Moral Issues (moral + issues)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Moral justification for Tarasoff -type warnings and breach of confidentiality: a clinician's perspective

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW, Issue 3 2001
Thomas G. Gutheil M.D.
After brief review of the background and context of the Tarasoff case and its impact on clinicians, the author examines the "Tarasoff warning," proposed in the 1974 Tarasoff opinion, from a moral position, with brief discussion of its clinical and risk management dimensions. Moral issues considered include confidentiality itself, agency, fiduciary duty, a shift in the victim paradigm, the emergency context, a novel risk, and a proposed approach. The dilemma presented by the original Tarasoff fact situation is re-examined. The author stresses the need for individualized responses to the risks posed by patients. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


The Tasks of Embodied Love: Moral Problems in Caring for Children with Disabilities

HYPATIA, Issue 3 2002
ROGER S. GOTTLIEB
Neither secular moral theory nor religious ethics have had much place for persons in need of constant physical help and cognitive support, nor for those who provide care for them. Writing as the father of a fourteen-year-old daughter with multiple disabilities, I will explore some of moral issues that arise here, both from the point of view of the disabled child and from that of the child's caretaker(s). [source]


The ethics of research using electronic mail discussion groups

JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 5 2005
Debbie Kralik PhD RN
Aim., The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss the ethical considerations that have confronted and challenged the research team when researchers facilitate conversations using private electronic mail discussion lists. Background., The use of electronic mail group conversations, as a collaborative data generation method, remains underdeveloped in nursing. Ethical challenges associated with this approach to data generation have only begun to be considered. As receipt of ethics approval for a study titled; ,Describing transition with people who live with chronic illness' we have been challenged by many ethical dilemmas, hence we believe it is timely to share the issues that have confronted the research team. These discussions are essential so we can understand the possibilities for research interaction, communication, and collaboration made possible by advanced information technologies. Discussion., Our experiences in this study have increased our awareness for ongoing ethical discussions about privacy, confidentiality, consent, accountability and openness underpinning research with human participants when generating data using an electronic mail discussion group. We describe how we work at upholding these ethical principles focusing on informed consent, participant confidentiality and privacy, the participants as threats to themselves and one another, public,private confusion, employees with access, hackers and threats from the researchers. Conclusion., A variety of complex issues arise during cyberspace research that can make the application of traditional ethical standards troublesome. Communication in cyberspace alters the temporal, spatial and sensory components of human interaction, thereby challenging traditional ethical definitions and calling to question some basic assumptions about identity and ones right to keep aspects of it confidential. Nurse researchers are bound by human research ethics protocols; however, the nature of research by electronic mail generates moral issues as well as ethical concerns. Vigilance by researchers is required to ensure that data are viewed within the scope of the enabling ethics approval. [source]


Living outside the system?

LEGAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2007
The (im)morality of urban squatting after the Land Registration Act 200
The Land Registration Act 2002 (LRA 2002) has effectively curtailed the law permitting the acquisition of title through adverse possession in relation to most types of adverse possessor, including the paradigmatic urban squatter. While the traditional principles for the acquisition of title through adverse possession enabled a squatter to secure rights in land ,automatically' after 12 years, under the LRA 2002 an urban squatter seeking to defend their possession of land in this way must now apply to the Land Registry, who will serve a notice on the registered proprietor alerting them to his or her presence. This procedure provides the landowner with an opportunity to recover possession of the property before the squatter's occupation has given rise to any claim on the title to the land. On the whole, these reforms have been presented as, and accepted as being, wholly justified in the context of a modern regime of ,title by registration'. This paper argues, however, that the reform of adverse possession also implements a contentious moral agenda in relation to advertent squatters and to absent landowners. While these provisions of the LRA 2002 will have important practical and philosophical consequences, the Law Commission has attempted to close off any prospect of further debate on the subject, without explicit consideration of current social and housing issues associated with urban squatting, or of the matrix of moral issues at stake in such cases. [source]


The Social Responsibility of Professional Societies

METAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 5 2002
David L. Hull
A consistent position for professional societies with respect to social and moral issues is difficult to forge. The most consistent position is that professional societies qua professional societies should avoid getting involved in any and all social or moral issues. Professional societies should be praised or blamed only on the basis of their success or failure to achieve their professional goals. If, however, we do think that professional societies deserve moral praise and blame with respect to broader moral issues, then the situation gets much more complicated. One contrast explored in this article is between scientific and philosophical societies getting involved in social and moral issues. A second contrast is between individual and group responsibility. If groups are to be praised or blamed, smaller well,integrated groups are the most likely candidates. [source]


End-of-Life Decision Making: Practical and Ethical Issues for Health Professionals

AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL ON AGEING, Issue 2 2000
Colleen Cartwright
Life-extending changes in medical technology and an ageing population pose practical and ethical problems relating to end-of-life decision making. Health professionals need to understand the fears and concerns of their patients, their preferred place to die, and to respect patient autonomy. Such wishes may be expressed verbally by a competent patient or through an advance directive (living will) or proxy by an incompetent patient. There is an urgent need for increased and improved training of health professionals in pain management and palliative care, and for the development of practical, ethical policies and guidelines with respect to withdrawing/withholding life-sustaining treatment. In addition, physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, two of the important moral issues of the 90s, will continue to require open community debate as we move into the new millennium. Australia, in company with most other countries, has many challenges ahead in relation to end-of-life decision making. [source]


PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: THE ETHICS OF RECOGNITION, RESPONSIBILITY, AND RESPECT

BIOETHICS, Issue 9 2009
MATTI HÄYRY
ABSTRACT Ethics can be understood as a code of behaviour or as the study of codes of behaviour. While the mission of the International Association of Bioethics is a scholarly examination of moral issues in health care and the biological sciences, many people in the field believe that it is also their task to create new and better codes of practice. Both ways of doing bioethics are sound, but it is important to be aware of the distinction. In this paper, I will study the sources and aims of ethics and suggest a code of conduct for bioethicists based on recognition, responsibility, and respect. [source]


GENETIC ENHANCEMENT , A THREAT TO HUMAN RIGHTS?

BIOETHICS, Issue 1 2008
ELIZABETH FENTON
ABSTRACT Genetic enhancement is the modification of the human genome for the purpose of improving capacities or ,adding in' desired characteristics. Although this technology is still largely futuristic, debate over the moral issues it raises has been significant. George Annas has recently leveled a new attack against genetic enhancement, drawing on human rights as his primary weapon. I argue that Annas' appeal to human rights ultimately falls flat, and so provides no good reason to object to genetic technology. Moreover, this argument is an example of the broader problem of appealing to human rights as a panacea for ethical problems. Human rights, it is often claimed, are ,trumps': if it can be shown that a proposed technology violates human rights, then it must be cast aside. But human rights are neither a panacea for ethical problems nor a trump card. If they are drafted into the service of an argument, it must be shown that an actual human rights violation will occur. Annas' argument against genetic technology fails to do just this. I shall conclude that his appeal to human rights adds little to the debate over the ethical questions raised by genetic technology. [source]


WHAT IS IT TO BE A DAUGHTER?

BIOETHICS, Issue 1 2007
IDENTITIES UNDER PRESSURE IN DEMENTIA CARE
ABSTRACT This article concentrates on the care for people who suffer from progressive dementia. Dementia has a great impact on a person's well-being as well as on his or her social environment. Dealing with dementia raises moral issues and challenges for participants, especially for family members. One of the moral issues in the care for people with dementia is centred on responsibilities; how do people conceive and determine their responsibilities towards one another? To investigate this issue we use the theoretical perspective of Margaret Walker. She states that ideas about identity play a crucial role in patterns of normative expectations with regard to the distribution of responsibilities in daily practices of care. The results of this study show how the identity of a family-member is put under pressure and changes during her loved one's illness that leads to difficulties and misunderstandings concerning the issue of responsibility. These results offer an insight into the complexities of actual practices of responsibility and highlight the importance for those caring for people with dementia of attending carefully to how they see themselves and how they see other people involved (Who am I? Who do I want to be for the other?). Answers to such questions show what people expect from themselves and from one another, and how they, at any rate, are distributing responsibilities in a given situation. Professional caregivers should take into account that family members might have different ideas about who they are and consequently about what their responsibilities are. [source]