Due to aging populations and the prolonging of working lives, the number of senior workers will increase. Therefore, this study investigates the use of SOC strategies across organizational levels as a means for senior workers to maintain workability and age successfully at work. The need to expand the perspective of the SOC model beyond the individual level, when applied to a work context, has been emphasized theoretically in the literature, nevertheless, SOC strategies have so far only been examined at (...) the individual level. This study is the first to explore SOC strategies at the organizational, leadership, and group level. We focus on senior employees and the SOC strategies they use to balance out demands and limited resources. Based on 23 semi-structured interviews with senior employees and immediate managers at two hospitals, and two dairies, we explore which specific SOC strategies are used at each level and reflect on the applicability of broadening the perspective of the SOC model when applying it to a work context. Based on the empirical findings and the discussion of the empirical exploration of SOC strategies beyond the individual level, we argue that it is advantageous to further pursue this line of inquiry and include the group, leadership, and organizational level when applying the SOC model in a work setting. (shrink)

Over the last decades, it has become evident that highly complex networks of regulators govern post‐transcriptional regulation of gene expression. A novel class of Argonaute (Ago)‐associated RNA molecules, the agotrons, was recently shown to function in a Drosha‐ and Dicer‐independent manner, hence bypassing the maturation steps required for canonical microRNA (miRNA) biogenesis. Agotrons are found in most mammals and associate with Ago as ∼100 nucleotide (nt) long RNA species. Here, we speculate on the functional and biological relevance of agotrons: (i) (...) agotrons could serve as non‐promiscuous miRNA‐like regulators with reduced off‐targeting or (ii) agotrons could encompass other putative functions, such as protecting Ago proteins from taking up aberrant short RNAs or by rescuing and stabilizing otherwise unloaded Ago‐proteins from degradation. Collectively, agotrons have emerged as a novel class of interesting non‐coding RNA molecules, but their full functional potential and biological impact still remain to be disclosed. (shrink)

Neurodegenerative syndromes present as proteinopathies – does ribosomal infidelity contribute to the protein toxicity that is the driving force for neuronal cell loss? Intracellular and extracellular protein aggregates overwhelm the clearance capacity of cells and tissues. Proteins aggregate when hydrophobic residues are exposed. Hydrophobic residues become exposed when proteins are misfolded. Protein misfolding can originate from translational errors at the ribosome. Indeed, the most error‐prone process in gene expression is translation at the ribosome. Recent evidence indicates that manipulating the ribosomal (...) accuracy impacts on the lifespan of model organisms and a reduced translational accuracy is accompanied by neurodegeneration. The first hit in aging‐associated neurodegenerative disease may be the well‐documented decline of cellular buffering capacity by aging. A second hit that impacts on the quality of protein synthesis could be the driving force for the observed loss of proteostasis in neurodegeneration. This hypothesis provides an explanation for the late onset of most neurodegenerative diseases. (shrink)

In this study, we demonstrate how perceptions of nursing are constructed in close connection with the development of the Nordic welfare states. Drawing on Gillian Rose's framework for analysing the social and political implications of visual materials, we analysed selected visual representations of nursing published in Danish and Norwegian professional nursing journals in the period 1965 to 2016. The analyses were conducted in an iterative process in three phases. First, we reviewed all visuals spanning the entire period to obtain an (...) overview of developmental trends in the material. Second, selected visuals and associated captions were subjected to more thorough analysis. Third, we further examined and discussed the visuals in light of societal and political movements and ideologies in Danish and Norwegian healthcare policies over this period. Our analysis shows that visual representations of the nurse–patient relationship and of the patient's and the nurse's roles and responsibilities changed over this period and that the visualisations corresponded with and supported developments in the Danish and Norwegian welfare states as these first consolidated and then moved towards individualisation and the competition state. Our study demonstrates that nurses in these states are political actors implementing health policies embedded in various knowledge regimes. (shrink)

Kierkegaard portrays his role as an author with the image of a prompter in “An Occasional Discourse” of 1847. A prompter in the theatre whispers not his own words, but a text by someone else already familiar to the actors on stage. This raises the question as to which text Kierkegaard is prompting. I seek to answer the question through a close reading of his imagery of authorial withdrawal in this discourse in connection with his repeated description of his writings (...) as readings of the original text of individual human existence-relationships, the old familiar text handed down from the fathers. (shrink)

Kierkegaard dismissed the quest for the historical Jesus that dominated historical‐critical biblical scholarship in the nineteenth century. Instead of historical reconstructions of the life of Jesus, he embarked on polyphonic rewritings of the story of the life of Jesus from still new perspectives. This chapter investigates how Kierkegaard's different narrations of the “life of Jesus” inscribe the New Testament texts and imitate their narrative art, particularly the role of dramatic irony, in relation to Kierkegaard's metareflections on how to communicate this (...) story in a modern age. (shrink)

This article critically examines and discusses the charge, raised by Adorno in his essay on Works of Love, that Kierkegaard’s rewriting of the Gospel story of the good Samaritan reduces neighbor love to abstract inwardness. It has been somewhat ignored in the reception of Adorno’s text that he also praises Kierkegaard as a critic of his time. I explore Adorno’s appreciation of this dimension in Works of Love and seek to develop it further by examining Kierkegaard’s sharp eye for discovering (...) how the inhumanity of the slavery in the past persists in more hidden and subtle ways in the modern world dominated by the instrumental rationality of economics. (shrink)

Automated theorem proving amounts to solving search problems in usually tremendous search spaces. A lot of research therefore focuses on search space reductions. Our approach reduces the search space which arises when using so-called connection tableau calculi for first-order automated theorem proving. It uses disjunctive constraints over first-order equations to compress certain parts of this search space. We present the basics of our constrained-connection-tableau calculi, a constraint extension of connection tableau calculi, and deal with the efficient handling of constraints during (...) the search process. The new techniques are integrated into the automated connection tableau prover Setheo. (shrink)

Ledelse i autenticitetens tidsalder – Fra undertrykkelse til udtrykkelse.

This volume reconsiders the relation between visibility and transcendence. The focus is on the contributions to this issue from the theological tradition in protestant Europe between the 16th and the 21st Centuries. A thematically broad field is covered embracing a plurality of methods drawn from theology, philosophy, and the theory of art. In five sub-themes the volueme deals with modes of appearing or hiding of phenomena, the fundamental understand and use of language, with the theological anthropology, the theological discourses behind (...) the religious uses of the different artistic media, and the idea of "vicarious representation"--Back cover. (shrink)

This Dictionary presents a broad range of topics relevant in present-day global bioethics. With more than 500 entries, this dictionary covers organizations working in the field of global bioethics, international documents concerning bioethics, personalities that have played a role in the development of global bioethics, as well as specific topics in the field.The book is not only useful for students and professionals in global health activities, but can also serve as a basic tool that explains relevant ethical notions and (...) terms. The dictionary furthers the ideals of cosmopolitanism: solidarity, equality, respect for difference and concern with what human beings- and specifically patients - have in common, regardless of their backgrounds, hometowns, religions, gender, etc. Global problems such as pandemic diseases, disasters, lack of care and medication, homelessness and displacement call for global responses.This book demonstrates that a moral vision of global health is necessary and it helps to quickly understand the basic ideas of global bioethics. (shrink)

Geneticization is a broad term referring to several related processes such as a spreading tendency to use a genetic model of disease explanation, a growing influence of genetics in medical practice, and the slow changing of individual and societal attitudes towards reproduction, prevention and control of disease. These processes can be demonstrated in medical literature on preventive genetic screening and counselling programs for β-thalassaemia in Cyprus, the United Kingdom and Canada. The preventive possibilities of the new genetic and diagnostic technologies (...) have been quickly understood and advocated by health professionals, and their educational strategies have created a web of social control, in marked contrast to the alleged voluntary decision-making process and free choice. Genetic diagnostic technologies have led to considerable changes in control and management of β-thalassaemia, and have generated a number of unresolved incongruities. (shrink)

Vulnerability has become a popular though controversial topic in bioethics, notably since 2000. As a result, a common body of knowledge has emerged distinguishing between different types of vulnerability, criticizing the categorization of populations as vulnerable, and questioning the practical implications. It is argued that two perspectives on vulnerability, i.e., the philosophical and political, pose challenges to contemporary bioethics discourse: they re-examine the significance of human agency, the primacy of the individual person, and the negativity of vulnerability. As a phenomenon (...) of globalization, vulnerability can only be properly addressed in a global bioethics that takes the social dimension of human existence seriously. (shrink)

In 1970 Van Rensselaer Potter was the first to use the term "bioethics" in a publication to advocate the development of a new discipline to address the basic problems of human flourishing. This article analyzes Potter's notion of bioethics in order to understand its origins, sources, and substance. In early publications, Potter conceptualized bioethics as a bridge: between present and future, nature and culture, science and values, and finally between humankind and nature. In later publications, disappointed by a predominant focus (...) on individual and medical issues, and with a wish to underscore the need for a broader perspective, Potter introduced the new term "global bioethics," meant to transcend ethics specialties and integrate them into a new interdisciplinary endeavor to address global problems. A growing interest in global bioethics today means that Potter's original insights are more timely than ever. (shrink)

UNESCO is an intergovernmental organization with 193 Member States. It is concerned with a broad range of issues regarding education, science and culture. It is the only UN organisation with a mandate in science. Since 1993 it is addressing ethics of science and technology, with special emphasis on bioethics. One major objective of the ethics programme is the development of international normative standards. This is particularly important since many Member States only have a limited infrastructure in bioethics, lacking expertise, (...) educational programs, bioethics committees and legal frameworks. UNESCO has recently adopted the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. The focus of current activities is now on implementation of this Declaration. Three activities are discussed that aim at improving and reinforcing the ethics infrastructure in relation to science and technology: the Global Ethics Observatory, the Ethics Education Programme and the Assisting Bioethics Committees project. (shrink)

This paper explores the role of ‘community’ in the context of global bioethics. With the present globalization of bioethics, new and interesting references are made to this concept. Some are familiar, for example, community consent. This article argues that the principle of informed consent is too individual-oriented and that in other cultures, consent can be community-based. Other references to ‘community’ are related to the novel principle of benefit sharing in the context of bioprospecting. The application of this principle necessarily requires (...) the identification and construction of communities. On the global level there are also new uses of the concept of community as ‘global community.’ Three uses are distinguished: (1) a diachronic use, including past, present, and future generations, (2) a synchronic ecological use, including nonhuman species, and (3) a synchronic planetary use, including all human beings worldwide. Although there is a tension between the communitarian perspective and the idea of global community, this article argues that the third use can broaden communitarianism. The current development towards cosmopolitanism is creating a new global community that represents humanity as a whole, enabling identification of world citizens and evoking a sense of global solidarity and responsibility. The emergence of global bioethics today demonstrates this development. (shrink)

This thought-provoking book explores the connections between health, ethics, and soul. It analyzes how and why the soul has been lost from scientific discourses, healthcare practices, and ethical discussions, presenting suggestions for change. Arguing that the dominant scientific worldview has eradicated talk about the soul and presents an objective and technical approach to human life and its vulnerabilities, ten Have and Pegoraro look to rediscover identity, humanity and meaning in healthcare and bioethics. Taking a mulitidisciplinary approach, they investigate philosophical, (...) scientific, historical, cultural, social, religious, economic, and environmental perspectives as they journey towards a new, global bioethics, emphasising the role of the moral imagination. Bioethics, Healthcare and the Soul is an important read for students, researchers and practitioners interested in bioethics and person-centred healthcare. (shrink)

War has major health consequences and poses significant ethical dilemmas for health professionals. In caring for victims of armed conflicts, health providers are obliged to put medical ethics before military aims. While the normative framework of warfare is clear and accepted by almost all countries, in practice, restrictions on violence are continuously broken, and the safety and independence of health professionals are not ensured. In bioethics, the issue of war has not been treated as a major concern. The field can (...) do more to articulate the responsibilities of health practitioners and scientists, arguing that Red Cross founder Henri Dunant's principle of humanity and the principles of professional and global ethics reject the idea of military necessity. Bioethics should focus on strategies to prevent war, encouraging the collective action of health professionals. Bioethics should also stress—as, so far, one national medical association has—that war is a man‐made public health problem. (shrink)

In the 1970s “bioethics” emerged as a new interdisciplinary discourse on medicine, health care, and medical technologies, primarily in Western, developed countries. The main focus was on how individual patients could be empowered to cope with the challenges of science and technology. Since the 1990s, the main source of bioethical problems is the process of globalization, particularly neo-liberal market ideology. Faced with new challenges such as poverty, inequality, environmental degradation, hunger, pandemics, and organ trafficking the bioethical discourse of empowering individuals (...) is no longer sufficient. Global bioethics nowadays is concerned with applying and implementing a universal ethical framework. Islamic bioethics has contributed to creating such framework (exemplified in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights) while at the same time it is continuously articulating and interpreting this framework in specific settings and contexts. (shrink)

Medical ethics nowadays is dominated by a conception of ethics as the application of moral theories and principles. This conception is criticized for its depreciation of the internal morality of medical practice and its narrow view of external morality. This view reflects both a lack of interest in the empirical realities of medicine and a neglect of the socio-cultural value-contexts of medical ethical issues, including the creative development of a broader philosophical framework for a practicable medical ethics. Several alternative approaches (...) and conceptions have been proposed. The unified clinical ethics theory, developed by Graber and Thomasma, is an interesting attempt to synthesize these alternative approaches. It correctly identifies as the crucial problem the present disconnectedness of medical ethics from theoretical philosophy as well as the practice of medicine. In this paper, however, it is argued that the unitary theory should take more serious attention to the hermeneutic character of medicine as well as ethics. This implies that the unitary theory must in fact transform itself into aninterpretive clinical ethics theory. The theoretical characteristics and practical consequences of an interpretive theory of medical ethics are discussed in the present paper. (shrink)

In the 1970s “bioethics” emerged as a new interdisciplinary discourse on medicine, health care, and medical technologies, primarily in Western, developed countries. The main focus was on how individual patients could be empowered to cope with the challenges of science and technology. Since the 1990s, the main source of bioethical problems is the process of globalization, particularly neo‐liberal market ideology. Faced with new challenges such as poverty, inequality, environmental degradation, hunger, pandemics, and organ trafficking the bioethical discourse of empowering individuals (...) is no longer sufficient. Global bioethics nowadays is concerned with applying and implementing a universal ethical framework. Islamic bioethics has contributed to creating such framework (exemplified in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights) while at the same time it is continuously articulating and interpreting this framework in specific settings and contexts. (shrink)

The concept of ‘geneticization’ has been introduced in the scholarly literature to describe the various interlocking and imperceptible mechanisms of interaction between medicine, genetics, society and culture. It is argued that Western culture currently is deeply involved in a process of geneticization. This process implies a redefinition of individuals in terms of DNA codes, a new language to describe and interpret human life and behavior in a genomic vocabulary of codes, blueprints, traits, dispositions, genetic mapping, and a gentechnological approach to (...) disease, health and the body. This article analyses the thesis of ‘geneticization’. Explaining the implications of the thesis, and discussing the critical refutations, it is argued that ‘geneticization’ primarily is a heuristic tool that can help to re-focus the moral debate on the implications of new genetic knowledge towards interpersonal relations, the power of medicine, the cultural context and social constraints, rather than emphasizing issues as personal autonomy and individual rights. (shrink)

The main object of criticism of present-day medical ethics is the standard view of the relationship between theory and practice. Medical ethics is more than the application of moral theories and principles, and health care is more than the domain of application of moral theories. Moral theories and principles are necessarily abstract, and therefore fail to take account of the sometimes idiosyncratic reality of clinical work and the actual experiences of practitioners. Suggestions to remedy the illnesses of contemporary medical ethics (...) focus on re-establishing the connection between the internal and external morality of medicine. This article discusses the question how to develop a theoretical perspective on medical ethical issues that connects philosophical reflection with the everyday realities of medical practice. Four steps in a comprehensive approach of medical ethics research are distinguished: (1) examine health care contexts in order to obtain a better understanding of the internal morality of these practices; this requires empirical research; (2) analyze and interpret the external morality governing health care practices; sociological study of prevalent values, norms, and attitudes concerning medical-ethical issues is required; (3) creation of new theoretical perspectives on health care practices; Jensen's theory of healthcare practices will be useful here; (4) develop a new conception of bioethics that illuminates and clarifies the complex interaction between the internal and external morality of health care practices. Hermeneutical ethics can be helpful for integrating the experiences disclosed in the empirical ethical studies, as well as utilizing the insights gained from describing the value-contexts of health care practices. For a critical and normative perspective, hermeneutical ethics has to examine and explain the moral experiences uncovered, in order to understand what they tell us. (shrink)

The concept of ‘geneticization’ has been introduced in the scholarly literature to describe the various interlocking and imperceptible mechanisms of interaction between medicine, genetics, society and culture. It is argued that Western culture currently is deeply involved in a process of geneticization. This process implies a redefinition of individuals in terms of DNA codes, a new language to describe and interpret human life and behavior in a genomic vocabulary of codes, blueprints, traits, dispositions, genetic mapping, and a gentechnological approach to (...) disease, health and the body. This article analyses the thesis of ‘geneticization’. Explaining the implications of the thesis, and discussing the critical refutations, it is argued that ‘geneticization’ primarily is a heuristic tool that can help to re-focus the moral debate on the implications of new genetic knowledge towards interpersonal relations, the power of medicine, the cultural context and social constraints, rather than emphasizing issues as personal autonomy and individual rights. (shrink)

The current model of technology assessment treats ethics itself as just another problem‐solving technology. Ethics should resist this model to play a more critical role in technology assessment by better understanding the complex relationship between society, medicine, and technology—and by recasting how problems are defined.

The current model of technology assessment treats ethics itself as just another problem‐solving technology. Ethics should resist this model to play a more critical role in technology assessment by better understanding the complex relationship between society, medicine, and technology—and by recasting how problems are defined.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has reactivated ancient metaphors but also initiated a new vocabulary: social distancing, lockdown, self-isolation, and sheltering in place. Terminology is not ethically neutral but reflects prevailing value systems. I will argue that there are two metaphorical vocabularies at work: an authoritarian one and a liberal one. Missing is an ecological vocabulary. It has been known for a long time that emerging infectious diseases are associated with the destruction of functioning ecosystems and biodiversity. Ebola and avian influenza (...) viruses have been significant warnings. Obviously, this pandemic will not be the last one. As the planet is our common home, the major metaphor to explore is sheltering at this home. (shrink)

Current bioethical debate is bizarre because it concentrates on exceptional cases while it does not pay attention to underlying value perspectives that determine the agenda of the debate.

This is the first book in healthcare ethics addressing the moral issues regarding ownership of the human body. Modern medicine increasingly transforms the body and makes use of body parts for diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive purposes. The book analyzes the concept of body ownership. It also reviews the ownership issues arising in clinical care (for example, donation policies, autopsy) and biomedical research. Societies and legal systems also have to deal with issues of body ownership. A comparison is made between (...) specific legal arrangements in The Netherlands and France, as examples of legal approaches. In the final section of the book, different theoretical perspectives on the human body are analyzed: libertarian, personalist, deontological and utilitarian theories of body ownership. (shrink)

In this book, developed by a group of collaborating scholars in bioethics from different European countries, an overview is given of the most salient themes in present-day bioethics. The themes are discussed in order to enable the reader to have an in-depth overview of the state of the art in bioethics. Introductory chapters will guide the reader through the relevant dimensions of a particular area, while subsequent case discussions will help the reader to apply the ethical theories to specific (...) clinical problems and health policy queries. The book focuses on perspectives typical for the European context. This highlights not only particular bioethical themes such as social justice, choices in health care, and health policy (e.g., in post-communist countries), it also emphasizes specific approaches in ethical theory, in relation to Continental philosophies such as phenomenology and hermeneutics. Because of its articulation of what is typical for the European health care setting as well as for bioethical debate, this book is unique in comparison to existing textbooks in bioethics. The book is an introductory textbook acquainting the reader with the major issues in present-day health care as well as the various theoretical and practical approaches to clarify these issues. (shrink)

Unesco initiated the Ethics Education Programme in 2004 at the request of member states to reinforce and increase the capacities in the area of ethics teaching. The programme is focused on providing detailed information about existing teaching programmes. It also develops and promotes teaching through proposals for core curricula, through a training course for ethics teachers and by distributing educational resources to support programmes.