necessitated the computation of the ultimate internal pressure capacity of containment structures as a licensing requirement in the U.S. In general, a containment structure is designed to be essentially elastic under design accident pressure. However, as the containment pressure builds up beyond the design value due to a more severe postulated accident, the containment response turns nonlinear as it sequentially passes through cracking of concrete, yielding of linear plate, yielding of rebar, and yielding of post-tensioning tendon (if the containment concrete is prestressed). This paper reports on the determination of the ultimate internal pressure capacity and nonlinear behavior of typical reinforced and prestressed concrete BWR containments. The probable modes of failure, the criteria for ultimate pressure capacity, and the most critical sections are described. Simple equations to hand-calculate the ultimate pressure capacity and the nonlinear behavior at membrane sections of the containment shell are presented. A nonlinear finite element analysis performed to determine the nonlinear behavior of the entire shell including nonmembrane sections is briefly discribed. The analysis model consisted of laminated axisymmetric shell finite elements with nonlinear stress-strain properties for each material. Results presented for typical BWR concrete containments include nonlinear response plots of internal pressure versus containment deflection and strains in the liner, rebar, and post-tensioning tendons at the most stressed section in the shell. Leak-tightness of the containment liner and the effect of thermal loads on the ultimate capacity are discussed. (orig.)

Core ethical values of radiological protection applied to Fukushima case: reflecting common morality and cultural diversities.

Science.gov (United States)

Kurihara, Chieko; Cho, Kunwoo; Toohey, Richard E

2016-12-01

The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) has established Task Group 94 (TG94) to develop a publication to clarify the ethical foundations of the radiological protection system it recommends. This TG identified four core ethical values which structure the system: beneficence and non-maleficence, prudence, justice, and dignity. Since the ICRP is an international organization, its recommendations and guidance should be globally applicable and acceptable. Therefore, first this paper presents the basic principles of the ICRP radiological protection system and its core ethical values, along with a reflection on the variation of these values in Western and Eastern cultural traditions. Secondly, this paper reflects upon how these values can be applied in difficult ethical dilemmas as in the case of the emergency and post-accident phases of a nuclear power plant accident, using the Fukushima case to illustrate the challenges at stake. We found that the core ethical values underlying the ICRP system of radiological protection seem to be quite common throughout the world, although there are some variations among various cultural contexts. Especially we found that 'prudence' would call for somewhat different implementation in each cultural context, balancing and integrating sometime conflicting values, but always with objectives to achieve the well-being of people, which is itself the ultimate aim of the radiological protection system.

Virtue Ethics, Applied Ethics and Rationality twenty-three years after ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In evaluating the merits and shortcomings of virtue ethics I focus on some central differences between virtue ethics and rival theories such as deontology and utilitarianism. Virtue ethics does not prescribe strict rules of conduct. Instead, the virtue ethical approach can be understood as an invitation to search for standards, ...

Moral philosophy in bioethics. Etsi ethos non daretur?

Science.gov (United States)

Pessina, Adriano

2013-01-01

In this paper I intend to put forward some criticism of the purely procedural model of bioethics, which, in fact, leads to delegating to biopolitics and biolaw the finding of a purely pragmatic solution to the issues for which bioethics was "invented" over forty years ago. This delegating takes place after the transition from the thesis, dear to modernity, whereby in ethics reasoning should avoid any discussion regarding its foundation or ultimate justification (Etsi Deus non daretur) to the contemporary affirmation of a substantial ethical agnosticism, which, in the name of the incommensurability of morals, should construct procedures as if no sole substantial moral were possible (Etsi ethos non daretur) and act as a guarantor of ethical pluralism. These theses will be discussed and an attempt will be made to demonstrate why it is necessary to establish a link between true and good, and how this is possible only by referring to ontology. The conclusion points to the need to propose bioethics explicitly in terms of content that satisfies the presumed axiological neutrality of procedural bioethics, which however, turns out to be theoretically weak and practically unable to protect the ethical pluralism for which it would like to be the guarantor. The conclusion is that only by referring to ontology can bioethics, which is a fully fledged form of moral philosophy, act as a guarantor of pluralism within the truth and oppose the authoritarian tendencies concealed under the liberal guise of ethical agnosticism.

Ethical leadership

NARCIS (Netherlands)

den Hartog, D.N.

2015-01-01

High-profile cases of leaders’ ethical failure in different settings and sectors have led to increased attention to ethical leadership in organizations. In this review, I discuss the rapidly developing field of ethical leadership from an organizational behavior/psychology perspective, taking a

Why ethics?

OpenAIRE

Wolfgang, Huber

2015-01-01

In this address, the author explores the necessity of ethical reflection on our moral responsibility regarding the challenges of today's globalized world and the future of humankind in the midst of God's creation. In this context, the differentiation of modern ethics is seen as accompanied by the task to reintegrate the ethical discourse by means of an interdisciplinary exchange and to further especially the dialogue between theological and philosophical ethics. By agreeing on Hans-Richard Re...

Ethics Centers' Activities and Role in Promoting Ethics in Universities

Science.gov (United States)

Safatly, Lise; Itani, Hiba; El-Hajj, Ali; Salem, Dania

2017-01-01

In modern and well-structured universities, ethics centers are playing a key role in hosting, organizing, and managing activities to enrich and guide students' ethical thinking and analysis. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of the goals, activities, and administration of ethics centers, as well as their role in promoting ethical thinking…

Is it ethical to use ethics as a business strategy?

OpenAIRE

Husted, B; Allen, DB

2000-01-01

Increasingly research in the field of business and society suggests that ethics and corporate social responsibility can be profitable. Yet this work raises a troubling question: Is it ethical to use ethics and social responsibility in a strategic way? Is it possible to be ethical or socially responsible for the wrong reason? In this article, we define a strategy concept in order to situate the different approaches to the strategic use of ethics and social responsibility found in the current l...

Overview of psychiatric ethics V: utilitarianism and the ethics of duty.

Science.gov (United States)

Robertson, Michael; Morris, Kirsty; Walter, Garry

2007-10-01

The aim of this paper is to describe the ethical theories of utilitarianism and the ethics of duty (Kant's ethics) and to evaluate their value as theoretical bases of psychiatric ethics. Utilitarianism is a well-established moral philosophy and has significant instrumental value in dealing with common ethical problems faced by psychiatrists. Despite its capacity to generate solutions to ethical problems, utilitarianism requires a process of what Rawls described as 'reflective equilibrium' to avoid morally repugnant choices, based on utility. The criticisms of utilitarianism, such as the problems of quantifying utility and the responsibility for consequences, are very relevant for psychiatry. Singer's model of utilitarian thinking is particularly problematic for our profession. Kant's ethics provides the pretext for duty bound codes of ethics for psychiatrists, but suffers from problems of flawed claims to the universalizability prescribed by Kant's 'categorical imperative'. Kant's valorization of reason as the core of the autonomy of persons is a valuable insight in understanding psychiatrists' ethical obligations to their patients.

Journalistic Ethics and Standards in the Spanish Constitution and National Codes of Conduct from the Perspective of Andalusian Journalism Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María Ángeles López-Hernández

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses on the opinion held by journalism students of the Faculty of Communication of Seville University about the ethical standards set out in the Spanish Constitution (Article 20.1.d and the country’s codes of conduct. The aim of this paper is to identify the ethical system of values of today’s university students, who have not yet been “contaminated” by the profession and on whom the future of journalism in Spain will ultimately depend. Although the results show that journalism students (both 1st year students and those in their final year have embraced a fairly solid ethical system of values, they nevertheless believe that the strong influence that economic and political powers currently exert on Spanish media corporations makes it impossible for journalists to cultivate their own work ethic, consequently obliging them to conform to the “unscrupulous” demands of their bosses. Faced with this reality, the authors reflect on the need to reinforce ethical values in the lecture hall as a way of curbing, as soon as possible, the deterioration of journalism that has been detected in Spain.

Ethical living: relinking ethics and consumption through care in Chile and Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Ariztia, Tomas; Agloni, Nurjk; Pellandini-Simányi, Léna

2017-05-30

Mainstream conceptualizations of 'ethical consumption' equate the notion with conscious, individual, market-mediated choices motivated by ethical or political aims that transcend ordinary concerns. Drawing on recent sociology and anthropology of consumption literature on the links between ordinary ethics and ethical consumption, this article discusses some of the limitations of this conceptualization. Using data from 32 focus groups conducted in Chile and Brazil, we propose a conceptualization of ethical consumption that does not centre on individual, market-mediated choices but understands it at the level of practical outcomes, which we refer to as different forms of 'ethical living'. To do that, we argue, we need to depart from the deontological understanding of ethics that underpins mainstream approaches to ethical consumption and adopt a more consequentialist view focusing on ethical outcomes. We develop these points through describing one particular ordinary moral regime that seemed to be predominant in participants' accounts of ethics and consumption in both Chile and Brazil: one that links consumption and ethics through care. We show that the moral regime of care leads to 'ethical outcomes', such as energy saving or limiting overconsumption, yet contrary to the mainstream view of ethical consumption emphasizing politicized choice expressed through markets, these result from following ordinary ethics, often through routines of practices. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2017.

Ultimate load capacity assessment of reinforced concrete shell structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gupta, Amita; Singh, R.K.; Kushwaha, H.S.; Mahajan, S.C.; Kakodkar, A.

1993-01-01

The objective of this study is to develop capability for prediction of ultimate load capacity of reinforced concrete shell structures. The present finite element code ULCA (Ultimate Load Capacity Assessment) adopts a degenerate concept of formulating general isoparametric shell element with a layered approach in the thickness direction. Different failure modes such as crushing, tensile cracking and reinforcement yielding are recognised for various problems. The structure fails by crushing of concrete when the concrete strain/stress reaches the ultimate stress or strain of concrete. Material nonlinearities as a result of tension cracking, tension stiffening between reinforcement and concrete in cracked region and yielding of reinforcement are considered along with geometric nonlinearity. Thus with this code it is possible to predict the pressure at which the first cracking, first through thickness cracking, first yielding of reinforcement occurs. After validating the code with few bench mark problems for different failure modes a reinforced concrete nuclear containment is analysed for its ultimate capacity and the results are matched with the published results. Further the ultimate load capacity of outer containment wall of Narora Atomic Power Station is predicted. It is observed that containment fails in membrane region and has a sufficient margin against design pressure. (author). 9 refs., 56 figs., 3 tabs., 1 appendix with 4 tabs

Fundamentals of legal argumentation : A survey of theories on the justification of legal decisions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Feteris, E.T.

2017-01-01

This book is an updated and revised edition of Fundamentals of Legal Argumentation published in 1999. It discusses new developments that have taken place in the past 15 years in research of legal argumentation, legal justification and legal interpretation, as well as the implications of these new

Direct ultimate disposal - state of investigations and prospects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gasterstaedt, N.

1991-01-01

Based on a decision adopted by the Prime Ministers on 25/10/90, the principles governing preventive waste management of nuclear power plants are reviewed. Increasing importance is attached to the direct ultimate disposal alternative. The legal and political framework, the technology involved, the state of developments, future activities under the R and D programme as well as a cost estimate of direct ultimate disposal are presented. (orig.) [de

Project ethics

CERN Document Server

Jonasson, Haukur Ingi

2013-01-01

How relevant is ethics to project management? The book - which aims to demystify the field of ethics for project managers and managers in general - takes both a critical and a practical look at project management in terms of success criteria, and ethical opportunities and risks. The goal is to help the reader to use ethical theory to further identify opportunities and risks within their projects and thereby to advance more directly along the path of mature and sustainable managerial practice.

Lessons from Evidence-Based Operating Room Management in Balancing the Needs for Efficient, Effective and Ethical Healthcare

OpenAIRE

Rosen, A.C.; Dexter, F.

2009-01-01

Foglia et al. (in press) describe tension in two veteran's hospitals among managers, clinicians, and patients over allocating appropriate resources to support care and inefficiencies in care delivery. Ultimately ethical healthcare in a system which is committed to caring for an entire population of patients must use its limited resources effectively while not compromising patient safety. This discussion gives examples from operating room management in which systematic analyses of existing dat...

Justification of the zeta-function renormalization in rigid string model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nesterenko, V.V.; Pirozhenko, I.G.

1997-01-01

A consistent procedure for regularization of divergences and for the subsequent renormalization of the string tension is proposed in the framework of the one-loop calculation of the interquark potential generated by the Polyakov-Kleinert string. In this way, a justification of the formal treatment of divergences by analytic continuation of the Riemann and Epstein-Hurwitz zeta-functions is given. A spectral representation for the renormalized string energy at zero temperature is derived, which enables one to find the Casimir energy in this string model at nonzero temperature very easy

Critical Virtue Ethics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jochen Schmidt

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Since the publication of Anscombe’s famous paper “Modern Moral Philosophy” (1958, virtue ethics has become a matter of discussion among scholars. At least four charges have been raised against virtue ethics, one of which is the charge of promoting undue enthusiasm regarding the moral fitness of human beings. This article explores the limits of virtue ethics with regard to the frailty of human virtuousness. After giving a report of the charges raised against virtue ethics from the perspective of empirical ethics, the author presents the idea of what he would like to call critical virtue ethics as seen by three Lutheran thinkers: Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Luther himself. He will demonstrate that the empirical contestation of virtue ethics shows a remarkable resemblance to insights found in Luther, Kant and Nietzsche. And finally, the writer draws tentative conclusions about the future of critical virtue ethics.

On using ethical theories to teach engineering ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Bouville, Mathieu

2008-03-01

Many engineering ethics classes and textbooks introduce theories such as utilitarianism and Kantianism (and most others draw from these theories without mentioning them explicitly). Yet using ethical theories to teach engineering ethics is not devoid of difficulty. First, their status is unclear (should one pick a single theory or use them all? does it make a difference?) Also, textbooks generally assume or fallaciously 'prove' that egoism (or even simply accounting for one's interests) is wrong. Further, the drawbacks of ethical theories are underestimated and the theories are also otherwise misrepresented to make them more suitable for engineering ethics as the authors construe it, viz. the 'moral reasoning' process. Stating in what various theories disagree would allow the students to frame the problem more productively in terms of motive-consequence or society-individual dichotomies rather than in terms of Kant-utilitarian.

Sensitivity analysis on ultimate strength of aluminium stiffened panels

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rigo, P.; Sarghiuta, R.; Estefen, S.

2003-01-01

This paper presents the results of an extensive sensitivity analysis carried out by the Committee III.1 "Ultimate Strength" of ISSC?2003 in the framework of a benchmark on the ultimate strength of aluminium stiffened panels. Previously, different benchmarks were presented by ISSC committees on ul...

Level of Ethics, Ethical Frustration and Accountant Discretionary Practices

OpenAIRE

Tamminen, Rauno; Leskinen, Markku

1996-01-01

In this paper it is shown with the help of a small sample that accounting is ethically loaded; that there exists ethical frustration caused by situational factors related to accounting; and that most probably the situational pressures may also change the level of ethics in the Kohlbergian sense; and that in studying accounting-related ethical problems empirically, the paper-and pencil tests and interviewing may give biased results. The accountant's model of the world is supplemented with ...

Written institutional ethics policies on euthanasia: an empirical-based organizational-ethical framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Lemiengre, Joke; Dierckx de Casterlé, Bernadette; Schotsmans, Paul; Gastmans, Chris

2014-05-01

As euthanasia has become a widely debated issue in many Western countries, hospitals and nursing homes especially are increasingly being confronted with this ethically sensitive societal issue. The focus of this paper is how healthcare institutions can deal with euthanasia requests on an organizational level by means of a written institutional ethics policy. The general aim is to make a critical analysis whether these policies can be considered as organizational-ethical instruments that support healthcare institutions to take their institutional responsibility for dealing with euthanasia requests. By means of an interpretative analysis, we conducted a process of reinterpretation of results of former Belgian empirical studies on written institutional ethics policies on euthanasia in dialogue with the existing international literature. The study findings revealed that legal regulations, ethical and care-oriented aspects strongly affected the development, the content, and the impact of written institutional ethics policies on euthanasia. Hence, these three cornerstones-law, care and ethics-constituted the basis for the empirical-based organizational-ethical framework for written institutional ethics policies on euthanasia that is presented in this paper. However, having a euthanasia policy does not automatically lead to more legal transparency, or to a more professional and ethical care practice. The study findings suggest that the development and implementation of an ethics policy on euthanasia as an organizational-ethical instrument should be considered as a dynamic process. Administrators and ethics committees must take responsibility to actively create an ethical climate supporting care providers who have to deal with ethical dilemmas in their practice.

Everyday ethics: ethical issues and stress in nursing practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Ulrich, Connie M; Taylor, Carol; Soeken, Karen; O'Donnell, Patricia; Farrar, Adrienne; Danis, Marion; Grady, Christine

2010-11-01

This paper is a report of a study of the type, frequency, and level of stress of ethical issues encountered by nurses in their everyday practice. Everyday ethical issues in nursing practice attract little attention but can create stress for nurses. Nurses often feel uncomfortable in addressing the ethical issues they encounter in patient care. A self-administered survey was sent in 2004 to 1000 nurses in four states in four different census regions of the United States of America. The adjusted response rate was 52%. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations and Pearson correlations. A total of 422 questionnaires were used in the analysis. The five most frequently occurring and most stressful ethical and patient care issues were protecting patients' rights; autonomy and informed consent to treatment; staffing patterns; advanced care planning; and surrogate decision-making. Other common occurrences were unethical practices of healthcare professionals; breaches of patient confidentiality or right to privacy; and end-of-life decision-making. Younger nurses and those with fewer years of experience encountered ethical issues more frequently and reported higher levels of stress. Nurses from different regions also experienced specific types of ethical problems more commonly. Nurses face daily ethical challenges in the provision of quality care. To retain nurses, targeted ethics-related interventions that address caring for an increasingly complex patient population are needed. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Authority and Moral Reasons: Parenting Style and Children's Perceptions of Adult Rule Justifications

Science.gov (United States)

Leman, Patrick J.

2005-01-01

The style of parenting of 100 children (mean age 11 years, 5 months) was established according to Baumrind's typology. Children were asked to indicate what they thought an adult would say to justify a moral rule in five different scenarios. Results indicated that parenting style did not relate to the number of justifications that children thought…

Beyond the hidden curriculum: The challenging search for authentic values in medical ethics education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gerald Ssebunnya

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Since the practice of medicine is a moral enterprise, medical ethics education aims to produce ‘good’ doctors who are capable of self-reflective discernment of the many values at play in the clinical encounter, and of re-affirming the patient’s human dignity. However, the caring and compassionate physician envisaged as the end-product of medical ethics curricula evidently remains elusive. I argue that this apparent failure of medical ethics education is traceable to a systematic de-emphasis of humanistic values since the pioneering stages of formal medical ethics curricula. The idea of ‘the hidden curriculum’ connotes a distinctive value-laden medical morality that is transmissible through socialisation and role-modelling in the medical school moral ecosystem. Further, the hidden curriculum is hampered by the challenging medical school workload, bad role models, and lack of appropriate evaluation and assessment methods, as well as the lack of consensus in bioethics on the key concept of human dignity. Properly conceived, the dignity of the human person is the ultimate source of human values. Optimising the hidden curriculum, therefore, demands an authentic and comprehensive enquiry into the concept of human dignity, as well as the nature of the human person, the true human good and what constitutes the unitary good of the patient.

Does the Law on Compensation for Research-Related Injury in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand Meet Ethical Requirements?

Science.gov (United States)

Manning, Joanna M

2017-08-01

Despite a consensus that society owes an ethical obligation to compensate for research-related injury, and that no-fault is the best ethical response, an assessment of the compensation arrangements in place in the UK, Australia and New Zealand shows that in general compensation arrangements fall below this ethical expectation. Most subjects rely on ex gratia payment or an unenforceable assurance of payment in the event of injury. It is also likely that, given significant deficiencies in participant information about compensation arrangements in place for trials recommended by the supervisory ethics agencies in each jurisdiction, subjects only find out about their financial exposure in the event of injury. Industry-drafted guidelines governing compensation in commercially sponsored trials do not protect subjects' interests, but operate primarily to protect the interests of industry. The article considers potential solutions to the ethical deficiency of the compensation arrangements, and argues that the ethical corollary of the fact that society is the ultimate beneficiary of its members' participation in clinical research, is that society as a whole should bear the cost of participant injuries, through establishment of a central no-fault compensation fund financed either by the state or those directly involved in biomedical research. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

\\How Can Clinical Ethics Committees Take on Organizational Ethics? Some Practical Suggestions.

Science.gov (United States)

Sabin, James E

2016-01-01

Although leaders in the field of ethics have for many years pointed to the crucial role that organizations play in shaping healthcare ethics, organizational ethics remains a relatively undeveloped area of ethics activity. Clinical ethics committees are an important source of potential expertise, but new skills will be required. Clinical ethics committees seeking to extend their purview to organizational issues will have to respond to three challenges-how to gain sanction and support for addressing controversial and sensitive issues, how to develop an acceptable process, and how to make a difference on the ground. The article presents practical suggestions for how clinical ethics committees meet these challenges. Copyright 2016 The Journal of Clinical Ethics. All rights reserved.

THEORETICAL JUSTIFICATION OF EXPONENTIAL DISTRIBUTION LAW OF DISTANCES BETWEEN STOPS OF CITY PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gorbachov, P.

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The paper presents the results of investigation of relation bitween the trip distance on stops location on the route between places of attraction. Theoretical justification of the use fulness of exponential distribution with the shift parameter for describing the trip distance between stops is given.

Finding Common Ground: Environmental Ethics, Social Justice, and a Sustainable Path for Nature-Based Health Promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Jennings, Viniece; Yun, Jessica; Larson, Lincoln

2016-08-25

Decades of research have documented continuous tension between anthropocentric needs and the environment's capacity to accommodate those needs and support basic human welfare. The way in which society perceives, manages, and ultimately utilizes natural resources can be influenced by underlying environmental ethics, or the moral relationship that humans share with the natural world. This discourse often centers on the complex interplay between the tangible and intangible benefits associated with nonhuman nature (e.g., green space), both of which are relevant to public health. When ecosystem degradation is coupled with socio-demographic transitions, additional concerns related to distributional equity and justice can arise. In this commentary, we explore how environmental ethics can inform the connection between the ecosystem services from green space and socially just strategies of health promotion.

Revision of Business Ethics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomas Sigmund

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Business ethics is a controversial topic. In my article I would like to explore where the limits of business ethics are and to what extent it can become part of the economic world. I would like to explore the question what the relationship between ethics and business is and whether what business ethicists consider ethics is real ethics in the fundamental sense of the world. The concept of business ethics will be discussed compared to general ethical theories and consequences drawn. I would like to show the contradictions inherent to the connection of business and ethics are no coincidence. At the end a possible relationship between ethics and business sphere will be suggested.

Ethical Judgments and Behaviors: Applying a Multidimensional Ethics Scale to Measuring ICT Ethics of College Students

Science.gov (United States)

Jung, Insung

2009-01-01

Assuming that ICT ethics are influenced by both moral and circumstantial factors, the study investigates Japanese college students' ethical judgments and behavioral intentions in three scenarios involving ICT-related ethical problems and explores why they make such decisions, relying on five moral philosophies: moral equity, relativism,…

Ethics rounds do not improve the handling of ethical issues by psychiatric staff.

Science.gov (United States)

Silén, Marit; Haglund, Kristina; Hansson, Mats G; Ramklint, Mia

2015-08-01

One way to support healthcare staff in handling ethically difficult situations is through ethics rounds that consist of discussions based on clinical cases and are moderated by an ethicist. Previous research indicates that the handling of ethically difficult situations in the workplace might have changed after ethics rounds. This, in turn, would mean that the "ethical climate", i.e. perceptions of how ethical issues are handled, would have changed. To investigate whether ethics rounds could improve the ethical climate perceived by staff working in psychiatry outpatient clinics. In this quasi-experimental study, six inter-professional ethics rounds led by a philosopher/ethicist were conducted at two psychiatry outpatient clinics. Changes in ethical climate were measured at these clinics as well as at two control clinics at baseline and after the intervention period using the instrument Hospital Ethical Climate Survey. Within-groups comparisons of median sum scores of ethical climate showed that no statistically significant differences were found in the intervention group before or after the intervention period. The median sum scores for ethical climate were significantly higher, both at baseline and after the intervention period (P ≤ 0.001; P = 0.046), in the intervention group. Ethics rounds in psychiatric outpatient clinics did not result in significant changes in ethical climate. Outcomes of ethics rounds might, to a higher degree, be directed towards patient-related outcomes rather than towards the staff's working environment, as the questions brought up for discussion during the ethics rounds concerned patient-related issues.

Os anulabilismos de Klein e de Swain e o problema de Gettier

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emerson Carlos Valcarenghi

2010-08-01

Full Text Available In this essay, we intend to show that Peter Klein and Marshall Swain defeasibility theories do not resolve the Gettier problem. Klein postulates, to any Gettier counterexample, that there is a true proposition which, when associated with evidence-e of S, genuinely defeats the justification of p to S. Swain postulates that, to any Gettier-type counterexample, there is a true proposition which, when associated with the set of reasons-R of S, ultimately defeats the justification of S to believe p. To show that Klein an Swain proposals do not resolve that problem, this essay presents two Gettier-type counterexamples for which there are no genuine defeaters of justification of p by e to S and there are no defeaters not ultimately defeated of the justification of the belief of S that p by R. After doing that, we try to show that the obtained conclusion regarding Klein and Swain defeasibility theories can be extended to any defeasibility theory of knowledge.

Neuroethics: the pursuit of transforming medical ethics in scientific ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Figueroa, Gustavo

2016-02-20

Ethical problems resulting from brain research have given rise to a new discipline termed neuroethics, representing a new kind of knowledge capable of discovering the neural basis for universal ethics. The article (1) tries to evaluate the contributions of neuroethics to medical ethics and its suitability to outline the foundations of universal ethics, (2) critically analyses the process of founding this universal ethic. The potential benefits of applying neuroimaging, psychopharmacology and neurotechnology have to be carefully weighed against their potential harm. In view of these questions, an intensive dialogue between neuroscience and the humanities is more necessary than ever.

Neuroethics: the pursuit of transforming medical ethics in scientific ethics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gustavo Figueroa

Full Text Available Ethical problems resulting from brain research have given rise to a new discipline termed neuroethics, representing a new kind of knowledge capable of discovering the neural basis for universal ethics. The article (1 tries to evaluate the contributions of neuroethics to medical ethics and its suitability to outline the foundations of universal ethics, (2 critically analyses the process of founding this universal ethic. The potential benefits of applying neuroimaging, psy-chopharmacology and neurotechnology have to be carefully weighed against their potential harm. In view of these questions, an intensive dialogue between neuroscience and the humanities is more necessary than ever.

Hidden in plain view: feminists doing engineering ethics, engineers doing feminist ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Riley, Donna

2013-03-01

How has engineering ethics addressed gender concerns to date? How have the ideas of feminist philosophers and feminist ethicists made their way into engineering ethics? What might an explicitly feminist engineering ethics look like? This paper reviews some major themes in feminist ethics and then considers three areas in which these themes have been taken up in engineering ethics to date. First, Caroline Whitbeck's work in engineering ethics integrates considerations from her own earlier writings and those of other feminist philosophers, but does not use the feminist label. Second, efforts to incorporate the Ethic of Care and principles of Social Justice into engineering have drawn on feminist scholarship and principles, but these commitments can be lost in translation to the broader engineering community. Third, the film Henry's Daughters brings gender considerations into the mainstream of engineering ethics, but does not draw on feminist ethics per se; despite the best intentions in broaching a difficult subject, the film unfortunately does more harm than good when it comes to sexual harassment education. I seek not only to make the case that engineers should pay attention to feminist ethics and engineering ethicists make more use of feminist ethics traditions in the field, but also to provide some avenues for how to approach integrating feminist ethics in engineering. The literature review and analysis of the three examples point to future work for further developing what might be called feminist engineering ethics.

The effect of nurses' ethical leadership and ethical climate perceptions on job satisfaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Özden, Dilek; Arslan, Gülşah Gürol; Ertuğrul, Büşra; Karakaya, Salih

2017-01-01

The development of ethical leadership approaches plays an important role in achieving better patient care. Although studies that analyze the impact of ethical leadership on ethical climate and job satisfaction have gained importance in recent years, there is no study on ethical leadership and its relation to ethical climate and job satisfaction in our country. This descriptive and cross-sectional study aimed to determine the effect of nurses' ethical leadership and ethical climate perceptions on their job satisfaction. The study sample is composed of 285 nurses who agreed to participate in this research and who work at the internal, surgical, and intensive care units of a university hospital and a training and research hospital in İzmir, Turkey. Data were collected using Ethical Leadership Scale, Hospital Ethical Climate Scale, and Minnesota Satisfaction Scale. While the independent sample t-test, analysis of variance, Mann-Whitney U test, and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to analyze the data, the correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between the scales. Ethical considerations: The study proposal was approved by the ethics committee of the Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylül University. The nurses' mean scores were 59.05 ± 14.78 for the ethical leadership, 92.62 ± 17 for the ethical climate, and 62.15 ± 13.46 for the job satisfaction. The correlation between the nurses' ethical leadership and ethical climate mean scores was moderately positive and statistically significant (r = +0.625, p = 0.000), was weak but statistically significant between their ethical leadership and job satisfaction mean scores (r = +0.461, p = 0.000), and was moderately positive and statistically significant between their ethical climate and job satisfaction mean scores (r = +0.603, p = 0.000). The nurses' ethical leadership, ethical climate, and job satisfaction levels are moderate, and there is a positive relationship between them. The nurses' perceptions of ethical

Locating Ethics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Douglas-Jones, Rachel

2013-01-01

Research ethics has become integrated into what it means to conduct good science. This thesis is about the nature of that integration, which I argue is not neutral, carrying with it ideas of duty, moral obligations, organisational mechanisms, and processes of monitoring. For developing countries...... to participate in global research, the pre-requisite of ethical review has necessitated a growth in capacity building exercises. The chapters aim to elucidate ethnographically the activities and implications of 'capacity building' activities in biomedical research ethics, through following the trainings......, assessments and networking of the Forum of Ethics Review Committees of Asia and the Pacific (FERCAP), a Non-Governmental Organisation. The work provides a critical reflection on the spread and uptake of ethics, contributing particularly to literatures in medical anthropology, organisational studies...

Ultimate Strength of Ship Hulls under Torsion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Paik, Jeom Kee; Thayamballi, Anil K.; Pedersen, Preben Terndrup

2001-01-01

For a ship hull with large deck openings such as container vessels and some large bulk carriers, the analysis of warping stresses and hatch opening deformations is an essential part of ship structural analyses. It is thus of importance to better understand the ultimate torsional strength characte......For a ship hull with large deck openings such as container vessels and some large bulk carriers, the analysis of warping stresses and hatch opening deformations is an essential part of ship structural analyses. It is thus of importance to better understand the ultimate torsional strength...... characteristics of ships with large hatch openings. The primary aim of the present study is to investigate the ultimate strength characteristics of ship hulls with large hatch openings under torsion. Axial (warping) as well as shear stresses are normally developed for thin-walled beams with open cross sections...... subjected to torsion. A procedure for calculating these stresses is briefly described. As an illustrative example, the distribution and magnitude of warping and shear stresses for a typical container vessel hull cross section under unit torsion is calculated by the procedure. By theoretical and numerical...

Complementary or competing climates? Examining the interactive effect of service and ethical climates on company-level financial performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Myer, Adam T; Thoroughgood, Christian N; Mohammed, Susan

2016-08-01

By bending rules to please their customers, companies with high service climates may be less ethical but ultimately more profitable. In this article, we pose the question of whether being ethical comes at a cost to profits in customer-oriented firms. Despite the organizational reality that multiple climates coexist at a given time, research has largely ignored these types of questions, and the simultaneous analysis of multiple climate dimensions has received little empirical attention to date. Given their scientific and practical importance, this study tested complementary and conflicting perspectives regarding interactions between service (outcome-focused) and ethical (process-focused) climates on company-level financial performance. Drawing on a sample of 16,862 medical sales representatives spread across 77 subsidiary companies of a large multinational corporation in the health care product industry, we found support for a complementary view. More precisely, results revealed that profitability was enhanced, not diminished, in service-oriented firms that also stressed the importance of ethics. Results suggest studying the interactive effects of multiple climates is a more fruitful approach than examining main effects alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Researching Justification Texts of a First Instance Court from Assignment to Results and Reporting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Langbroek, Philip; van der Linden - Smith, Tina

2014-01-01

Court decisions are reasoned to legitimize them. Lay people seem to understand little of the work of the courts. One of the questions for court administrators and judges is: for whom do judges write their judgments? Is it possible to analyze judicial justification texts with a view to the audiences

Is There a Need for Transcendental Arguments in Discourse Ethics?

Science.gov (United States)

Johnston, James Scott

2016-01-01

In this essay, James Scott Johnston examines Jürgen Habermas's transcendental justification of his discourse theory of morality. According to Johnston, the application of Habermas's theory to educational issues often assumes that this justification is a cogent one. However, if the theory is to provide reasoned and appropriate guidance for…

CRISPR/Cas9 and mitochondrial gene replacement therapy: promising techniques and ethical considerations.

Science.gov (United States)

Fogleman, Sarah; Santana, Casey; Bishop, Casey; Miller, Alyssa; Capco, David G

2016-01-01

Thousands of mothers are at risk of transmitting mitochondrial diseases to their offspring each year, with the most severe form of these diseases being fatal [1]. With no cure, transmission prevention is the only current hope for decreasing the disease incidence. Current methods of prevention rely on low mutant maternal mitochondrial DNA levels, while those with levels close to or above threshold (>60%) are still at a very high risk of transmission [2]. Two novel approaches may offer hope for preventing and treating mitochondrial disease: mitochondrial replacement therapy, and CRISPR/Cas9. Mitochondrial replacement therapy has emerged as a promising tool that has the potential to prevent transmission in patients with higher mutant mitochondrial loads. This method is the subject of many ethical concerns due its use of a donor embryo to transplant the patient's nuclear DNA; however, it has ultimately been approved for use in the United Kingdom and was recently declared ethically permissible by the FDA. The leading-edge CRISPR/Cas9 technology exploits the principles of bacterial immune function to target and remove specific sequences of mutated DNA. This may have potential in treating individuals with disease caused by mutant mitochondrial DNA. As the technology progresses, it is important that the ethical considerations herein emerge and become more established. The purpose of this review is to discuss current research surrounding the procedure and efficacy of the techniques, compare the ethical concerns of each approach, and look into the future of mitochondrial gene replacement therapy.

Revision of Business Ethics

OpenAIRE

Tomas Sigmund

2011-01-01

Business ethics is a controversial topic. In my article I would like to explore where the limits of business ethics are and to what extent it can become part of the economic world. I would like to explore the question what the relationship between ethics and business is and whether what business ethicists consider ethics is real ethics in the fundamental sense of the world. The concept of business ethics will be discussed compared to general ethical theories and consequences drawn. I would li...

[Ethics, medical ethics, and occupational medicine: is their dialogue possible?].

Science.gov (United States)

Buzzi, Elisa

2016-01-20

Today's medicine faces some critical moral challenges, yet the medical class suffers from an increasingly evident malaise: a growing dissatisfaction with an ethical demand often perceived as a cumbersome burden of rules and prohibitions, which risk to erode the fiduciary relations with patients. Such a negative appraisal is partly due to a narrow interpretation of the meaning of ethics, a misconception whose roots are in the positivistic stance that permeates our culture, and in its almost exclusively technological bent. This radical orientation of our culture shows itself in the vanishing of the idea of an intrinsic ethical dimension of medicine and consequent eclipse of traditional medical ethics, currently all but assimilated by bioethics. Maintaining a clear distinction between medical ethics and bioethics is a fundamental condition for guaranteeing an original ethical reflection in medicine, thereby fostering a constructive dialogue between philosophical and medical ethics. In this sense, occupational medicine holds a very propitious position, at the cross-roads to some of the most important dimensions in human life and society: health, work, environment. In a milieu which is too often inclined to efface the living human being and the deepest needs of humanity, the moral commitment of medical profession to the care of the integral reality of the embodied human person is one of the most important ethical challenges facing occupational medicine and a most valuable contribution to the current ethical debate.

From virtue ethics to rights ethics: Did the Reformation pave the way for secular ethics?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nico Vorster

2014-04-01

Full Text Available In chapter four of his book, The unintended Reformation, Brad Gregory argues that ethical thinking since the 1500’s experienced a major shift in emphasis from the teleological concept of a ‘substantive morality of the good’ to liberalism’s ‘formal morality of rights’. He attributes it to the religious upheavals and ‘sociopolitical disruptions’ during the Reformation era. This article probes three elements of Gregory’s argument. Firstly, the article offers a critical assessment of Gregory’s depiction of the Reformation’s stance towards reason. It pays particular attention to the Reformation’s understanding of the effects of sin on the human being’s image of God, reason and the possibility for a shared social ethics. Secondly, this study scrutinises Gregory’s argument that the Reformation created an individualist notion of selfhood in contrast to the Roman Catholic communal notion of selfhood and thereby paved the way for modernism. Lastly, the discussion probes into Gregory’s claim that the Reformation’s ethical paradigm diverged radically from the Latin Christendom paradigm and that this contributed to the subjectivisation of ethics, by replacing a virtue ethics with a rights ethics.

Ethics and experiment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Addison, Courtney Page

. However, social scientists have yet to devote much attention to this ethically contentious and medically complex field. This project aimed to identify and explore social and ethical factors shaping gene therapy practice in clinical settings. It is based on six months of participant observation in a London...... children’s hospital (the UKCH), thirty-two interviews with key actors in the gene therapy field, and scientific and policy document analysis. One of the main interests of this research is with the politics of ethics. The thesis shows that ‘ethical boundary work’ was central to establishing the credibility...... of gene therapy, and the authority of its practitioners. The politics of ethics can also be discerned in practice: the UK research ethics system structures scientific work but cannot account for the various, complex, and on-going ethical dilemmas that patients and practitioners face when undertaking gene...

THE CHALLENGES OF BUSINESS ETHICS: THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS ETHICS - ETHICAL CODEX IN BUSINESS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anton Jamnik

2017-09-01