In the bioethical literature, discrimination in insurance on the basis of genetic risk factors detected by genetic testing
has been defended and opposed on various ethical grounds. One important argument in favour of the practice is offered by those
who believe that it is not possible to distinguish between genetic and non-genetic information, at least not for practical
policy purposes such as insurance decision-making. According to the argument from indistinguishability, the use of genetic
test information for insurance purposes should be permitted, because genetic test information is no different from non-genetic
medical information in any relevant respect, therefore it would be inconsistent to prohibit the former whilst permitting the
latter. This paper discusses and defends this argument and suggests a new, more tenable foundation. 相似文献
The study examines a recurrent interactional pattern in genetic counseling. It describes clinical geneticists' responses in
situations in which clients have presented information from other sources that is potentially discrepant with information
given by the doctor. The data consists of 12 video-recorded sessions of genetic counseling in Finland, and the method is conversation
analysis. There are two primary ways the doctors respond: either they accept the client's information as such, but show that
it is not discrepant with the doctor's information, or they reject the client's information. In the latter case they mitigate
the ‘wrongness’ of the client's information. The clinical geneticists seem to be working with a dilemma: they need to find
a balance between ensuring correct understanding of the information and showing respect for the expertise of others. A particularly
complex case is also analyzed and reflected on. 相似文献
In light of the human genome project, establishing the genetic aetiology of complex human diseases has become a research priority within Western medicine. However, in addition to the identification of disease genes, numerous research projects are also being undertaken to identify genes contributing to the development of human behavioural characteristics, such as cognitive ability and criminal tendency. The permissibility of this research is obviously controversial: will society benefit from this research, or will it adversely affect our conceptions of ourselves and each other? When assessing the permissibility of this research, it is important to consider the nature and deterministic significance of behavioural genetic information. Whilst todate there has been much discussion and debate about the properties of genetic information per se and genetic determinism, this has not been applied to behavioural genetic research and its ethical implications. Therefore, this paper elucidates how behavioural genetic information can be distinguished from other types of genetic and non-genetic information and also synthesises the determinative significance of genetic factors for the development of human behavioural traits. Undertaking this analysis enables the ethical issues raised by this research to be debated in an appropriate context and indicates that separate policy considerations are warranted.
This prospective longitudinal study was designed to investigate the relationship between acute stress disorder (ASD) and the subsequent development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a population of severely injured hospitalised trauma survivors. Symptoms of ASD were assessed just prior to discharge in 307 consecutive admissions to a Level 1 Trauma Centre, with PTSD assessments completed at 3 and 12 months post-injury. A well-established structured clinical interview was adopted for both assessments. Only 1% of the sample met criteria for an ASD diagnosis (at a mean of 8 days post-injury), while the incidence of PTSD was 9% at 3 months and 10% at 12 months. Although all ASD symptom clusters contributed to the prediction of subsequent PTSD severity, logistic regression indicated that only re-experiencing and arousal predicted a categorical PTSD diagnosis. The dissociative symptoms that form the core of ASD were rarely endorsed and showed high specificity but low sensitivity, resulting in a high proportion of false negative diagnoses. Reducing the number of dissociative symptoms required for a diagnosis ameliorated, but did not resolve, the problem. In this particular population, the low sensitivity of the ASD diagnosis renders it a poor screening test for use in identifying high risk individuals for early intervention and prevention strategies. 相似文献
Across many languages, speakers tend to produce sentences so that given (previously referred to) arguments are mentioned before new arguments; this is termed given-new ordering. We explored the nature of such given-new effects in Japanese using a procedure following Bock and Irwin (1980). Speakers encoded and then recalled canonical (e.g., okusan-ga otetsudaisan-ni purezento-o okutta, the housewife gave the housekeeper a present) or scrambled (okusan-ga purezento-o otetsudaisan-ni okutta) dative targets when prompted by a statement-question sequence. The prompting statement established one nonsubject argument of the dative target as given, leaving the other nonsubject argument as new. Previous mention was either with lexically identical content (e.g., otetsudaisan or purezento) or with lexically distinct but nearly synonymous content (meidosan, housemaid or okurimono, gift). Results showed that speakers produced canonical or scrambled word orders so that given arguments were mentioned before new, but especially when the previous mention of the given argument occurred with lexically identical content (replicating Bock and Irwin's English effect). These results show that the production of Japanese scrambled and canonical word orders is sensitive to given versus new status (as in English), implying that given-new ordering arises at the stage of sentence production where scrambling effects are realized. 相似文献
This paper informally summarizes a two-day symposium held at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., September
5–6, 2002. The issue was to what extent the progress of science and societal capacity for continued technological innovation
are threatened by excessive protection of intellectual property. Excessive protection creates disadvantages not only for scientists
and inventors but also for educators/students and for librarians/clientele. Speakers from a variety of disciplines and institutions
agreed unanimously that scientific and technological progress is, indeed, under serious threat. Various opinions were expressed
about the degree of threat, currently and prospectively, as well as what counter-measures are best suited to resist undue
restrictions on creative uses of scientific and technical data and information. This summary is based entirely on the author’s
notes from the symposium, and the commentary offered is his alone. My apologies to the speakers if this paper does not accurately
reflect the primary intent of their presentations. The “Suggested Readings” offered at the end are not specific to the speakers’
statements but rather are offered as a general resource to aid further research. The definitive record of the symposium is
planned to be available from the National Academies Press as a Proceedings publication in the summer of 2003.
John Gardenier is an independent researcher, ethicist and science writer. 相似文献
Thermodynamics is the foundation of many of the topics of interest in the religion-science dialogue. Here a nonmathematical outline of the principles of thermodynamics is presented, providing a historical and conceptually understandable development that can serve teachers from disciplines other than physics. The contributions of Gibbs to both classical and rational thermodynamics, emphasizing the importance of the ensemble in statistical mechanics, are discussed. The seminal ideas of Boltzmann on statistical mechanics are contrasted to those of Gibbs in a discussion of the microscopic interpretation of the second law. The role of information theory is discussed, and the modern ideas of Prigogine and nonequilibrium are outlined in some detail with further reference to the second law. Implications for our interaction with God are considered. 相似文献
Two secondary students with moderate disabilities (one per classroom) attended Advanced English classes with peers without disabilities in a rural high school. In additional to conducting planned daily instruction, each English teacher also systematically presented three sets of information (two facts per set) to each student with disabilities during the course of the class using a parallel treatments design. Each set of information included a fact related to the English class (e.g., Begin each sentence with a capital letter.) and a fact not related to the English class (e.g., The governor of Kentucky is Paul Patton.). The special education teacher conducted daily probe sessions to document acquisition. Of the six facts presented to each student with disabilities, one student acquired two related facts and one unrelated fact, while the other student acquired two related and two unrelated facts. This investigation implies that students who are fully included can acquire information presented by the regular classroom teacher during the course of a typical class and that teachers can facilitate learning by planning to present such information in a systematic fashion.相似文献