Animal research in the United Kingdom is regulated by the Animals Act 1986, which requires a government minister to weigh the expected suffering of animals against the expected benefits of a proposed animal research project—the “cost-benefit assessment”—before licensing the project. Research into the implementation of this legislation has been severely constrained by statutory confidentiality. This paper overcomes this hindrance by describing a critical case study based on unprecedented primary data: pig-to-primate organ transplantation conducted between 1995 and 2000. It reveals that (...) researchers and regulators significantly underestimated the adverse effects suffered by the animals involved, while overestimating the scientific and medical benefits likely to accrue. Applying dynamic policy network analysis to this case in the context of the evolution of animal research policy indicates that an elitist, policy community type network has persisted since shortly after the network’s formation in 1876. Animal research interests have repeatedly withstood pressure for change from animal protection groups because of their greater resources, structural advantages, and a culture of secrecy that facilitates an implementation gap in animal research regulation. (shrink)

?Achievement is doing what well?? A competitive democracy tends to repress this question as inegalitarian; it uses the slogan ?Whatever you do, do well?. But this slogan could not be taken seriously, nor is it really egalitarian. Our actual hierarchy of activities is based on an unargued and arbitrary consensus; it is an example of the way audiences control performers. Doubts about ?true achievement? are not merely ?philosophical?. Noting repressed concern about this issue suggests hypotheses to help explain some social (...) tensions, e.g., over women's liberation. The love of competition might or might not make achievement more likely. (shrink)

General opposition to 'progress' is often seen as involving a personification of technology as an evil spirit. One version of 'luddism' is defended here as worthy of serious debate. ('Luddism' is an attempt to justify a general presumption that technical progress is bad for us, so technical innovations should not count as true achievement.) Our luddite says, 'If technical powers, misused, will cause more harm than good, these powers should count as bad. And such harmful misuse is likely, since the (...) dramatic, half-blind changes resulting from technology will shortly damage world systems, swamping their adjustment-mechanisms. “Superhuman”; powers go sour with merely human wisdom. “Know-how”; tends inherently to pull ahead of “know-whether”; '. This version of luddism is contrasted with various caricatures; luddite research priorities are outlined. Serious discussion is invited of the dangers inherent in further empowering fallible humanity. (shrink)

I'd like to trace here a great rhetorical-philosophical project which runs through the writings of Plato – his attempt to moralize norms of honor and glory, his attempt to harness the powerful feelings of shame and glory to the ineffectual norms of justice.

This article draws upon clinical experience of GPs working in a deprived area of the North East of England to examine the potential contribution of Universal Basic Income to health by mitigating ‘patient-side barriers’ among three cohorts experiencing distinct forms of ‘precariousness’: 1) long-term unemployed welfare recipients with low levels of education (lumpenprecariat); 2) workers on short-term/zero-hours contracts with low levels of education (‘lower’ precariat); 3) workers on short-term/zero-hours contracts with relatively high levels of education (‘upper’ precariat). We argue that (...) any benefits must be accompanied by robust institutions capable of promoting health. (shrink)

A team of philosophical writers examines the startling ideas and arguments of this pundit of persuasion.

This paper examines the role of clinical practitioners and clinical researchers internationally in establishing the utility of harm-reduction approaches to substance use. It thus illustrates the potential for clinicians to play a pivotal role in health promoting structural interventions based on harm-reduction goals and public health models. Popular media images of drug use as uniformly damaging, and abstinence as the only acceptable goal of treatment, threaten to distort clinical care away from a basis in evidence, which shows that some ways (...) of using drugs are far more harmful than others and that punitive approaches and insistence on total abstinence as the only goal of treatment often increases the harms of drug use rather than reducing drug use. Therefore the leadership and scientific authority of clinicians who understand the health impact of harm-reduction strategies is needed. Through a review of harm-reduction interventions in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, we identify three ways that clinicians have helped to achieve a paradigm shift from punitive approaches to harm-reduction principles in clinical care and in drug policy: through clinical research to provide data establishing the effectiveness and feasibility of harm-reduction approaches, by developing innovative clinical programmes that employ harm reduction, and thereby changing the standard of care to include routine use of these evidence-based approaches in their practices. We argue that through promotion of harm-reduction goals and methods, clinicians have unique opportunities to improve the health outcomes of vulnerable populations. (shrink)

Three years ago Robert Saltonstall, Jr., Associate Vice President for Operations at Harvard University, faced an increasingly common problem in business and institutions today when he severed 68 long-service, wage employees to solve a problem of low productivity in a particular trade group. He did this using relatively conventional and creative techniques. But now three years later, he asked Nona Lyons of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, who is researching the ethical dimensions of executives' decisions, to assist (...) him in evaluating how these employees felt about the process. The employees' loyalty in spite of everything has caused Saltonstall to rethink the ethics of both his decision and its execution. In this article Saltonstall asks and answers many of the questions executives face when challenged to handle work reduction decisions in a more ethical way. And Lyons assists him with commentary on some of the current research on moral decision-making which will help executives to understand why they find some of their decisions to be moral dilemmas. The article challenges executives to think about reorganization decisions in a participative way and suggests seven central issues executives should consider before commencing a participative approach. The article reaches no specific conclusion, but introduces some new ways to think about lay-off decisions and their ethical implications for those affected. (shrink)

Papers from an international colloquium organized by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Provides a collection of interviews and photographs of perpetrators and victims of the Rwandan genocide.

We are living in an unprecedented era of biomedical revolution. Medicine is remaking humans, and controversy surrounds such topics as abortion, artificial organs, brain circuitry, eugenics, euthanasia, and gene therapy. At the same time, medical advances are posing complex ethical problems for both patients and professionals. The most comprehensive and up-to-date collection of its kind, Case Studies in Biomedical Ethics: Decision-Making, Principles, and Cases explores fundamental ethical questions arising from real situations faced by health professionals, patients, and others. Featuring a (...) wide range of more than 100 case studies drawn from current events, court cases, and physicians' experiences, the book is divided into three parts. Part I presents a basic framework for ethical decision-making in healthcare, covering such issues as separating evaluative questions from questions of fact; distinguishing between ethical and nonethical evaluations; and identifying the source of ethical judgments. Expanding upon this framework, Part II explains the ethical principles: beneficence and nonmaleficence, justice, respect for autonomy, veracity, fidelity, and avoidance of killing. Parts I and II provide students with the background to analyze the ethical dilemmas presented in Part III, which features cases on a broad spectrum of issues including abortion, genetics, mental health, confidentiality, health insurance, experimentation on humans, the right to refuse treatment, and death and dying. Each case is accompanied by the authors' commentary, which guides students in considering the issues. Ideal for undergraduate and graduate courses in biomedical ethics, bioethics, and medical ethics, Case Studies in Biomedical Ethics incorporates opening text boxes in each chapter that cross-reference relevant cases in other chapters. It also includes an appendix of important ethical codes and a glossary of key terms. (shrink)

Teachers frequently find that their teaching is unsuccessful with a particular group of students. This paper describes how Heidegger’s ontology was useful to teachers as they developed a distance education platform to teach astronomy to culturally diverse Aotearoa New Zealand secondary school students. Māori students do not perform well within their State’s model of normalising education, and academic authors ascribe this “failure” to the effects of cultural difference and imperialism. This paper conjectures that Māori are not merely “culturally different” but (...) that they represent a metaphysical heritage that is akin to that described as Greek metaphysics by Heidegger. There are cultural artefacts and practices that serve for modern Māori in a way that parallels Heidegger’s account of the ancient Greeks. Māori may represent an ontological tradition that stands completely outside of Western metaphysics. If the conjecture is correct, normalising education is unlikely to ever to be satisfactory for Māori. (shrink)

Conventional medical ethics and the law draw a bright line distinguishing the permitted practice of withdrawing life-sustaining treatment from the forbidden practice of active euthanasia by means of a lethal injection. When clinicians justifiably withdraw life-sustaining treatment, they allow patients to die but do not cause, intend, or have moral responsibility for, the patient's death. In contrast, physicians unjustifiably kill patients whenever they intentionally administer a lethal dose of medication. We argue that the differential moral assessment of these two practices (...) is based on a series of moral fictions – motivated false beliefs that erroneously characterize withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in order to bring accepted end-of-life practices in line with the prevailing moral norm that doctors must never kill patients. When these moral fictions are exposed, it becomes apparent that conventional medical ethics relating to end-of-life decisions is radically mistaken. (shrink)

Retrieval of relevant unstructured information from the ever-increasing textual communications of individuals and businesses has become a major barrier to effective litigation/defense, mergers/acquisitions, and regulatory compliance. Such e-discovery requires simultaneously high precision with high recall (high-P/R) and is therefore a prototype for many legal reasoning tasks. The requisite exhaustive information retrieval (IR) system must employ very different techniques than those applicable in the hyper-precise, consumer search task where insignificant recall is the accepted norm. We apply Russell, et al.’s cognitive task (...) analysis of sensemaking by intelligence analysts to develop a semi-autonomous system that achieves high IR accuracy of F1 ≥ 0.8 compared to F1 < 0.4 typical of computer-assisted human-assessment (CAHA) or alternative approaches such as Roitblat, et al.’s. By understanding the ‘Learning Loop Complexes’ of lawyers engaged in successful small-scale document review, we have used socio-technical design principles to create roles, processes, and technologies for scalable human-assisted computer-assessment (HACA). Results from the NIST-TREC Legal Track’s interactive task from both 2008 and 2009 validate the efficacy of this sensemaking approach to the high-P/R IR task. (shrink)

This paper examines the role of clinical practitioners and clinical researchers internationally in establishing the utility of harm-reduction approaches to substance use. It thus illustrates the potential for clinicians to play a pivotal role in health promoting structural interventions based on harm-reduction goals and public health models. Popular media images of drug use as uniformly damaging, and abstinence as the only acceptable goal of treatment, threaten to distort clinical care away from a basis in evidence, which shows that some ways (...) of using drugs are far more harmful than others and that punitive approaches and insistence on total abstinence as the only goal of treatment often increases the harms of drug use rather than reducing drug use. Therefore the leadership and scientific authority of clinicians who understand the health impact of harm-reduction strategies is needed. Through a review of harm-reduction interventions in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, we identify three ways that clinicians have helped to achieve a paradigm shift from punitive approaches to harm-reduction principles in clinical care and in drug policy: through clinical research to provide data establishing the effectiveness and feasibility of harm-reduction approaches, by developing innovative clinical programmes that employ harm reduction, and thereby changing the standard of care to include routine use of these evidence-based approaches in their practices. We argue that through promotion of harm-reduction goals and methods, clinicians have unique opportunities to improve the health outcomes of vulnerable populations. (shrink)

Abstrak: Artikel ini merupakan analisis terhadap hubungan antara Israel dan bangsa-bangsa lainnya dengan menggunakan pemikiran tentang “liyan.” Dalam masyarakat multikultural kehadiran liyan tidak terhindarkan dan menuntut tanggapan yang sungguh-sungguh. Keadaan ini pada gilirannya akan menciptakan ambiguitas, sebagaimana yang dialami oleh Israel. Penemuan arkeologis akhir-akhir ini membuktikan bahwa hubungan antara Israel dengan bangsa-bangsa lain ternyata tidak seperti yang dilukiskan oleh Alkitab. Israel bukanlah sebuah bangsa yang pada suatu masa datang ke Kanaan yang sudah berpenduduk, tetapi mereka muncul secara bertahap dari antara (...) bangsa Kanaan sendiri. Maka, Israel memiliki banyak kesamaan dengan bangsa-bangsa lain itu. Pada pihak lain, Israel juga menumbuhkan sebuah ideologi yang lama-kelamaan akan membentuk mereka menjadi sebuah bangsa. Telah disarankan agar hubungan antara Israel dengan bangsa-bangsa lain itu dipandang sebagai hubungan interkultural. Meskipun pandangan itu masuk akal, namun penulis hendak mengajukan cara pandang lain. Cara pandang itu adalah hibriditas relasional. Dalam pandangan ini, Israel dilihat sebagai sebuah bangsa yang bersifat hibrid, namun bukan dalam arti yang statis. Hibriditas di sini dipandang sebagai sebuah keadaan yang menuntut tanggapan aktif. Dengan kata lain, kesamaan dan perbedaan antara Israel dengan bangsa-bangsa lainnya tidak boleh dianggap sebagai sebuah kondisi yang sudah jadi melainkan terus-menerus dalam proses pembentukan. Kata-kata kunci: Liyan, ambiguitas, budaya, interkultural, agama, kesamaan, perbedaan, hibriditas relasional. Abstract: This article will analyze the relationship between Israel and other nations using the concept of “the other.” In a multicultural society, the presence of the other is unavoidable and demands a serious response. This, however, creates ambiguity, as experienced by Israel. Recent archeological findings have proven that the relationship between Israel and other nations mentioned in the Bible was unlike the description provided by the Bible. Israel was not a separate nation that came into an already occupied land of Canaan, but rather, it gradually emerged as agroup from within the people of the land. Therefore, it can be expected that this nation shared many similarities with its cohabitants. On the other hand, it also developed a distinctive ideology which over time formed Israel as a separate nation. It has been suggested to consider the relationship between Israel and the others through the lens of interculturality. This article proposes another perspective, that is, a relational hybridity. From this perspective, Israel is seen as a hybrid nation. The hybridity is understood as a state of life, but, as one that always demands an active response. In other words, it is a process continously evolving. Keywords: The other, ambiguity, intercultural, religion, similarity, difference, hybridity, relational. (shrink)

L'auteur propose un parcours a la fois modeste et ambitieux. Apres avoir dessine, dans plusieurs ouvrages (Lumiere, commencement, liberte, Construction d'un chateau, Les Actes de la joie, La Jouissance d'etre, La Nacre et le Rocher) une doctrine du sujet qui fonde une ethique du bonheur, l'auteur se retourne sur la culture qui l'a precede et presente quelques textes qui font echo a ses propres recherches. Les specificites de chaque auteur sont si patentes qu'elles permettent d'ecarter l'idee de redondances. Mais la (...) similitude des preoccupations, evidente en chaque etape existentielle, permet de souligner la parente profonde de tous les humains. L'auteur nous devoile ainsi un universel concret et un nouvel humanisme. A cette modestie philosophique s'ajoute une ambition, elle aussi philosophique. Car il s'agit, pour Robert Misrahi, d'organiser son regard retrospectif (la suite et l'enchainement des textes cites) selon un itineraire precis, a la fois existentiel et logique, un cheminement qui conduit des affirmations de l'angoisse aux constructions de la joie. A travers la nuit des souffrances, la quete du Desir, les denegations du renoncement, la decouverte des deux libertes, le courage de la conversion, les approches de l'accomplissement et l'instauration du bonheur d'etre, l'auteur trace un itineraire ascendant. Cet itineraire, maladroitement suivi par l'humanite au travers d'experiences discontinues, solitaires et mal pensees, est cependant revelateur d'un souci commun et d'un pouvoir partage. Il se pourrait donc que l'experience multiple de la litterature et de la philosophie, a defaut de cautionner entierement une doctrine reflexive de la jouissance de vivre, justifie au moins son mouvement et en confirme la pertinence. (shrink)

Ce livre rassemble les Actes du colloque qui s’est tenu au Centre Culturel International de Cerisy-la-Salle du 9 au 16 juin 2012. Ce colloque est le premier qui ait été consacré à la philosophie de Robert Misrahi. Ce colloque a permis de parcourir un itinéraire dans l’ensemble de l’oeuvre de Robert Misrahi. Des philosophes ont d’abord exposé les grands axes de sa pensée, des spécialistes d’autres disciplines ont ensuite montré que cette pensée avait essaimé dans de nombreux champs (...) de pratiques : psychanalytique, bioéthique, coopérative, poétique, artistique, monde de l’entreprise, de l’éducation. On a ainsi pu mesurer l’ampleur et la cohérence d’une oeuvre. La particularité de ce colloque résidait aussi dans la présence de Robert Misrahi, et on se rend compte à la lecture des actes de son engagement permanent. Ses trois communications tissent une trame depuis son inscription dans l’histoire des idées, à l’élaboration de ses propres concepts pour ensuite synthétiser l’aboutissement d’une oeuvre et d’une vie. Les échanges qui ont été retranscrits permettent aussi d’avoir un témoignage des relations très intenses et éclairantes qui ont eu lieu. (shrink)

Different types of consent are used to obtain human biospecimens for future research. This variation has resulted in confusion regarding what research is permitted, inadvertent constraints on future research, and research proceeding without consent. The National Institutes of Health Clinical Center's Department of Bioethics held a workshop to consider the ethical acceptability of addressing these concerns by using broad consent for future research on stored biospecimens. Multiple bioethics scholars, who have written on these issues, discussed the reasons for consent, the (...) range of consent strategies, and gaps in our understanding, and concluded with a proposal for broad initial consent coupled with oversight and, when feasible, ongoing provision of information to donors. This article describes areas of agreement and areas that need more research and dialogue. Given recent proposed changes to the Common Rule, and new guidance regarding storing and sharing data and samples, this is an important and tim.. (shrink)

1 Evidence-based policy requires researchers to provide the answers to ecological questions that are of interest to policy makers. To find out what those questions are in the UK, representatives from 28 organizations involved in policy, together with scientists from 10 academic institutions, were asked to generate a list of questions from their organizations. 2 During a 2-day workshop the initial list of 1003 questions generated from consulting at least 654 policy makers and academics was used as a basis for (...) generating a short list of 100 questions of significant policy relevance. Short-listing was decided on the basis of the preferences of the representatives from the policy-led organizations. 3 The areas covered included most major issues of environmental concern in the UK, including agriculture, marine fisheries, climate change, ecosystem function and land management. 4 The most striking outcome was the preference for general questions rather than narrow ones. The reason is that policy is driven by broad issues rather than specific ones. In contrast, scientists are frequently best equipped to answer specific questions. This means that it may be necessary to extract the underpinning specific question before researchers can proceed. 5 Synthesis and applications. Greater communication between policy makers and scientists is required in order to ensure that applied ecologists are dealing with issues in a way that can feed into policy. It is particularly important that applied ecologists emphasize the generic value of their work wherever possible. (shrink)

Face à l’opposition du bien et du mal selon des méthodes irréligieuses ou idolâtriques, S. Weil propose une autre méthode, la mystique. L’expérience mystique provoque une transposition à un niveau supérieur de ce que pense la philosophe, notamment dans le domaine politique. Aussi cet article cherche-t-il à réfuter les façons erronées de fermer tout accès à la question de la relation entre mystique et politique. La voie empruntée par la philosophe dans son analyse de la littérature aide à comprendre sa (...) position dans le domaine politique, mais l’analyse de la « spiritualité spécifique » de la guerre révèle la difficulté de penser le rapport entre le spirituel et l’action. L’issue à la difficulté rencontrée est de passer, « à force d'art », du côté du « rapport vrai » entre le règne de la nécessité et une aspiration inextinguible au Bien. Il convient, du côté de l’action, de réexaminer le « Projet d’une formation d’infirmières de première ligne ». Côté littéraire, Venise sauvée illustre cet effort pour manifester une vérité qu’il appartient au poète de présenter. (shrink)

On dit et répète que, dans la République, Platon a chassé les poètes de la cité. L’affirmation n’est pas fausse, à condition d’ajouter plusieurs réserves et précisions qui, si on les prend au sérieux, donnent une image très différente de l’attitude de Platon envers la poésie. La cité a besoin de poètes : une partie essentielle de l’éducation des gardiens (livres II-III) repose sur la musique-poésie, et c’est bien pourquoi Platon s’attarde longuement sur les règles à respecter en la matière. (...) Cette poésie soumise à la censure n’est pourtant pas la seule admise : vis-à-vis de la poésie existante (Homère, les Tragiques), le philosophe adopte une position nuancée : elle a beaucoup de charme, et si elle a beaucoup de défauts, il n’est pourtant pas impossible de l’accueillir dans la cité pour peu que les citoyens soient munis de l’antidote fourni par l’éducation. C’est à cette dernière qu’on doit apporter tous ses soins, à celle des gardiens mais aussi à celle des citoyens ordinaires. (shrink)

La personnalite de Robert Badinter se lit a travers la diversite de ses centres d'interets et de ses activites. Professeur de droit (sa vocation premiere), il marquera la seconde moitie du XXe siecle par bien des facettes de son action. Il fut l'artisan de progres sensibles accomplis dans la defense de la dignite de la personne humaine et de la victoire que constitua l'abolition de la peine de mort. Il a vecu l'engagement politique, l'exercice du pouvoir, les subtilites du (...) controle de constitutionnalite et l'eclat des debats parlementaires. Il a promu la creation de la Cour penale internationale, a ecrit livres, essais, articles, consultations, une piece de theatre, un livret d'opera. il a participe a nombre de colloques et de conferences. Intellectuel engage dans les debats de son temps, conscience morale aux yeux de ses contemporains, c'est avant tout un homme de droit et de justice, habite par la prescription biblique: - La justice tu chercheras ardemment -. Les contributions ici reunies emanent de profils et d'horizons divers: universitaires, juges, avocats, collaborateurs, amis, compagnons d'action, ont tenu a temoigner de leur attachement et leur estime. De la Faculte de Besancon aux lieux du pouvoir politique, il laissera, dans les lois comme dans la memoire de ceux qui l'ont approche, la trace d'un infatigable combat, rigoureux, altier, pour la justice et le droit. ". (shrink)

Biographical essays explore the careers of two major early photographers, Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey and William James Stillman. in addition, portfolios with works by Maxime Du Camp, John Beasley Greene, Francis Frith, Robert Macpherson, Adolphe Braun and others testify to the strength and consistency of other early photographers who captured the antique worlds around the Mediterranean."--BOOK JACKET.