Commodification of seeds

Unnatural Selection: Technology, Politics and Plant Evolution, by Cary Fowler. International Studies in Global Change, volume 6. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach, 1994. 352 pages, £33/$50 cloth, £13/$20 pb.     

Commodification and commercial surrogacy

... In this article I shall argue tentatively for the claim that commercial surrogacy should be legally permissible. I am more strongly convinced that a commitment to feminism should not predispose anyone against surrogacy. At least, no arguments offered so far should persuade anyone who is committed to equal rights for women and men and the dismantling of gender-based hierarchies to favor either legal prohibition or moral condemnation of commercial surrogacy.     

New Age Commodification and Appropriation of Spirituality

The New Age Movement can be seen as one response to the decline of traditional religion in the West. It conforms to the spiritual pluralism that Bryan Wilson understands as a consequence of secularization. From a New Age perspective, the world's various spiritual traditions are now public property and no longer the private preserve of the parochial groups or religious élites that they once were. Since in this open availability process, the sacred becomes commodified, the general argument allows that it can be bought and sold and thus consumed according to basic free-market principles. The paper explores both the New Age rationale for spiritual commercialization and some of the clashes this engenders with the traditions from which it appropriates.     

Commodification or Compensation: A Reply to Ketchum

I defend the permissibility of paid surrogacy arrangements against the arguments Sara Ketchum advances in “Selling Babies and Selling Bodies.” I argue that the arrangements cannot be prohibited out of hand on the grounds that they treat persons as objects of sale, because it is possible to view the payments made in these arrangements as compensation for the woman's services. I also argue that the arguments based on exploitation and parental custodial rights fail to provide adequate grounds for prohibiting the arrangements.     

Commodification in law: ideologies,intractabilities, and hyperboles

In this paper I first aim to identify, from a perspective mindful of both analytic and Continental traditions, the central normative issues at stake in the various debates concerning commodification in law. Although there now exists a wealth of thoughtful literature in this area, I often find myself disoriented within the webs of moral criteria used to analyze the increasingly ubiquitous practice of converting legal goods into monetary values. I therefore attempt to distinguish and organize these often conflated conceptual distinctions across several registers of moral analysis. Second, I formulate what I consider the most illuminating questions regarding the criteria used to evaluate commodification in law. Critiques of commodification in law face what I call problems of ideology, intractability, and hyperbole, and identifying these issues helps to explain the momentum of the law and economics movement.

The Virtue of Care

There have been many attempts to define care in terms of the virtues, but meta‐analyses of these attempts are conspicuously absent from the literature. No taxonomies have been offered to situate them within the broader care ethical and virtue theoretical discourses, nor have any substantial discussions of each option's merits and shortcomings. I attempt to fill this lacuna by presenting an analysis of the claim that care is a virtue (what I call the “virtue thesis” about care). I begin by distinguishing weaker and stronger versions of the virtue thesis, arguing that the weaker version is an orthodox view among care ethicists. I then go on to develop a taxonomy of approaches available to care ethicists seeking to flesh out the virtue thesis. The three I identify are analogical approaches, according to which care is analogous to some existing virtue; supplementalist approaches, according to which care is a novel virtue; and cardinalist approaches, according to which care is a cardinal virtue. Following this, I defend the virtue thesis from some foreseeable objections and argue that its most promising version is analogical.     

身体关怀：医学关怀的终极使命

西方关怀思想显现为由“关怀”向“人文关怀”递进、由“人文关怀”向“身体关怀”转向、由“身体关怀”向“医学关怀”迁移的演进过程。廓清、重建和升华医学关怀的理念、认知和行为。医学关怀是对患者的健康状况、身心疾患、身体感受、具身情绪和社会适应给予的关注、关情、关爱。医学人文关怀、医学技术关怀和医学服务关怀构成医学关怀的三个维度,形成以医学人文关怀为纲、医学技术关怀为用、医学服务关怀为媒的整体结构。在医学关怀的“三维一体”的图式中,医学人文关怀给身体以灵魂慰藉、医学技术关怀给身体以物质支撑、医学服务关怀给身体以温暖感受,协同完成医学关怀这一医学的终极使命。     

Commodification of Flesh: Data Visualization Techniques and Interest in the Licit Sex Industry

A commonly held assumption in the sex-based industry is interest always exists. However, assuming interest undermines any holistic attempt to study the licit and illicit economies associated with this industry. This research explores Backpage.com and the influence this website has on licit markets associated with prostitution and the illicit activities often associated with the economy. Results suggest Backpage.com does have an influence on two prominent licit markets, strip clubs and massage parlors. Moreover, results of the spatial analysis indicate the presence of “interest corridors” uniquely aligning to known transportation corridors associated with routes for prostitution and human trafficking.     

The Experiment of Foster Care

We sought to provide a new framework for understanding the training and ongoing support of foster parents. The experiences of authorized foster parents were viewed in the context of an experiment, whereby foster parents entered an out-of-home care placement with preconceived ideas and expectations of what the provision of care would be like. We have investigated the experience of foster care from the perspective of the foster parent who tests expectations of providing care as one might conduct any experiment. Focus group discussion yielded five global domains of foster care experience: birth family, motivation, agency influences, relationship impacts, and attachment. Foster carers commonly described these domains as central to the overall experience of providing foster care. Furthermore, specific experiences within each domain were seen to either encourage or discourage the further provision of foster care. Individual interviews regarding the practical experiences related to these domains uncovered struggles of foster parents who sought to understand their role identity as a “foster parent”, and their self identity as a “mother”. We discuss implications arising from the experience of these domains of care and their related struggles.     

The Ethical Standard of Care

The recent TeGenero phase I trial of a novel monoclonal antibody in healthy volunteers produced a drastic inflammatory reaction in participants receiving the experimental agent. Commentators on the ethics of the research have focused considerable attention on the role of financial considerations: the for-profit status of the biotechnology company and Contract Research Organization responsible respectively for sponsoring and conducting the trial and the amount of monetary compensation to participants. We argue that these financial considerations are largely irrelevant and distort ethical appraisal of this tragic research. Except for administering the antibody to all 6 participants nearly simultaneously, the trial appears to fulfill all of the critical ethical requirements for clinical research—social value, scientific validity, fair subject selection, favorable risk-benefit ratio, independent review, informed consent, and respect for enrolled participants.     

The Shelter Care Concept

Shelter care for adolescents has evolved into a specialized kind of child care, responsibility, accountability, structure, and consistency being necessary ingredients. While in a shelter, the child experiences positive rewards as well as discipline in a controlled environment; evaluative measures are performed to develop a realistic long-term treatment plan for the child.     

儿童临终关怀的发展

儿童临终关怀越来越受到世界的重视。世界很多国家已经建立了一些成功的儿童临终关怀模式,我国由于尚未建立临终关怀理念,临终儿童常被过度治疗,亦无专业从事临终关怀的医护人员,又缺乏社会、伦理法律支持,儿童临终关怀仍面临诸多困境,并且儿童临终关怀不同于成人临终关怀,不仅包括对儿童的支持,还有对父母的援助,应缓解父母压力,让他们成为临终关怀的主要参与者。我国儿童临终关怀还处于探索中,可通过学习他国的经验,寻找出符合我国国情的儿童临终关怀模式。     

The Meshing of Care and Justice

This essay attempts to work out how justice and care and their related concerns fit together. I suggest that as a basic moral value, care should be the wider moral framework into which justice should be fitted.     

实施子宫切除手术中的人文关怀

子宫切除术是妇科手术中的一种常见术式,随临床技术的发展,目前已有许多可供选择的不同方式。实施子宫切除手术中,临床医生应采用哲学的辩证思维方法并尊重患者的自主选择,全面客观地评估患者的情况;更多从人文关怀的角度出发,做出符合患者个体术式的决策,力争达到最佳的治疗效果。