Taking seriously the "what then?" question: an ethical framework for the responsible management of medical disasters

When healthcare resources become overwhelmed in medical disasters, as they inevitably will, we have to ask, in an unflinching fashion, the question: "What then?" or more precisely, "What should we do when we run out of resources?" In a mass casualty event worthy of the designation, we will indeed run out of resources, perhaps quite quickly. This article provides an ethical framework for the responsible management of medical disasters in which the "What then?" question must be asked. The framework begins with a critique of existing guidance from professional associations of physicians and then argues for an alternative approach that qualifies the obligation to preserve life, takes seriously the ethical challenges of overwhelmed healthcare resources, and countenances physician-assisted suicide as a last resort.     

Distinguishing Structural and Functional Models of Human Development: A Response to "What Transits in an Identity Status Transition?"

In response to Jane Kroger's "What Transits in an Identity Status Transition?" (this issue), this article questions the usefulness of the concept of soft structural stages as a tool for understanding James Marcia's ego identity status model. The authors begin by distinguishing a variety of developmental models along a continuum, ranging from cognitively based structural stages to culturally based social age periods, with functional stage models holding the overlapping middle ground. Applying this conceptual continuum to Kroger's theoretical essay, three inconsistencies are noted, each of which suggests that Marcia has constructed primarily a functional model. The authors affirm Kroger's conclusion that Marcia's model is developmental, although of a different type than Kroger proposed.     

What research paradigms have cognitive psychologists used to study "false memory," and what are the implications of these choices?

This research examines the methodologies employed by cognitive psychologists to study "false memory," and assesses if these methodologies are likely to facilitate scientific progress or perhaps constrain the conclusions reached. A PsycINFO search of the empirical publications in cognitive psychology was conducted through January, 2004, using the subject heading, "false memory." The search produced 198 articles. Although there is an apparent false memory research bandwagon in cognitive psychology, with increasing numbers of studies published on this topic over the past decade, few researchers (only 13.1% of the articles) have studied false memory as the term was originally intended--to specifically refer to planting memory for an entirely new event that was never experienced in an individual's lifetime. Cognitive psychologists interested in conducting research relevant to assessing the authenticity of memories for child sexual abuse should consider the generalizability of their research to the planting of entirely new events in memory.     

Chronicles of communication and power: informed consent to sterilisation in the Namibian Supreme Court’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">LM</Emphasis> judgment of 2015

The 2015 judgment of the Namibia Supreme Court in Government of the Republic of Namibia v LM and Others set an important precedent on informed consent in a case involving the coercive sterilisation of HIV-positive women. This article analyses the reasoning and factual narratives of the judgment by applying Neil Manson and Onora O’Neill’s approach to informed consent as a communicative process. This is done in an effort to understand the practical import of the judgment in the particular context of resource constrained public healthcare facilities through which many women in southern Africa access reproductive healthcare. While the judgment affirms certain established tenets in informed consent to surgical procedures, aspects of the reasoning in context demand more particularised applications of what it means for a patient to have capacity and to be informed, and to appropriately accommodate the disruptive role of power dynamics in the communicative process.     

What do dogs (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Canis familiaris</Emphasis>) see? A review of vision in dogs and implications for cognition research

Over the last 20 years, a large amount of research has been conducted in an attempt to uncover the cognitive abilities of the domestic dog. While substantial advancements have been made, progress has been impeded by the fact that little is known about how dogs visually perceive their external environment. It is imperative that future research determines more precisely canine visual processing capabilities, particularly considering the increasing number of studies assessing cognition via paradigms requiring vision. This review discusses current research on visual cognition and emphasizes the importance of understanding dog visual processing. We review several areas of vision research in domestic dogs, such as sensitivity to light, visual perspective, visual acuity, form perception, and color vision, with a focus on how these abilities may affect performance in cognition tasks. Additionally, we consider the immense diversity seen in dog morphology and explore ways in which these physical differences, particularly in facial morphology, may result in, or perhaps even be caused by, different visual processing capacities in dogs. Finally, we suggest future directions for research in dog vision and cognition.