Ethical Demands Research Articles

Incorporating integrated testing strategy (ITSv1) defined approach into read-across (RAx) in predicting skin sensitization potency: ITSv1-based RAx

Recently, due to regulatory and ethical demands, new approach methodologies (NAMs), defined approaches (DAs), and read-across (RAx) have been used in the risk assessment of skin sensitization. Integrated testing strategy (ITS)v1 DA, adopted in OECD Guideline No. 497, can be used for skin sensitization potency categorization. However, ITSv1 DA alone is not used for further refinement of the potency prediction based on EC3 (the estimated concentration that produces a stimulation index of 3 in murine local lymph node assay) values. Moreover, there is no explicit approach to incorporating NAM/DA data into RAx to fill the data gap of EC3 values with high confidence. This study developed a strategy incorporating ITSv1 DA into RAx to predict skin sensitization potency: ITSv1-based RAx. To examine the reliability of this novel strategy, a case study with lilial, a fragrance material, was performed. Based on ITSv1-based RAx, the skin sensitization potency of lilial was determined by extrapolating the EC3 value of 9.5% for the suitable analogue bourgeonal, which was close to the historical EC3 value of 8.6%. The result suggested that the strategy can refine the prediction of EC3 values with high confidence and be useful for the risk assessment of skin sensitization.

Realising decolonising spaces: relational accountability in research events

Research events are important places where disciplinary structures and norms are reproduced and challenged. This article uses the authors’ experiences organising a geography research event on decolonising settler cities on Wadjuk Nyungar Country in Perth, Western Australia, to interrogate the transformations that a decolonising ethic demands. Learning with the Indigenous research method of yarning as a decolonising practice, we document and reflect on the persistence a decolonising ethic requires. This project concretely revealed the interconnection between transformation at the micro-level—event conceptualisation, design, placement, and conduct—and building challenges to settler-colonial structures and institutions. We conclude by interrogating the structural barriers for multi-epistemic engagement and learning and propose three principles for non-Indigenous researchers to more fully understand the invitation of being in a relationship with what has always been here: Indigenous sovereignties of law, place, and knowledge.

A Fifth core crime: Crime of ecocide as a new puzzle of the international criminal law

The protection of the environment and above all the climate and energy crisis that destroys human life is a topic of debate at an international level for the protection of ecocide. However, so far we do not have a concrete and perfect notion, given that the term ecocide was born from biological science and not from jurists. International criminal law and especially the International Criminal Court (ICC) once again takes on the leading role. A new article is needed to introduce ecocide to the other crimes already punished by the Court. The time is right and now ripe and the international necessity demands, with the help of international criminal law, to further evolve this branch of international law, to protect peoples, to punish those who destroy the environment both in the period of peace and war and above all the large companies and multinationals that are protagonists of this crime. The case is clear enough, the conduct is broad in our day but it certainly includes the mens rea a ignorance to be punished as a crime. Of course we also speak of restorative or restorative international justice for this crime because we have an ethical need and demand towards future generations to take clear positions for the protection and human life.

Rethinking Faculty as Street-Level Bureaucrats: Exploring the Role of Ethics and Administrative Discretion in Contemporary Higher Education

Within the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic and political intervention in higher education has highlighted the need to reconceptualize higher education administration. This work addresses the roles faculty currently serve and how their ethics guide discretion while acting as the engagement point and makes the case that the group should be characterized as street-level bureaucrats. The article uses a theoretical analysis to provide support that faculty’s place as street-level bureaucrats is changing due to political and ethical demands. The article provides evidence for a redefinition of faculty’s role and suggests implications for the change.

‘Overcoming a clash of absolutes: the conflicting ethical demands posed by access to medicines litigation confronted by Latin American judges’

ABSTRACT This article analyses the conflicting professional ethical demands imposed on judges to, on the one hand, faithfully apply the existing law of the land and, on the other hand, do justice in the face of urgent global challenges such as ensuring an equal access to life-saving medicines. After establishing the precise nature of the professional ethical duties of judges (as opposed to those of lawyers) and noting the tensions they face when the duty of applying the law prevents them from complying with the duty of delivering material justice in the domain of access to medicines, the article then analyses the way this issue plays out in Latin America, a región where judicially-mandated access to medicines has been common. The article concludes by arguing that the Latin American experience suggests that judges around the world should take seriously the need to find a balance between their duty of deference towards public health authorities in this domain (when this is mandated by legislation), and the duty to do justice to individuals who cannot afford live-saving medicines.

Пятая межвузовская конференция по философии "мировоззренческие вызовы XXI века"

On November 26, 2021, at the Faculty of Theology, Philosophy and World Cultures of Omsk State University, the fifth conference was held with the participation of teachers and students of leading Omsk universities “Worldview Challenges of the 21st Century”, topic: “Uncertainty as a challenge of time in science and philosophy.” The emergence of nonlinear dynamics and synergetics marked the beginning of a fundamentally new vision of the world. A new level of understanding not only of physical and biological objects, but also of social structures led to a change in scientific and philosophical ideals and led closely to beliefs about the stability and regularity of uncertainty itself, which becomes a real and dangerous obstacle in the search for a more comprehensive understanding of the universe. At the same time, issues of morality and largely unconscious resistance to the imperative demands of the new ethics become a subject of particular concern. The questions raised by the speakers reflect the modern level of understanding of current issues of human existence. Its position in the new conditions is a challenge that urgently requires thoughtful analysis and a worthy response, the development of a new universal methodology for scientific research and the discovery of the fundamental foundations of social order.

From safety to source domination and diversity content: Media challenges in the pandemic era

All sectors of human life have been affected by the Covid-19 virus, including the media industry. There have been many changes in the media organization. The patterns that have become standard have completely changed due to the pandemic. The media face many challenges because of that. Those are the risk to the safety of workers, the loss of several types of jobs, the dominance of information sources, and threats to the diversity of information that the public can receive. Those were the results of this study. That results were obtained by a research process carried out from May to mid-December 2021. The method was carried out by interviewing and observing journalists who worked in the Surakarta area, Indonesia. Apart from that, it also observed the media work process (newsroom). Technology, the safety of life, dominance of news sources, and diversity of content were challenges for media actors in ethical demands and the fulfillment of basic principles of journalism that have not changed at all.

Human Rights, Human Wrongs: Gender and the Affective Dimensions of Sex Trafficking in Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street

This article analyses Chika Unigwe’s novel On Black Sisters’ Street as a socio-political narrative by examining the issue of sex trafficking and the subsequent violation of women’s fundamental human rights. First, I will argue that gender is the primary cause of inequality to which African women are exposed, within and outside the continent. The novel’s characters are indeed both victims and accomplices of the corrupt patriarchal capitalist system; they are subject to social constraints but also active agents capable of resisting the restrictions imposed on them. Second, I will draw on Sara Ahmed’s thesis about the circulation of emotions to discuss how pain, disgust, anger, and hatred ‘work’ in modern global society and determine the affective dimensions of sex trafficking. I will demonstrate, therefore, how these emotions highlight the power dynamics of patriarchy and capitalism and simultaneously give voice to women’s political and ethical demands for reparation and redress.

Sacrificing Gender: Kierkegaard and the Traumatic Self

Abstract Kierkegaard’s authorship is saturated with gender biases. And yet, the ossified conceptions of gender that we find in Kierkegaard’s writings are destabilized by his ethical ideal of humanity as a radical equality. This paper will examine the argument that the sacrifice of gender plays a vital function in Kierkegaard’s account of human selfhood. Selfhood is not possible without sacrifice. To exist as a human self is to sacrifice one’s own conceptions of the existential differences that make each and every one of us the unique individual that we are. We are gendered beings, and we cannot escape the traumatic ambiguity of intimacy and alienation endemic to our gendered existence. We have to sacrifice our gendered conceptions of being human in light of a demand for a radical equality beyond gender differences. This sacrifice of gender is an ethical demand that we can never fulfill because of our gendered existence.

The universality of Rydberg constant is investigated with concern for ethics

Bearing in mind the unintended restriction of the Rydberg constant to atomic properties, there is a need to defend the universality of the Rydberg constant beyond atomic physics against the backdrop of the demands of ethics in research and publishing. The objectives of the research were:1) to show that the Rydberg constant is not just a composite fundamental physical constant applicable to the field of atomic physics but also nuclear matter physics; and 2) to examine the burning issues of the need for ethics in research, critique, or evaluation, and publishing. The methods were theoretical and calculational. The derivational and calculational results gave equations and values that were positive and verifiable; the calculation of the Rydberg constant using the derived equation after substituting the calculated mass radius of proton in this research and other literature values and the well-known physical constants reproduced the Rydberg constant to between 99.88 and 104.26 % of the 2016 CODATA value. Calculations based on charge radii from electron-proton scattering experiments produced results ranging from 72.53 to 75.34% of the CODATA value. Specifically, the calculation using the calculated mass radius of the proton in this research yielded approximately 1.096049145 exp. (+7)/m. Unethical behaviors in research, critique/evaluation review, and publishing were identified and discussed, and pieces of advice given accordingly. In conclusion, the universality of the Rydberg constant as a composite constant, applicable to both atomic and nuclear physics remains undisputable. The role of the Rydberg constant in the determination of periodic parameters of multi-electron atom is recommended for future research.

Disrupting White Supremacy

Social workers must participate in ongoing anti-racist and culturally attuned approaches to disrupt white supremacy in our profession, institutions, and society. Our social work mission, values, and ethics demand that we engage in social work education, practice, and scholarship that seeks social justice for all people. In line with these expectations, social work doctoral education is tasked with training the next generation of social work scholars by providing doctoral education that is responsive to society's most pressing social problems. While disrupting white supremacy is an aspirational goal, we argue that white supremacy infiltrates social work education, manifests itself in diverse ways over time, often isolating Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We use testimonios to explore these issues and describe four BIPOC women’s experiences navigating their social work doctoral programs. From these insights, we contend that social work doctoral education continues to uphold white supremacy by promoting Western epistemologies and theories above other equally valid forms of knowledge, including non-Western schools of thought created by and for BIPOC scholars. We provide recommendations for alternative theories and epistemologies for social work curricula and offer implications to support BIPOC students in social work doctoral education.

The ‘brother layer problem’: Routine killing, biotechnology and the pursuit of ‘ethical sustainability’ in industrial poultry

The global poultry industry culls approximately seven billion day-old male layer chicks annually. Superfluous to both egg and meat, male ‘brother’ layers constitute a momentous problem, simultaneously economical and ethical, to the poultry industry. In this article, we scrutinize present and proposed alternatives to routine killing involving multiple biotechnological innovations, including novel methods for fetus sexing, genome editing technologies and re-sexing. We utilize a political ecological perspective that views attempts to solve the ‘brother layer problem’ as discursive and techno-scientific ‘fixes’ to problems of the capitalist poultry industry's own making and to rising demands for ethics and environmental-friendly animal agriculture. This context opens new avenues for profit-making by and for an expanding matrix of actors we view as an evolving ‘economy of repair’ that is built in part by public resources. Further, these fixes constitute an ostensible ‘ethical sustainability’ meant to signal both animal welfare and environmental improvements, which seem to work towards stabilizing agro-industry, thereby foreclosing alternatives to agro-industrial intensification.

Informed consent for psychotherapy: Ethical illusion or clinical reality? A survey about psychotherapists' attitudes and practices in Germany.

This study aimed to assess clinicians' attitudes and their current clinical practices regarding informed consent for psychotherapy. A convenience sample of N = 530 clinicians in Germany (n = 418 licensed psychotherapists and n = 112 postgraduate psychotherapy trainees) took part in an online survey. Most clinicians (84%) reported obtaining informed consent for psychotherapy in their daily routine. However, many psychotherapists felt unsure about satisfactorily fulfilling the legal (63%) and ethical obligations (52%). The two most frequently reported components of information disclosure related to explaining the terms and conditions of psychotherapy (96%) and the psychotherapeutic approach (91%). Providing information about mechanisms of psychotherapy (33%) and the role of expectations (30%) were least practiced. One in five psychotherapists reported not informing clients about potential risks and side effects. A considerable proportion reported concern about inducing anxiety in patients by disclosing information about risks and side effects (52%). Although obtaining informed consent for psychotherapy seems to be the rule rather than the exception in clinical practice, the quality of its implementation in terms of legal, ethical and clinical demands remains questionable. Training psychotherapists in providing comprehensive informed consent enables informed decision-making and might have a positive influence on treatment expectations and outcomes.

Structures of empathy: transgender rights, personhood, and melodrama in Una Mujer Fantástica

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes how the 2017 Chilean film, Una Mujer Fantástica, unravels the fraught relationship between the state’s institutions and the trans subject in Chile. It illuminates how Marina’s (the protagonist played by Daniela Vega) path to self-determination and her basic human rights are consistently negated by the institutional actors upholding categories of legal personhood in Chile. I argue that the film develops a mode of ethical empathy which encompasses elements of realism, melodrama, and magical realism to structure the viewer’s understanding of trans rights and the violation of those rights in Chile in a manner that avoids voyeurism. This mode of ethical empathy transforms the viewer into a witness of the structural, physical, and emotional violence perpetuated against Marina, as she struggles to mourn her recently deceased partner, Orlando. Ethical empathy demands that this act of viewer-witnessing take place in several moments throughout the film when Marina encounters institutional actors, such as the police, detectives specializing in sexual violence, and doctors. Lastly, elements of melodrama and magical realism continue structuring ethical empathy toward the end of the film in order to illuminate how rage and catharsis are central to Marina’s enunciation of personhood outside of official systems of categorization.

Moral Dogma and Ethical Relativity in Joseph Conrad’s Almayer’s Folly

This paper studies the intricate treatment of the abstract and dogmatic order of imperial, racial, and religious morality, and the issue of ethical commitment in the concrete and fleeting relationships between individual subjects in Joseph Conrad’s debut novel, Almayer’s Folly (1895). The novel is set in the Malay Archipelago, where the fading years of the imperial absolutism of Europe give way to conflicting trade and political interests. A pessimistic philosophical outlook in Conrad’s text shows how all the overindulgent narcissistic moral orders accommodate hate and self-interest motivated conspiracy, and simultaneously violate ethical demands of the Other in human contact.

Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Legacy of Boston Personalism

Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Legacy of Boston Personalism

Women’s Woodland Owner Network: A Comparative Case Study of Oregon (the United States) and Austria

Gender equality, as a preferred social norm based on both ethical considerations and legislative demands, can be boosted by networking. However, the concept of organizational networks is too often associated with old boys’ clubs or old boy networks that effectively exclude women, thus limiting their potential. As a result, there is a movement to form women-inspired networks, to address the experiences of women with a goal for increasing their perceptions of belonging and engagement. So how do such networks operate in practice? This research focuses on the organizational differences and commonalities in two women’s woodland owner networks, one in the US and one in Austria, in order to understanding how participation in networks influence the advancement of women in the forest sector. Based on expert interviews, we found that both cases well reflect current networking potential for strengthening the capabilities of women engaging in network activities. Regardless of country women in similar circumstances tend to have similar networks. Yet, there are some differences even among these organized networks operating with similar targets. Results also show the limitations of sole networking approaches for the enhancement of women’s positions in the men-dominated forest sector. We suggested more action in terms of active equality policies, such as mentoring/networking programs, family friendly policies, and quota/sensibilization measures for boards and selection committees to increase the gender balance in the sector and its related industries.

Incidental Findings in Study Participants: What Is the Researcher's Obligation?

Background: As technology advances and genomic testing becomes commonplace, incidental findings, or the discovery of unrelated results, have increased. The American College of Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) established recommendations for the return of pathologic variants in 78 genes in the clinical setting based on medically actionable conditions from genes linked with preventable or treatable diseases. However, the lack of policy in the research setting poses a serious ethical dilemma for researchers, potentially threatening the participant’s trust and willingness to contribute to a process with more significant risk than benefit. Purpose: Our goal was to determine the preferred ethical approach to handling incidental research findings and suggest a new standard for investigators and participants. Methods: By employing Wueste’s IAJD Framework of ethical evaluation, the current research policy, as well as a proposed policy, were analyzed, and then a policy analysis was employed to ascertain feasibility. Results and Discussion: The current policy of leaving the decision of returning incidental findings up to the researcher’s discretion is an ethical failure from the consequential, deontological, and intellectual freedom perspectives. However, the proposed policy of implementing the ACMG guidance for researchers to satisfy ethical demands reinforces its moral fortitude. In a period of increasing public awareness, the community, which is the prospective research pool, has increased demands for autonomy and less paternalistic behavior from medicine and science. This paper synthesizes recommendations by numerous organizations to establish a mutually beneficial policy that will ensure the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) goal, stated in the 2014 Joint Rule, of making participants “partners” in research a reality.

Ethics as a Moral Duty: Proposing an Integrated Ethics Framework for Migration Research

AbstractThis article interrogates the assumptions and moral values underlying social research ethics frameworks and practices applicable to migration studies. Based on a review of forced migration literature and on empirical observations I identify three tiers of research ethics that generally guide ethical conduct in this field: procedural, relational and reciprocal ethics. I suggest that these tiers are traditionally conceptualized as a hierarchy in which certain ethical demands are considered morally superior to others. Looking at each of the three tiers the article shows that procedural and relational ethics demands are often based on unclear moral values and problematic notions of migrants’ vulnerability. To address this shortcoming, I draw on deontological ethics and on Levinas’s notion of unconditional responsibility to argue that our duty as researchers is based on our particular relationship with our research subjects rather than on their status as migrants. Moving away from a hierarchical understanding of research ethics I then propose an integrated ethics framework that allows researchers to conceptualize and address the various ethical demands in an interconnected and holistic way. This framework presents an original contribution to research ethics discourses and practice in migration studies and other fields of social inquiry with a political and moral ambition such as human rights, social work and childhood studies.

Addressing Shortcomings in Contingency Standards of Care

Addressing Shortcomings in Contingency Standards of Care