The Nazi! Accusation and Current US Proposals

In contemporary ethical discourse generally, and in discussions concerning the legalization of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and voluntary active euthanasia (VAE) specifically, recourse is sometimes had to the Nazi! accusation. Some disputants charge that such practices are or will become equivalent to the Nazi 'euthanasia' program in which over 73,000 handicapped children and adults were killed without consent. This paper reflects on the circumstances that lead to the use of this charge and offers reasons for putting the Nazi! charge aside in contemporary discussions of PAS and VAE. A number of the philosophical presuppositions common to both the Nazi 'euthanasia' program and the currently proposed practices of PAS and VAE are examined. Noting that racist ideology and violent coercion characterized the Nazi program, the paper concludes with a cautionary consideration of the current circumstances that would specify PAS and VAE in the US.     

The Nazi! accusation and current US proposals

In contemporary ethical discourse generally, and in discussions concerning the legalization of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and voluntary active euthanasia (VAE) specifically, recourse is sometimes had to the Nazi! accusation. Some disputants charge that such practices are or will become equivalent to the Nazi 'euthanasia' program in which over 73,000 handicapped children and adults were killed without consent. This paper reflects on the circumstances that lead to the use of this charge and offers reasons for putting the Nazi! charge aside in contemporary discussions of PAS and VAE. A number of the philosophical presuppositions common to both the Nazi 'euthanasia' program and the currently proposed practices of PAS and VAE are examined. Noting that racist ideology and violent coercion characterized the Nazi program, the paper concludes with a cautionary consideration of the current circumstances that would specify PAS and VAE in the US.     

L’institution médicale allemande et l’holocauste : Un aide — mémoire À l’occasion du 60’anniversarie de la libération d’Auschwitz

The aim of this essay is to remind us, in retrospect of 60 years, of the active part taken by German health professionals in unparalleled crimes. To comprehend the history of the acceptance by the German medical community - one of the most advanced and respected of the time - of the Nazi ideology and to serve it, is one of the most perplexing in the history of the holocaust. It is not the intention of this short article to comprehensively analyse the scope and brutality of the Nazi physicians but only to serve as a brief reminder as we just commemorated the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz - Birkenau death camp on January 27, 1945, 60 years ago.     

HOMEOPATHY AND EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS – A RESPONSE TO SMITH'S UTILITARIAN ARGUMENT

Kevin Smith's utilitarian argument against homeopathy 1 is flawed because he did not review and refute the relevant basic science literature on ultra‐high dilutions. He also failed to appreciate that allopathic medicine is based on a deductive‐nomothetic method and that homeopathic medicine is based on an inductive‐idiographic method, and thus that the implications for clinical research are very different. His misunderstanding of provings and of the holism of homeopathic medicine also demonstrated his failure to understand the history, philosophy and method of homeopathy. Finally, I questioned the value of introducing ethical judgment into an ongoing scientific debate.     

Othenio Abel (1875–1946): the rise and decline of paleobiology in German paleontology

Othenio Abel is widely acclaimed as the founder of paleobiology; of the journal Palaeobiologica and of the Paleobiological Society in Vienna. His National–Socialist sympathies, which he shared with fellow paleobiologist Henry Fairfield Osborn from the American Museum of Natural History, resulted in his forced retirement from the University of Vienna in 1934. Abel secured subsequent employment at the University of Göttingen, later sought help from Nazi officials to create his own institute in Salzburg. A leader amongst German paleontologists, Abel supported efforts of the Deutsche Palaeontologische Gesellschaft to align paleobiology with Nazi ideology (‘National–Socialism is politically applied biology’) to secure more support for the discipline. Abel's paleobiology was neo-Lamarckian in nature, based on a ‘reaction theory’ of adaptation. Abel attempted to unify paleontology with biology under a universal law of nature – the Law of Biological Inertia – that itself was anchored in classical physics.     

A gray matter of taste: Sound perception, music cognition, and Baumgarten's aesthetics

Music is an ancient and ubiquitous form of human expression. One important component for which music is sought after is its aesthetic value, whose appreciation has typically been associated with largely learned, culturally determined factors, such as education, exposure, and social pressure. However, neuroscientific evidence shows that the aesthetic response to music is often associated with automatic, physically- and biologically-grounded events, such as shivers, chills, increased heart rate, and motor synchronization, suggesting the existence of an underlying biological platform upon which contextual factors may act. Drawing on philosophical notions and neuroscientific evidence, I argue that, although there is no denying that social and cultural context play a substantial role in shaping the aesthetic response to music, these act upon largely universal, biological mechanisms involved with neural processing. I propose that the simultaneous presence of culturally-influenced and biologically-determined contributions to the aesthetic response to music epitomizes Baumgarten's equation of sensory perception with taste. Taking the argument one step further, I suggest that the heavily embodied aesthetic response to music bridges the cleavage between the two discrepant meanings-the one referring to sensory perception, the other referring to judgments of taste-traditionally attributed to the word "aesthetics" in the sciences and the humanities.     

Regulation concerns of supply and demand sides for aesthetic medicine from Chinese perspective

Aesthetic medicine has become a booming industry in the world. However, there are widespread social and health risks posed by aesthetic medicine, including illegal practice, and misleading information from aesthetic medicine institutes. Social media and advertisement play important roles in leading to appearance anxiety among young people nowadays. Regarding the chaotic situation in the aesthetic medical field, there is a fact that the practice of aesthetic medicine has been marginally regulated, even in some developed countries. China has the largest population in the world as well as the large number of aesthetic medical customers. Regarding the protection of people from harm, there is a great challenge for the Chinese government. So, China has enacted the toughest governance these years both on the supply and demand side. Some of the strategies may be useful for health authorities in certain countries.     

Human Genetics and Politics as Mutually Beneficial Resources: The Case of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics During the Third Reich

This essay analyzes one of Germany’s former premier research institutions for biomedical research, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics (KWIA) as a test case for the way in which politics and human heredity served as resources for each other during the Third Reich. Examining the KWIA from this perspective brings us a step closer to answering the questions at the heart of most recent scholarship concerning the biomedical community under the swastika: (1) How do we explain why the vast majority of German human geneticists and eugenicists were willing to work for the National Socialist state and, at the very least, legitimized its exterminationist racial policy; and (2) what accounts for at least some of Germany’s most renowned medically trained professionals’ involvement in forms of morally compromised science that wholly transcend the bounds of normal scientific practice? Although a complete answer to this question must await an examination of other German biological research centers, the present study suggests that during the Nazi period the symbiotic relationship between human genetics and politics served to radicalize both. The dynamic between the science of human heredity and Nazi politics changed the research practice of some of the biomedical sciences housed at the KWIA. It also simultaneously made it easier for the Nazi state to carry out its barbaric racial program leading, finally, to the extermination of millions of so-called racial undesirables.     

The Neural Basis of Object-Context Relationships on Aesthetic Judgment

The relationship between contextual information and object perception has received considerable attention in neuroimaging studies. In the work reported here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the relationship between aesthetic judgment and images of objects in their normal contextual setting versus images of objects in abnormal contextual settings and the underlying brain activity. When object-context relationships are violated changes in visual perception and aesthetic judgment emerges that exposes the contribution of vision to interpretations shaped by previous experience. We found that effects of context on aesthetic judgment modulates different memory sub-systems, while aesthetic judgment regardless of context recruit medial and lateral aspects of the orbitofrontal cortex, consistent with previous findings. Visual cortical areas traditionally associated with the processing of visual features are recruited in normal contexts, irrespective of aesthetic ratings, while prefrontal areas are significantly more engaged when objects are viewed in unaccustomed settings.     

Nationalism,ethnicity, and language choice: The effect of Nazi assimilationist policies in Alsace, 1940–1945

This article examines the complex interaction of nationalism, ethnicity and language during and after the 1940–45 Nazi occupation of Alsace. It focuses on the structure and texture of intergroup relations between Nazis and Alsatians, and analyses Alsatian claims that Nazi authorities did more for the cause of France and of the French language than two and a half centuries of previous French rule. It argues that in situations of intergroup contact, the role of cultural and linguistic similarity in predicting behaviour is secondary to the powerful effects of group self‐perception, perception of others, purposes, power, and identity/language choices. It shows that while historical and social contexts influence or determine language use, choice of language, in turn, offers significant clues about the perception of and reaction to particular circumstances. After World War II Alsatians felt the need to affirm their allegiance to France and to differentiate themselves from their former occupiers. These factors can be seen as an important cause of Alsatian acquiescence to French postwar assimilationist policies, and of the decline of the German dialect that has been spoken there for fifteen centuries.     

Concept of photonic hook scalpel generated by shaped fiber tip with asymmetric radiation

Structured light have made deep impacts on modern biotechnology and clinical practice, with numerous optical systems and lasers currently being used in medicine to treat disease. We demonstrate a new concept of fiber-based optical hook scalpel. The subwavelength photonic hook is obtained in the vicinity of a shaped fiber tip with asymmetric radiation. A 1550 nm continuous-wave source, commonly used for medical imaging, has been required. Photonic hook with a lateral feature size less than the half-wavelength is achieved using a hemispherical shaped fiber tip with metallic mask. This breakthrough is carried out in ambient air by using a 4-μm-diameter fiber with a shaped tip. A good correlation is observed between the computed intensity distribution of photonic hook and the tip sizes. Photonic hook generated with a shaped fiber tip, easier to manipulate, shows far-reaching benefits for potential applications such as ophthalmic laser surgery, super-resolution microscopy, photolithography and material processing.     

Might there be a medical conscience?

I defend the feasibility of a medical conscience in the following sense: a medical professional can object to the prevailing medical norms because they are incorrect as medical norms. In other words, I provide an account of conscientious objection that makes use of the idea that the conscience can issue true normative claims, but the claims in question are claims about medical norms rather than about general moral norms. I further argue that in order for this line of reasoning to succeed, there needs to be an internal morality of medicine that determines what medical professionals ought to do qua medical professionals. I utilize a constructivist approach to the internal morality of medicine and argue that medical professionals can conscientiously object to providing treatment X, if providing treatment X is not in accordance with norms that would have been constructed, in light of the end of medicine, by the appropriate agents under the appropriate conditions.     

环境审美的生物学基础和文化影响及其设计应用

人类的环境审美既受到在长期进化中形成的生物本能的影响,同时也受到文化发展的影响。环境审美的生物学基础认为能够满足人类生存和繁衍的环境就是美的,由此形成了栖息地理论、瞭望—庇护理论、认知理论和信息处理理论,其特点是形式和内容的完美统一。文化对于人类环境审美的影响主要表现在：1）对于生物学基础的调整和改变;2）文化的变化导致环境审美情趣的变化;3）对于同一审美对象,个体和小群体的美感体验存在差异。生物学基础和文化发展之间也存在着相互作用,二者总是综合起来共同影响人们的环境审美,因此在环境设计中必须同时重视二者的作用,才能设计出具有“家园感”的环境作品。     

The genetics of phenotypic plasticity. V. Evolution of reaction norm shape

We present a general quantitative genetic model for the evolution of reaction norms. This model goes beyond previous models by simultaneously permitting any shaped reaction norm and allowing for the imposition of genetic constraints. Earlier models are shown to be special cases of our general model; we discuss in detail models involving just two macroenvironments, linear reaction norms, and quadratic reaction norms. The model predicts that, for the case of a temporally varying environment, a population will converge on (1) the genotype with the maximum mean geometric fitness over all environments, (2) a linear reaction norm whose slope is proportional to the covariance between the environment of development and the environment of selection, and (3) a linear reaction norm even if nonlinear reaction norms are possible. An examination of experimental studies finds some limited support for these predictions. We discuss the limitations of our model and the need for more realistic gametic models and additional data on the genetic and developmental bases of plasticity.     

Searching for constraints by cross‐species comparison: reaction norms for age and size at maturity in insects

An evolutionary explanation should consider the balance between environmentally‐based selective pressures, and the resistance of the organism's phenotype to adaptive evolution, with the latter being captured by the concept of constraint. The limited attention to non‐adaptive explanations in evolutionary ecology is at least partly caused by methodological difficulties with respect to identifying and quantifying constraints. As an example of an experimental approach evaluating a constraint‐based explanation, we present a cross‐species comparison of the shape of reaction norms for size and age at maturity. Instar‐ and sex‐specific development times and final sizes were recorded for two distantly‐related species of insects (Lepidoptera), with larval growth rates being manipulated by means of refined starvation treatments. We found that (1) the ‘classical’ L‐shaped reaction norms for final size and development time are characteristic also of individual larval instars; (2) these responses show a high degree of quantitative similarity across the species, different larval instars, and sexes within species; and (3) the similarity among species and sexes is higher for the penultimate than for the final instar. The high degree of similarity suggests that some physiological mechanisms determining such reaction norms are evolutionarily conservative. An alternative explanation (i.e. quantitative similarity of ecologically based selective pressures) appears less likely. The results of a previous study on a third lepidopteran species not only support our general conclusions, but also provide a clear case of adaptive evolution in some aspects of such reaction norms. The present study shows one way how the data required to measure evolutionary conservatism in reaction norms for body size can be obtained empirically. © 2014 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, 114 , 296–307.     

The hitchhiker's guide to altruism: gene-culture coevolution,and the internalization of norms

An internal norm is a pattern of behavior enforced in part by internal sanctions, such as shame, guilt and loss of self-esteem, as opposed to purely external sanctions, such as material rewards and punishment. The ability to internalize norms is widespread among humans, although in some so-called "sociopaths", this capacity is diminished or lacking. Suppose there is one genetic locus that controls the capacity to internalize norms. This model shows that if an internal norm is fitness enhancing, then for plausible patterns of socialization, the allele for internalization of norms is evolutionarily stable. This framework can be used to model Herbert Simon's (1990) explanation of altruism, showing that altruistic norms can "hitchhike" on the general tendency of internal norms to be personally fitness-enhancing. A multi-level selection, gene-culture coevolution argument then explains why individually fitness-reducing internal norms are likely to be prosocial as opposed to socially harmful.     

Racism as social policy: The Nazi ‘euthanasia’ programme, 1939–1945

This article is concerned with the successive stages of the Nazi ‘euthanasia’ programme between 1933 and 1945. The ‘euthanasia’ programme was ordered by Hitler, and implemented by an ad hoc bureaucracy which bypassed the normative institutions of the state. It also relied upon the active complicity of academic psychiatrists and some directors of mental institutions. This article traces the successive stages of the programme and demonstrates the several links between the murder of the mentally handicapped and the subsequent extermination of the Jews. It then examines the ideological, scientific and social context of these policies, particularly emphasizing the role of cost‐cutting considerations in welfare policy during and after the Depression. It also stresses developments in psychiatric medicine which led otherwise ‘progressive’ psychiatrists to contemplate killing ‘incurable’ patients. The article then examines the impact of Nazi policy on specific institutions and individuals, sometimes with the aid of interviews and material from relatives of the victims concerned. The article also considers sources of individual opposition to these policies, and attempts by the regime to overcome mass distaste for its policies by skilful use of film propaganda. These passages in the article are based upon analysis of the films themselves. The article offers no theoretical, philosophical, or psychological, general explanations or conclusions, regarding the policies it analyses and describes.     

Julius Wagner-Jauregg and the Legacy of Malarial Therapy for the Treatment of General Paresis of the Insane

Julius Wagner-Jauregg, a preeminent Austrian psychiatrist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1927 for the development of malaria therapy for the treatment of neurosyphilis, or general paresis of the insane. Despite being only one of three psychiatrists to win a Nobel Prize, he has faded from public consciousness and his name recognition pales in comparison to his contemporary and fellow Austrian, Sigmund Freud. This paper explores his contributions to the field of biological psychiatry and also touches upon reasons, such as the growing bioethics movement, his controversial affiliation with the Nazi Party, and the evolution of neurosyphilis, that explain why Wagner-Jauregg is not more widely celebrated for his contributions to the field of psychiatry, even though his malarial treatment could be considered the earliest triumph of biological psychiatry over psychoanalysis.     

Against homeopathy--a utilitarian perspective

I examine the positive and negative features of homeopathy from an ethical perspective. I consider: (a) several potentially beneficial features of homeopathy, including non-invasiveness, cost-effectiveness, holism, placebo benefits and agent autonomy; and (b) several potentially negative features of homeopathy, including failure to seek effective healthcare, wastage of resources, promulgation of false beliefs and a weakening of commitment to scientific medicine. A utilitarian analysis of the utilities and disutilities leads to the conclusion that homeopathy is ethically unacceptable and ought to be actively rejected by healthcare professionals.     

Optimal trait scoring for age estimation

What are the effects that genetics has had on Anthropological research and how can we think anthropologically about Genetics? Just as genetic data have encouraged new hypotheses about human phenotypic variation, evolutionary history, population interaction, and environmental effects, so too has Anthropology offered to genetic studies a new interpretive locus in its history and perspective. This introduction examines how the fields of Anthropology and Genetics have arrived at a crucial moment at which their interaction requires careful examination and critical reflection. The papers discussed here exemplify how we may engage in such a trans-disciplinary conversation. They speak to the future of thoughtful interaction between genetic and anthropological literature and seek a new integration that embodies the holism of the human biological sciences.