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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Ethical issues & debates
George P. Smith's "Palliative Care and End-of-Life Decisions"
completes a Bioethics-Health Care epistemology begun in 1989, which
addresses the specific issue of managing palliative care at the
end-stage of life. Smith argues forcefully that in order to
palliate the whole person (encompassing physical and psychological
states), an ethic of adjusted care requires recognition of a
fundamental right to avoid cruel and unusual suffering from
terminal illness. Specifically, this book urges wider consideration
and use of terminal sedation as efficacious medical care and as a
reasonable procedure in order to safeguard a 'right' to a dignified
death. The principle of medical futility is seen as a proper
construct for implementing this process.
This book looks at a family of views involving the pro-life view of abortion and Christianity. These issues are important because major religious branches (for example, Catholicism and some large branches of Evangelicalism) and leading politicians assert, or are committed to, the following: (a) it is permissible to prevent some people from going to hell, (b) abortion prevents some people from going to hell, and (c) abortion is wrong. They also assert, or are committed to, the following: (d) it is permissible to use defensive violence to prevent people from killing innocents, (e) doctors who perform abortions kill innocents, and (f) it is wrong to use defensive violence against doctors who perform abortions. Stephen Kershnar argues that these and other principles are inconsistent. Along the way, he explores the ways in which theories of hell, right forfeiture, and good consequences relate to each other and the above inconsistencies.
This book chronicles the history of movie censorship in Virginia from the 1920s to 1960s. At its most basic level, it analyzes the project of state film censorship in Virginia. It uses the contestations surrounding film censorship as a framework for more fully understanding the dominant political, economic, and cultural hierarchies that structured Virginia and much of the New South in the mid-twentieth century and ways in which citizens contested these prevailing structures. This study highlights the centrality of gendered and racialized discourses in the debates over the movies and the broader regulatory power of the state. It particularly emphasizes ways in which issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality framed debates over popular culture in the South. It ties the regulation of racial and sexual boundaries in other areas such as public facilities, schools, public transportation, the voting booth, and residential housing to ways in which censors regulated those same boundaries in popular culture. This book shows how the same racialized and gendered social norms and legal codes that placed audience members in different theater spaces also informed ways in which what they viewed on-screen had been mediated by state officials. Ultimately, this study shows how Virginia's officials attempted to use the project of film censorship as the cultural arm of regulation to further buttress the state's political and economic hierarchies of the time period and the ways in various citizens and community groups supported and challenged these hierarchies across the censorship board's forty-three-year history.
The completion of the human genome project in 2000 dramatically emphasized the imminent success of the genetic revolution. The ethical and social consequences of this scientific development are immense. From human reproduction to life-extending therapies, from the impact on gender and race to public health and public safety, there is scarcely a part of our lives left unaffected by the impact of the new genetics. A Companion to Genethics is the first substantial study of the multifaceted dimensions of the genetic revolution and its philosophical, ethical, social, and political significance. It brings together the best and most influential contemporary writing about genethics. Newly commissioned essays from prominent figures in the current debate provide a wide-ranging and fascinating scholarly analysis of all the issues that arise from this explosive science.
Is there any moral obligation to improve oneself, to foster and develop various capacities in oneself? From a broadly Kantian point of view, Self-Improvement defends the view that there is such an obligation and that it is an obligation that each person owes to him or herself. The defence addresses a range of arguments philosophers have mobilized against this idea, including the argument that it is impossible to owe anything to yourself, and the view that an obligation to improve onself is overly 'moralistic'. Robert N. Johnson argues against Kantian universalization arguments for the duty of self-improvement, as well as arguments that bottom out in a supposed value humanity has. At the same time, he defends a position based on the notion that self- and other-respecting agents would, under the right circumstances, accept the principle of self-improvement and would leave it up to each to be the person to whom this duty is owed.
The City and Sex examines American political sex scandals at the national level. Studying these events over time with an emphasis on the evolving responses of both statesmen and citizens reveals the republic's deteriorating moral health and illuminates the country's dangerous tendency toward servitude. Using scandals as a window through which to glimpse our deterioration, the book identifies a trajectory of decline beginning in the twentieth century, by which Americans became less tutored in virtue, less spirited in citizenship, less agreed on questions of moral significance, and ultimately less dexterous in exercising the skills of self-government. It seeks to show that the freedom from virtue won through the collapse of moral standards has produced an American citizenry increasingly prone to the kind of dependence and enslavement Alexis de Tocqueville cautioned against in the 1830s.
When people encounter consumer goods-sugar, clothes, phones-they find little to no information about their origins. The goods will thus remain anonymous, and the labor that went into making them, the supply chain through which they traveled, will remain obscured. In this book, Tad Skotnicki argues that this encounter is an endemic feature of capitalist societies, and one with which consumers have struggled for centuries in the form of activist movements constructed around what he calls The Sympathetic Consumer. This book documents the uncanny similarities shared by such movements over the course of three centuries: the transatlantic abolitionist movement, US and English consumer movements around the turn of the twentieth century, and contemporary Fair Trade activism. Offering a comparative historical study of consumer activism the book shows, in vivid detail, how activists wrestled with the broader implications of commodity exchange. These activists arrived at a common understanding of the relationship between consumers, producers, and commodities, and concluded that consumers were responsible for sympathizing with invisible laborers. Ultimately, Skotnicki provides a framework to identify a capitalist culture by examining how people interpret everyday phenomena essential to it.
First published in 1997, this volume responds to attention in recent years which has been belatedly directed towards reviving World War II issues involving Japan. This study deals first with the manner in which such issues so long fell into abeyance under Cold War conditions, while tracing the vast and varied writing on the war which meanwhile appeared within Japan. Evolving Japanese views on the war are largely focused on debate over the revision of the postwar constitution, especially its renunciation of "war potential". The book also contains the first overview of the decades-long litigation within Japan on the screening of textbooks, especially on the war.
What can we learn from the tragedy of these exploited young people?In Thailand, a thriving sex industry makes its money exploiting the young. Some children are coerced into prostitution and some have been sold into sexual slavery by their own families, but just as tragically there is no shortage of young girls (and boys) willing to work as prostitutes. Child Prostitution in Thailand: Listening to Rahab searches for the reasons why. This uniquely insightful book looks into the lives--and even more importantly, listens to the words--of ten Thai prostitutes. Child Prostitution in Thailand is about what we can learn from them--who they are, what they go through, and why.In their own words, the young prostitutes you'll meet in this book Thailand discuss what brought them into this life. Some have come from a tragic home situation, but not all are impoverished, orphaned, or abused. Nevertheless, they have entered into a dangerous and degrading lifestyle that often leads to violence, sickness, and early death. Of these ten prostitutes, one has already passed away and four more are dying with AIDS.This remarkable volume will help you to understand: how Thailand's child prostitution industry developed the impact upon girls and young women of Thailand's evolution from an agriculturally based economy to an industrial one changing forms of child prostitution who the customers are the role of tourism and its impact on child prostitution in Thailand how poverty, poor education, a sexually focused mass media, lack of religious emphasis, disability, and the lack of a clear policy on child prostitution help the sex industry to thriveThis book also explores the details of child prostitution in Thailand--for instance, in open-air "restaurants" and "pubs" in Chiang Mai, your young waitress may double as a sex worker--and her provocative "uniform" represents a dress code enforced by the establishment's owner. A "cafe" is another kind of sex service disguised as (and functioning as) a bar/restaurant. Here, young girls working ten- and eleven-hour shifts in short skirts must wear price tags pinned to their shirts and may have to service five to ten clients per night.The head of the U.S. State Department's office for international women's issues estimates that traffickers bring 50,000 women and children into the United States illegally each year. The lessons Listening to Rahab teaches can help us to better understand the situation here at home as well as overseas. A helpful appendix assessing incidents of child prostitution around the globe bring the information even more clearly into focus.
The rapidly advancing field of biotechnology is developing powerful techniques for manipulating the fundamentals of life, including the food we eat. Proponents hail these developments as welcome new methods of improving the nutritional value of our food and of ensuring that it is protected from disease and pests. Opponents vehemently resist this scientific tampering with nature in its pristine state, and fear that dire consequences, like unforeseen new diseases or environmental catastrophes, will result from the creation of "Franken-foods." This lively collection of authoritative articles encompasses the many points of contention in the debate. The editors have organized the essays to deal first with the history and the science of genetically modified foods. The next section focuses on the morality of modifying organisms for human use. What factors should be considered in making value judgments about this technology? Succeeding sections include articles discussing religious attitudes toward genetically modified food, legal issues involving patenting and environmental damage, risk assessment, and possible environmental threats and benefits. Complete with a glossary and suggestions for further reading, this outstanding collection of recently published and brand new articles serves as a comprehensive introduction to an important technology with worldwide social consequences.
This book explicitly addresses ethical dilemmas and issues that
post-secondary ESL faculty commonly encounter and examines them in
the framework of social justice concerns. Ethics is defined
broadly, to include responsibilities and obligations to students
inside and outside the classroom, as well to colleagues,
educational institutions, the TESL profession, and society as a
whole.
With the collapse of communism and the accelerated trend of globalization, a new stage of capitalism has arrived. Protest actions that occurred in Seattle and Washington as well as in Prague and Genoa, clearly show that the legitimacy of capitalism is being questioned in many respects. Surveys in Eastern and Central Europe show that a considerable part of the population is not able to accept capitalism as an economic system. This volume assesses the ethical basis of capitalism in an effort to assess its future in the twenty-first century. Contributors range from one of the world's most successful capitalists and philanthropists to the founder of INSEAD, Europe's leading business school, to noted economists, philosophers, cultural historians, and business ethicists. Chapter 1, "Against Market Fundamentalism: 'The Capitalist Threat' Reconsidered," by George Soros, Olivier Giscard d'Estaing and others, is the edited and extended version of the public debate with Soros on his influential paper "The Capitalist Threat." Chapter 2, "Ethics of Capitalism," by Peter Koslowski, follows the thesis that capitalism constitutes a necessary component of a free society. Chapter 3, "Misunderstood and Abused Liberalism," by Lubomir Mlcoch, focuses on the problems of Czech-style capitalism. Chapter 4, "Humanizing the Economy" by Stefano Zamagni, investigates the role of civil society in relation to the market and the state. Chapter 5, "The Possibility of Stakeholder Capitalism," by Edward R. Freeman, argues that stakeholder relationships are a key to understanding the functioning of business in today's world. Chapter 6, "Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Ethicality in Business and Management," by Wojciech W. Gasparski, introduces the praxiology tradition in the debate about ethical aspects of capitalism. Chapter 7, "Responsibility and Profit Making," by Lszl3/4 Zsolnai, explores the conditions for ethical and social acceptability of profit making. Collectively, this volume addresses the ethical problems of the capitalist economy with special reference to globalization, and suggests that business ethics and the future of capitalism are strongly connected. It will be of particular interest to business people, economists, policy makers, social scientists and students of philosophy and ethics. Lszl3/4 Zsolnai is director of the Business Ethics Center at Budapest University of Economic Sciences and is Szuchenyi Distinguished Professor in Ethics and Economics, awarded by the Hungarian Ministry of Education. Wojciech W. Gasparski is professor at the Insititute of Philosophy and Sociology, the Polish Academy of Sciences, and editor-in-chief of the Praxiology series.
This book explicitly addresses ethical dilemmas and issues that
post-secondary ESL faculty commonly encounter and examines them in
the framework of social justice concerns. Ethics is defined
broadly, to include responsibilities and obligations to students
inside and outside the classroom, as well to colleagues,
educational institutions, the TESL profession, and society as a
whole.
Few issues in contemporary U.S. politics have remained on the public agenda so long and so divisively as abortion policy. The landmark Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade, which held that laws prohibiting first trimester abortions were illegal because they violated a woman's right to privacy, still generates heated controversy today, a quarter of a century after it was made. The seeds of that controversy were sown in the seven years immediately preceding Roe, when state legislatures tried to reconcile religious opposition to abortion and individuals' civil liberties. In this groundbreaking book, Rosemary Nossiff examines the forces that shaped abortion policy during those years, and the ways in which states responded to them. To provide in-depth analysis while still looking broadly at the picture, she studies New York, which passed the most permissive abortion bill in the country, and Pennsylvania, which passed one of the most restrictive. That these two states, which share similar demographic, political, and economic characteristics, should reach two such different outcomes provides a perfect case study for observing political dynamics at the state level. Nossiff examines the medical, religious, and legal discourses employed on both sides of the debate, as well as the role played by feminist discourse. She looks at the role of the political parties in the campaigns, as well as such interest groups as the National Council of Catholic Bishops, the Clergy Consultation Service, the National Organization for Women, and the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws. In addition, she analyzes the strategies used by both sides, as well as partisan and institutionaldevelopments that facilitated success or failure. Finally, in the Epilogue, she assesses the Roe decision and its aftermath, including an analysis of the pro-life movement in Pennsylvania. As the author remarks, "Without question people's positions on abortion are shaped by a myriad of social, moral, and economic factors. But ultimately abortion policy is shaped in the political arena. This book examines how one of the most intimate decisions a woman makes, whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy, has become one of the most politicized issues in contemporary American politics".
Tobacco control leaders were extremely proud of the movement's
achievements in the state of Minnesota. In sharing their
perspectives and experiences with Mark Wolfson, they found a way of
making sure that the story would get told. His training in social
movements had given him an appreciation of the importance of
understanding the social infrastructure on which movements are
built, and Minnesota had built heavily on the infrastructure of
health care and public health. What became apparent is that the
struggle against the tobacco industry in Minnesota involved a
close, collaborative relationship between government (or "state")
actors and the leaders of the tobacco control movement.
The aim of the book is to contribute to the development of Christian bioethics. Particularly, it constitutes a Christian critique of the sovereign bioethics - he kind of bioethics that shapes the relevant discussions in the public arena, and unjustifiably imposes particular values, boundaries and conditions on the discussion relevant to bioethical dilemmas - with special reference to the issues surrounding euthanasia. This critique is made, firstly, on the ground of the assumption that all theories of human existence, including sovereign bioethics share a common ground - all theories serve their own needs of self-presentation through presenting their subjective principles as objective and therefore as appropriate for power claims over human life. This is exemplified through a thorough analysis of the current discussion on euthanasia. Such a procedure is an innovative way on how current bioethics should be examined and evaluated. Such a critique of the sovereign bioethics is further developed on the ground of the patristic tradition and particularly the works of John Damascene and Symeon the New Theologian. Within such a context, the fundamental elements of a Christian anthropology regarding the constitution of man, the character of pain and death as well as the importance of the free will in man are discussed. This discussion is culminated in the presentation of the character of the Christian voluntary death along with its implications from a bioethical point of view.
Stem cell research has been a problematic endeavour. For the past twenty years it has attracted moral controversies in both the public and the professional sphere. The research involves not only laboratories, clinics and people, but ethics, industries, jurisprudence, and markets. Today it contributes to the development of new therapies and affects increasingly many social arenas. The matrix approach introduced in this book offers a new understanding of this science in its relation to society. The contributions are multidisciplinary and intersectional, illustrating how agency and influence between science and society go both ways. Conceptually, this volume presents a situated and reflexive approach for philosophy and sociology of the life sciences. The practices that are part of stem cell research are dispersed, and the concepts that tie them together are tenuous; there are persistent problems with the validation of findings, and the ontology of the stem cell is elusive. The array of applications shapes a growing bioeconomy that is dependent on patient donations of tissues and embryos, consumers, and industrial support. In this volume it is argued that this research now denotes not a specific field but a flexible web of intersecting practices, discourses, and agencies. To capture significant parts of this complex reality, this book presents recent findings from researchers, who have studied in-depth aspects of this matrix of stem cell research. This volume presents state-of-the-art examinations from senior and junior scholars in disciplines from humanities and laboratory research to various social sciences, highlighting particular normative and epistemological intersections. The book will appeal to scholars as well as wider audiences interested in developments in life science and society interactions. The novel matrix approach and the accessible case studies make this an excellent resource for science and society courses.
In his treatment of the issues raised by the movements of women for equal rights a century ago, Michels anticipated controversies and conflicts about which people care deeply today. He took a clear position in support of the desirability of equality between the sexes. In consequence, it remains relevant to current debates within feminism over equality and difference and the corresponding challenge to, and feminist critique of, social science arising from the (re) emergence of "difference" feminism. Sexual Ethics constitutes both an analysis of the "woman problem" and a document describing the wars between the sexes during this period and an important and overlooked piece of history of the classic sociological tradition. Michels observed that the national and economic conflicts in modern Europe were vast in scale and revealed sharply sensed injustices, and also that sex antagonisms are becoming more acute. He presented an argument, consistent with his theoretical position, about the seriousness of women's rights. Michels' discussions of sexuality, sexual morality, and the relations of the sexes had as its stimulus "the new sexual ethic" advocated by feminists. He pointed out that true equality required equality of rights to sexual liberty for women or chastity prior to marriage for men. Michels supported premarital chastity for men as an ideal, but he doubted that very many would practice it. Michels was virtually alone in the sociological tradition in seeking to illuminate the "struggle for love" between men and women by reference to the "erotic coquetry" in the sexual behavior of "lower animals." Despite his stand for equality of men and women in sexual matters, a recurrent theme in Sexual Ethics is that men are sexually more aggressive than women, at least in part due to social structures and cultural traditions. Michels advocated family planning (but opposed abortion) in the interests of marital and family happiness and economic well-being, especially for the poor. In his new introduction, Terry R. Kandal discusses Robert Michels' life. He explores, among other topics, Michels' treatment of the woman question and the reactions of Michels' contemporaries to the same question. He also discusses the feminist critique of social science, and the place of Michels in and the gender questions of our times. The book will be of particular interest to those interested in the history of relations between men and women as well as those interested in questions of biological determinism. |
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