人类辅助生殖中的“技术异化”及其伦理分析

人类辅助生殖“技术异化”指人类辅助生殖技术的过度滥用导致该技术偏离原来的临床医学目的,导致了医源性“人造”多胞胎、性别选择、最佳婴儿等“技术异化”形式。人类辅助生殖“技术异化”的原因,主要是缺乏监督机制、经济利益驱使和传统家庭观念影响。据此提出了相应的伦理防范对策,即完善监管机制、构建生殖伦理委员会及宣传正确的生育观。对辅助生殖技术的发展和应用,应该进行理性的伦理思考与分析,使该技术始终朝着有利于人类发展的方向前进。     

Analytical practice: do the new technologies have an impact?

Through commentary on four clinical vignettes, this article focuses on the anthropological transformations taking place in contemporary society, underlining their differences from the anthropologies of reference of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis. Hybridization between man and machine and the speeding up and alteration of communications which the new technologies promote are now crucial issues facing psychoanalysis. Social media and a 24/7 internet connection have produced deep changes in the way people live and perceive relationships. Analytical practice is not exempt from such issues, which can be particularly insidious, often subtle and difficult to recognize, or even underestimated or ignored by psychoanalysts outright, in order to preserve the illusion of a complete understanding of what unfolds in the analytical space. The authors suggest that such transformations, by (partially) rendering inadequate the theoretical and technical corpus on which the various depth psychologies are founded, require personal engagement on the part of psychoanalysts in the search for new strategies to treat their patients, with the consequent abandonment of the ‘certainties’ offered by sclerotic models of clinical procedure.     

Plenary address – A year of living ‘dangerously’: Reflections on risk,trust, trauma and change

This paper examines the role of emotions in the construction and performance of mis/trustful relations; with medical professionals, their technologies, and ultimately, with oneself. Using personal experience of two common conditions as illustrative examples, it questions what it means and feels like to trust, and how, where and by whom such feelings can be enhanced or undermined. It explores some of the ways in which discourses of risk are mobilized and embodied to create a crisis of trust, asking; what kind of selves and emotionalities surface, and what are the health outcomes, when bodies are viewed as ‘at risk’? Visualizing technologies that probe the interior for data play an increasingly prominent role in healthcare, and are typically considered more trustworthy sources of knowledge about the body than anything that might be produced by the tech-free sensing self. However, not all (even ‘physical’) trauma can be seen or quantified, and not all information is equal. The paper reflects on the emotional dissonance that ensues when one's own perceptions and representations are at odds with those of medical experts for whom one is supposed to perform trust. It examines the feeling rules that are broken when we fail to appreciate our treatment at their hands, and asks: What happens when we resist expert author-ity by telling different stories about our embodied selves, ones that make space for emotions in contexts where they are rarely seen to count, and where only what can be measured matters?     

Expanding perspectives: A social inequities lens on intimate partner violence,reproductive justice,and infant mental health

Intimate partner violence (IPV) poses a threat to the attainment of reproductive justice. Women who experience IPV are limited in their ability to parent their children in a secure and nurturing environment, which can have negative effects on the mother and child immediately and long-term, potentially distressing reproductive well-being across generations. Societal inequities faced by women, particularly women of color, within education, economic, and legal systems are associated with risk factors for IPV. This article will use national- and state-level data with case examples and the lens of reproductive justice to consider the impact of and potential solutions to historical and institutional inequities related to IPV.     

Rapport de la mission parlementaire sur la bioéthique : vers la procréation sans sexe pour tous

The parliamentary report proposes “non-sexual procreation for all”, which goes through medically assisted procreation for couples of women and single women, post-mortem procreation and dual gamete donation.     

Les techniques biomédicales en matière d’assistance médicale à la procréation conçues dans l’objectif de pallier l’infertilité médicale peuvent-elles évoluer de manière à être utilisées pour remédier à l’infertilité sociale ?

Medically assisted procreation includes techniques that may allow infertile couples to procreate. However, the application of 2011 bioethics law reveals lots of paradox and high-risk behaviors which arouse the question of the relevance and advisable aspect of its opening to all women.     

An exploration of the benefits of animal‐assisted activities in undergraduate students in Singapore

The rise in psychological problems, attrition, and suicide rates of university students has been linked to the stressful challenges faced during university life. To buffer this, animal assisted activities (AAA) may assist in improving psychological and physiological well‐being in students, however, to date, there is little empirical evidence for their effectiveness. Consequently, this study explored the psychological and physiological benefits of AAA in a sample of undergraduate students. Sixty‐two students from two local universities participated in an hour‐long AAA session delivered by Therapy Dogs Singapore. Measures of perceived stress, anxiety, state self‐esteem, and blood pressure (BP) were taken before and after the sessions. The results indicated that students experienced significant decreases in state anxiety, systolic, and diastolic BP post AAA, and when compared to a quiet reading comparison session. State self‐esteem increased post AAA and, further, was found to moderate the change in anxiety in addition to perceived stress, whereby perceived anxiety reduced more in those with low state self‐esteem and high perceived stress. These results suggest that AAA can be an effective intervention for stress among undergraduate students, which utilizes a novel, easy to implement and enjoyable approach for Singaporean students.     

Evaluating Philosophy as Exploratory Research

This article addresses the question how philosophy should be evaluated in a research‐grant funding environment. It offers a new conception of philosophy that is inclusive and builds on familiar elements of professional, philosophical practice. Philosophy systematically questions the questions we ask, the concepts we use, and the values we hold. Its product is therefore rarely conclusive but can be embodied in everything we do. This is typical of explorative research and differentiates it from exploitative research, which constitutes the bulk of funded research activity. This article argues that exploratory research is crucial for long‐term progress and requires a distinct evaluative regime.     

Adaptation, evolution, and religion

Neo-Darwinian theories of religion include both nonadaptationist and adaptationist versions. Nonadaptationist versions contend that the mental architecture of the brain is wired for religious thinking but that religious concepts have piggybacked on other cognitive adaptations, especially those for agency detection. Religious concepts are not evolved biological adaptations but rather by-products of more general cognitive structures that are adaptations. Adaptationist versions concentrate on the benefits provided by religion, such as increased social cohesion and the individual benefits that stem from it, such as better physical and mental health and greater longevity. After clarifying the meaning of the terms “adaptation” and “adaptationism,” this article presents four lines of evidence in favor of the adaptationist position: (1) in the ancestral environment the role of the shaman was nearly universal and was primarily devoted to the crucial human goals of curing illness and protecting and finding vital resources; (2) religion generally has positive effects on both physical and mental health; (3) religions tend to be pro-natalist and more religious people tend to leave more offspring than less religious or nonreligious people; (4) the major world religions that evolved in the first millennium BCE during a period of major social chaos and disruption emphasized an omnipotent, transcendent God of love and mercy who offered salvation in a heavenly afterlife and released individuals from earthly suffering. None of these facts demonstrate conclusively that cognitive modules specifically oriented to supernatural agents evolved by natural selection, but they are highly suggestive and make a good inferential case.