Nonhuman animal (“animal”) experimentation is typically defended by arguments that it is reliable, that animals provide sufficiently good models of human biology and diseases to yield relevant ...information, and that, consequently, its use provides major human health benefits. I demonstrate that a growing body of scientific literature critically assessing the validity of animal experimentation generally (and animal modeling specifically) raises important concerns about its reliability and predictive value for human outcomes and for understanding human physiology. The unreliability of animal experimentation across a wide range of areas undermines scientific arguments in favor of the practice. Additionally, I show how animal experimentation often significantly harms humans through misleading safety studies, potential abandonment of effective therapeutics, and direction of resources away from more effective testing methods. The resulting evidence suggests that the collective harms and costs to humans from animal experimentation outweigh potential benefits and that resources would be better invested in developing human-based testing methods.
This article begins with my experience of a Ponderosa pine and centers on an ecological reading of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s vision of God and the world as “one reality” in his Ethics. A non-dualistic ...spirituality embraces aspects of reality Christians typically shun, such as the scatological dimension of our animal lives. I engage these questions through attention to the literal, ethical, socio-economic, and symbolic realities of shit, drawing on the work of Donna Haraway and tracing Martin Luther’s carnal sacramentality as well as his scatological repudiation of capitalism. The article honors Bonhoeffer’s vision of one reality in attempting to think like a tree: to value the holy plant food our bodies produce and to inhabit ritual practices that make such interspecies valuing and shared life possible.
The role of science in policymaking has gained unprecedented stature in the United States, raising questions about the place of science and scientific expertise in the democratic process. Some ...scientists have been given considerable epistemic authority in shaping policy on issues of great moral and cultural significance, and the politicizing of these issues has become highly contentious.
Since World War II, most philosophers of science have purported the concept that science should be "value-free." InScience, Policy and the Value-Free Ideal,Heather E. Douglas argues that such an ideal is neither adequate nor desirable for science. She contends that the moral responsibilities of scientists require the consideration of values even at the heart of science. She lobbies for a new ideal in which values serve an essential function throughout scientific inquiry, but where the role values play is constrained at key points, thus protecting the integrity and objectivity of science. In this vein, Douglas outlines a system for the application of values to guide scientists through points of uncertainty fraught with moral valence.
Following a philosophical analysis of the historical background of science advising and the value-free ideal, Douglas defines how values should-and should not-function in science. She discusses the distinctive direct and indirect roles for values in reasoning, and outlines seven senses of objectivity, showing how each can be employed to determine the reliability of scientific claims. Douglas then uses these philosophical insights to clarify the distinction between junk science and sound science to be used in policymaking. In conclusion, she calls for greater openness on the values utilized in policymaking, and more public participation in the policymaking process, by suggesting various models for effective use of both the public and experts in key risk assessments.
iiiHow does the market affect and redefine healthcare? The marketisation of Western healthcare systems has now proceeded well into its fourth decade. But the nature and meaning of the phenomenon has ...become increasingly opaque amidst changing discourses, policies and institutional structures. Moreover, ethics has become focussed on dealing with individual, clinical decisions and neglectful of the political economy which shapes healthcare.
This interdisciplinary volume approaches marketisation by exploring the debates underlying the contemporary situation and by introducing reconstructive and reparative discourses. The first part explores contrary interpretations of ‘marketisation’ on a systemic level, with a view to organisational-ethical formation and the role of healthcare ethics. The second part presents the marketisation of healthcare at the level of policy-making, discusses the ethical ramifications of specific marketisation measures and considers the possibility of reconciling market forces with a covenantal understanding of healthcare. The final part examines healthcare workers’ and ethicists’ personal moral standing in a marketised healthcare system, with a view to preserving and enriching virtue, empathy and compassion.
Fostering rich reflection on the moral implications of a marketised healthcare system, this book is suitable for health professionals and for academics and students interested in the health sciences, medical ethics and law, social and public policy, philosophy and theology.
Exploring the philosophical concerns of the nature of self, this book draws from two of the most influential Indian masters, Sa¿kara and Santideva. Todd demonstrates that an ethics of altruism is ...still possible within a metaphysics which assumes there to be no independent self. A new ethical model based on the notions of 'flickering consciousness' and 'constructive altruism' is proposed. By comparing the metaphysics and ethics of Sa¿kara and Santideva, Todd shows that the methodologies and aims of these Buddhist and Hindu masters trace remarkably similar cross-cutting paths. Treating Buddhism and Hinduism with equal respect, this book compares and reinterprets the Indian material so as to engage with contemporary Western debates on self and to show that Indian philosophy is indeed a philosophy of dialogue.
Moral laboratories Mattingly, Cheryl
2014., 20141003, 2014, 2014-10-03
eBook
Moral Laboratoriesis an engaging ethnography and a groundbreaking foray into the anthropology of morality. It takes us on a journey into the lives of African American families caring for children ...with serious chronic medical conditions, and it foregrounds the uncertainty that affects their struggles for a good life. Challenging depictions of moral transformation as possible only in moments of breakdown or in radical breaches from the ordinary, it offers a compelling portrait of the transformative powers embedded in day-to-day existence. From soccer fields to dinner tables, the everyday emerges as a moral laboratory for reshaping moral life. Cheryl Mattingly offers vivid and heart-wrenching stories to elaborate a first-person ethical framework, forcefully showing the limits of third-person renderings of morality.
El propósito de esta investigación fue realizar un estudio sobre la práctica de la abogacía en la actualidad, para evaluar su estado desde una perspectiva ética y moral. Se empleó una metodología ...mixta que combinó elementos cuantitativos y cualitativos, recopilando datos estadísticos relacionados con el estudio a través de un cuestionario estructurado, además, se realizaron entrevistas a un grupo de jueces. Los resultados obtenidos evidenciaron la necesidad de incorporar valores éticos y morales en la práctica del Derecho, para evitar la influencia de factores externos en la toma de decisiones judiciales. Se concluyó, que la deontología jurídica es un aspecto que no puede ser pasado por alto, y que su cumplimiento resulta esencial para garantizar la credibilidad del sistema judicial.
Summary Background The worldwide debate over the use of artificial nutrition and hydration remains controversial although the scientific and medical facts are unequivocal. Artificial nutrition and ...hydration are a medical intervention, requiring an indication, a therapeutic goal and the will (consent) of the competent patient. Methods The guideline was developed by an international multidisciplinary working group based on the main aspects of the Guideline on “Ethical and Legal Aspects of Artificial Nutrition” published 2013 by the German Society for Nutritional Medicine (DGEM) after conducting a review of specific current literature. The text was extended and introduced a broader view in particular on the impact of culture and religion. The results were discussed at the ESPEN Congress in Lisbon 2015 and accepted in an online survey among ESPEN members. Results The ESPEN Guideline on Ethical Aspects of Artificial Nutrition and Hydration is focused on the adult patient and provides a critical summary for physicians and caregivers. Special consideration is given to end of life issues and palliative medicine; to dementia and to specific situations like nursing care or the intensive care unit. The respect for autonomy is an important focus of the guideline as well as the careful wording to be used in the communication with patients and families. The other principles of Bioethics like beneficence, non-maleficence and justice are presented in the context of artificial nutrition and hydration. In this respect the withholding and withdrawing of artificial nutrition and/or hydration is discussed. Due to increasingly multicultural societies and the need for awareness of different values and beliefs an elaborated chapter is dedicated to cultural and religious issues and nutrition. Last but not least topics like voluntary refusal of nutrition and fluids, and forced feeding of competent persons (persons on hunger strike) is included in the guideline.
Globally nurses and midwives are working hard to detect cases of COVID‐19, to save lives or give comfort in the face of death, to educate themselves and the public about protective measures to stop ...the viral spread, while still caring for those not infected with the virus. In many countries nurses are working under virtual siege from this pandemic, with not enough resources or personal protective equipment, overwhelming numbers of patients, staff shortages, underprepared health systems and supply chain failures. Nurses and other health and emergency workers are suffering physical and emotional stress, and moral distress from conflicting professional values. They are faced with unpalatable and complex ethical issues in practice, with moral conflicts, high levels of acuity and patient deaths, and long working hours. A rising number of nurses are infected with SARS‐CoV‐2 or dying in the line of duty. Nurses need strong moral courage, stamina and resilience to work on the front lines of the pandemic, often while separated from their loved ones.
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