What is property? Not so long ago, at least in the western legal tradition, answering this question might have been possible by adverting to a very small number of resources – perhaps as few as the...

This article offers three reflections on the nature of the metaphysical ‘wall’ erected between the ‘Included’ and the ‘Excluded/Other’ by the concept of private property and its implementation in a state’s legal apparatus. The first reflection explores the reality of the concept of private property, using Louis Althusser’s conception of ideology, in order to demonstrate that the liberal conception of private property masks power operating on two levels: the formal, repressive state apparatus, and the deeper, the personal, the real, the (...) actual level, which allows the Included to act upon ego in ways that negatively affect the Excluded/Other found in the ideological state apparatus. The second argues that the masked power that is private property permits war to be waged by the Included as against the Excluded/Other at two levels: intra-state and inter-state. This reveals a paradox in the distinction between Included and Excluded/Other: while the distinction demonstrates the allocation of power over resources, the reality is that every individual on earth is both Included and Excluded/Other. The final reflection briefly considers what could replace private property as a means of allocating goods and resources within a society. (shrink)

This review essay contains four parts. The first briefly recounts the contours of Rafe Blaufarb’s thesis in The Great Demarcation: The French Revolution and the Invention of Modern Property. The review is not intended to be a full assessment of the book; rather, Blaufarb’s work sets the stage for the focus of my reflections, which begin in Part 3. Using Louis Althusser’s understanding of law, we can see how the demarcation identified by Blaufarb made possible a further deployment of bourgeois (...) law, which perpetuates the dominant ideology ensuring the concentration of resources in a small number of people, seemingly without obligation to the great majority who hold no power in relation to any resources. Part 4 explains the true inequity which this demarcation has wrought, establishing and perpetuating deep divisions between those who hold the ‘social function’ inherent in property—the power unilaterally to alter social relationships—and those who do not—those who suffer the alteration of social relationships to their detriment. In short, property itself is an ideology of power, the legacy of which is not equality, but exploitation. Part 5 concludes that the great demarcation, which Blaufarb so skilfully explicates, turns out to be nothing in which humankind ought to take any pride. Rather, it has served and serves the purposes of the few to work untold misery and hardship upon the many. (shrink)

Comparative study of the philosophy of Śaṅkaracārya, ca. 700, Hindu philosopher and Kabir, 15th century Hindi religious poet.

Les réseaux sociaux sont l’une des pierres angulaires des dynamiques transnationales, qui articulent dans les études sur la migration espaces d’origine et de destination au travers de liens maintenus à travers la distance et dans la durée. La recherche porte sur les temporalités, analysées sur trente ans, de la constitution de réseaux sociaux au sein d’un groupe composé initialement de 72 Jummas, une minorité opprimée du Bangladesh, arrivés enfants en France en 1987 à la suite d’une opération d’exfiltration depuis des (...) camps de réfugiés situés en Inde, et placés dans des familles d’accueil dispersées sur le territoire national. L’article articule une analyse, à un niveau micro, des trajectoires individuelles, lues à travers l’évolution de quelques réseaux personnels, reconstitués a posteriori sur un quart de siècle, qui témoignent de l’évolution d’ancrages individuels, entre ici et là-bas, et, à un niveau méso, une lecture des processus plus collectifs de mise en réseau qui témoignent de la fabrique d’une communauté transnationale. Grâce à la spatialisation des processus de mise en lien, l’article analyse la façon dont temporalités et spatialités des réseaux posent la question du rôle de la distance et de la connexion dans les dynamiques territoriales. (shrink)

Background Midwives and nurses appear vulnerable to moral distress when caring for women whose babies are removed at birth. They may experience professional dissatisfaction and their relationships with women, families and colleagues may be compromised. The impact of moral distress may manifest as anger, guilt, frustration, anxiety and a desire to give up their profession. While there has been much attention exploring the concept of moral distress in midwifery, this is the first study to explore its association in this context. (...) Aim This article explores midwives’ experiences of moral distress when providing care to women whose babies were removed at birth and gives valuable insight into an issue nurses and midwives encounter in their profession. Methods Four mothers and eight midwives took part in this research. Narrative inquiry incorporating photo-elicitation techniques was used to generate data; mothers were interviewed face to face and midwives through focus groups. The images and audio data were collected, transcribed and analysed for emerging themes. For the purpose of this article, only the midwives’ stories are reported. This research received a favourable ethical opinion from the University of Surrey Ethics committee. Ethical considerations This study received a favourable ethical approval from a higher education institutes ethics committee. Results Midwives who care for women whose babies are removed at birth report it as one of the most distressing areas of contemporary clinical practice. Furthermore, they report feelings of guilt, helplessness and betrayal of the midwife–mother relationship. Many of the midwives in this study state that these experiences stay with them for a long time, far more than more joyful aspects of their role. Conclusion Midwives experience moral distress. Support systems, education and training must be available to them if we are to reduce the long-term impact upon them, alleviate their distress and prevent them from leaving the profession. (shrink)

Smart communities have recently gained much attention. Researchers have been trying to tackle a number of challenges faced by smart communities. Interoperability is one key challenge that occurs due to different systems using different knowledge representations. To solve interoperability problems, ontologies are seen as a promising solution as they provide a commonly agreed vocabulary for representing data that are understandable by stakeholders of smart communities. Smart communities make use of Internet of Things (IoT) and ubiquitous networks to support communication among (...) objects and devices in such environments. Smart campuses are examples of smart communities. Recently, many articles related to ontologies focusing on smart communities and smart campuses in IoT environments, have been published. This paper presents a Systematic Literature Review that has been conducted using Google Scholar. 18 ontologies for smart communities/smart campuses have been identified and analyzed out of 341 articles from year 2010 to 2019. The review classifies the ontologies in terms of domain, ontologies being reused, availability online, limitations, language adopted and coverage. It additionally discusses on the standards, the level of expressiveness, the ontology development approaches and methodologies adopted by the identified ontologies. Our analysis shows that the identified ontologies have been developed based on different ontological commitments. None of them have come up with a core semantic model that models different collaborating domains in a smart campus such as smart learning, smart management, smart governance, smart room, smart health, smart library and smart parking among others and that enhances cross-domain interoperability in a such an environment. Further details on our findings are presented and discussed in the paper. (shrink)

In Kise and Ngyuen’s “Adult Baby Syndrome and Gender Identity Disorder” (2011), the authors refer to their male subject as “Ms B” because he prefers to identify with being a female. But they do not refer to her as being a baby, even though the subject also prefers to identify with being a baby. This shows that although they respect the subject’s gender identity preferences, they do not respect the subject’s age identity preferences. One reason for this might be that (...) some people feel the term “adult baby syndrome” sounds a bit silly and therefore that the wishes of someone having this syndrome are not worthy of being taken seriously, not as seriously, at least, as someone who shows the more scientifically respectable gender identity disorder. A solution here might be to replace the term “adult baby syndrome” with the term “age identity disorder”, perhaps involving “age dysphoria”. This would also be more accurate because not all of those who are discussed under the heading of “adult baby syndrome” wish to be identified as babies, but rather as toddlers or older children. The problem then is that numerous people prefer to identify with being a different age. Such people do not believe they are older or younger than they really are, but neither do those with adult baby syndrome. (shrink)

In April 2007, as part of its public consultation initiative, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in the United Kingdom published Hybrids and chimeras: A consultation on the ethical and social implications of creating human/animal embryos in research. This HFEA document identifies a number of possible arguments against the creation of human/animal embryos. One of these arguments concerns the worry that human/animal embryos “might be transferred to a woman to create babies with some animal DNA in them.” Although the HFEA (...) dismisses this slippery slope argument, I argue that this possible future is not as farfetched as one might think. For example, human admixed embryos might be transferred to women in an effort to prevent the transmission of mitochondrial diseases. The ethical acceptability of this possible future practice is examined from different feminist perspectives with a focus on issues of reproductive freedom and social justice. (shrink)

This paper argues that the proliferation of the new term ‘baby man’ has an impact on reconstructing established gender relationships and resisting China's authoritarian political power in a highly-censored online environment. This study employs feminist critical discourse analysis to investigate how Chinese feminism adopts the discursive construction of ‘baby man’ and how they echo the complex historical and sociocultural backgrounds through a case study of 43 posts containing ‘baby man’ on Chinese social media. The finding suggests that the term ‘baby (...) man’ is employed in discursive strategies, namely, double irony, the blunt resistance against both gender and power relationships that deconstruct the heteropatriarchal gender norm through the mother – son female gaze and contempt for the nation's past and current population policy. It argues that despite perennial censorship, these three discursive strategies help reconstruct the extant gender hierarchy backed by conservative Confucianist ethics and represent a grassroots challenge to the political authoritarianism indoctrinated by the state. (shrink)

Current federal policy, as reflected in the final Baby Doe rule, will have a chilling effect on the ability of doctors to care appropriately for severely disabled infants. The policy threatens to prolong life unjustifiably for such infants. It will force physicians to violate a duty to do no harm without compensating benefit. And it raises serious problems for the just distribution of health care.

A leading cognitive scientist argues that a deep sense of good and evil is bred in the bone. From John Locke to Sigmund Freud, philosophers and psychologists have long believed that we begin life as blank moral slates. Many of us take for granted that babies are born selfish and that it is the role of society—and especially parents—to transform them from little sociopaths into civilized beings. In Just Babies, Paul Bloom argues that humans are in fact hardwired with a (...) sense of morality. Drawing on groundbreaking research at Yale, Bloom demonstrates that, even before they can speak or walk, babies judge the goodness and badness of others’ actions; feel empathy and compassion; act to soothe those in distress; and have a rudimentary sense of justice. -/- Still, this innate morality is limited, sometimes tragically. We are naturally hostile to strangers, prone to parochialism and bigotry. Bringing together insights from psychology, behavioral economics, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, Bloom explores how we have come to surpass these limitations. Along the way, he examines the morality of chimpanzees, violent psychopaths, religious extremists, and Ivy League professors, and explores our often puzzling moral feelings about sex, politics, religion, and race. In his analysis of the morality of children and adults, Bloom rejects the fashionable view that our moral decisions are driven mainly by gut feelings and unconscious biases. Just as reason has driven our great scientific discoveries, he argues, it is reason and deliberation that makes possible our moral discoveries, such as the wrongness of slavery. Ultimately, it is through our imagination, our compassion, and our uniquely human capacity for rational thought that we can transcend the primitive sense of morality we were born with, becoming more than just babies. -/- Paul Bloom has a gift for bringing abstract ideas to life, moving seamlessly from Darwin, Herodotus, and Adam Smith to The Princess Bride, Hannibal Lecter, and Louis C.K. Vivid, witty, and intellectually probing, Just Babies offers a radical new perspective on our moral lives. (shrink)

The ethical tensions inherent in all Baby Doe treatment decisions are compounded by medical uncertainty. Physicians both here and abroad have adopted various strategies. Swedish doctors tend to withhold treatment from the beginning from infants for whom statistical data suggest a grim prognosis. The British are more likely to initiate treatment but withdraw it if the infant appears likely to die or suffer severe brain damage. The trend in the U.S. is to start treating any baby who is potentially viable (...) and continue until it is virtually certain that the infant will die. The “least worst” strategy is an individualized one: starting treatment gathering data, and then reassessing the decision. (shrink)

In the People’s Republic of China, an approach has been adopted to ensure that all children born as a result of the one-child policy are healthy. The World Health Organization/United Nations Children’s Fund (WHO/UNICEF) has encouraged the Chinese Government to embrace this philosophy. Part of this approach has resulted in an attempt to increase the breastfeeding rates. This report describes a visit by two nursing faculty members of a Canadian university to an urban hospital maternity unit in the northeast of (...) China, where the staff were attempting to incorporate this philosophy into their maternity care with the assistance of nursing faculty members from the local university. The method chosen to integrate this philosophy was the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative initiated by WHO/UNICEF. (shrink)

On October 26, 1984, Dr. Leonard Bailey and the transplant team of Loma Linda University Medical Center in California operated on a five-pound baby girl born a few weeks earlier with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. In babies born with this defect the left side of the heart is much smaller than the right and is unable to pump sufficient blood to sustain life for more than a few weeks. This rare defect occurs about once in every 12,000 live births; it (...) accounts for about a quarter of all cardiac deaths of newborns. In an operation known as a xenograft, involving cross-species transplantation of an organ, Dr. Bailey removed the defective heart from the baby and replaced it with the heart of a baboon. (shrink)

The recent case of Baby Theresa has once again raised the dilemma of organ donation from anencephalic infants. Baby Theresa's distraught parents wanted to create something good from something tragic, by donating the baby's organs so that other children could live. If the physician waited for their baby to die naturally, the organs would not be suitable for transplantation. If they took them before death they could be harvested. For this reason, the parents petitioned the Florida courts to declare their (...) baby dead at birth so the organs could be removed at an earlier, more propitious time. The court refused. The infant died, its vital organs unusable. (shrink)

The Singer-Regan debate -- Reciprocity -- Frey's challenge -- The criticisms of Leahy and Carruthers -- The great ape project and slavery -- The Nozick-Rachels debate.

This paper examines the phenomenon of ‘baby factories’ as an abusive pattern of surrogacy and child adoption practices in Nigeria. Relying on a mixed qualitative approach that draws on extant literature and field-based personal insights, the paper posits that the economic, socio-cultural and psycho-emotional value of bearing and having a child, as well as the tacit disapproval of adoptive parenting by some cultures in Nigeria, have driven childless couples and adults into seeking child adoption through illicit and unconventional paths, such (...) as ‘baby factories’. The paper contends that the commercialization and non-regulation of surrogacy in Nigeria has created pretexts for the proliferation of ‘baby factories’, where babies are bought and sold, with pregnant girls and infants objectified as ‘stocks-in-trade’. To mitigate the phenomenon, it is expedient to regulate the bourgeoning illicit baby market in the country through proper legislation that is capable of moderating the excesses of surrogate and adoptive practices. (shrink)

The Baby Fae experiment has highlighted the growing trend in medicine of using animal parts in the treatment of humans. This paper raises the question of the logical and moral justification for these current practices and their proposed expansion. We argue that the Cognitive Capacity Principle establishes morally justified necessary and sufficient conditions for the use of non-human animals in medical treatments and research. Some alternative sources for medical uses are explored as well as some possible programmes for their implementation.

The Baby Care Scale was designed to assess the involvement of father in infant care during pregnancy and the postpartum period. This study aimed to examine the psychometric characteristics of the BCS – antenatal and BCS – postnatal versions. A sample of 100 primiparous fathers completed the BCS-AN and/or the BCS-PN and self-reported the measures of anxiety and depressive symptoms and of father–infant emotional involvement during pregnancy and the postpartum period, respectively. Good internal consistency was found for both the BCS-AN (...) and the BCS-PN. A two-factor model was found for both versions of the instrument: household tasks and infant care tasks. The BCS-AN and BCS-PN subscales revealed good internal consistency. Higher scores on the BCS-AN predicted higher scores on the BCS-PN. Significant associations were found among the BCS, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and father–infant emotional involvement, revealing good criterion validity. This study suggested that both the BCS-AN and the BCS-PN are reliable multidimensional self-report measures that assess the involvement of father in infant care during pregnancy and the postpartum period. (shrink)

DEBBIE MANDEL: The funny face of a baby makes us smile at potential and fresh life that is uninhibited. Everyone has an inner child that he wishes to release to..

Among the many ethical problems brought about by the latest developments in medical sciences is the possibility of creating "designer" babies. In this paper I will look at one such a case from the viewpoint of the Kantian "humanity principle". The various aspects of treating people as a means that can be brought up in discussions about "designer" babies are scrutinised. These will obviously include treating the future child as a mere means, but the proper role of the mother and (...) others involved are also looked at. I will conclude by arguing that, contrary to the usual presuppositions, the humanity principle is of very limited use in discussions about designer babies, in this case and in others too. (shrink)

New Jersey's Baby M case has thrust the issue of surrogate motherhood on state legislatures throughout the country. Like artificial insemination in the 1950s and 1960s, this new reproductive technology is evoking legislative responses ranging from horrified prohibition to cautious facilitation.

Designer babies are often presented in the popular media as a kind of apocalyptical spectre of things to come in a brave new world where reproduction is the province of white coated scientists and potential parents in pursuit of trophy children. In this realm physical, intellectual, and social perfection is sought through the manipulation of genes and selection of favoured traits and attributes to the detriment of individuals who cannot compete and of society more generally through the loss of natural (...) selection. It is therefore a pleasure to discover a short readable book that sets out the discussion and its many nuances in concise and accurate terms that will be accessible to all and should help to dispel some of these science fiction myths through scholarly debate.This volume is part of a collection of books under the title Debating Matters that sprang out of a series of public debates organised by the Institute of Ideas. The conferences were intended to reinvigorate debate and the contestation of ideas and contemporary issues the Institute regards as “too frequently sidelined”. The arguments are presented by an authoritative who’s who of commentators who offer their own insightful readings of various aspects of the debate. Each essayist confirms the fact that the term “ designer babies ” is an inaccurate reflection of the current ability of science to actively fashion children with selected characteristics, and as a result …. (shrink)

Words denoting “mother” in baby talk and in languages usually include nasal sounds, supporting Falk's suggestion that infant nasalized demand vocalizations might have motivated a first word. The linguistic contrast between maternal terms and paternal terms, which favor oral consonants, and the simple phonetic patterns of parental terms in both baby talk and languages also suggest parental terms could have been first words.

The Perfect Baby is the most popular introduction to ethical issues in genetics. This new edition has been updated to discuss and debate advances in high tech reproduction, genetic testing, gene therapy, human cloning, and stem cell research. It includes a new epilogue by cloning pioneer Ian Wilmut and Glenn McGee.

An anencephalic infant, who came to be known as Baby K, was born at Fairfax Hospial in Falls Church, Virginia, on October 13, 1992. From, the moment of birth and repeatedly thereafter, the baby's mother insisted that aggressive measures be pursued, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation and ventilator support, to keep the baby alive as long as possible. The physicians complied. However, following the baby's second admission for respiratory failure, the hospital sought declaratory relief from the court permitting it to forgo emergency (...) life support on the grounds that “a requirement to provide respiratory assistance would exceed the prevailing standard of medical care,” and that “because any treatment of their condition is futile, the prevailing standard of medical care for infants with anencephaly is to provide warmth, nutrition, and hydration.” The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled in favor of the baby's mother, citing the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act , which contained no “standard of care” exception to the requirement to provide “treatment necessary to prevent the material deterioration of the individual's condition.” An appeal to the United States Supreme Court was rejected. The baby died some two and one-half years later of cardiac arrest during her sixth visit to the emergency department of Fairfax Hospital for respiratory failure. (shrink)

In her (1996) Kadri Vihvelin argues that autoinfanticide is nomologically impossible and so that there is no sense in which time travelers are able to commit it. In response, Theodore Sider (2002) defends the original Lewisian verdict (Lewis 1976) whereby, on a common understanding of ability, time travelers are able to kill their earlier selves and their failure to do so is merely coincidental. This paper constitutes a critical note on arguments put forward by both Sider and Vihvelin. I argue (...) that although Sider’s criticism starts out promisingly he doesn’t succeed in establishing that Vihvelin’s analysis fails, because (a) he neglects to rule out a class of counterfactuals to which Vihvelin’s sample-case may belong; and (b) (together with Lewis) he is wrong to suggest that future facts are irrelevant in the evaluation of time travelers’ abilities. I show instead that Vihvelin’s argument is viciously circular, indicating that even if there are nomological constraints on autoinfanticide these cannot be established a priori. (shrink)

Prolonging neonatal lifeThe paradox that medicine’s success breeds medicine’s problems is well known to readers of the Journal of Medical Ethics. Advances in neonatal medicine have worked wonders. Not long ago, extremely premature birth babies, or those born with very serious health problems, would inevitably have died. Today, neonatologists can resuscitate babies born at ever-earlier stages of gestation. And very ill babies also benefit from advances in neonatal intensive care. Infant lives can be prolonged. Unfortunately, several such babies will not (...) survive for long whatever is done for them. Others will live to leave hospital, but face severe health problems. Doctors have gained the ability to prolong neonatal life. But should they always do so? This question is central to the recent report of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, Critical care decisions in fetal and neonatal medicine.1 In many quarters, the report received a very positive response, commended in The Lancet as “thoughtful, sensitive and sensible” and welcomed by the premature baby charity BLISS. Critics attacked on both flanks. The report goes too far—ushering in a culture of “throw away babies”. Or it does not go far enough—failing to endorse the Dutch precedent to sanction active neonatal euthanasia.TOO FAR?One of the key recommendations of the report is that guidelines be developed in relation to the institution of intensive neonatal care. It is these guidelines, which have been savaged by some parts of the media. The BMA called them “blanket rules” smothering clinical discretion. The guidelines on resuscitation at birth apply to babies born at the borderline of viability, that is, at or before a gestational age of 25 weeks 6 days. The earlier the baby is born, the lower are the chances that he/she will survive to leave hospital. Before 21 weeks 6 days, none of …. (shrink)

Dixon et al. overlook the fact that contact predicts not only favorable out-group attitudes/evaluations, but also cognitions, affect, and behavior. The weight of evidence supporting the benefits of intergroup contact cautions against throwing the (contact) baby out with the bathwater. The goal to “ignite struggles” in pursuit of social equality, we argue, incautiously risks hurling us down the proverbial rabbit hole.

Pediatricians provided expert testimony that, in the case of Baby K, provision of ventilator support goes beyond accepted standards of care for anencephalic infants and so is medically futile. This argument, however reasonable, does not persuade those who believe in the absolute value of even a fraction of human life. In Baby K, court records indicate that Ms. H, Baby K's mother, persistently adheres to the sanctity-of-life principle on religious grounds.While I think that quality-of-life considerations have a role in medical (...) decision making, those who reject such considerations must be respected. This article makes the following claims, on behalf of religious dissenters: the Baby K case should be interpreted in light of the freedom of religion guaranteed in the First Amendment ; religious beliefs should not be trivialized in clinical ethics, even if reason, not belief, is the language of the public forum; the time-honored free exercise clause is essential to the American experiment in liberty and should not be overridden in the name of a concept as vague as futility; and free exercise of religion deserves serious discussion in the futility debate, and significant religious accommodation must be included in any hospital or societal futility policies. In the concluding section, issues are raised regarding the balance between religious consideration and resource allocation. (shrink)