Individual Differences in Reproductive Strategy are Related to Views about Recreational Drug Use in Belgium, The Netherlands, and Japan

Individual differences in moral views are often explained as the downstream effect of ideological commitments, such as political orientation and religiosity. Recent studies in the U.S. suggest that moral views about recreational drug use are also influenced by attitudes toward sex and that this relationship cannot be explained by ideological commitments. In this study, we investigate student samples from Belgium, The Netherlands, and Japan. We find that, in all samples, sexual attitudes are strongly related to views about recreational drug use, even after controlling for various ideological variables. We discuss our results in light of reproductive strategies as determinants of moral views.     

A Fine Balance: Reconsidering Patient Autonomy in Light of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is increasingly seen as driving a paradigm shift in mental health law, particularly in relation to the understanding that it requires a shift from substituted to supported decisions. This article identifies two competing moral commitments implied by this shift, both of which appeal to the notion of autonomy. It is argued that because of these commitments the Convention is in tension with more general calls in the medical ethics literature for preserving patient autonomy through support. The competing commitments within the Convention also present a particular challenge in putting the support it requires into practice. A discursive control account of freedom is used to develop some practical guidelines for navigating this new moral territory.     

Erhaltungszuchten von Amphibien im deutschsprachigen Raum

The global amphibian crisis is demonstrated in the number of endangered species and the hazard criteria. The development of an international response to this crisis from the Amphibian Conservation Action Plan to the Amphibian Ark is described and set forth the breeding community in the German speaking region by zoological institutions, private amphibian keepers and a school. The regulations created by a community of many zoo organizations are explained. The procedure and the educational backgrounds of the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Secondary school as part of the breeding program are presented to the reader with the successful breeding of Neurergus kaiseri.     

Enriching Our Views on Clinical Ethics: Results of a Qualitative Study of the Moral Psychology of Healthcare Ethics Committee Members

The contribution of healthcare ethics committee (HEC) members to HECs is fundamental. However, little is known about how HEC members view clinical ethics. We report results from a qualitative study of the moral psychology of HEC members. We found that contrary to the existing Kohlberg-based studies, HEC members hold a pragmatic non-expert view of clinical ethics based mainly on respect for persons and a commitment to the patient’s good. In general, HEC members hold deflationary views regarding moral theory. Ethical principles are not abstract foundations but the expression of moral commitments to patients that pre-exist awareness of moral theory. Emotions and proximity to patient sufferance fundamentally shape the views of HEC members on clinical ethics. Further work at the intersection of clinical ethics and qualitative research could bring to the foreground lay perspectives on moral problems that may differ from bioethics expert views.     

A Screening Project for the Geriatric Mentally Ill—Appraisals to Determine Suitable Care Facilities

The Geriatric Screening Project, the purpose of which is to determine whether referred patients can be dealt with by some means of care less drastic than commitment to a state hospital, has significantly reduced commitments from San Francisco. Geriatric commitments previously numbered almost 500 a year. In its first three calendar years, 1,290 persons were directly served by the project. The commitments dropped successively in the three years to 40, to 12 and then to three.The project has demonstrated that vast reductions of geriatric commitments can be achieved with enlightened screening and recommendations before resort to petition for mental illness is considered. Essential to the dramatic success are home visits, supportive community resources and a dedicated staff unafraid to meet the depressing needs of old people.     

Molecular phylogenetic analysis of Leibnitzia Cass. (Asteraceae: Mutisieae: Gerbera-complex), an Asian-North American disjunct genus

Leibnitzia comprises six species of perennial herbs that are adapted to high elevation conditions and is one of only two Asteraceae genera known to have an exclusively disjunct distribution spanning central to eastern Asia and North America. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of Leibnitzia and other Gerbera-complex members indicates that Leibnitzia is monophyletic, which is in contrast with our expectation that the American Leibnitzia species L. Lyrata and L. Occimadremis would be more closely related to another American member of the Gerbera-complex, namely Chaptalia. Ancestral area reconstructions show that the historical biogeography of the Gerbera-complex mirrors that of the entire Asteraceae, with early diverging lineages located in South America that were followed by transfers to Africa and Eurasia and, most recently, to North America. Intercontinental transfer of Leibnitzia appears to have been directed from Asia to North America. Independent calibrations of nuclear (ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer region) and chloroplast (trnL-rpl32 intron) DNA sequence data using relaxed clock methods and either mean rate or fossil-based priors unanimously support Miocene and younger divergence times for Gerbera-complex taxa. The ages are not consistent with most Gondwanan vicariance episodes and, thus, the global distribution of Gerbera-complex members must be explained in large part by long-distance dispersal. American species of Leibnitzia are estimated to have diverged from then- Asian ancestor during the Quaternary (ca. 2 mya) and either migrated overland to North America via Beringia and retreated southwards along high elevation corridors to their- present location in southwestern North America or were dispersed long distance.     

Regulation of abscisic acid translocation during embryo maturation of Phaseolus vulgaris

When R, S [2-¹⁴C] abscisic acid (ABA) was applied to the leaf of Phaseolus vulgaris , a part of the radioactivity was always found 24 h later in the only pod left on the plant. In early podfill, a large part of the labeled material was found in the maternal tissues while in late podfill, most had migrated to the embryos. During embryogenesis, embryo cells became more and more alkaline with respect to the seed coat cells. These results suggest that the distribution of ABA within the tissue is regulated by the pH differential between the two compartments.
The decrease of endogenous ABA level observed in situ during the second part of the embryo development therefore cannot be explained only in terms of the passive diffusion of the undissociated species (ABA-H). The empty-ovules technique revealed that ABA was only partly affected by an inversion of the pH gradient and that metabolic inhibitors influenced the release of ABA. These results indicate that in addition to a diffusive path, an energy-dependent component was involved.     

Plato's conception of the relations between moral philosophy and medicine

The first part of this article construes crucial passages from the Platonic dialogues as evidence that Plato takes medicine as a model for moral philosophy and as one of the organizing principles for his writing of the dialogues. The second part reflects upon the significance of one of the most debatable implications of the model: the comparison between health and illness, on the one hand, and moral virtue and moral vice, on the other. It articulates 10 illuminating aspects of this comparison and two potentially serious objections to it. The third part of this article examines what the model implies about the roles of medicine and moral philosophy in the political community and about the natures of doctor-patient and philosopher-interlocutor relationships. It highlights Socrates' criticisms of a kind of politics that covers over moral causes of social disorders by means of Band-Aid legislation, and emphasizes that according to the model, both the doctor and the moral teacher confront agents who must cooperate in the process of reform and accept whatever responsibility they have for their conditions.     

The role of community review in evaluating the risks of human genetic variation research.

The practicality and moral value of community review of human genetic research has become a focus of debate. Examples from two Native American communities are used to address four aspects of that debate: (1) the value of community review in larger, geographically dispersed populations; (2) the identification of culturally specific risks; (3) the potential conflict between individual and group assessments of research-related risks; and (4) the confusion of social categories with biological categories. Our experiences working with these two communities suggest that: (1) successful community review may require the involvement of private social units (e.g., families); (2) culturally specific implications of genetic research may be identifiable only by community members and are of valid concern in their moral universes; (3) community concerns can be incorporated into existing review mechanisms without necessarily giving communities the power to veto research proposals; and (4) the conflation of social and biological categories presents recruitment problems for genetic studies. These conclusions argue for the use of community review to identify and minimize research-related risks posed by genetic studies. Community review also can assist in facilitating participant recruitment and retention, as well as in developing partnerships between researchers and communities.     

Hamilton vs. Kant: pitting adaptations for altruism against adaptations for moral judgment

Prominent evolutionary theories of morality maintain that the adaptations that underlie moral judgment and behavior function, at least in part, to deliver benefits (or prevent harm) to others. These explanations are based on the theories of kin selection and reciprocal altruism, and they predict that moral systems are designed to maximize Hamiltonian inclusive fitness. In sharp contrast, however, moral judgment often appears Kantian and rule-based. To reconcile this apparent discrepancy, some theorists have claimed that Kantian moral rules result from mechanisms that implement simple heuristics for maximizing welfare. To test this idea, we conducted a set of studies in which subjects (N=1290) decided whether they would kill one person to save five others, varying the relationship of the subject with the others involved (strangers, friends, brothers). Are participants more likely to observe the Kantian rule against killing in decisions about brothers and friends, rather than strangers? We found the reverse. Subjects reported greater willingness to kill a brother or friend than a stranger (in order to save five others of the same type). These results suggest that the rule-based structure of moral cognition is not explained by kin selection, reciprocity, or other altruism theories.     

The (extra)ordinary ethics of being HIV‐positive in rural Papua New Guinea

HIV/AIDS continues to be intimately entwined with the moral domain, and thus a positive diagnosis can cast doubt on a person's moral status. I draw on recent literature in the anthropology of ethics and morality, as well as feminist moral philosophy, to analyse the post‐diagnosis practices of HIV‐positive women in Papua New Guinea as they attempt to recuperate their moral personhood and make their ethical commitments visible to others. I argue that they carve out a repertoire of (extra)ordinary ethics from the ‘ordinary’ domain and that their practices tend towards a deontological ethics, rather than a virtue ethics, orientation.     

Does Forest Scarcity Affect the Collection and Use of Firewood by Rural Communities? A Case Study in the Atlantic Forest of Northeastern Brazil

Many rural communities no longer have abundant forest areas for firewood collection. Based on this scenario, we evaluated how the scarcity of forest environments influences the collection and use of this resource in rural areas. A community located in the Atlantic Forest region of northeastern Brazil, which already lacks forest areas for firewood, was selected for field research. We observed that despite this context of forest scarcity, firewood remains the main source of fuel energy in the community. In total, 27 species of wood were cited, with an emphasis on exotic species in terms of number of citations. The perceived wood quality explained the frequency of plant use, but not the number of consumers. This can be explained by the difficulty of access to some species considered of better quality, because in the studied region, the plants are usually collected in private areas. Efforts in conservation strategies are recommended to encourage an increase in the frequency of use of the available exotic species in order to safeguard the native ones.     

The importance of fish stocking in the dissemination of parasites throughout a group of reservoirs

In view of the known importance of anthropochore movements of fish in disseminating their parasites, it was hypothesized that local movements of fish between neighbouring water bodies for stocking and management purposes would similarly disseminate their parasites, resulting in a high degree of similarity in the parasite communities of fish in water bodies that have been linked by fish transfers. This hypothesis was tested by comparing the helminth parasite communities in brown trout, Salmo trutta Linnaeus and rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum), in reservoirs in south west England. In one group of six reservoirs there is a recent history of transfers of rainbow trout, and in the second group of four there have been no transfers over the last decade. There was no difference in mean similarity, using Jaccard's Coefficient and a Percentage Similarity Index, between the helminth faunas of trout in the reservoirs linked by transfers and those not so linked, and the distribution of several individual species of helminths was not consistent with their having been disseminated in the course of fish stockings. The hypothesis is thus rejected and it is concluded that anthropochore transfers of trout between reservoirs have been of little or no significance in the dispersal of parasites throughout the reservoirs or in the transfer of helminths from one reservoir to another. The reasons for this unexpected conclusion are discussed in the light of indications that factors unrelated to fish transfers were important determinants of helminth community composition in individual reservoirs.     

Mobility strategies and the importance of community ties: former pulp and paper workers in Miramichi,New Brunswick

This article explores how global shifts in capital, production, the labor market, and its segmentation relate to mobility strategies and community ties in a specific local context. Mobility strategies or the refusal to be mobile are, at times, used in order to maintain households in communities that have seen their labor market constrict. Decisions about mobility are not purely about economic rationality. In the mobility strategies employed by former pulp and paper workers from Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada, resistance to mobility is due to community and familial ties to place. Such local commitments may take precedence over, but are clearly impacted by, the ever-shifting tides of global capital.     

Authoritative regulation and the stem cell debate

In this paper I argue that liberal democratic communities are justified in regulating the activities of their members because of the inevitable existence of conflicting conceptions of what is considered as morally right. This will often lead to tension and disputes, and in such circumstances, reliance on peaceful or orderly co-existence will not normally suffice. In such pluralistic societies, the boundary between permissible and impermissible activities will be unclear; and this becomes a particular concern in controversial issues which raise specific anxieties and uncertainty. One context that has repeatedly raised issues in this regard is that of biotechnology and, in particular, the recent stem cell debate, on which this paper concentrates. While such developments have the potential to make significant improvements to therapeutic progress, we should also be sceptical because predicting the impact of these developments remains uncertain and complex. For the sake of socio-political stability, it will therefore be necessary to enact and enforce rules which limit these competing claims in public policy but which may not be compatible with what individual moral commitments ideally permit. One way to achieve this is to establish procedural frameworks to resolve potential disputes in the public sphere about what is right, wrong, or permissible conduct. I argue that for one to commit to authoritative regulation, an idea of harm prevention through state intervention is necessary; and that this requires optimum mechanisms of procedure which allow the individual the opportunity to compromise and yet to continue to oppose or fight for changes as demanded by his or her moral position.     

Beta diversity of orchid bees in a tropical biodiversity hotspot

A controversial issue in ecology and conservation is whether community composition is controlled by niche or dispersal assembly. We assessed the importance of climatic factors and geographic gradients on the distribution of orchid bees in a severely-fragmented and species-rich tropical forest region in Brazil. Orchid-bee males were attracted to 17 different scent baits and collected in 15 forest sites. In total we captured 11,081 bees from 40 species. Climatic variables explained twice as much of the observed variation in the bee species data set as did pure spatial variation. However, most of the climatic explained variation was spatially structured, indicating that the species and the climatic data have a similar spatial arrangement. In fact, part of the observed latitudinal changes in community composition appears to be explained by a concomitant gradient in precipitation seasonality. Similarly, reduced temperatures and a more seasonal precipitation may help to explain the relative distinctiveness of the fauna from some of the westernmost sites. The level of similarity among the sampled sites, although highly variable, decayed both as function of the climatic and geographic distances among these sites. The greatest pairwise dissimilarities in the composition of the orchid-bee fauna were observed among sites 200–300 km from each other, since in many case those sites were more dissimilar in terms of climate than those further apart. It is suggested that global warming and consequent altered climatic regimes will influence the distribution patterns of orchid bees in a region already threatened by deforestation and forest fragmentation.     

ON THE SUPPOSED MORAL HARM OF SELECTING FOR DEAFNESS

This paper demonstrates that accounting for the moral harm of selecting for deafness is not as simple or obvious as the widespread negative response from the hearing community would suggest. The central questions addressed by the paper are whether our moral disquiet with regard to selecting for deafness can be adequately defended, and if so, what this might entail. The paper considers several different strategies for accounting for the supposed moral harm of selecting for deafness and concludes that the deaf case cannot be treated in isolation. Accounting for the moral harm of selecting for deafness necessarily entails moral implications for other cases of procreation and procreative decision‐making, including unassisted coital reproduction. The lesson to be learned from the deaf case is that we need norms that govern not just the use of reproductive technology, but procreation and procreative decision‐making in all of its various forms.     

PALLIATIVE CARE, PUBLIC HEALTH AND JUSTICE: SETTING PRIORITIES IN RESOURCE POOR COUNTRIES

Many countries have not considered palliative care a public health problem. With limited resources, disease-oriented therapies and prevention measures take priority. In this paper, I intend to describe the moral framework for considering palliative care as a public health priority in resource-poor countries. A distributive theory of justice for health care should consider integrative palliative care as morally required as it contributes to improving normal functioning and preserving opportunities for the individual. For patients requiring terminal care , we are guided less by principles of justice and more by the duty to relieve suffering and society's commitment to protecting the professional's obligation to uphold principles of beneficence, compassion and non-abandonment. A fair deliberation process is necessary to allow these strong moral commitments to serve as reasons when setting priorities in resource poor countries.     

On the need to redress an inadequacy in animal welfare science: toward an internally coherent framework

The time is ripe for a greater interrogation of assumptions and commitments underlying an emerging common ground on the ethics of animal research as well on the 3 R (replacement, refinement, reduction) approach that parallels, and perhaps even further shapes, it. Recurring pressures to re-evaluate the moral status of some animals in research comes as much from within the relevant sciences as without. It seems incredible, in the light of what we now know of such animals as chimpanzees, to deny that these animals are properly accorded high moral status. Barring the requirement that they be human, it is difficult to see what more animals such as chimpanzees would have to possess to acquire it. If the grounds for ascribing high moral status are to be non-arbitrary and responsive to our best knowledge of those individuals who possess the relevant features, we should expect that a sound ethical experimental science will periodically reassess the moral status of their research subjects as the relevant knowledge demands. We already can observe this reassessment as scientists committed to humane experimental science incorporate discoveries of enrichment tools and techniques into their housing and use of captive research animals. No less should this reassessment include a critical reflection on the possible elevation of moral status of certain research animals in light of what is discovered regarding their morally significant properties, characteristics or capacities, or so I will argue. To do anything short of this threatens the social and moral legitimacy of animal research.     

Why kin and group selection models may not be enough to explain human other-regarding behaviour

Models of kin or group selection usually feature only one possible fitness transfer. The phenotypes are either to make this transfer or not to make it and for any given fitness transfer, Hamilton's rule predicts which of the two phenotypes will spread. In this article we allow for the possibility that different individuals or different generations face similar, but not necessarily identical possibilities for fitness transfers. In this setting, phenotypes are preference relations, which concisely specify behaviour for a range of possible fitness transfers (rather than being a specification for only one particular situation an animal or human can be in). For this more general set-up, we find that only preference relations that are linear in fitnesses can be explained using models of kin selection and that the same applies to a large class of group selection models. This provides a new implication of hierarchical selection models that could in principle falsify them, even if relatedness--or a parameter for assortativeness--is unknown. The empirical evidence for humans suggests that hierarchical selection models alone are not enough to explain their other-regarding or altruistic behaviour.