In Anerkennung der für Gegenwartsgesellschaften konstitutiven Diversität ihrer Bevölkerungen diskutieren Bioethik und Medizin verstärkt die kulturelle Relativität ihrer eigenen Voraussetzungen, die Kulturspezifik „anderer“ Positionen und die Möglichkeiten kulturübergreifender Orientierungen. Dabei kommt häufig ein Kulturbegriff zum Einsatz, der aus der Perspektive der aktuellen Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie zu statisch, zu homogenisierend und zu sehr auf Differenz und Abgrenzung hin orientiert ist. Der Beitrag diskutiert zunächst Konzepte von Kultur, die solche Verkürzungen zu vermeiden suchen. Sie betonen hingegen Verflechtungszusammenhänge unter dem Vorzeichen intensivierter Globalisierung (...) und deuten Kultur aktiv und reflexiv, als Ressource menschlichen Tuns, und nicht deterministisch als Kausalfaktor. Anschließend wird der ethnographische Forschungsstand zu Patientenverfügungen in westlichen Gesundheitssystemen zusammengefasst. Zeitintensive, qualitative Forschung verdeutlicht die Gefahr einer Kulturalisierung sozialer Ungleichheiten, die spezifische Positionalität bioethischer Prämissen und die Vielfalt und Komplexität im Umgang mit Patientenverfügungen. Der Beitrag schließt mit Hinweisen darauf, wie Diversität in Entscheidungsprozessen am Ende des Lebens jenseits von Kultur analysiert werden kann. (shrink)

In Anerkennung der für Gegenwartsgesellschaften konstitutiven Diversität ihrer Bevölkerungen diskutieren Bioethik und Medizin verstärkt die kulturelle Relativität ihrer eigenen Voraussetzungen, die Kulturspezifik „anderer“ Positionen und die Möglichkeiten kulturübergreifender Orientierungen. Dabei kommt häufig ein Kulturbegriff zum Einsatz, der aus der Perspektive der aktuellen Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie zu statisch, zu homogenisierend und zu sehr auf Differenz und Abgrenzung hin orientiert ist. Der Beitrag diskutiert zunächst Konzepte von Kultur, die solche Verkürzungen zu vermeiden suchen. Sie betonen hingegen Verflechtungszusammenhänge unter dem Vorzeichen intensivierter Globalisierung (...) und deuten Kultur aktiv und reflexiv, als Ressource menschlichen Tuns, und nicht deterministisch als Kausalfaktor. Anschließend wird der ethnographische Forschungsstand zu Patientenverfügungen in westlichen Gesundheitssystemen zusammengefasst. Zeitintensive, qualitative Forschung verdeutlicht die Gefahr einer Kulturalisierung sozialer Ungleichheiten, die spezifische Positionalität bioethischer Prämissen und die Vielfalt und Komplexität im Umgang mit Patientenverfügungen. Der Beitrag schließt mit Hinweisen darauf, wie Diversität in Entscheidungsprozessen am Ende des Lebens jenseits von Kultur analysiert werden kann. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Graffiti and Colonial Unknowing:A Comment on Mishuana Goeman's "Caring for Landscapes of Justice in Perilous Settler Environments"Anna Cookin "caring for landscapes of justice in Perilous Settler Environments," Dr. Goeman shows how the NDN Collective's initiatives, Chemehuevi photographer Cara Romero's Tongvaland project, and the works of Gabrieliño Tongva artist Mercedes Dorame "exemplify communities of care" that work toward "the unmapping of settler terrains" ("Caring for Landscapes" 51). Her address highlights (...) how these cartographic art productions are processes of (re)mapping that challenge colonial spatialities. Drawing on Michi Saagig Nishnaabeg scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's poem "i am graffiti," Goeman frames these art works as Indigenous graffiti, insofar as they are everyday acts of resurgence1 that resist erasure and enact rematriation.My comments aim to articulate how Romero's and Dorame's works both reveal and disrupt a colonial unknowing by showing the cracks of settler colonial spatiality. I take Goeman's address to illustrate that the changing of minds and unsettling of settler identity will not occur through argumentation, facts, and figures alone, but rather through aesthetic and cartographic practices that "provide a way of seeing Indigenous futurities and relationalities" ("Caring for Landscapes" 52).Maps as Tools of Settler ColonialismIn order to highlight how these art practices enact a kind of (re)mapping that breaks through the veneer of colonial permanence, we first need to consider the way mapping transforms land into property in the service of Indigenous erasure and land dispossession. In her address, Goeman offers a short history of what is now called Los Angeles through the lens of dispossession that occurs through "international claiming of property and burgeoning US property law" ("Caring for Landscapes" 53). Tovaangar was divided into Spanish (and [End Page 64] then Mexican) land grants that, after 1846, were "registered under the US as property" (Goeman, "Caring for Landscapes" 53; emphasis added). The Land Act of 1851 "established the domestication of the California landscape under US governance" by legitimating existing Mexican land rights and mapping out territory yet "unclaimed" ("Caring for Landscapes" 54). The mapping of this so-called "unclaimed" territory propelled a violent erasure of California Indians by "establishing new and ongoing commerce centers" ("Caring for Landscapes" 53). Land was transferred into property—as a thing owned—without "the consent of those who … lived on the land since time immemorial, following the settler structure of passing land between Christian nations" ("Caring for Landscapes" 53). By showing how property rights legitimate conquest and violence, Goeman illustrates how mapping has been (and continues to be) an "essential settler-colonial tool to domesticate land in Southern California and propel development" ("Caring for Landscapes" 54). While she demonstrates how the mapping of Tovaangar using 493 hand-drawn Diseños maps served to sever Indigenous communities (and their relationships with land, such as the Gabrieliño Tongva with the San Gabriel Mountains), she emphasizes that this is an ongoing process that has not been left in a distant past. Newer maps that may seem more objective and scientific with "better models of scale or a more realist representation" remain, at their core, maps of dispossession ("Caring for Landscapes" 54).The very desire to objectively determine location by assigning latitude and longitude reveals a colonial spatiality, which "territorialize[s] the physical landscape by manufacturing categories and separating land from people" and conceives of space in terms of property logics (Goeman, "[Re]Mapping Indigenous Presence" 296). In addition to Indigenous land dispossession, this colonial spatiality rejects relationality by creating dualist boundaries between human and non-human, in which land is the raw material for human development and the creation of culture. Cherokee philosopher Brian Burkhart speaks of relationality in terms of locality, which he defines as "being-fromthe-land, knowing-from-the-land, and meaning-from-the-land" (Indigenizing Philosophy xvii). The severing of locality can be understood in terms of the transformation of land as relative to inert matter to be acted upon. Mapping serves as a tool of settler colonial erasure insofar as it delocalizes "land as the relational ground of kinship" into "land as a mere object that only has meaning or value in relation to people" ("Indigenizing Philosophy... (shrink)

Much has changed in maternal-fetal medicine since the early 2000s, when the previous ethical frameworks for fetal therapy trials were established. We applaud Hendriks and colleagues for taking on t...

Background: Development of professional nursing values is critical within registered nurse–to–bachelor of science in nursing programs to prepare nurses for increasingly complex and diverse work environments. The results of previous studies have been inconsistent, with few studies focusing on online registered nurse–to–bachelor of science in nursing programs. In addition, little is known regarding the effectiveness of the educational methods used to support advancement of professional values and ethical practice. Objective: The object of this study was to gain an understanding of (...) nursing students’ attitudes and beliefs about professional values at entry and exit of an online registered nurse–to–bachelor of science in nursing program that includes a standalone ethics course and integrates American Nurses Association Code of Ethics provisions throughout the curriculum. Research design: For this one-group pretest–posttest, quasi-experimental design, longitudinal matched-pair data were gathered at program entry and exit using the Nurses Professional Values Scale–Revised. Participants and research context: In all, 119 students of an online registered nurse–to–bachelor of science in nursing program at a Midwest public university who completed entry and exit surveys between spring 2015 and spring 2018 were included in this study. Ethical considerations: This study was reviewed and determined to be exempt by the university’s institutional review board. Findings: The results showed a significant increase in total posttest scores when considering all participants. However, students who took the ethics course after the pretest demonstrated a significant increase in posttest scores, while students who took the ethics course prior to the pretest demonstrated a small increase that was not statistically significant. Significant increases were also found in the professionalism, activism, and trust factors. Discussion: This study supports previous study findings where students scored higher on caring and lower on activism and professionalism factors. The largest gains were made after completing the ethics course. Conclusion: The results suggest that requiring a standalone ethics course in the registered nurse–to–bachelor of science in nursing curriculum had a positive impact on self-reported professional values. (shrink)

The target articles in this “Roe v. Wade” special issue of AJOB rightly point to multiple ethical harms of an imminent end to full federal protection for legal abortion in the United States, p...

Uses of stored skill-models to accelerate simulator-based real-time training in a control skill are discussed. A real-time coach must deliver advice at three levels: (1) what to do next, (2) what to watch for, and (3) what went wrong. Human learning and machine learning results are presented using different screen representations of a pole-and-cart balancing task.

The definition of an expert system as a knowledge‐based source of advice and explanation pinpoints the critical problem which confronts the would‐be builders of such systems. How is the required body of knowledge to be elicited from its human possessors in a form sufficiently complete for effective organization in computer memory? This article reviews recent advances in the art of automated knowledge‐extraction from expert‐supplied example decisions. Computer induction, as the new approach is called, promises both important parallels to the human (...) capacity for concept formation and also commercial exploitability. (shrink)

Consciousness has been widely regarded as the central arena for the mental solution of problems. A variant view locates the business end of problem solving elsewhere, with conscious intervention only for intermittent monitoring and goal-setting. In this scenario conscious awareness, with `intelligent' processes generally, is largely specialized to the construction and communication of appropriate after-the-event histories and explanations.The first part of the paper traces a long march undertaken by main-stream artificial intelligence basing itself on the first assumption. Disappointment with the (...) result has prompted interest in the second view, which forms the main topic of Part 2, 1995, pp. 52-66). (shrink)

This paper's first part, reviewed attempts to model real-world problem solving as machine-executable logic. Part 2 considers an alternative model in which the solution of problems is primarily the work of visualization supported by automatized skills. Consciousness operates at the level of goal-setting and monitoring, and of the construction and communication of after-the-event commentaries, not as a problem solver. Engineering designs based on this model have proved convenient and effective. `Structured induction' is now routinely used to recover and articulate expertise (...) that in the human solver remains tacit. A seminal case of computer-mediated superarticulacy is described in which a human problem solver was enabled to transform an elaborate, but largely blind and unconscious, mental skill into a fully aware, communicable and machine-executable theory. (shrink)

Using 20 video recordings of Emergency Room treatment and over 5 years of Emergency Room fieldwork data, this study elucidates how interactional processes serve as resources for generating a cultural script of death in Japan called ‘Mitori’. A sudden death at a hospital, in which a patient is removed from their social network, is often considered as the opposite of a ‘good home death’. This study shows how hospital deaths in Japan are strongly interrelated with family participation. After showing the (...) point where medical professionals decide to terminate resuscitation attempts, the analysis depicts interactional steps that shift the definition of environment from a place for treatment toward a place where ‘Mitori’ occurs; that is, a family encounter occurs with a dying patient. Conversation between a doctor and a family member consists of a step-by-step evidence- building story. The final section displays both conversational and physical resources used to establish ‘Mitori’. (shrink)

Sometimes caregiving can be a matter of fear rather than of love.

二〇〇六年三月、富山県の射水市民病院で入院中の末期患者七人の人工呼吸器が取り外され、死亡していたことが明らかになった。実際にはいかなる事態が起きたのか?その後つづいた「尊厳死法制化」をめぐる政府・医療 界・メディア等の動きも踏まえ、今、日本の終末期医療に真に求められていることは何かを渾身で問いかける。.

Consciousness has been widely regarded as the central arena for the mental solution of problems. A variant view locates the business end of problem solving elsewhere, with conscious intervention only for intermittent monitoring and goal-setting. In this scenario conscious awareness, with `intelligent' processes generally, is largely specialized to the construction and communication of appropriate after-the-event histories and explanations.The first part of the paper traces a long march undertaken by main-stream artificial intelligence basing itself on the first assumption. Disappointment with the (...) result has prompted interest in the second view, which forms the main topic of Part 2 , 1995, pp. 52-66). (shrink)

Patientenselbstbestimmung und Patientenverfügungen haben zunehmende Bedeutung und Beachtung erfahren. In der vorliegenden qualitativen Studie wurden 15 Patientinnen und Patienten mit amyotropher Lateralsklerose —einer unheilbaren, chronisch-degenerativen Erkrankung mit vorhersehbarer Symptomatik—interviewt, um zu erfahren, welche Werte und Kriterien sie bei prospektiven Entscheidungen am Lebensende und bei der Abfassung von PV zugrunde legen. Die Auswertung erfolgte nach der Methode der „grounded theory“. Die befragten Patientinnen und Patienten befürworteten einen Verzicht auf lebenserhaltende Behandlungen, wenn sie keine hinreichenden Lebensmöglichkeiten mehr sahen, d. h. wenn sie (...) die aktuelle Lebensqualität für unzureichend erachteten und die Chance auf Besserung als gering einschätzten. Dem Patientenwillen sprachen sie bei der Entscheidungsfindung ein Vetorecht zu. Patientenverfügungen fassten sie erst ab, als sie keine Hoffnung mehr auf Besserung ihrer Erkrankung hatten. Sie verstanden diese als Instrumente zur vorsorglichen Erklärung ihres Wunsches, auf lebensverlängernde Maßnahmen zu verzichten, wenn die LM inakzeptabel geworden sind. Damit wollten sie sich gegenüber dem Arzt absichern, den sie in der Rolle eines Anwalts des Lebens sahen und mit dem sie daher ihre Behandlungswünsche nicht besprochen haben. Trotz vorhersehbarer Symptomatik legten sie in ihren PV keine spezifischen Behandlungswünsche nieder, sondern verwendeten allgemeine Formularmuster ohne konkreten Bezug zu ihrer Erkrankung. Daher bestehen auch bei dieser Patientengruppe Zweifel, ob die PV in einer konkreten Behandlungssituation hilfreich sind. (shrink)

Bullying behaviour among adolescents is a prevalent concern all over the world as it holds significant implications for their mental health and social life. Similarly, bullying has emerged as a grave concern in high schools in Pakistan. However, very limited literature has covered the dynamics of religious education and bullying behaviour among high school students in Pakistan. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the impact of religious beliefs and practices on the prevalence of abuse and bullying among high school students (...) in Pakistan. The study has adopted a qualitative research design to fulfil this objective. The primary qualitative data for the study was collected by interviewing high school students from three prominent high schools in Pakistan. The data was analysed with the help of thematic analysis. The findings of this study indicate that religious education can help promote compassion, empathy, and respect among students. Thus, the study holds significant implications regarding the role of the community and teachers in taking a stand against bullying. (shrink)

This study investigates the intentions, perceptions, and actual implementation of an innovative English curriculum among preparatory school EFL teachers in Iraq. The research recognizes the growing importance of English globally and Iraq's efforts to enhance English language education and implement an appropriate innovative curriculum. However, the implementation of a new curriculum poses significant challenges related to teachers' knowledge, intention, and academic culture. The study focuses on understanding the relationship between curriculum intentions, teachers' perceptions, and the actual implementation of the curriculum. (...) The study also explores how teachers' intention, culture, and other factors influence the implementation of the curriculum. Data were collected through a combination of vignettes, semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and follow-up interviews with a random sample of 10 male teachers from 10 preparatory schools in Babylon Governorate during the 2023-2024 school years. The results indicated that teachers are enthusiastic about the new curriculum, but its effective implementation faces many challenges. Teachers recognize the potential of the curriculum, but suffer from insufficient materials and overcrowded classrooms that hinder optimal teaching and learning. The study emphasizes that in order to successfully implement the curriculum, through continuous professional development and strong support systems, there must be ongoing professional development and strong support systems, ongoing training programs can help teachers adapt to the new curriculum, and the provision of resources, teaching aids, and manageable class size can create a more conducive learning environment, leading to better learning outcomes. (shrink)

This book brings together an international collection of experts in reproductive ethics, law, disability studies, and medicine to explore the challenging future of reproduction and children. From the medical to the social and from the financial to the legal, the authors explore the expanding impact of reproductive genetics on our society. New advances in genetic technologies are revolutionizing the practice of reproductive medicine. We have expanded our ability to detect genetic changes in embryos and fetuses in ways that potentially allow (...) to identify, treat, or prevent a growing range of diseases. The development of gene-editing technologies raises questions about the possibility of removing disease-causing variants from embryos before pregnancy implantation. The growing sophistication of prenatal genomic sequencing offers us glimpses into the whole genome of the developing fetus. And, the increasingly sophisticated science of 'gene matching' allows us greater and greater foreknowledge of how the genomes of two individuals will combine in a future child. This is an indispensable book on the newest developments in bioethics caused by the sciences. Chapter 5 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com. (shrink)

Agricultural engineers’ jobs are especially related to sustainability and earth life issues. They usually work with plants or animals, and the aim of their work is often linked to producing food to allow people to improve their quality of life. Taking into account this dual function, the moral requirements of their day-to-day professional practice are arguably greater than those of other professions.Agricultural engineers can develop their ability to live up to this professional responsibility by receiving ethical training during their university (...) studies, not only by taking courses specifically devoted to ethics, but also by having to deal with moral questions that are integrated into their technical courses through a program of Ethics Across the Curriculum (EAC).The authors feel that a suitable pedagogical technique for achieving this goal is the use of moral dilemmas, following Kohlberg’s theory of levels of morality (1981), with the final objective of attaining a post-conventional level. This paper examines the possibilities and limitations of using moral dilemmas as a pedagogical technique for training agricultural engineers. The cases, discussions, and evaluation used in the Agricultural Engineering Department of the Technical University of Valencia (Spain) are also presented. (shrink)

_The Contradictions of Modern Moral Philosophy_ is a highly original and radical critique of contemporary moral theory. Paul Johnston demonstrates that much recent moral philosophy is confused about the fundamental issue of whether there are correct moral judgements. He shows that the standard modern approaches to ethics cannot justify - or even make much sense of - traditional moral beliefs. Applied rigorously, these approaches suggest that we should reject ethics as a set of outdated and misguided claims. Rather than facing (...) up to this conclusion, most recent moral philosophy consists of attempts to find some ways of preserving moral beliefs. This places a contradiction at the heart of moral philosophy. As a resilt it is often impossible to tell whether a contemporary philosopher ultimately rejects or endorses the idea of objective right and wrong. On the basis of a Wittgenstein approach Paul Johnston puts forward an alternative account of ethics that avoids this contradiction and recognises that the central issues of ethics cannot be resolved by conceptual analysis. He then uses this account to highlight the contradictions of important contemporary moral theorists such as Bernard Williams, Alasdair MacIntyre, Thomas Nagel and Charles Taylor. (shrink)

The similarity of documents in a large database of published Fractals articles was examined for redundancy. Three different text matching techniques were used on publisheds to identify redundancy candidates, and predictions were verified by reading full text versions of the redundancy candidate articles. A small fraction of the total articles in the database was judged to be redundant. This was viewed as a lower limit, because it excluded cases where the concepts remained the same, but the text was altered substantially.Far (...) more pervasive than redundant publications were publications that did not violate the letter of redundancy but rather violated the spirit of redundancy. There appeared to be widespread publication maximization strategies. Studies that resulted in one comprehensive paper decades ago now result in multiple papers that focus on one major problem, but are differentiated by parameter ranges, or other stratifying variables. This ‘paper inflation’ is due in large part to the increasing use of metrics (publications, patents, citations, etc) to evaluate research performance, and the researchers’ motivation to maximize the metrics. (shrink)