Exemplarist Environmental Ethics

This article argues that environmental ethics can deemphasize environmental problem‐solving in preference for a more exemplarist mode. This mode will renarrate what we admire in those we have long admired, in order to make them resonate with contemporary ethical needs. First, I outline a method problem that arose for me in ethnographic fieldwork, a problem that I call, far too reductively, “solution thinking.” Second, I relate that method problem to movements against “quandary ethics” in ethical theory more broadly. Third, I discuss some interpretive work I am engaged in about Henry David Thoreau and how it bears on the methodological issues my fieldwork raised. I argue that some of the most important icons of right relation to environment, especially Francis of Assisi and Thoreau, should be envisioned as far more politically invested than they usually are. They demonstrate to scholars of religious ethics that an exemplarist ethic focused on character need not neglect politics.     

Loving the World We Are: Anthropology and Relationality in Laudato si’

There is a tension between Laudato si's consistent emphasis on relationships and interconnectedness and its acceptance of anthropocentrism. While Laudato si’ does reject certain problematic forms of anthropocentrism, the encyclical does not assert an alternative to this traditional framework. This article contends that “relatiocentrism” provides the best avenue for developing the convictions expressed within Laudato si’ while moving beyond the limitations of the encyclical itself. In so doing, this essay explores the use of narrative as a means of shaping identity by mapping significant relationships and points of meaning. It examines the central anthropological claims of the encyclical and the tensions these create with anthropocentric narratives. And it examines relatiocentrism in light of the biblical creation accounts, the eschatological perspective of Laudato si’, and virtue ethics. The essay concludes by suggesting further theological and moral implications of this shift in perspective.     

Exploring New and Renewed Eco‐Spiritualities

This essay discusses five recent books, written in French, that contribute to refection in environmental ethics. Francophone literature on the topic is marked by resonant and divergent concerns, and rooted in a geography, politics, and history different from North America and marked by distinctive lines of intellectual influence. Jean‐Claude Eslin proposes recovering ecological resources from the Christian tradition and also suggests imagining new images of God: notably, God as pilote rather than artisan. Dominique Bourg takes a multi‐disciplinary approach that emphasizes the spiritual conditions for relating to the world ecologically and economically; he argues for sobriété (austerity) as a spiritual disposition and an economic model. Baptiste Morizot develops diplomacy as an ethical, political, and spiritual model for cohabiting with wolves, whose return to the French countryside has been highly controversial. Nastassja Martin offers an anthropological study of the indigenous Gwich’in community of Fort Yukon, Alaska that accentuates the mix of Protestant missional influences and Gwich’in spiritual affirmations and practices at play in their relationship to the nonhuman world. Attending to this literature may helpfully decenter anglophone debates and enrich their conceptual vocabulary.     

关于实验动物运动模型建立的伦理思考

基于目前广泛应用的动物实验伦理3R和5F原则,通过深入分析已有运动干预文献中的动物运动模型构建方法,分别就运动模型建立前实验动物的选取,运动模式、运动剂量的确定,模型建立过程中不同阶段不同运动形式所涉及的伦理问题,以及实验动物安乐死等各个方面进行伦理分析,探讨伦理关怀在动物运动模型建立中的必要性和重要性。运动模型的构建作为研究运动干预的关键环节是极其重要的,此建立过程中涉及到诸多动物实验伦理问题。

     

当代中国医学伦理学再启程的基础与方向探微

当代中国医学伦理学是指始于中国20世纪80年代初以来这一领域的发展历史和现状。40多年来,中国医学伦理学在医学伦理文化和医学伦理理论与实践等各方面取得的成就,为中国医学伦理学的再启程形成了坚实的基础。再启程是学科发展的一个时代性课题。今天学科所面对的是完全不同于过去的背景和境遇,中国社会高速发展驱动下的医学科技进步以及医学社会化步伐的加快,带来传统与崭新伦理问题的叠加,再启程成为对学科发展的必然要求。

     

人体生物医学研究中受试者权益保护对策

在人体生物医学研究日益发达的今天,受试者权益保护问题逐渐浮出水面。目前我国对受试者的保护主要依赖于知情同意书和伦理委员会,关于受试者权益保护的规范性文件存在层级低、不系统和不完整等问题。建立专门的受试者保护法,完善受试者权益保护相关制度迫在眉睫。研究认为,制定专门的人体生物医学研究受试者权益保护法律,完善伦理委员会制度,推行强制保险以及救济金制度,建立严格的责任体系、开展积极的社会教育是受试者权益保护的基本对策。     

Discussing Racial Justice in Light of 2016: Black Lives Matter,a Trump Presidency,and the Continued Struggle for Justice

The broad fields of ethical reflection on racialization, racial justice, black liberation theology, and queer theology of color must come to terms with the year 2016, which can be framed on one side with the Black Lives Matter movement, and on the other side with a presidential election cycle in which racism and racial justice played particularly salient roles. Against this backdrop, this book discussion looks at recent literature on racial justice asking three questions. How does historical consciousness shape contemporary ethical thought on racial justice? In what ways do the intersectionalities of gender and sexuality, immigration and transnationality, class, and contemporary culture present particular challenges and new possibilities? And how do the ethical frameworks of religious traditions contribute to the development of public theology for racial justice? The conclusion considers how religious ethics concerned with racial justice does harm or contributes to religiously grounded responses to racial injustice. Reflection on these questions points to the need for ongoing engagement with the black experience—broadly construed and within the context of multiple intersections—in the United States and globally in ethical analysis. However, this in turn makes particular and critical demands on how it is that we are to both teach and read religious ethics and political theology at our institutions, as well as in the churches.     

医疗机器人的伦理风险与治理探析——基于“医−患−机”分析框架

基于“医−患−机”分析框架,医疗机器人的不断发展面临主体资质复杂、责任认定困难等责任伦理风险,医患关系重构、医患信任危机等医患伦理风险,数据质量与数据隐私等数据伦理风险,算法安全与算法偏见等算法伦理风险以及医疗资源分配正义风险。医疗机器人的伦理治理要以医学伦理和机器人伦理准则为依据,建立多元伦理治理体制,推动学术共同体的构建,探索自愿型、调节型与管制型等伦理治理工具的组合运用,加快医疗机器人伦理治理的法治化发展。

     

Comparative analysis of the risk-handling procedures for gene technology applications in medical and plant science

In this paper we analyse how the risks associated with research on transgenic plants are regulated in Sweden. The paper outlines the way in which pilot projects in the plant sciences are overseen in Sweden, and discusses the international and national background to the current regulatory system. The historical, and hitherto unexplored, reasons for the evolution of current administrative and legislative procedures in plant science are of particular interest. Specifically, we discuss similarities and differences in the regulation of medicine and plant science, and we examine the tendency towards dichotomizing risk — focusing on social/ethical risks in medicine and biological risks in plant science. The context of this article is the Synpraxia research project, an inter-disciplinary program combining expertise in sciences and the humanities.     

Social and ethical dimensions of nanoscale science and engineering research

Continuing advances in human ability to manipulate matter at the atomic and molecular levels (i.e. nanoscale science and engineering) offer many previously unimagined possibilities for scientific discovery and technological development. Paralleling these advances in the various science and engineering subdisciplines is the increasing realization that a number of associated social, ethical, environmental, economic and legal dimensions also need to be explored. An important component of such exploration entails the identification and analysis of the ways in which current and prospective researchers in these fields conceptualize these dimensions of their work. Within the context of a National Science Foundation funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program in nanomaterials processing and characterization at the University of Central Florida (2002–2004), here I present for discussion (i) details of a “nanotechnology ethics” seminar series developed specifically for students participating in the program, and (ii) an analysis of students’ and participating research faculty’s perspectives concerning social and ethical issues associated with nanotechnology research. I conclude with a brief discussion of implications presented by these issues for general scientific literacy and public science education policy.