Disability: an agenda for bioethics

Contemporary bioethics has been somewhat skewed by its focus on high-tech medicine and the resulting development of ethical frameworks based on an acute-care model of healthcare. Research and scholarship in bioethics have payed only cursory attention to ethical issues related to disability. I argue that bioethics should concern itself with the full range of theoretical and practical issues related to disability. This encounter with the disability community will enrich bioethics and, potentially, society as well. I suggest a number of items that the bioethics agenda should include, such as the development of a casuistry of the right to healthcare and to community integration and an advocacy role in fostering an understanding among the public and policy makers of the need to reform research and treatment related to disability.     

Geroconsultation: A Proposed Decision-Making Model

Recognizing the rapidly increasing number of aging individuals in the United States and the difficulties encountered by these people (and those who are close to them), the authors propose a consultative model for use by professionals who work with this population. An example of content for possible inclusion in the consultative process is proposed for use in decision making.     

Mindfulness: A Proposed Common Factor

Mindfulness is proposed as a core psychotherapy process. It is defined as a state of psychological freedom that occurs when attention remains quiet and limber, without attachment to any particular point of view. It can be shown that this process is collaborativefy employed by psychotherapist and patient within all psychotherapy orientations, and also by the integrative psychotherapist when making optimal choices among orientations. This article addresses (1) the defining attributes of mindfulness, (2) relevant conceptual approaches that lend theoretical support for a mindfulness factor, (3) two attentional forms of mindfulness that seem to have particular correspondence with either psychodynamic or cognitive-behavioral therapy, (4) clinical applications, and (5) the role of mindfulness for the integrative decision-making process.     

Personality disorder research agenda for the DSM-V

The American Psychiatric Association is sponsoring a series of international conferences to set a research agenda for the development of the next edition of the diagnostic manual. The first conference in this series, "Dimensional Models of Personality Disorder: Etiology, Pathology, Phenomenology, and Treatment," was devoted to reviewing the existing research and setting a future research agenda that would be most effective in leading the field toward a dimensional classification of personality disorder. The purpose of this article, authored by the Steering Committee of this conference, was to provide a summary of the conference papers and their recommendations for research. Covered herein are the reviews and recommendations concerning alternative dimensional models of personality disorder, behavioral genetics and gene mapping, neurobiological mechanisms, childhood antecedents, cross-cultural issues, Axes I and II continuity, coverage and cutoff points for diagnosis, and clinical utility.     

Proposed Strategies for Teaching Ethics of Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology and nanosciences have recently gained tremendous attention and funding, from multiple entities and directions. In the last 10 years the funding for nanotechnology research has increased by orders of magnitude. An important part that has also gained parallel attention is the societal and ethical impact of nanotechnology and the possible consequences of its products and processes on human life and welfare. Multiple thinkers and philosophers wrote about both negative and positive effects of nanotechnology on humans and societies. The literature has a considerable amount of views about nanotechnology that range from calling for the abandonment and blockage of all efforts in that direction to complete support and encouragement in hopes that nanotechnology will be the next big jump in ameliorating human life and welfare. However, amidst all this hype about the ethics of nanotechnology, relatively less efforts and resources can be found in the literature to help engineering professionals and educators, and to provide practical methods and techniques for teaching ethics of nanotechnology and relating the technical side of it to the societal and human aspect. The purpose of this paper is to introduce strategies and ideas for teaching ethics of nanotechnology in engineering in relation to engineering codes of ethics. The paper is neither a new philosophical view about ethics of nanotechnology nor a discussion of the ethical dimensions of nanotechnology. This is an attempt to help educators and professionals by answering the question of how to incorporate ethics of nanotechnology in the educational process and practice of engineering and what is critical for the students and professionals to know in that regard. The contents of the presented strategies and ideas focus on the practical aspects of ethical issues related to nanotechnology and its societal impact. It also builds a relation between these issues and engineering codes of ethics. The pedagogical components of the strategies are based on best-practices to produce independent life-long self-learners and critical thinkers. These strategies and ideas can be incorporated as a whole or in part, in the engineering curriculum, to raise awareness of the ethical issues related to nanotechnology, improve the level of professionalism among engineering graduates, and apply ABET criteria. It can also be used in the way of professional development and continuing education courses to benefit professional engineers. Educators and institutions are welcome to use these strategies, a modified version, or even a further developed version of it, that suits their needs and circumstances.     

Proposed Draft of Revised APGA Ethical Standards

The following is a rough draft of the proposed revision of the APGA Ethical Standards; it is not the final copy. Permission to print the draft in this issue of JEC was granted by Dr. George Gazda, chairman of the committee that is working on the revision. Your reaction to this revision and any other comments or suggestions are invited by Dr. Gazda, 212 Baldwin Hall, Athens, Georgia 30601.     

The name change debate: Ellis's real agenda

In this brief note, I reveal for the first time Albert Ellis's real agenda for recently changing the name from Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET) to Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). Editor's Note: The phones continue to ring hot at our editorial offices and we've had to put on several new staff to handle the volume of mail concerning Albert Ellis's controversial decision to change the name of rational-emotive therapy to rational emotive behavior therapy. The following pieces are three of the many that we have received concerning the real motivations of Ellis for changing the name as well as the logic and rationale for including the B in REBT.     

Emotional behavior as an agenda in neuropsychological evaluation

In an effort to objectify neuropsychologic evaluations, consideration of a patient's emotional behavior has often been neglected. An extensive literature review is undertaken in an effort to document lateralized emotional behaviors commonly found in brain injury populations. This evidence is contrasted with the psychiatric symptoms and lateralized neuropsychologic impairments seen in major depression and schizophrenia. A theoretical model is then proposed that attempts to integrate these functional vs. organic symptoms based upon reciprocal inhibition of lateralized emotional functioning in brain injury and psychiatric disorders. This opponent process model not only seems to account for some of the discrepant findings in the literature, but additionally provides a cogent and useful marker to neurophychologically differentiate neuronal vs. metabolic disorders. The model further suggests new ways of envisioning treatment and recovery from both psychiatric illness and brain injury.     

Suicide in America--moving up the public health agenda

Despite improvements in the health of Americans over the last 30 years, the problem of suicide, and its disturbing rise in the last three decades, remains a major American health riddle. Recognizing suicide as a public health concern is essential to discovering strategies to prevent suicide. Such strategies and prevention efforts must be multifaceted, incorporating a number of public health principles and approaches. These approaches include the refinement of epidemiological methods in the study of suicide; development of health education, information, and intervention programs dealing with suicide; and increased community awareness of and participation in all suicide prevention efforts.