Gay-Straight Alliances Vary on Dimensions of Youth Socializing and Advocacy: Factors Accounting for Individual and Setting-Level Differences

Gay‐Straight Alliances (GSAs) are school‐based youth settings that could promote health. Yet, GSAs have been treated as homogenous without attention to variability in how they operate or to how youth are involved in different capacities. Using a systems perspective, we considered two primary dimensions along which GSAs function to promote health: providing socializing and advocacy opportunities. Among 448 students in 48 GSAs who attended six regional conferences in Massachusetts (59.8 % LGBQ; 69.9 % White; 70.1 % cisgender female), we found substantial variation among GSAs and youth in levels of socializing and advocacy. GSAs were more distinct from one another on advocacy than socializing. Using multilevel modeling, we identified group and individual factors accounting for this variability. In the socializing model, youth and GSAs that did more socializing activities did more advocacy. In the advocacy model, youth who were more actively engaged in the GSA as well as GSAs whose youth collectively perceived greater school hostility and reported greater social justice efficacy did more advocacy. Findings suggest potential reasons why GSAs vary in how they function in ways ranging from internal provisions of support, to visibility raising, to collective social change. The findings are further relevant for settings supporting youth from other marginalized backgrounds and that include advocacy in their mission.     

Caring for the Suffering: Meeting the Ebola Crisis Responsibly

The current Ebola virus epidemic in Western Africa appears to be spiraling out of control. The worst-case projections suggested that the unchecked spread could result in almost 1.4 million cases by the end of January 2015 with a case fatality rate of at least 50%. The United States and European nations have begun to respond in earnest with promises of supplies, isolation beds, and trained health care personnel in an effort to contain the epidemic and care for the sick. However, there is neither a vaccine nor specific treatment for Ebola infection, and therapy is ideally centered on supportive care. I have previously argued that the provision of palliative care is obligatory during an overwhelming health catastrophe, notably pandemic influenza. Since affected Ebola patients have best outcomes with technologically advanced intensive care—resources in scarce supply in the area—I suggest that the only acceptable approach to large numbers of very sick, dying, and suffering Ebola patients who overwhelm the resources available to successfully manage them is effective palliative care. However, this could hasten death in this vulnerable population and hence, while ethically and medically justifiable, is not without social risk.     

以家庭平衡为目的的辅助生殖技术性别选择问题探讨

对三孩政策下辅助生殖医疗机构患者就诊过程中呼声较高的以家庭平衡为目的的性别选择问题进行探讨,从概念的界定、产生需求的社会背景及可能引发的伦理问题进行论证,从而推动社会层面的深度思考。同时,结合当前辅助生殖技术中存在的社会需求,提出了以家庭平衡为目的的性别选择是曾经实行的“生男即止法”的延伸。但以家庭平衡为目的的性别选择还需要以辅助生殖技术规范应用为前提,应该从法律法规的完善、技术应用的监督及审查体系的加强等方面推动工作,防止相关技术的滥用。

     

辅助生殖治疗中不确定性焦虑的体验研究

以具身性体验为视角,调查辅助生殖治疗中的药物施用、取卵、胚胎移植、怀孕等事项上女性的体验,讨论辅助生殖技术介入过程中女性的不确定性焦虑的体验。分析发现：技术介入让女性承受巨大的生理痛苦和健康风险;技术介入也是技术话语对女性生育力的建构过程;而正是这种建构使女性身体问题化,让女性深陷焦虑;女性在传统生育话语框架下,应对治疗中不确定性的焦虑,其主体性受限,女性在技术介入过程中仍难有自信。

     

境遇伦理学与生命伦理决策

境遇伦理学是方法而不是体系;境遇伦理学认为任何事物正当与否,均因具体境遇而定;爱是永恒的善;爱是唯一的规范;爱同公正是一回事;爱不是喜欢;爱证明手段之正当性;爱是当时当地做决定。境遇伦理学厌恶伦理学的律法主义,反对僵硬不变的伦理规范教条;境遇伦理学对于处理生命伦理学的一些两难问题,有重要的参考意义。     

70岁高龄男性助孕引发的问题及伦理思考

报道了1例70岁高龄男性的助孕情况,探讨了高龄男性生育现状、高龄男性助孕存在的问题以及助孕易于引发的伦理问题。意在提醒生殖中心工作人员在接诊高龄男性患者助孕时,既要尊重其与配偶的生育权,又要充分告知高龄男性生育给自身、配偶及后代带来的风险。助孕前应加强医患沟通,遵循有利于患者原则、知情同意原则、有利于后代原则,同时接受伦理委员会的监督,严防技术滥用,适时劝导高龄男性患者放弃助孕治疗。     

Inequality,Justice, and the Myth of Unsituated Market Exchange

This article examines inequality from a framework of justice that attends to the socially situated nature of market activity, including exchange. I argue that accounts of unsituated exchange—accounts of market exchange that abstract from social situations, such as philosopher Robert Nozick’s influential libertarian account of justice—overlook various factors that contribute to growing economic inequality in contemporary society. Analyses of market exchange must incorporate the role of “third parties” who play a role in shaping and/or who are affected by economic transactions. The involvement of these additional parties, including the government and future generations, is not interference but, instead, an integral part of the economic and moral accounting of exchange. An approach to justice and inequality which embeds exchange within multiple dimensions of economy and society is needed; the latter part of this article traces such a socially situated approach.     

“三亲婴儿”培育技术的伦理辩护及反思

“三亲婴儿”培育技术是首次在辅助生殖领域对生殖细胞进行干预的技术, 引起了极大的伦理争议, 如冲击传统伦理、亵渎人的尊严、潜在技术风险、促使道德滑坡。从冲击传统伦理的技术未必不道德, 人的尊严只有在社会关系中才能获得, 未知的未来不能成为抑制当代技术的理由等维度对“三亲婴儿”培育技术进行伦理辩护, 并从“三亲胚胎”的地位、线粒体替代技术的安全性、我国对“三亲婴儿”培育技术的态度三个方面对“三亲婴儿”培育技术的发展进行反思。     

辅助生殖技术随访工作中的伦理原则探讨

随着人类辅助生殖技术 (assisted reproductive technology, ART) 的发展, 术后进行的定期随访工作在ART中的伦理学问题不断凸显, 有必要对其重视及规范。从伦理原则角度探讨了ART随访工作中存在的诸多伦理学问题, 即个人隐私权保护的缺失、知情同意的形式化、医源性多胎的伦理困境等。保密互盲、知情同意、保护患者、保护后代等伦理原则监督和规范ART近期及远期随访工作, 对于引导人类辅助生殖技术健康发展, 具有重大现实意义。