This essay explores some concerns about the quality of informed consent in patients whose autonomy is diminished by fatal illness. It argues that patients with diminished autonomy cannot give free and voluntary consent, and that recruitment of such patients as subjects in human experimentation exploits their vulnerability in a morally objectionable way. Two options are given to overcome this objection: (i) recruit only those patients who desire to contribute to medical knowledge, rather than gain access to experimental treatment, or (ii) (...) provide prospective subjects the choice to participate in standard doubleblind study or receive the experimental treatment. Either option would guarantee that patients in desperate conditions are given a more meaningful choice and a richer freedom, and thus a higher quality of informed consent, than under standard randomized trials. (shrink)

The current scandal surrounds the global breast implant scare of silicone implants made by France's Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) Company. An ensuing review recognized that efforts in investigating the distress caused to so many women were hampered by a lack of reliable and comprehensive information about all the adverse incidents relating to PIP breast implants, as well as uncertainty about comparative data on similar products. One of the recommendations following the review was the investigation of the potential for re-establishing a (...) breast implant registry, which could facilitate the availability of adverse incident reporting in cases such as these. The insistence of compulsory inclusion in such registries would override the debate on informed consent in epidemiological studies and public health. The ethics of clinical research with its focus on individual consent is difficult to reconcile with the ethical requirements of research at a population level as in the case of registries. (shrink)

This article examines the Kantian thesis of the a priori nature of our knowledge of space. Because it makes the representation of objects possible as external to us and all others, and consequently, as distinct and individualized, space (whatever its structure may be) claims the status as necessary condition and as apriori possibility of all knowledge. However, in the light of various physical, psychological and philosophical considerations, it seems that the particular structure allocated by Kant to space (i.e. uniqueness, infinity, (...) continuity, homogeneity, isotropy, Euclidean character and three-dimensional character) is neither necessary nor a priori but is rather contingent and dependent on experience. For this reason a pragmatist relativization of the transcendental approach appears to be necessary: the structure of space which makes knowledge possible is not apriori in an absolute sense, but rather, it is determined within the context of a certain practice, which is characterized by a certain mode of interaction with the environment and reveals particular empirical constraints to which this spatial structure must fit. (shrink)

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to provide a constructivist account of the "self as subject" that avoids the need for any metaphysical assumptions. Findings: The thesis developed in this paper is that the human "psychological individual," "self" or "subject" is an emergent within the nexus of human social interaction. With respect to psychological and social wholes (composites) there is no distinction between the form of the elements and the form of the composites they constitute i.e., all elements have (...) the form of composites. Further, recursively, composites may serve as elements within higher order composites. Implications for a rational theory of ethics are discussed. Original Value: The thesis contributes in a fundamental way to the research programme of radical constructivism by demonstrating that metaphysical assumptions about the nature of the "subject" are not an a priori necessity. Although the thesis in itself is not original, the paper offers a useful synthesis of ideas from a number of key thinkers in the disciplines of cybernetics, biology, psychology and philosophy. (shrink)

Nul ne peut nier les aspects positifs fournis par la médecine pour réparer les corps meurtris ou pour pallier des handicaps liés aux accidents de la vie ou au vieillissement. Mais nul ne peut non plus passer sous silence les idéologies ou les intentions parfois problématiques de ceux qui promeuvent ces transformations offertes par la médecine de pointe. Un discernement philosophique et théologique s'impose donc, auquel le présent ouvrage voudrait contribuer. Jusqu'où aller dans ces pratiques? Quelle conception de la personne (...) humaine peut les guider et les réguler? Comment décrypter les idéologies qui y sont à l'œuvre? Ce livre vise à déterminer les contours d’une conception humaine et chrétienne de la réparation ou de la transformation de l’humain, profondément ancrée dans le respect de la dignité de la personne. Un ouvrage qui rassemble en une réflexion cohérente des contributions de médecins, de philosophes et de théologiens. La préface du Chancelier de l'Académie pontificale des Sciences et des Sciences Sociales montre l'intérêt que marque l'Eglise pour cette problématique et pour les réflexions des contributeurs. Il s’adresse à toute personne engagée dans les pratiques de soins ou d’accompagnement des patients, mais aussi aux philosophes et théologiens s’intéressant aux questions que posent la médecine de pointe. Il pourra alimenter les travaux de comités d’éthique ou inspirer les travaux des étudiants et chercheurs en médecine, en soins infirmiers ou en anthropologie médicale et en bioéthique. Les textes rassemblés dans ce volume correspondent aux contributions philosophiques et théologiques du XXVIème Congrès de la Fédération internationale des Associations des médecins catholiques (FIAMC) tenu à Rome du 16 au 18 septembre 2022, dont le thème était : « Médecine : réparatrice ou transformatrice? La mission du médecin chrétien ». (shrink)

Met illustratie van citaten uit vele auteurs wordt een poging ondernomen om het begrip 'civil society' te definiëren. De voorkeur van Barber gaat uit naar een civil socity, dat als een derde kracht tussen regering en markt opereert, met als basis een sterk democratisch gehalte.

At the moment in Britain and elsewhere the debate inside and outside of Parliament on various medical issues which are essentially moral never ends. Everybody has his own point of view--or principles. But what emerges for society to adopt can often be called in lay terminology 'compromise'. Professor Mitchell argues in this paper that a moral consensus is possible and indeed ought to be achieved, as today the medical practitioner can no longer make his decision only in accordance with the (...) strict code of ethics of the medical profession. The task of the philosopher, says Professor Mitchell, is to interpret the actions and attitudes demanded by modern medical practice. (shrink)

‘Apologetics’ is hardly a word to be used without apology in the present dispensation. And to speak of anything like a neglected avenue or opportunity in religious apologetics might almost seem as if one were speaking of an opportunity in just such an enterprise as no self-respecting philosopher would nowadays wish even to be associated with. For all of their avoidance of the term, however, the thing designated by the term is something with which not a few philosophers of recent (...) years have been not above dabbling in, albeit usually under other names and other labels. After all, religious language has now come to be recognized as not just a legitimate, but even a fashionable object of philosophic attention. And a concern with religious language has often brought with it a concern with religious attitudes, religious behaviour, religious argumentation — yes, even to the point of occasionally becoming a concern with the very religious realities themselves that religious language, religious attitudes, religious behaviour, and religious argument are presumably all about. True, religious realities in this sense are to today's garden of philosophy pretty much what the tree of knowledge once was to the garden of Eden. In fact, one even suspects that there could be a serpent about somewhere, for cases have been reported of an occasional philosopher Adam or philosopher Eve having yielded to temptation: a consideration of God-talk has been known to lead to cautious admissions that such talk might be cognitively meaningful; a consideration of God-experiences to the admission that such experiences under certain circumstances could be veridical; or, even more rarely, a consideration of proofs for God's existence to the gingerly admission that at least some of these proofs might just possibly be valid. Needless to say, though, such a yielding to temptation on the part of some few contemporary philosophers, while it may not have led to any manifest sewing together of fig-leaves, has certainly brought with it the danger, if not always the reality, of a supercilious expulsion from the glorious Eden of contemporary professional philosophy. (shrink)

B. von Juhos; The Empirical and the Grammatical Doubt, Analysis, Volume 5, Issue 3-4, 1 May 1938, Pages 56–59, https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/5.3-4.56.