Some Legal Issues Patients May Face While in Therapy

This article on forensic family therapy touches upon a few of the major germane ethical and legal dicta which regulate and circumscribe psychotherapy practice. Differences between ethical and legal rulings are delineated. Some of the problems which may confront and even engulf individuals, couples, and families during their life cycle and which bring them into the orbit of the legal and/or judicial systems before, during, or after the period of assessment and treatment are explored. Some issues that have received the least coverage in the family forensic literature are highlighted; and some of the areas that have been accorded a great deal of attention elsewhere are mentioned only briefly. A short commentary on the forensic family professionals’ potential role in each arena of practice is provided.     

Lutherans in Public—Four Lively Options

Abstract : The basic question regarding faith and the public square is not whether religion should become public. Rather, we should ask: how ought religion to become public? This article reviews four models: (1) the ethics of character, according to which ethically formed individuals exert indirect and unintentional influence on the public square; (2) the ethics of conscience with its indirect and intentional influence: (3) the church as social conscience with direct and intentional influence; and (4) the church with power exerting direct and intentional action. Generally, it is best for Lutherans to let direct action be carried on by the laity according to the first two models; yet, when rare yet extraordinary circumstances call for it, the church as an institution may resort to models three and four and take direct action.     

Right hemispatial neglect: frequency and characterization following acute left hemisphere stroke

The frequency of various types of unilateral spatial neglect and associated areas of neural dysfunction after left hemisphere stroke are not well characterized. Unilateral spatial neglect (USN) in distinct spatial reference frames have been identified after acute right, but not left hemisphere stroke. We studied 47 consecutive right handed patients within 48h of left hemisphere stroke to determine the frequency and distribution of types of right USN using cognitive testing and MRI imaging. The distribution of USN types was different from the previously reported distribution following acute right hemisphere stroke. In this left hemisphere stroke population, allocentric neglect was more frequent than egocentric neglect.     

Kant,Freud, and the ethical critique of religion

This paper engages Freud’s relation to Kant, with specific reference to each theorist’s articulation of the interconnections between ethics and religion. I argue that there is in fact a constructive approach to ethics and religion in Freud’s thought, and that this approach can be better understood by examining it in relation to Kant’s formulations on these topics. Freud’s thinking about religion and ethics participates in the Enlightenment heritage, with its emphasis on autonomy and rationality, of which Kant’s model of practical reason is in many ways exemplary. At the same time, Freud advances Kantian thinking in certain important respects; his work offers a more somatically, socially, and historically grounded approach to the formation of rational and ethical capacities, and hence makes it more compatible with contemporary concerns and orientations that eschew the pitfalls of ahistorical idealist orientations.     

Ethical and Religious Aspects of Gamete and Embryo Donation and Legislation in Iran

During recent decades, new assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) have improved significantly, but their ethical, social, psychological, religious and legal aspects are blurred and need further research. New techniques using donor sperm or egg allow for third party involvement in the procreation process, which has created new hope for infertile couples. The corresponding clinical applications also raise new religious questions, which require appropriate interpretation in order to make their use possible, particularly in religious communities. In this paper, we discuss the most important ethical issues and the Islamic view of third party reproduction. Likewise, the current method of third party reproduction in Iran will be described, and the advantages and disadvantages of the Act of Embryo Donation to Infertile Spouses will be stated. Consideration of this outlook could generate inspiration in many Islamic countries.     

A code of ethics for the life sciences

The activities of the life sciences are essential to provide solutions for the future, for both individuals and society. Society has demanded growing accountability from the scientific community as implications of life science research rise in influence and there are concerns about the credibility, integrity and motives of science. While the scientific community has responded to concerns about its integrity in part by initiating training in research integrity and the responsible conduct of research, this approach is minimal. The scientific community justifies itself by appealing to the ethos of science, claiming academic freedom, self-direction, and self-regulation, but no comprehensive codification of this foundational ethos has been forthcoming. A review of the professional norms of science and a prototype code of ethics for the life sciences provide a framework to spur discussions within the scientific community to define scientific professionalism. A formalization of implicit principles can provide guidance for recognizing divergence from the norms, place these norms within a context that would enhance education of trainees, and provide a framework for discussing externally and internally applied pressures that are influencing the practice of science. The prototype code articulates the goal for life sciences research and the responsibilities associated with the freedom of exploration, the principles for the practice of science, and the virtues of the scientists themselves. The time is ripe for scientific communities to reinvigorate professionalism and define the basis of their social contract. Codifying the basis of the social contract between science and society will sustain public trust in the scientific enterprise.     

Croatia founded a national body for ethics in science

The Committee for Ethics in Science and Higher Education (CESHE) was created in Croatia as a national body appointed by the Parliament. Thus Croatia became one of a handful of countries with national means of responding to allegations of scientific misconduct. The Committee’s duties, with the help of the Ethics Code, include promotion of ethical norms and values in science and higher education. The CESHE will work on cases of possible research misconduct and alleged disregard for the ethical norms associated with research.     

Informed Consent in Emergency Research: A Contradiction in Terms

Improving the treatment of life threatening emergency illness or disease requires that new or novel therapies be assessed in clinical trials. As most subjects for these trials will be incapacitated there is some controversy about they might best protected whilst still allowing research to continue. Recent European and UK clinical trials legislation, which has effectively stopped research into emergency conditions, is discussed. Possible changes to these regulations are proposed.     

The Argument from Moral Experience

It is often said that our moral experience, broadly construed to include our ways of thinking and talking about morality, has a certain objective-seeming character to it, and that this supports a presumption in favor of objectivist theories (according to which morality is a realm of facts or truths) and against anti-objectivist theories like Mackie’s error theory (according to which it is not). In this paper, I argue that our experience of morality does not support objectivist moral theories in this way. I begin by arguing that our moral experience does not have the uniformly objective-seeming character it is typically claimed to have. I go on to argue that even if moral experience were to presuppose or display morality as a realm of fact, we would still need a reason for taking that to support theories according to which it is such a realm. I consider what I take to be the four most promising ways of attempting to supply such a reason: (A) inference to the best explanation, (B) epistemic conservatism, (C) the Principle of Credulity, and (D) the method of wide reflective equilibrium. In each case, I argue, the strategy in question does not support a presumption in favor of objectivist moral theories.

Researching and Teaching the Ethics and Social Implications of Emerging Technologies in the Laboratory

Ethicists and others who study and teach the social implications of science and technology are faced with a formidable challenge when they seek to address “emerging technologies.” The topic is incredibly important, but difficult to grasp because not only are the precise issues often unclear, what the technology will ultimately look like can be difficult to discern. This paper argues that one particularly useful way to overcome these difficulties is to engage with their natural science and engineering colleagues in laboratories. Through discussions and interactions with these colleagues ethicists can simultaneously achieve three important objectives. First they can get a great deal of assistance in their research into the social implications of future technologies by talking with people that are actively creating those futures. Second their presence in the lab and the discussions that result can be a very powerful method for educating not only students, but faculty about the ramifications of their work. And third, because the education is directly linked to the students’ everyday work it is likely that it will not just be a theoretical exercise, but have direct impact on their practice.