The realm of non-rational influence, which includes nudging, is home to many other morally interesting phenomena. In this paper, I introduce the term bumping, to discuss the category of unintentional non-rational influence. Bumping happens constantly, wherever people make choices in environments where they are affected by other people. For instance, doctors will often bump their patients as patients make choices about what treatments to pursue. In some cases, these bumps will systematically tend to make patients’ decisions worse. Put another way: (...) doctors will sometimes harm their patients by bumping them in systematic ways. I use the case of medical overuse, the provision of medical services where the likely harm outweighs the likely benefit to the patient, as a touchstone for arguing that doctors who systematically bump their patients towards harm can be blameworthy for their unwitting influence. (shrink)

BackgroundThis study aimed to ask a sample of the general population about their preferences regarding doctors holding discretionary powers in relation to disclosing cancer diagnosis and prognosis.MethodsThe researchers mailed 443 questionnaires to registered voters in a ward of Tokyo which had a socio-demographic profile similar to greater Tokyo's average and received 246 responses (response rate 55.5%). We describe and analysed respondents' attitudes toward doctors and family members holding discretionary powers in relation to cancer diagnoses disclose.ResultsAmongst respondents who wanted full disclosure (...) about the diagnosis without delay, 117 (69.6 %) respondents agreed to follow the doctor's discretion, whilst 111 (66.1 %) respondents agreed to follow the family member's decision. For respondents who preferred to have the diagnosis and prognosis withheld, 59 (26.5 %) agreed to follow the doctor's decision, and 79 (35.3 %) of respondents agreed with following family member's wishes.ConclusionsThe greater proportion of respondents wants or permits disclosure of cancer diagnosis and prognosis. In patients who reveal negative attitudes toward being given a cancer disclosure directly, alternative options exist such as telling the family ahead of the patient or having a discussion of the cancer diagnosis with the patient together with the family. It is recommended that health professionals become more aware about the need to provide patients with their cancer diagnosis and prognosis in a variety of ways. (shrink)

There are many gene families that are specific to multicellular animals. These have either diverged from ancestral genes that are shared with fungi and/or plants or evolved from an ancestral gene unique to animals. The evolution of gene families involved in cell–cell communication and developmental control has been studied to establish whether the number of member genes increased dramatically immediately prior to or in concert with the Cambrian explosion. A molecular phylogeny‐based analysis of several animal‐specific gene families has revealed that (...) gene diversification by duplication occurred during two active periods interrupted by a long intervening quiescent period. Intriguingly, the Cambrian explosion is situated in the silent period, indicating that there is no direct link between the first burst of gene diversification and the Cambrian explosion itself. The importance of gene recruitment as a possible molecular mechanism for morphological diversity, and its possible role for the Cambrian explosion, are discussed. BioEssays 23:1018–1027, 2001. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (shrink)

Background Japanese people have become increasingly interested in the expression and enhancement of their individual autonomy in medical decisions made regarding medical treatment at and toward the end of life. However, while many Western countries have implemented legislation that deals with patient autonomy in the case of terminal illness, no such legislation exists in Japan. The rationale for this research is based on the need to investigate patient's preferences regarding treatment at the end of life in order to re-evaluate advance (...) directives policy and practice. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional survey with 418 members of the general middle-aged and senior adults (aged between 40 and 65) in Tokyo, Japan. Respondents were asked about their attitudes toward advance directives, and preferences toward treatment options. Results Over 60% of respondents agreed that it is better to express their wishes regarding advance directives (treatment preferences in writing, appointment of proxy for care decision making, appointment of legal administrator of property, stating preferences regarding disposal of one's property and funeral arrangements) but less than 10% of them had already done so. About 60% of respondents in this study preferred to indicate treatment preferences in broad rather than concrete terms. Over 80% would like to decide treatment preferences in consultation with others (22.2% with their proxy, 11.0% with the doctor, and 47.8% with both their proxy and the doctor). Conclusion This study revealed that many Japanese people indicate an interest in undertaking advance directives. This study found that there is a range of preferences regarding how advance directives are undertaken, thus it is important to recognize that any processes put into place should allow flexibility in order to best respect patients' wishes and autonomy. (shrink)

—Human eyes not only serve the function of enabling us “to see” something, but also perform the vital role of allowing us “to show” our gaze for non-verbal communication, such as through establishing eye contact and joint attention. The eyes of service robots should therefore also perform both of these functions. Moreover, they should be friendly in appearance so that humans may feel comfortable with the robots. Therefore we maintain that it is important to consider gaze communication capability and friendliness (...) in designing the appearance of robot eyes. In this paper, we propose a new robot face with rear-projected eyes for changing their appearance while simultaneously realizing the showing of gaze by incorporating stereo cameras. Additionally, we examine which shape of robot eyes is most suitable for gaze reading and gives the friendliest impression, through experiments where we altered the shape and iris size of robot eyes. Keywords: Gaze reading; facial design; projector camera system. (shrink)

Marguerite Clark as Topsy in Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1918). Charlton Heston as Ramon Miguel Vargas in Touch of Evil (1958). Mizuo Peck as Sacagawea in Night at the Museum (2006). From the early days of cinema to its classic-era through to the contemporary Hollywood age, the history of cinema is replete with films in which the racial (or ethnic) background of a principal character does not match the background of the actor or actress portraying that character. I call this (...) actor-character race-mismatching. In this paper, I mainly explore whether a coherent and plausible account can be given of race-matching in terms of purely aesthetic considerations, i.e., an account that absent moral considerations can nevertheless coherently and productively answer the following questions: can race-mismatching itself ever be an aesthetic defect of a film, and if so, under what conditions can race-mismatching be such an aesthetic defect. I claim that once we have in place a precise account of the nature of race-matching, it becomes clear that films for which race-mismatching appears to constitute an aesthetic defect are actually films with which properly engaging requires audiences to satisfy inconsistent epistemic conditions. In such cases, I claim, race mismatching constitutes an aesthetic defect for the film-fiction because—in virtue of the inconsistency underwritten by the race-mismatching—that film-fiction undermines the very uptake it prescribes. I then argue that if what’s defective about race-mismatching aesthetically is predicated on something being defective about race-mismatching epistemically, then if there is nothing in principle defective about race-mismatching epistemically, then so too for mismatching aesthetically (and so too for mismatching morally). From this I conclude that reasons stemming only from race-matching/mismatching itself lack the normative force sufficient to warrant the claim that film-fictions ought not race-mismatch. (shrink)