Most papers included in this special issue were presented at the Fifth International Bioethics Conference, “The Ethics of Intellectual Property Rights and Patents,” held in Warsaw, Poland on 23–24 April, 2004.

Traffic research shares a fundamental dilemma with other areas of empirical research in which humans are potentially put at risk. Research is justified because it can improve safety in the long run. Nevertheless, people can be harmed in the research situation. Hence, we need to balance short-term risks against long-term safety improvements, much as in other areas of research with human subjects. In this paper we focus on ethical issues that arise when human beings are directly affected in the performance (...) of research by examining how the ethical requirements in biomedical research can inform traffic research. After introducing the basic ethical requirements on biomedical research, each of the major requirements is discussed in relation to traffic research. We identify the main areas where biomedical research and traffic research differ, and where the ethical requirements from the former cannot easily be transferred to the latter. Finally, we argue that there is a need for systematic studies of the ethics of traffic research and point to some of the issues that need to be addressed. (shrink)

The technological advances of the 20th century resulted in the creation of the Internet and its introduction into everyday life on a global scale. The Internet provides access to information and the sale and purchase of goods. Medications are also subject to trade. Their sale is conducted by online pharmacies and their global turnover amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars. Medications ordered over the Internet are sent by mail all over the world. Considering the events of recent years, we (...) cannot exclude the risk of a terrorist attack through online pharmacies. Terrorists can establish such companies, legally or illegally, or acquire ones already existing. Parcels, which are highly trusted by the customers of online pharmacies, can, for example, be contaminated with dangerous materials. The sale of online medications in the international system is potentially dangerous and requires international regulation. (shrink)

BackgroundExpanded access is the use of investigational drugs (IDs) outside of clinical trials. Generally it is performed in patients with serious and life-threatening diseases who cannot be treated satisfactorily with authorized drugs. Legal regulations of expanded access to IDs have been introduced among others in the USA, the European Union (EU), Canada and Australia. In addition, in the USA an alternative to expanded access is treatment under the Right-to-Try law. However, the treatment use of IDs is inherently associated with a (...) number of ethically relevant problems.Main textThe objective of this article is to present a coherent framework made up of eight requirements which have to be met for any treatment use of an ID to be ethical. These include a justified need for the use of an ID, no threat to clinical development of the ID, adequate scientific evidence to support the treatment, patient’s benefit as the primary goal of the use of an ID, informed decision of a patient, fair access of patients to IDs, independent review, as well as the dissemination of treatment results.ConclusionsWhile this framework is essentially consistent with the legal regulations of expanded access of the USA, the EU, Canada and Australia, it is substantially wider in scope because it addresses some important issues that are not covered by the regulations. Overall, the framework that we developed minimizes the risks and threats, and maximizes potential benefits to each of the four key stakeholders involved in the treatment use of IDs including patients, doctors, drug manufacturers, and society at large. (shrink)

Most papers included in this special issue were presented at the Fifth International Bioethics Conference, “The Ethics of Intellectual Property Rights and Patents,” held in Warsaw, Poland on 23–24 April, 2004.

_The Cinema of Andrzej Wajda: The Art of Irony and Defiance_ Edited by John Orr and Elzbieta Ostrowska Foreword by Andrzej Wajda London: Wallflower Press, 2003 ISBN 1-903364-89-2 227 pages.

Medical practice is ideally based on robust, relevant research. However, the lack of disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s disease has motivated “innovative practice” to improve patients’ well-being despite insufficient evidence for the regular use of such interventions in health systems treating millions of patients. Innovative or new non-validated practice poses at least three distinct ethical questions: first, about the responsible application of new non-validated practice to individual patients ; second, about the way in which data from new non-validated practice are communicated (...) via the scientific and lay press ; and third, about the prospect of making new non-validated interventions widely available before more definitive testing. We argue that the authors of metabolic enhancement protocols for Alzheimer’s disease have overstated the evidence in favor of these interventions within the scientific and lay press, failing to communicate weaknesses in their data and uncertainty about their conclusions. Such unmeasured language may create false hope, cause financial harm, undermine informed consent, and frustrate the production of generalizable knowledge necessary to face the societal problems posed by this devastating disease. We therefore offer more stringent guidelines for responsible innovation in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. (shrink)

I introduce definition by genus and specific difference, afterwards using it to show that Karl Jaspers rejected the classic criteria for pathologically falsified judgment: ‘Absolute conviction,’ ‘incorrigibility,’ and ‘impossibility of content.’ Next I draw attention to the primary experience of delusion. Famously, Jaspers reckoned that that experience was “ununderstandable”—usually taken to imply something negative about one’s ability to empathize with the delusion holder. All the same, I propose that it was actually our static mode of understanding that he felt was (...) defeated by the aforementioned experience, not our genetic one. (shrink)

I introduce definition by genus and specific difference, afterwards using it to show that Karl Jaspers rejected the classic criteria for pathologically falsified judgment: ‘Absolute conviction,’ ‘incorrigibility,’ and ‘impossibility of content.’ Next I draw attention to the primary experience of delusion. Famously, Jaspers reckoned that that experience was “ununderstandable”—usually taken to imply something negative about one’s ability to empathize with the delusion holder. All the same, I propose that it was actually our static mode of understanding that he felt was (...) defeated by the aforementioned experience, not our genetic one. (shrink)

W ostatnich latach obserwujemy intensywną debatę publiczną dotyczącą implementacji koncepcji miast i gmin przyjaznych starzeniu się (age-friendly cities and communities) oraz jej nowszej i szerszej odsłony związanej z inteligentnymi i zdrowymi przestrzeniami przyjaznymi starzeniu się (smart healthy age-friendly environments, SHAFE). Rozdział koncentruje się na zwięzłym przeglądzie obejmującym te zagadnienia. W pierwszej części artykuł przybliża podstawowe pojęcia i wybrane działania Komisji Europejskiej w obszarze upowszechniania dialogu międzypokoleniowego oraz programowania polityk relacji międzypokoleniowych. Następnie zaprezentowano krótkie omówienia studiów przypadku dotyczące wybranych projektów innowacji (...) społecznych i metodyk mających na celu: (1) wzmocnienie pozycji facylitatorów koncepcji miast i gmin przyjaznych starzeniu się oraz inteligentnych, zdrowych i inkluzywnych przestrzeni; (2) ułatwienie obywatelom, szczególnie osobom starszym, radzenia sobie z sytuacjami kryzysowymi w obszarze zdrowia publicznego; oraz (3) wspieranie głosu seniorów i seniorek w podejmowaniu decyzji co do celów i zadań polityk publicznych (współprojektowanie), ich wdrażania (współzarządzanie, współrealizowanie/koprodukcja usług publicznych) oraz ich monitorowania i ewaluacji (współocena). Ostatnia część zawiera rekomendacje dla wybranych podmiotów odpowiedzialnych za politykę publiczną wobec starzenia się ludności oraz propozycje kierunków dalszych badań. (shrink)

The paper consists of two parts, outlined in the title.I. In the historical science time appears as an element of the historian’s workshop. The historian collects source information, evaluates them and assigns respective dates. Only on the ground of thus “processed” sources may he reproduce the past: events and longer development processes, setting them in time. This dated time is understood colloquially as something objective, which runs one way and may be measured.II. A historian who studies the past reality depends (...) on the extent to which those sources are preserved. As a result of their interpretation, with the use of increasingly excellent research methods, he reproduces that reality. He must carry out an ongoing selection of historical facts found. This exposes him to temptations of such selection of those facts so as to adjust the historical knowledge to serve well the national interests, his own political opinions, etc. In this way the historian exerts influence on social awareness, which may consists of various myths and stereotypes, which sometimes lead to negative social behaviors: aggression, chauvinism, etc. Therefore, for researcher honesty’s sake and in the sense of moral responsibility, he must be careful to be as impartial as possible in his work. (shrink)

The volume contains Isaiah Berlin's letters to his Polish friend, Andrzej Walicki, and Walicki's detailed account of Berlin's role in his life. Berlin actively promoted Walicki's books on Russian intellectual history not only because of his own interest in the subject. Above all he wanted to promote Russian intellectual history as a separate, internationally recognized field of study and, therefore, warmly welcomed Walicki's firm intention to study it in a systematic way, with the aim of providing a comprehensive synthesis (...) of all important currents in pre-Revolutionary Russian thought. Already at their meeting Berlin discovered in Walicki a promising candidate to help him in laying foundations for Russian intellectual history as a legitimate part of the universal history of ideas; as a discipline rewarding in itself and particularly relevant for rediscovering the great traditions of the Russian intelligentsia and setting them against the stifling dogmas of Soviet totalitarianism. (shrink)

Podstawowym założeniem artykułu jest uznanie, że złożoność wyzwań związanych ze starzeniem się populacji wymusza rozwój powiązań kooperacyjnych między podmiotami polityki publicznej reprezentującymi różne sektory. Innymi słowy: niezbędna jest bardziej intensywna i lepiej skoordynowana współpraca między organizacjami sektora publicznego, komercyjnego, pozarządowego, nieformalnego oraz sektora obejmującego podmioty gospodarki społecznej (np. spółdzielnie). Zasadnicze znaczenie ma w tym kontekście wdrażanie założeń teorii współzarządzania (governance), koprodukcji oraz mieszanej gospodarki dobrobytu (inaczej: wielosektorowej polityki społecznej). W konsekwencji artykuł wskazuje na wybrane wątki dyskursu dotyczącego relacji procesu starzenia (...) się ludności z przedsiębiorczością społeczną i innowacjami społecznymi. Tekst przytacza także przykłady dobrych praktyk i inicjatyw z obszaru gospodarki społecznej. Podsumowanie zawiera rekomendacje dla podmiotów polityki publicznej oraz proponowane kierunki dalszych badań. (shrink)

The book deals with post-analytical philosophy of law, which departs from the traditional view which considers philosophical cognition as a sense-making and optimizing activity. It seeks to deconstruct the analytical, both philosophical and legal, narrative to expose it as a collection of schemes which oversimplify the legal and political reality.

Das Buch ist eine systematische Bearbeitung der neukantischen Philosophie und enthält einen Überblick über die wichtigsten Vertreter aller sieben neukantianischen Richtungen und Schulen: physiologische, metaphysische, relativistische, psychologische, realistische, so wie auch Badische Schule und Marburger Schule.