In this dissertation, I have analyzed some of the problems associated with male reproduction. I discuss basic notions regarding the origin of parental rights concluding that whatever rights parents have regarding their children arise because of the biological connection between the parents and child. A biological parent has prima facie rights to his child because that parent has property-type rights to his own body. ;I suggest that parental responsibilities automatically incur whenever the conception of a child is intentional or voluntary, (...) or when conception is the result of negligent or reckless sexual activity. Only when procreation is involuntary does automatically delegating parental responsibilities to a male seem morally problematic. The category of acts which would constitute involuntary procreation, however, is very narrow. ;I discuss morally problematic issues that arise when a child is born against the wishes of the male progenitor. Focusing specifically on the issue of child support, I conclude that the father should have some responsibility for the support of the child. The only time for which the imposition of parental responsibilities upon a reluctant father is morally questionable would involve the fraudulent misrepresentation of the female regarding her use of contraceptives, combined with some affirmative action by her to undermine the male's attempted effort at contraception. ;Finally, I discuss the moral and legal implications of a woman's decision to obtain an abortion against the wishes of the potential father. I conclude that her abortion could seriously harm the male's procreation interests. But, given the vital role women have in the reproductive process, women should possess rights superior to those males might possess. The evolution of reproductive technology, however, has made these greater rights a contingent fact. (shrink)

In this paper, my aim is to understand the origin of experimental and scientific models of pathogeny of the diseases of the nervous system in the Salpêtrière (Paris). I will analyse the role of the contexts of cell theory, microscopy and the advances in histological techniques in the creation of various pathogenic models, based on the concept of the cell, the Wallerian degeneration and the neurone concept. I argue that, as medicine and pathology remain autonomous in their methods and goals, (...) because of the evident degree of complexity of diseases, close and reciprocal interactions with sciences, their practices and theories, make it possible to establish convergences between clinical observations, pathological data and those from the experimental models of pathologies. The search for pathogenic models behaves like an engine, which is efficient in assembling facts, in testing pathogeneses and reforming nosologies, combined with the breakthroughs in biology. This paper is a case study showing the emergence of such interactions in the last decades of the nineteenth-century in Paris. (shrink)

This collection breaks new ground in four key areas of feminist social thought: the sex/gender debates; challenges to liberalism/equality; feminist ethics; and feminist perspectives on global ethics and politics in the 21st century. Altogether, the essays provide an innovative look at feminist philosophy while making substantive contributions to current debates in gender theory, ethics, and political thought.

Certified nursing assistants (CNAs) provide up to 80% of the direct care to older adults in long‐term care facilities.CNAs are perceived as being at the bottom of the hierarchy among healthcare professionals often negatively affecting their job satisfaction. However, manyCNAs persevere in providing quality care and even reporting high levels of job satisfaction. The aim of the present investigation was to identify primary themes that may helpCNAs make meaning of their chosen career; thus potentially partially explaining increases in job satisfaction (...) among this group. Focus groups were conducted withCNAs at three long‐term care facilities. Four themes emerged from the data:CNAwork is good or special;CNAas relationship builder;CNAas expert;CNAas team member. These themes reflect the perceptions that theseCNAs held in regard to themselves and their relationships to others in the work environment and, when present, can contribute to intrinsic job satisfaction. Our meaning‐making themes support the premise thatCNAs do not passively accept the evaluations of others but instead actively frame identities that validate their importance to residents and the institution. (shrink)

_Learning Communities_ is a groundbreaking book that shows how learning communities can be a flexible and effective approach to enhancing student learning, promoting curricular coherence, and revitalizing faculty. Written by Barbara Leigh Smith, Jean MacGregor, Roberta S. Matthews, and Faith Gabelnick¾acclaimed national leaders in the learning communities movement¾this important book provides the historical, conceptual, and philosophical context for LCs and clearly demonstrates that they can be a key element in institutional transformation.

Pazifismus polarisiert: Während die einen ihn für unverantwortlich und gefährlich halten, sehen andere in ihm den Schlüssel zu einer friedlichen Welt. 16 Originalbeiträge namhafter Autor/innen aus Philosophie, Theologie und Friedenspolitik beleuchten im vorliegenden Sammelband die pazifistische Position im Detail: Ist der Pazifismus heute noch plausibel? Darf militärische Gewalt aus moralischer Sicht kategorisch abgelehnt werden? Kann eine pazifistische Position legitimiert werden?

_Learning Communities_ is a groundbreaking book that shows how learning communities can be a flexible and effective approach to enhancing student learning, promoting curricular coherence, and revitalizing faculty. Written by Barbara Leigh Smith, Jean MacGregor, Roberta S. Matthews, and Faith Gabelnick¾acclaimed national leaders in the learning communities movement¾this important book provides the historical, conceptual, and philosophical context for LCs and clearly demonstrates that they can be a key element in institutional transformation.

L'un a les flancs bleutes, l'autre la poitrine gluante; une nageoire pousse ici sur un dos, surgit la une queue; tantot la tete manque, tantot le reste; la main de celui-ci ondule, et celui-la reclame en hurlant ses pieds qui s'evanouissent. Introduisant a la polymorphie de l'animal, le frontispice, ainsi commente par Philostrate, est deploye a travers ce receuil qui explore la difference entre homme, animal et plante. De la medecine a la religion, en passant par les modeles et contre-modeles (...) politiques, les metaphores et les fables, l'imagerie et la logique, textes et images y sont analyses. Car l'animal (dit-on meme animal en grec?) est l'un des lieux de polemique majeurs pour determiner les ruptures au sein de l'Antiquite greco-latine et mieux fixer les coupures entre Antiquite et Modernite. (shrink)

Cultural difference has been largely ignored within bioethics, particularly within the end-of-life discourses and practices that have developed over the past two decades in the U.S. healthcare system. Yet how should culturebe taken into account?

Starting dialysis at an advanced age is a clinical challenge and an ethical dilemma. The advantages of starting dialysis at “extreme” ages are questionable as high dialysis-related morbidity induces a reflection on the cost- benefit ratio of this demanding and expensive treatment in a person that has a short life expectancy. Where clinical advantages are doubtful, ethical analysis can help us reach decisions and find adapted solutions. Mr. H is a ninety-year-old patient with end-stage kidney disease that is no longer (...) manageable with conservative care, in spite of optimal nutritional management, good blood pressure control and strict clinical and metabolic evaluations; dialysis is the next step, but its morbidity is challenging. The case is analysed according to principlism (beneficence, non-maleficence, justice and respect for autonomy). In the setting of care, dialysis is available without restriction; therefore the principle of justice only partially applied, in the absence of restraints on health-care expenditure. The final decision on whether or not to start dialysis rested with Mr. H (respect for autonomy). However, his choice depended on the balance between beneficence and non-maleficence. The advantages of dialysis in restoring metabolic equilibrium were clear, and the expected negative effects of dialysis were therefore decisive. Mr. H has a contraindication to peritoneal dialysis (severe arthritis impairing self-performance) and felt performing it with nursing help would be intrusive. Post dialysis fatigue, poor tolerance, hypotension and intrusiveness in daily life of haemodialysis patients are closely linked to the classic thrice-weekly, four-hour schedule. A personalized incremental dialysis approach, starting with one session per week, adapting the timing to the patient’s daily life, can limit side effects and “dialysis shock”. An individualized approach to complex decisions such as dialysis start can alter the delicate benefit/side-effect balance, ultimately affecting the patient’s choice, and points to a narrative, tailor-made approach as an alternative to therapeutic nihilism, in very old and fragile patients. (shrink)

This topically organized, interdisciplinary anthology provides competing perspective on the claim that western culture faces a moral crisis. Using clearly written, accessible essays by well-known authors in philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities, the book introduces students to a variety of perspectives on the current cultural debate about values that percolates beneath the surface of most of our social and political controversies.

Jean Hamburger is considered the founder of the concept of medical intensive care and the first to propose the name Nephrology for the branch of medicine dealing with kidney diseases. One of the first kidney grafts in the world, in 1953, and the first dialysis session in France, in 1955, were performed under his guidance. His achievements as a writer were at least comparable: Hamburger was awarded several important literary prizes, including prix Femina, prix Balzac and the Cino del (...) Duca prize, awarded, among others, to Jorge Luis Borges and Konrad Lorenz.Here we would like to offer a selected reading of a “golden” book, “Conseils aux étudiants en medicine de mon service”, the first book dedicated to patient-physician relationship in Nephrology, written when dialysis and transplantation were becoming clinical options. The themes include: the central role of the patient, who should be known by name, profession, life style, and not by disease; the importance of the setting of the care; the need for truth-telling and for leaving hope; the role of research not only in the progression of science, but also in the daily clinical practice. (shrink)

Vilar, Gerard Jean-François Lyotard: Estética y políticaBarcelona: Gedisa, 160 p.ISBN 9788418525896.

Es innegable que el pensamiento de Renaud Barbaras está en vías de dar nacimiento, en Francia, a un nuevo paradigma fenomenológico. Este artículo pretende discutir este paradigma desarrollando dos hipótesis. La primera es que, tras la expresión “cosmología fenomenológica” que él mismo utiliza para designarla y que en sí misma no está desprovista de ambigüedad (si “cosmos” significa “mundo”, en el fondo toda fenomenología se presenta como una “cosmología”), se oculta un giro fenomenológico demasiado poco advertido, y que Ricoeur ya (...) había diagnosticado en su lectura de Dufrenne: el giro de una fenomenología de la conciencia -o del Dasein- a una fenomenología de la naturaleza -o de la physis- que obliga a redefinir a fondo sus coordenadas conceptuales. La segunda es que, al instituir tal paradigma, la obra misma de Renaud Barbaras, por sus sutiles evoluciones, nos permite captar sus dificultades o ambigüedades, y al hacerlo, nos permite heredarla de manera crítica. (shrink)

Jean Hamburger (1909--1992) is considered the founder of the concept of medical intensive care (reanimation medicale) and the first to propose the name Nephrology for the branch of medicine dealing with kidney diseases. One of the first kidney grafts in the world (with short-term success), in 1953, and the first dialysis session in France, in 1955, were performed under his guidance. His achievements as a writer were at least comparable: Hamburger was awarded several important literary prizes, including prix Femina, (...) prix Balzac and the Cino del Duca prize (1979), awarded, among others, to Jorge Luis Borges and Konrad Lorenz.Here we would like to offer a selected reading of a "golden" book, "Conseils aux etudiants en medicine de mon service" ("Advice to the Medical Students in my Service"), the first book dedicated to patient-physician relationship in Nephrology, written when dialysis and transplantation were becoming clinical options (1963). The themes include: the central role of the patient, who should be known by name, profession, life style, and not by disease; the importance of the setting of the care; the need for truth-telling and for leaving hope; the role of research not only in the progression of science, but also in the daily clinical practice. (shrink)

A translation of selected correspondence between Jean Wahl and Karl Jaspers on Descartes and Kierkegaard.

Parmi toutes les qualités que l’on peut reconnaître à l’œuvre de Jean Starobinski, l’une des plus importantes me semble être l’admirable travail de lecture dont elle témoigne. Je voudrais dégager ici quelques axes de sa méthode de lecture, en montrer la richesse et la subtilité, et en analyser les effets. Lecteur exemplaire, Starobinski ne cesse de nous apprendre à lire et à relire, l’un des plus beaux aboutissements de son œuvre étant de nous faire relire vraiment, et donc redécouvrir, (...) ce qu... (shrink)

Les travaux sur le rôle et la place des femmes en Afrique subsaharienne ne sont pas très nombreux. On pense notamment ­ pour les pionniers/ères ­ à la thèse de Catherine Coles, Muslim Women in Town. Social Change among the Hausa of Northern Nigeria (Madison, Ph. D, 1983), à Jean Boyd et Murray Last, « The Role of Women as " Agents religieux " in Sokoto » (Canadian Journal of African Studies, 1985), à Barbara Callaway, Muslim Hausa Women (...) in Nigeria. Tradition and Change (Syracuse, 1987)... (shrink)