Kidneys for transplantation are scarce, and many countries give priority to children in allocating them. This paper explains and criticizes the paediatric priority. We set out the relevant ethical principles of allocation, such as utility and severity, and the relevant facts to do with such matters as sensitization and child development. We argue that the facts and principles do not support and sometimes conflict with the priority given to children. We next consider various views on how age or the status (...) of children should affect allocation. Again, these views do not support priority to children in its current form. Since distinctions based on age ought to be positively justified, the failure of all these attempts at justification implies that the priority to children is ethically mistaken. Finally, the paper points to evidence that the paediatric priority reduces the overall supply of kidneys, at least in the United States. Paediatric priority is a real-world policy that seems discriminatory, in some places probably reduces the supply of organs, has no robust official defence, and is unsupported by mainstream ethical principles. Consequently, it should be ended. (shrink)

Islamic ethics in the light of Koranic teachings.

Originally published in 1986, this was a study of the British ethical societies in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These societies emerged out of the vortex of distinctive social, philosophical, and religious ideas in the middle of the nineteenth century with the specific educative aim of providing society with non-religious moral instruction. They became havens of discussion, rallying-points for progressive campaigns, and places of secular worship for those estranged by Church and dissent. This network of humanistic clubs was established (...) by an American, Stanton Coit, who had already set up a Society for Ethical Culture in New York. By 1906, the ethical movement in Britain comprised forty-six societies, though its influence began to wane after World War I. Dr Mackillop's comprehensive account considers the significant events and personalities in the history of the ethical movement. (shrink)

The paper examines representative cases of ``dishonest'''' voting. In all but one case the claim that ``strategic voting'''' is ``dishonest'''' is refuted. In all cases the effects of ``misrepresentation'''' need never harm any majority. Indeed majorities may benefit from ``strategy'''' (in non-cycle cases too). In fact democracy demands ``strategy''''. Although the universal value of the choice set is disputed even in the one recalcitrant case, the result is, after all, an element in the ``honest'''' choice set.

The complexity of this question derives from the fact that both the mechanism of action and the mechanism of utilization of social laws operate through the practical life and activity of human beings. Human beings are the vehicles of the objective-subjective relationships formed in the process of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of material and cultural goods, and because of this fact are a part of the systems and mechanisms of action and the mechanism of utilization of social laws. This (...) creates the impression that the objective-subjective activity of people is indivisible and, accordingly, that there is but one mechanism of manifestation of these laws; this, of course, compounds the difficulty of knowing and taking into account objective conditions and subjective factors in the process of scientific leadership and administration of society as a whole. What, then, is the relationship between the mechanism of action and the mechanism of utilization of social laws at the object-subject level? (shrink)

Memoirs of Saʻīd Pīshdād, 1955 or 1956-; school administrators professional ethics, Iran.

This paper discusses the results of a survey of medical and paramedical opinion relating to various difficult ethical issues in clinical genetics. These include the confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship, prenatal diagnosis and termination, and Huntington's chorea. It is suggested that this method provides a useful means of assessing what is ethically acceptable in contemporary society.

It is usually assumed that Apuleius gave one of his characters the name ‘Thrasyllus’ because of its etymological connection with θρασ. Indeed it is singularly appropriate and Apuleius himself draws attention to the fact: Thrasyllus, praeceps alioquin et de ipso nomine temerarius… . However, it does not follow that a name with such an etymological significance can have no other connotations: in this note I suggest that there is a further frame of reference behind ‘Thrasyllus’ and that Apuleius may have (...) expected his readers to realize this. (shrink)

Islamic philosophy; God (Islam); religious life, Islam, customs and practices; Islam and science.

"A tribute to Chedva Zilberfarb, a "h, "Chedva of Shemiras Ha-lashon.".