Ethical Point Research Articles

A holistic view of human rights and its application in the context of infectious disease pandemics

Under the new coronavirus epidemic, the implementation of public health measures has generated some resistance in countries around the world. The essence of examining the human rights claims of those who oppose the epidemic is that they have a too narrow understanding of individual human rights and ignore the obligation implications of human rights itself. From the historical point of view, health and epidemic prevention is the objective necessity of the survival and development of human society; From the ethical point of view, the joint fight against the epidemic is the moral obligation of the coordinated development of individuals and society. From the normative point of view, the management of infectious diseases is the basic consensus established by many international conventions. To correct the narrow understanding of individual human rights concept, the global human rights concept should be established in pandemic governance, and the concept of human health community should be shaped in the pandemic convention to build governance consensus, implement the same health concept to clarify the scope of governance, implement the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and strengthen the participation of individuals and communities in public health governance to improve governance paths. To shape a more reasonable and effective pandemic governance order.

Suicide-preventive compulsory admission is not a proportionate measure - time for clinicians to recognise the associated risks.

Suicide is considered a global public health issue and compulsory admission is a commonly used measure to prevent suicide. However, the practice has been criticised since several studies indicate that the measure lacks empirical support and may even increase suicide risk. This paper investigates whether the practice has enough empirical support to be considered proportionate. To that end, arguments supporting compulsory admission as a suicide-preventive measure for most suicidal patients are scrutinized. The ethical point of departure is that the expected benefits of compulsory admission should outweigh the potential harms of the measure to be proportionate and defensible. It is concluded that, for most suicidal patients, suicide-preventive compulsory admission cannot be presumed to be a proportionate measure. To be so, the expected medical benefits of the measure should be greater than the potential increase in suicide risk and other harms that compulsory admission could entail. Instead of using compulsory admission as a suicide-preventive measure, extra safety measures may be needed during and after compulsory admission to prevent the risk of hospitalisation-induced suicide.

Will Customers’ Understanding of the Trolley Dilemma Hinder Their Adoption of Robotaxi?

Robotaxi, coined from “robot” and “taxi”, refers to a taxi service with vehicles controlled by self-driving algorithms instead of human drivers. Despite the availability of such a service, it is yet unknown whether customers will adopt robotaxi, given its immaturity. Meanwhile, the potential customers of the robotaxi service are facing an inescapable ethics issue, the “trolley dilemma”, which might have a strong impact on their adoption of the service. Based on the necessity of understanding robotaxi adoption, especially from an ethical point of view, this study aims to uncover and quantify the antecedents of robotaxi adoption, taking the trolley dilemma into consideration. We applied a modified Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework to explore the antecedents of robotaxi adoption, with a special focus on customers’ understanding of the trolley dilemma. We conducted online surveys (N = 299) to obtain the customers’ opinions regarding robotaxis. Aside from measuring standard variables in UTAUT, we developed four proprietary items to measure trolley dilemma relevance. We also randomly assigned the participants to two groups, either group A or group B. Participants in group A are told that all robotaxis are programmed with a utilitarian algorithm, such that when facing a trolley dilemma, the robotaxi will conditionally compromise the passenger(s) to save a significantly larger group of pedestrians. In the meantime, participants in group B are informed that all robotaxis are programmed with an egocentric algorithm, such that when facing a trolley dilemma, the robotaxi will always prioritize the safety of the passenger(s). Our findings suggest that both performance expectancy and effort expectancy have a positive influence on robotaxi adoption intention. As for the trolley dilemma, customers regard it as of high relevance to robotaxis. Moreover, if the robotaxi is programmed with an egocentric algorithm, the customers are significantly more willing to adopt the service. Our paper contributes to both adoption studies and ethics studies. We add to UTAUT two new constructs, namely trolley dilemma relevance and trolley dilemma algorithm, which can be generalized to adapt to other new technologies involving ethics issues. We also directly ask customers to assess the relevance and algorithm of the trolley dilemma, which is a meaningful supplement to existing ethics studies that mostly debate from researchers’ perspectives. Meanwhile, our paper is managerially meaningful as it provides solid suggestions for robotaxi companies’ marketing campaigns.

Delving into sustainability reporting literature: The role of ethics

Research background: After major scandals in apparently reputable and solvent companies, added to the great economic crises of recent decades, accounting and finance have become a fundamental discipline for the correct study of these events from an ethical point of view. Philosophers, economists and even religious people have wanted to contribute their grain of sand to the study of the ethical behaviour of companies and make it go beyond mere administration. In recent years, non-financial reporting has been gaining ground, to the point that the legal system now makes it compulsory in most Western countries. Purpose of the article: This study aims to review and summarize the role of ethics in the sustainability reporting so as to develop a holistic framework of ethics in the sustainability reporting; review the evolution of the research field; and identify the most significant research tendencies enabling the proposal of several future research directions. Methods: Using the Scopus and Web of Science databases, a bibliometric analysis has been carried out in the field of accounting on this topic from its formal origins in the 1980s to the present day, in addition to highlighting the importance of sustainability. 271 articles have been used as a basis for developing the main trends at bibliographic, geographical and institutional levels. Findings & value added: This study highlights the importance of incorporating ethics in non-financial information as a field of research, through two very different lines of research that have gained importance in recent years: ethics in business and the growing relevance of non-financial information. It also incorporates a bibliometric analysis with information obtained from two major databases: Scopus and Web of Science. The use of both databases makes it possible to broaden the body of articles covered, compared to other bibliometric analyses previously carried out on similar topics, and allows for the inclusion of more relevant articles on this subject.

Этико-философские аспекты цифровой танатологии

Modern man’s digital being has changed his attitude towards the most important cultural existentials, including the problem of death, which was sacred in previous eras. The article analyzes the characteristics of digital thanatology and raises the philosophical questions about the modes of digital afterlife. From an ethical and legal point of view, the article draws attention to the need to legally restrict the circulation on the Internet of the content depicting the bodies or parts of the bodies of military personnel killed in combat zones. The article analyzes moral and ethical nuances of new socio-cultural practices: selfies with the dead; streaming from funerals, creation of digital cemeteries and sharing of medical autopsy videos on Internet platforms. The author proposes the inclusuion of “Digital Ethics” course in the university curriculum on Ethics in order to prevent the devaluation of the problem of death under the influence of digitalization.

THE POSSIBILITIES OF A SYSTEMS APPROACH IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS' INFORMATION COMPETENCE

The article examines the role and possibilities of a systematic approach in the development of students' information competence. Today, information competence is becoming one of the main skills in the digital age. The ability to effectively find, analyze, and evaluate information is necessary to adapt to modern society. This includes not only technical skills but also the ability to search for information from reliable sources, think critically, and use information from an ethical point of view. In this regard, the development of students' information competence becomes an important task of educational institutions. It is obvious that students with a high level of information competence will also be successful in their studies and future professional activities. Therefore, the process of developing students' information competence should be carried out systematically and include various educational methods and techniques.In accordance with the research topic, the article presents an overview of scientific research by domestic and foreign scientists. Based on it the author analyzes the effectiveness of a systematic approach in the context of the development of information skills and critical thinking of students. In the modern educational context, the importance of an integrated and systematic approach to learning is emphasized, contributing to the comprehensive development of students' information competencies. The results of the study provide opportunities and recommendations, considering the development of students' information competence as a comprehensively organized unified system.

Digital Companions for Well-being: Challenges and Opportunities

Humans have evolved to seek social connections, extending beyond interactions with living beings. The digitization of society has led to interactions with non-living entities, such as digital companions, aimed at supporting mental well-being. This literature review surveys the latest developments in digital companions for mental health, employing a hybrid search strategy that identified 67 relevant articles from 2014 to 2022. We identified that by the nature of the digital companions’ purposes, it is important to consider person profiles for: a) to generate both person-oriented and empathetic responses from these virtual companions, b) to keep track of the person’s conversations, activities, therapy, and progress, and c) to allow portability and compatibility between digital companions. We established a taxonomy for digital companions in the scope of mental well-being. We also identified open challenges in the scope of digital companions related to ethical, technical, and socio-technical points of view. We provided documentation about what these issues mean, and discuss possible alternatives to approach them.

Why Do I Choose an Animal Model or an Alternative Method in Basic and Preclinical Biomedical Research? A Spectrum of Ethically Relevant Reasons and Their Evaluation.

Research model selection decisions in basic and preclinical biomedical research have not yet been the subject of an ethical investigation. Therefore, this paper aims, (1) to identify a spectrum of reasons for choosing between animal and alternative research models (e.g., based on in vitro or in silico models) and (2) provides an ethical analysis of the selected reasons. In total, 13 researchers were interviewed; the interviews were analyzed qualitatively. The ethical analysis was based on the principlism approach and a value judgement model. This paper presents 66 reasons underlying the choice of researchers using animal (27 reasons) or alternative models (39). Most of the reasons were assigned to the work environment (29) and scientific standards (22). Other reasons were assigned to personal attitudes (11) and animal welfare (4). Qualitative relevant normative differences are presented in the ethical analysis. Even if few reasons can be rejected outright from an ethical point of view, there are good reasons to give some more weight than others. The spectrum of reasons and their ethical assessment provide a framework for reflection for researchers who may have to choose between animal models and (investing in) alternatives. This can help to reflect on and ethically justify decisions.

Conscientious objection and barriers to abortion within a specific regional context - an expert interview study.

While most countries that allow abortion on women's request also grant physicians a right to conscientious objection (CO), this has proven to constitute a potential barrier to abortion access. Conscientious objection is regarded as an understudied phenomenon the effects of which have not yet been examined in Germany. Based on expert interviews, this study aims to exemplarily reconstruct the processes of abortion in a mid-sized city in Germany, and to identify potential effects of conscientious objection. Five semi-structured interviews with experts from all instances involved have been conducted in April 2020. The experts gave an insight into the medical care structures with regard to abortion procedures, the application and manifestations of conscientious objection in medical practice, and its impact on the care of pregnant women. A content analysis of the transcribed interviews was performed. Both the procedural processes and the effects of conscientious objection are reported to differ significantly between early abortions performed before the 12th week of pregnancy and late abortions performed at the second and third trimester. Conscientious objection shows structural consequences as it is experienced to further reduce the number of possible providers, especially for early abortions. On the individual level of the doctor-patient relationship, the experts confirmed the neutrality and patient-orientation of the vast majority of doctors. Still, it is especially late abortions that seem to be vulnerable to barriers imposed by conscientious objection in individual medical encounters. Our findings indicate that conscientious objection possibly imposes barriers to both early and late abortion provision and especially in the last procedural steps, which from an ethical point of view is especially problematic. To oblige hospitals to partake in abortion provision in Germany has the potential to prevent negative impacts of conscientious objection on women's rights on an individual as well as on a structural level.

Drug Promotions Between Ethics, Regulations, and Financial Interests.

The promotion of the latest medicines produced by the pharmaceutical industry is an important issue both from an ethical point of view (the level of accessibility, the way research is carried out) and from the point of view of marketing and especially from the lobbying issues raised. The ethical dilemmas raised by the promotion of new drugs revolve between the need to discover new molecules important for treating a wide range of diseases and the need to establish a battery of ethical rules, absolutely necessary for regulations in the field to be compliant with all ethical principles. A literature search was conducted through PubMed, MEDLINE, Plus, Scopus, and Web of Science (2015-2023) using combinations of keywords, including drugs, medical publicity, and pharma marketing plus ethical dilemma. The promotion of medicines is governed by advertising laws and regulations in many countries, including at EU level, based on the need for countries to ensure that the promotion and advertising of medicines is truthful, based on information understood by consumers. The ethical analysis of the issues raised is more necessary and complex as the channels used for promotion are more accessible to the population, and the information, easier to obtain, can be the cause of increased self-medication and overeating. Large amounts of money invested in the development of new molecules, but also the risk of scientific fraud through manipulation of data during clinical trials, selective or biased publication of information can have repercussions on the health of the population. The development of new pharmaceutical molecules is necessary to intervene and treat as many conditions as possible, but marketing must not neglect the observance of ethical principles. The promotion of medicines should be the attribute especially of the medical staff, which should also be a mandatory part of the mechanism for approving the marketing methods and means used by the pharmaceutical companies.

What is Spanish regulation on the application of artificial intelligence to medicine like?

This article will attempt to analyze the current impact of Artificial Intelligence in Spanish healthcare, as well as the challenges that its application poses both from an ethical and legal point of view. Technological advances, which are already being applied in healthcare, make it necessary to adapt the legal system to the new trends that are emerging in society and force healthcare professionals to review their codes of ethics in the face of new ethical dilemmas, since these codes of ethics do not have clear guidelines for action on AI that raise relevant ethical problems to which no response is being given, except for the code of ethics for medicine, which has recently been included. After a review of the last 5 years of Spanish and European regulations in medicine, it can be concluded that the regulation and legislation of the application of AI is very deficient, both in the EU and in Spain. In order to try to identify different ways of resolving conflicts related to AI in medicine, jurisprudential sentences related to the rights and obligations of health professionals, patients and users have been analyzed and reviewed. Therefore, the paper concludes with the proposal of a series of aspects to be taken into account for the future regulation of the application of AI in medicine.

Brain organoids and organoid intelligence from ethical, legal, and social points of view.

Human brain organoids, aka cerebral organoids or earlier "mini-brains", are 3D cellular models that recapitulate aspects of the developing human brain. They show tremendous promise for advancing our understanding of neurodevelopment and neurological disorders. However, the unprecedented ability to model human brain development and function in vitro also raises complex ethical, legal, and social challenges. Organoid Intelligence (OI) describes the ongoing movement to combine such organoids with Artificial Intelligence to establish basic forms of memory and learning. This article discusses key issues regarding the scientific status and prospects of brain organoids and OI, conceptualizations of consciousness and the mind-brain relationship, ethical and legal dimensions, including moral status, human-animal chimeras, informed consent, and governance matters, such as oversight and regulation. A balanced framework is needed to allow vital research while addressing public perceptions and ethical concerns. Interdisciplinary perspectives and proactive engagement among scientists, ethicists, policymakers, and the public can enable responsible translational pathways for organoid technology. A thoughtful, proactive governance framework might be needed to ensure ethically responsible progress in this promising field.

Humanitarianism torn between ethics and politics

This paper aims to provide an overview of the main landmarks and basic problems of humanitarianism, which is seen as a philosophy - an ethical response to suffering - but also as a practice in the form of humanitarian actions. There is general agreement that suffering ought to be alleviated, but not that humanitarian actions, and the humanitarian sector in general, are an adequate response. However, the practice of humanitarianism itself is not clearly demarcated. While for some it only refers to the actions aimed at eliminating or alleviating immediate suffering, others believe that humanitarianism requires dealing with the causes of suffering, and in its most extreme form, that humanitarianism requires force in the form of military intervention to stop suffering. Therefore, the objections to humanitarianism are contradictory - while on the one hand, its apolitical stances are respected in the name of timeless and decontextualized ethics, on the other its politicization is criticised. To condemn or praise humanitarianism, whether it comes from the point of ethics or politics, the authors conclude, it is important to always keep in mind what exactly is meant when referring to it.

Trauma Registry: Trauma Quality indicators analysis in hospitalized patients.

to consolidate a Trauma Register (TR) trough REDCap data acquisition platform and to validate, in this context, local Quality Indicators (QI) as improvement opportunities in trauma management. continuous data acquisition of all patients admitted in Irmandade da Santa Casa de Misericórdia de São Paulo adult Trauma bay and it's validation in REDCap platform; 6 months retrospective cohort of QI impact in length of hospitalar stay, complications and mortality. Fisher, Chi-squared, Wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to correlate QIs fails with the endpoints, considering p<0.05 and CI <95% as statically significant. 465 were admitted in Trauma bay, with 137 patients hospitalized (29.5%); the number of QIs compromised were related with more complications (p=0.075) and increased length of stay (p=0.028), especially the delay in open fracture's surgical management, which increased the severe complications' incidence (p=0.005). the REDCap data acquisition platform is useful as a tool for multi center TR implementation, from ethical and logistical point of view; nevertheless, the proposed QIs are validated as attention points in trauma management, allowing improvements in traumatized patients treatment.

Need for Ethical Governance on the Implementation and Use of Patient-derived Xenograft (PDX) Models for Anti-cancer Drug Discovery and Development: Ethical Considerations and Policy Proposal.

Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models, in which tumor tissues resected from cancer patients are transplanted into immunocompromised mice, have been recently considered the most reliable preclinical models that quite accurately stimulate the real-world characteristics and microenvironments of tumors in patients. The ethical uniqueness of the PDX model, which lies in the fact that it is a hybrid of living human tumor tissue and a carrier mouse, raises several ethical concerns. This study presents four ethical points for consideration and a model ethical governance policy for the implementation and use of PDX models for research. First, PDX models carrying living tumor tissues originating from individual patients with dignity must be treated ethically as materials and data in compliance with the principle of respect for persons. Second, although PDX models themselves are patentable and can be commercialized, it is a standard view, as represented by the Oviedo Convention by the Council of Europe, that those living tumor tissues carried by PDX models shall not give rise to financial gain since those tissues are human body parts; therefore, they should be treated according to a recent ethical approach with the custodianship model as the trust property of patients of origin and shall not be subjected directly to monetary transactions. Third, PDX models must be treated with due care in an ethical manner in line with experimental animal ethics. Finally, the implementation and use of PDX models for research purposes must comply with national and international regulations on both animal experimentation and human subject research. These four points should be carefully examined and properly institutionalized as an ethical governance policy in each institution that plans on utilizing or implementing PDX models for research.

Rational arguments for regulatory acceptance of consistency testing: benefits of non-animal testing over in vivo release testing of vaccines

ABSTRACTIntroductionThere are rational arguments to replace existing in vivo potency and safety assays for batch release testing of vaccines with more advanced non-animal techniques to measure critical quality attributes. However, the introduction of in vitro alternatives to replace in vivo release assays of authorized vaccines is challenging.Areas coveredThis report describes the hurdles encountered in substituting in vivo assays and ways to overcome these and provides arguments why more advanced in vitro alternatives are superior, not only as a tool to monitor the quality of vaccines but also from a practical, economical, and ethical point of view. The rational arguments provided for regulatory acceptance can support a strategy to replace/substitute any in vivo batch release test if an appropriate non-animal testing strategy is available.Expert opinionFor several vaccines, in vivo release assays have been replaced leading to an optimized control strategy. For other vaccines, new assays are being developed that can expect to be introduced within 5–10 years. From a scientific, logistical, and animal welfare perspective, it would be beneficial to substitute all existing in vivo batch release assays for vaccines. Given the challenges related to development, validation, and acceptance of new methods, and considering the relatively low prices of some legacy vaccines, this cannot be done without government incentives and supportive regulatory authorities from all regions.

Space Tourism: A Historical and Existential Perspective

The growth of space tourism over recent decades has led to calls to formalise its ethical positioning and sustainability credentials in the eyes of society. With tourism ethics frameworks typically developing according to human-centred viewpoints, how might we develop ethical reference points for future space tourism when technological innovation progresses to the extent where we are exploring the unknown? To explore the unknown, we have conducted a colonial reflection on the behaviour and attitudes of Captain James Cook and the crew of HMS Endeavour when they visited Australia in 1770. From a methodological perspective, we have drawn on extracts from the voyage journals, examining the information that they provide through the lens of existentialism. Through this examination we explore some of the challenges that future space tourists might face being authentic to themselves when exploring the unknown. This includes the challenges in avoiding ‘bad faith’ in our dealings with other life-forms and the abdication of our own personal responsibility to act in a manner which is ethical.

From Post-structuralism and Marxism to Postcolonial Cultural Subversion and Political Resistance against the Once-colonized

abstract&#x0D; Contemporary political movements such as Marxism and post-Marxism, as well as intellectual and academic movements such as post-structuralism, postmodernism, and psychoanalysis have had a great influence on postcolonial literary criticism. There has been so much debate around the question whether issues of colonial/neocolonial domination and decolonial resistance should be regarded as political or cultural issues or as a combination of both political and cultural sectors (including ethical and psychological points of view) that the terms “political”, “cultural” themselves have appeared to be relative terms–assuming different meanings at different times. This paper will show how such poststructural conflations of the “political” and “cultural” regarding the issues of both domination and resistance can appear as problematic for postcolonial context where the division between the two terms appears so obvious at times that the boundary between them is inescapably erected once again producing ultimately an ambivalence. However, whatever the approach is to colonial/neocolonial dominations, and whatever the mode of resistance is proposed to challenge them, whether it is political or cultural or psychological, radical or liberal, or conflation of them, every discussion ultimately produce a liberal self-criticism at the cost of the once-colonized peoples, states and their cultures.

TREN MODIFIKASI SANGGUL PEREMPUAN BALI: ANTARA ESTETIS DAN ETIS

Man always wants beauty because he is a creature of art. The nature of human instincts is also that always wants change to create and modernize to be able to help facilitate every aspect of their lives, even customary, ritual and religious aspects. In the implementation of Hindu religious customs and rituals, especially in Bali, ethics are taught that regulate the dress code of the people. There are three traditional Balinese women's hairdos, namely pusung gonjer, pusung tagel and pusung podgala. Along with the times, modern pusung / buns have also emerged which give the impression of being more aesthetic, practical and simple. This bun modification trend is only loaded with aesthetic elements or even in the realm of ethics which is finally touched by this phenomenon. This qualitative descriptive research seeks to explore and search for the meaning contained in the phenomenon of bun modification trends in Balinese women. From an aesthetic point of view, the trend of bun modification is something positive because it increases artistic creativity. But from an ethical point of view, this phenonema can be observed as a form of change in the behavior of Balinese Hindus who tend to rejoice at the aesthetic level alone and often ignore ethical values which are precisely the most important and basic things. Aesthetics is not hindered but everything must also be adjusted to ethics. It turns out that the bun modification trend also has a positive impact from an ethical point of view which helps her hair styling and has indirectly practiced Hindu ritual ethics.&#x0D; Keywords : Sanggul, Perempuan Bali, Estetika Hindu, Etika Hindu

Studi Tentang Peran Notaris Dalam Masyarakat Dan Kepentingan Umum

Notaries are public officials who have an important role in various aspects of law and public life. refer to UUJN Number. 2 Year 2012 article 1 states that a notary is a public official who is authorized to make authentic deeds and other authorities The presence of a public accountant is reasonable with legal guidelines that aim to assist and serve individuals who require valid written evidence and provide legal witnesses to various agreements, transactions, and other legal acts. In order for the work and obligations of public accountants to run well, legal officers are expected to agree on a set of general or moral rules in their work and laws regarding the position of public accountants. This obligation is a consequence that must be required of a person who carries out a lawful summons order, including a legal officer, in carrying out his obligation. Of course, this obligation is not only from an ethical point of view but also based on related regulations, in this case UUJN Number. 2 Year 2014. The purpose of this study is to describe more broadly about how the role of notaries in society and their relationship with the public interest.