Global Bioethics最新文献

{"title":"The genetic foundation of human nature and the legal approach. Some philosophical–legal concerns","authors":"S. Salardi","doi":"10.1080/11287462.2014.932996","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/11287462.2014.932996","url":null,"abstract":"Since it has become possible to “read the book of life”, different approaches to the universe, revealed by genetic scientific advances, have come into being. On the one hand, the Human Genome Project (HGP) has opened the medical field to new treatments – or at least to the hope of new therapies – through, for instance, gene therapy. On the other hand, developments in genetics have allowed reductionism or genetic essentialism to make its way into the public and institutional perception of genetic advances. This paper will argue that the essentialist approach to genetics is inspired by the constant craving of humans to find, once and for all, those features and determinants that constitute identity: the human nature. I will argue against this trend by testing a particular field in which the concept of human nature could be the source of discrimination and inequalities, that being genetic human nature based law.","PeriodicalId":36835,"journal":{"name":"Global Bioethics","volume":"1 1","pages":"195 - 202"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/11287462.2014.932996","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59806897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The relation between law, religion, culture and medical ethics in Nigeria","authors":"O. Odia","doi":"10.1080/11287462.2014.937949","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/11287462.2014.937949","url":null,"abstract":"Nigeria consists of over 250 ethnic groups with various customs and values. There are three dominant religions: Christianity, Islam and sundry traditional religions. The religion and cultures of the various peoples control the lives and transactions of the various groups. Nigerian law is based on English common law, customary law and Islam-based Sharia law. Medical ethics came into focus in the early 1960s after independence, when the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) was set up to regulate the practice of medicine and dentistry. The law that established the Medical and Dental Council was updated in 1990, under the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act, Cap 221, laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Medical ethics in Nigeria is based on the core principles of the Hippocratic oath, and the Nigerian code of medical ethics was revised in 1990 and 2004. However, the core principles remain the same. The law, religion and culture of the Nigerian people seem to be in firm accord with the code of medical ethics as it relates to abortion and euthanasia. The Nigerian penal code regards euthanasia as murder. Abortion, except done in order to save the life of the mother, remains a criminal offence. However, litigations against those who commit abortion are few and far between. This harmony between law, religion, culture and medical ethics, however, does not apply to the medical practices of organ transplantation, assisted conception and its related practices, and limb amputations. This paper discusses in detail the polemics and discordant dynamics of the emerging ethical controversies and proffers suggestions for a way forward, in order to obviate possible ethical conundrums.","PeriodicalId":36835,"journal":{"name":"Global Bioethics","volume":"10 2 1","pages":"164 - 169"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/11287462.2014.937949","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59806949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Maternity and immigrant women (with a particular focus on Italy)","authors":"E. Carovigno, S. Schettini","doi":"10.1080/11287462.2014.937581","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/11287462.2014.937581","url":null,"abstract":"Women and motherhood are important aspects of the immigration issue. Different behaviour related to reproduction and maternity among foreign women, when compared with that of Italian women, is a key factor that has led to a slowing down of the population decline in Italy. Difficulties connected to migration often have impacts on motherhood, in some cases posing problems and conflicts with being a mother. This can result in frequent recourse to abortion, difficulty in managing sexuality and reproductive capacity, and the decision to postpone the realization of children indefinitely – situations that may provoke deep lacerations in the fabric of women's identity. One of the main problems for immigrant women in relation to pregnancy, childbirth and childcare is a profound sense of isolation: having been uprooted from their families, friends, and their own cultural references and traditions related to motherhood, and in some cases giving birth in aseptic hospitals with doctors and nurses who do not even speak their language, either alone or in the presence of a husband or a friend from the same country. Those who work in obstetrics and gynaecology departments are well aware that the number of foreign patients has increased significantly in recent years. From a practical point of view, this means that health professionals increasingly face new and often complex situations, and are forced to rely more on common sense than protocol. In a world afflicted by political and economic crises and an unequal distribution of wealth, in order to meet the health care needs of immigrants, we need to promote an appreciation of all of the different cultures, a bioethical approach, encouraging medical staff to convey feelings of hospitality and solidarity.","PeriodicalId":36835,"journal":{"name":"Global Bioethics","volume":"46 1","pages":"170 - 177"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/11287462.2014.937581","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59806938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Australian Engineering Construction Sector: shifting environmental values and practices","authors":"E. L. Hamilton-Foster","doi":"10.1080/11287462.2014.944764","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/11287462.2014.944764","url":null,"abstract":"Whilst many studies have examined environmental attitudes and practices in the broader construction industry, few have done so specifically in the context of the Australian Engineering Construction Sector (AECS) including national infrastructure projects. This paper aims to extend the knowledge base on environmental culture in construction, specifically on non-building projects. It seeks to demonstrate how the sector is shifting in response to global environmental concern and how this is reflected in the value systems and work practices for non-building projects. The study presents a conceptual model to illustrate how organisations can achieve high standards of environmental performance supported by value systems and work practices. A representative organisation in the sector is assessed against key criteria regarding environmental values and practices. Finally, the paper identifies possibilities for further case study analysis to develop a strategic model for environmental performance in the AECS.","PeriodicalId":36835,"journal":{"name":"Global Bioethics","volume":"25 1","pages":"178 - 194"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/11287462.2014.944764","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59806550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Can we use the notion of normality in genetic selection without discriminating?","authors":"M. Garasic","doi":"10.1080/11287462.2014.943540","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/11287462.2014.943540","url":null,"abstract":"With the hope of somehow contributing to the ongoing discussion on the topic, this paper is loosely based on the debate that emerged from Rob Sparrow's article “Should human beings have sex? Sexual dimorphism and human enhancement” (The American Journal of Bioethics, 10, 3–12, 2010). Building on some of his arguments, my claim is that we should not refer to gender when discussing not-yet-born agents. More broadly still, my intention is to provide a further analysis of the intersection of the concepts of gender and autonomy. I will begin by briefly highlighting Sparrow's article and critiques, with special emphasis on the poststructuralist attack. In doing so, I will consider the differences between structuralism and poststructuralism in relation to this debate. Subsequently, I will draw a parallel between Judith Butler's notion of the performativity of gender, sex and Ronald Dworkin's distinction between zoe and bios. The next move will then be to re-divert attention to the crucial role that health plays in the discussion (as instrumental to the “normal” and autonomous functioning of the body), suggesting that one of the substantial differences between human enhancers and non-enhancers is the ranking that health has in their corresponding scale of values. Setting the bar for how an organism functions “normally” will be the last step necessary to create the basis for my main claim: building on Butler's description of the singular agent in relation to others, I will suggest Jürgen Habermas and Onora O'Neill as credible and valuable expansions of a position willing to reconcile individual and relational autonomy, supporting this final claim with the words of Immanuel Kant. If we aim to use genetic engineering and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to prevent unhealthy children from being born – as I shall state we should – we can use this notion of normality in a way that will be accepted also by those who are historically critical of such a way of conceptualising a human being, only if we understand the parallel need for society to shift to a more inclusive and shared definition of autonomy.","PeriodicalId":36835,"journal":{"name":"Global Bioethics","volume":"25 1","pages":"203 - 209"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/11287462.2014.943540","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59806536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Culture, Urbanism and Changing Human Biology.","authors":"L M Schell","doi":"10.1080/11287462.2014.897070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/11287462.2014.897070","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Anthropologists have long known that human activity driven by culture changes the environment. This is apparent in the archaeological record and through the study of the modern environment. Perhaps the largest change since the paleolithic era is the organization of human populations in cities. New environments can reshape human biology through evolution as shown by the evolution of the hominid lineage. Evolution is not the only process capable of reshaping our biology. Some changes in our human biology are adaptive and evolutionary while others are pathological. What changes in human biology may be wrought by the modern urban environment? One significant new change in the environment is the introduction of pollutants largely through urbanization. Pollutants can affect human biology in myriad ways. Evidence shows that human growth, reproduction, and cognitive functioning can be altered by some pollutants, and altered in different ways depending on the pollutant. Thus, pollutants have significance for human biologists and anthropologists generally. Further, they illustrate the bio-cultural interaction characterizing human change. Humans adapt by changing the environment, a cultural process, and then change biologically to adjust to that new environment. This ongoing, interactive process is a fundamental characteristic of human change over the millennia.</p>","PeriodicalId":36835,"journal":{"name":"Global Bioethics","volume":"25 2","pages":"147-154"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/11287462.2014.897070","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"32983578","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Interculturalism, bioethics perspectives, and human rights","authors":"Aline Albuquerque","doi":"10.1080/11287462.2014.920162","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/11287462.2014.920162","url":null,"abstract":"This paper aims to contribute to a deeper reflection on intercultural conflicts within the scope of bioethics, and to point out the problem of using human rights as a theoretical normative mediator of the conflicts in bioethics that bear elements of interculturalism. The methodological steps adopted in this inquiry were the analysis of the concept of intercultural conflict in bioethics, from the perception developed by Colectivo Amani; the study of human rights as tools of the culture of human beings, based on Bauman's theories; and the investigation of the tools that human rights offer so as to solve intercultural conflicts in bioethics. I conclude that intercultural bioethics must incorporate in its prescriptive and descriptive tasks, norms and institutions of human rights that ensure the participation and social integration of individuals from communities that are in cultural conflict. Such measures will act as instruments for the solution of intercultural conflicts.","PeriodicalId":36835,"journal":{"name":"Global Bioethics","volume":"25 1","pages":"81 - 94"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/11287462.2014.920162","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59806789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The end of the world as we know it: an analysis of evolutionary and cultural factors which may reduce future human survival","authors":"A. Saniotis, M. Henneberg","doi":"10.1080/11287462.2014.897069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/11287462.2014.897069","url":null,"abstract":"At present, various national populations are now at different stages of the demographic transition. This transition may have far-ranging consequences for future humans. With the envisaged artificial support for human life, the significance of these non-metabolic processes may increase. Though the Earth is a thermodynamically open system receiving energy from the universe, the amount of energy flow is limited and the way its flow is structured on the globe restricts human development. Therefore, the future relationship between human population and the Earth may be constrained by a number of conditions; it may no longer be a simple conquest of the world by technology-wielding humans. Human cultures are still adapted to a world of high mortality, high fertility and little mass migration, where the structure and function of the human body was automatically adjusted by natural selection requiring medical intervention only rarely in cases of acute diseases or injuries. Moreover, human population may also continue to increase its “genetic load”, leading to a further decline in population fitness. This article will provide possible future scenarios for humankind from both evolutionary and cultural perspectives which may reduce long-term human fitness.","PeriodicalId":36835,"journal":{"name":"Global Bioethics","volume":"25 1","pages":"102 - 95"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/11287462.2014.897069","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59806639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A reflexive cartography and environmental conservation: a model of participatory zoning","authors":"E. Casti","doi":"10.1080/11287462.2014.917864","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/11287462.2014.917864","url":null,"abstract":"The Model of Participatory Zoning was developed by the Cartographic Laboratory Diathesis at the University of Bergamo (Italy) and was applied in the framework of Program Régional Parc W/ECOPAS (Ecosystèmes Protégés en Afrique Sahélienne). This model establishes a specific research methodology and develops some GIS (geographic information system)-based analytical tools. The research team designed these analytical tools in order to employ environmental protection models in the field research, which are based on sustainable development and participative management (UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) zoning model). The Model of Participatory Zoning, based on participatory mapping that includes geographical competence in applied research, allows the transformation of theoretical concepts into management tools, that is, it embraces all project management phases, from methodological design to the digital capitalization of the outcomes achieved. This model considers territory not merely as something that conveys the material conditions of the humans who settled there, but also as something that embodies symbolic, cultural, and communal values, on which the functioning of any given society depends. For these reasons, maps must be approached with attention to cartographical semiosis, a theory whereby the drawing of a map must not be separated from an analysis of the territory since maps act as symbolic agents for a given society, that is, they prescribe the conditions for any territorial action. Far from being only a useful representational tool, maps, and in particular participatory maps, set out the place where the viewpoints of institutional agents – who are appointed to plan environmental and territorial conservation – are brought into question and placed side by side with those of local actors – who employ specific territorial knowledge either to promote or hinder conservation.","PeriodicalId":36835,"journal":{"name":"Global Bioethics","volume":"25 1","pages":"125 - 135"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/11287462.2014.917864","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59806722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"In memoriam: Dr Andrés Peralta Corneille","authors":"B. Chiarelli","doi":"10.1080/11287462.2014.922319","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/11287462.2014.922319","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36835,"journal":{"name":"Global Bioethics","volume":"25 1","pages":"155 - 155"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/11287462.2014.922319","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59806844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}