Ethical Questions Research Articles

On recognizing the real: Beauty and affliction in Simone Weil

AbstractIf the guiding question of ethics is “how should I live?,” then the guiding question of aesthetics might be “what is beauty?” For Simone Weil, these two questions have intertwined answers that turn on a like conceptual apparatus. Focussing on Weil's foremost ethical problem, the plight of the afflicted (malheur), this article offers an account of the philosophical basis to Weil's claim that, when truly recognized, beauty and affliction motivate the same form of experience. I argue that, for Weil, both the aesthetic and moral disposition are grounded in an experience of the real, an experience that both requires and compels the subject to the same attentive state. Finally, I address the charges that might be leveled at Weil for suggesting that our experience of beauty is the same as our experience of affliction, specifically arguing that rather than this experience leading to a form of passive aesthetic arrest, as the experience of beauty has typically been theorized to lead to, Weil understands the experience of beauty and affliction as fundamentally motivational toward the Good.

Staging Conscience

Through an in-depth analysis of Johannes Nomsz’s play Iemant en Niemant (1768), this article explores how the seemingly anachronistic genre of zinnespel (morality play) could serve to negotiate key issues of eighteenth-century aesthetical discourse. The combination of abstract ideas and sensual images ingrained into this genre made it an ideal vehicle with which to approach one of the primary problems of the period, namely the mediation between reason and the senses. Nomsz’s play deals with this rationalist/empiricist divide concerning the moral philosophical question of whether reason or feelings guide human ethical behaviour. Through empathy with the allegorical character of Nobody, Nomsz draws his audience into the teeth of a moral dilemma through emotion rather than teaching them a moral lesson. At the same time, he connects moral sentiments to a rational procedure of moral self-judgement by staging conscience as an inner court. I call this way of applying the late medieval genre of morality play to the key questions of eighteenth-century aesthetics and philosophy ‘Enlightened zinnespel’. Turning to the zinnespel with its special capacity to merge mind and senses indicates that at this time, the role of art changed. Art was no longer seen as a medium of knowledge transference, but as a medium that could generate knowledge in a unique way because of its ability to combine cognitive, affective, and sensual dimensions.

Critical Steps for Determining Capacity to Refuse Emergency Medical Services Transport: A Modified Delphi Study

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVES Emergency physicians without specialized Emergency Medical Services (EMS) training are often required to provide online medical oversight. One common ethical question faced by these physicians is the assessment for decision-making capacity in a patient who does not accept EMS transport to the hospital. We sought expert consensus for a standardized set of guiding questions and recommendations to ensure a rigorous and feasible capacity assessment. METHODS A modified Delphi method approach was used to achieve group consensus among expert individuals. Nineteen physician experts were recruited from across the country, representing populations totaling over 22 million and a variety of urban, suburban, and rural practice environments. Experts completed a Round 1 survey that included 19 questions surrounding best practices for capacity evaluation among patients refusing transport. The threshold for consensus was predefined as 80% agreement. Participants gathered virtually meeting where the results from the first round were shared with the group. Discussion generated new items and refined the language of existing items. Following the virtual meeting, a Round 2 survey was conducted, and voted on by the panel for the items that did not meet consensus in Round 1. RESULTS After the first round, 15 of 19 items reached consensus. Three of the items that met consensus were universally noted to require language modification for clarification. A large portion of the discussion involved the proper method of integrating patient concerns around ambulance transport (e.g., cost of transport, financial concerns, social barriers) into the capacity assessment and whether alternate care options should be discussed. After the second round of voting, one additional item was reversed to meet consensus, resulting in a total of 16 items. CONCLUSIONS A consensus expert panel was able to agree upon 16 standardized steps to guide best practices and assist emergency physicians in real-time evaluation of patients that refuse EMS transport.

Anchoring voices: The news anchor’s voice in China from television to AI

This paper takes the recent introduction of AI-powered television news anchors in China as an invitation to explore the technologies and techniques that have long been used in the anchor’s voice production. Analyzing Chinese Broadcasting Science, the first pedagogical standards for broadcasters across mainland China, published in 1993, this paper demonstrates how the perception of the anchor’s voice as something that can be measured, manipulated, and programmed has predated the AI industry. We examine guidelines, diagrams, and figures used to instruct news anchor wannabes on training their physiological voicing “engine,” tracing the continuities between this model of television anchoring and AI-generated news anchors. We propose technovocality as a conceptual framework for considering the various social, political, and ethical questions arising from the intersections between voices and media, past and present and Western and non-Western cultural contexts.

Timeless tenet, temporal tenant

This article delves into how Twelver Shia Islam responds to technological challenges, particularly focusing on radical life extension (RLE) within the trans-humanism paradigm. While there is a consensus among religions regarding spiritual and mental enhancement, body enhancement, including RLE, poses ethical and theological questions. After a brief introduction to the concepts of human existence, life, and death, I explore Shia rational reasoning, delving into the notions of the ‘rational impossible’ and ‘normal impossible’ in the context of RLE. Additionally, I investigate the relationship between RLE and the belief in Mahdism, which centers around the idea that the last Imam, al-Mahdi, lives in occultation and will eventually reappear as the promised savior. I also seek to understand the legitimacy of using technology to achieve longevity from the perspective of Shia Islam. Additionally, in the final section of the study, I present the viewpoints of four prominent Shia Mujtahids, obtained through email correspondence and Istefta. This Q&A section reveals multifaceted perspectives within the Shia community regarding RLE. Notably, the traditional group, referring to the intra-religious teachings, adopts a more open approach to the RLE issue, challenging prevailing stereotypes. This research emphasizes that, from the perspective of Shia Islam, a very long life is neither deemed impossible nor irrational. However, ethical considerations and potential side effects must be carefully weighed when implementing RLE technologies. Researchers and scientists bear the responsibility of using technology fairly and ethically, and avoiding any actions that may worsen various kinds of inequalities. Continuous exploration and dialogue are essential to gain a comprehensive understanding of the topic from the perspective of Shia Islam, as theological interpretations may evolve with scientific progress.

Reading My Father’s Leggìo: An Autotopography of Mourning in Translation

This essay is part of a wider project of autoethnographic exploration of the memory- and place-making function that keepsake objects perform in the context of the multi-scalar and more-than-human temporalities of colonial modernity and its pervasive geographies of displacement. In it, I engage in quiet conversations with an object associated with my father’s life, illness, and death in Bari, Italy – a wooden bookstand, or leggìo, which my father made out of repurposed wood. For over twenty years, this leggìo actively interacted with my spaces of migrant dwelling, affectively modulating my discomfited sense of hyphenated belonging among urban domestic interiors in Canada – at times attenuating my internal displacements and longings and at others amplifying them. This essay converses with the strange animacy accrued by the leggìo over the decades, at first just triggering my own personal memory work, but then moving outward into more difficult and demanding ethical questions about environmental stewardship and decolonial futurity, once I start interrogating the object’s material components and their manufactured provenance.

Legal and Ethics Considerations in Capacity Evaluation for Medical Aid in Dying.

Evaluating decisional capacity for patients seeking medical aid in dying (MAID) raises challenging legal, logistical, and ethics questions. The existing literature on the subject has been shaped largely by early disagreements over whether effective capacity assessment for such patients is ever possible, which in turn stemmed from debates over the ethics of MAID itself. In attempting to establish meaningful criteria for assessments, many jurisdictions have sought either to apply or to adapt models of capacity evaluation designed for other forms of medical decision-making, such as the widely used "four skills" model, failing to account for the fundamental differences in kind between these other decisions and MAID. This article seeks to reexamine these questions with a focus on two logistical matters (the appropriate credentialing for the evaluator and the potential liability of the evaluator) and three clinical matters (level of understanding, clinical scrutiny and certainty, and impairment) in an effort to raise legal and ethics concerns that remain unresolved, even as MAID is permitted in an increasing number of jurisdictions.

Inspiring Students’ Moral Imagination: Mission and Process

In diverse academic environments, there is an evocative moral question that is tacitly held but rarely voiced: “Who matters?” The answer reflects the circle of moral concern that educators and students hold for themselves, their school, and their community. The enduring challenge confronting educators is how to inspire students to enlarge their circles of moral concern through instructional practices, including: Teacher as Moral Leader, Self-Governing Professionalism, Values-Based Student Conduct, and Teaching and Learning through Visual Imagery.

Réduction embryonnaire pour demande maternelle en cas de grossesse gémellaire : enquête nationale française

IntroductionIn France, embryo reduction is controversial in twin pregnancy, especially when there is no underlying pathology. The objective of this study was to establish the status of this practice in France and to depict the ethical issues around this problematic. Study designA questionnaire drafted by Maternal and Fetal Medicine physicians and family planning teams of the University Hospital from Strasbourg was distributed to the 48 French Multidisciplinary Prenatal Diagnosis Centers, among which 28 answered (58,3%). ResultsEmbryo reduction in twin pregnancy on maternal request has already challenged 71% of the centers; 29% have performed such a reduction. The overall position of the centers to these requests is negative (3.1/10), with very mixed levels of in-team agreement. The main arguments against this practice are that twin pregnancy is not a pathology, that embryo reduction exposes to the risk of loosing the entire pregnancy, the feeling of being held hostage with the alternative of abortion of the whole pregnancy, and the lack of legal framing. On the contrary, the arguments in favor of the reduction are: that the reduction can avoid an abortion, that this type of reduction can be related to a partial abortion, that it responds to women's rights and that mental health is an integral part of women's health. ConclusionThere is no consensus about how to respond to patients requesting for embryo reduction in twin pregnancy. However, the majority of Centers have been confronted with it and it would be necessary to open the debate on this problem and the ethical questions it raises.

Rendering Frankenstein's monsters? The emergence and impacts of human digital twins

AbstractHuman digital twins (HDTs) are set to revolutionise human–system integration and improve human capacities, productivity, and well‐being by including human characteristics in system design. Reflecting real‐life behaviours and emotional reactions, HDTs render virtual data‐driven models of people. Their presence in many fields—including office work, education, and healthcare—showcases their ability to advance diagnoses, workforce training, and individualised learning. However, the general HDTs acceptance hypothesis calls for a critical analysis of their ethical ramifications and social influence. Emphasising the need of social adaptations to maintain stability, structural functionalism provides a suited framework to examine the roles of HDTs inside social systems. Despite their obvious advantages, HDTs raise ethical questions. While addressing concerns about user acceptance and ethical norms, engineers, designers and the legal regulators, but also the users—by means of ‘owners’—must consider the substantial consequences of HDTs and their customisation. HDTs' duality, like a double‐edged sword, calls for deliberate usage and considerable thought to negotiate the changing terrain of human–machine interaction.

Urban Landscape in Paul Lynch’s The Prophet Song: Power, Surveillance, Resistance

This paper explores how Paul Lynch’s The Prophet Song portrays issues vis-à-vis surveillance, escape and resistance in urban landscapes. The dystopian novel envisions futuristic society wherein existing democratic government attempts to control citizens by using surveillance technologies, whereas, characters in the novel try to resist and escape from the totalitarian venture. The novel is a cautionary tale depicting civil liberties being destroyed in urban spaces by these technologies so raising questions of surveillance ethics. The paper attempts to study power dynamics in urban landscapes using Foucault’s notion of disciplinary power, surveillance and resistance provide crucial insights into the novel’s depiction of social control and resistance. The paper offers a perspective to re-think about structures of power dynamics and search for agency in urban landscape.

Do androids dream of informed consent? The need to understand the ethical implications of experimentation on simulated beings.

Creating simulations of the world can be a valuable way to test new ideas, predict the future, and broaden our understanding of a given topic. Presumably, the more similar the simulation is to the real world, the more transferable the knowledge generated in the simulation will be and, therefore, the more useful. As such, there is an incentive to create more advanced and representative simulations of the real world. Simultaneously, there are ethical and practical limitation to what can be done in human and animal research, so creating simulated beings to stand in their place could be a way of advancing research while avoiding some of these issues. However, the value of representativeness implies that there will be an incentive to create simulated beings as similar to real-world humans as possible to better transfer the knowledge gained from that research. This raises important ethical questions related to how we ought to treat advanced simulated beings and consider if they might have autonomy and wellbeing concerns that ought to be respected. As such, the uncertainty and potential of this line of research should be carefully considered before the simulation begins.

Selling of care offerings and the ethicalisation of consumption

With care being increasingly present and offered for sale on markets consumers are more often asked to consider ethical questions. However, ethical consumption literature has not paid close attention to how the selling of different care offerings contributes to the ethicalisation of consumption. To illustrate and conceptualise this phenomenon, the present paper builds on an object-focused study of care products and services from both online and offline Swedish clothing retail settings. The Callonian notion of qualification, which refers to the attachment of different characteristics in the making of exchangeable goods, is drawn on theoretically to study how care offerings, such as repair kits and laundry tools, are offered for sale. The findings suggest that the qualifications propose a shift from care-less consumption, where the care offerings are made central to the performance of caring consumption through everyday mundane activities. Thus, the paper shows that the way care products and services are offered for sale wants to intervene and shape how caring consumption is made possible through markets and how it should be performed through ethicalised mundane chores.

“Mirroring” the World Versus “World-Making”: The Crisis of Ethics in Indian Mental Health Systems

In the context of neoliberalism and increasing globalization, technocratization, and scientification of mental health care, people suffering from socio-politico-economic problems ranging from poverty to structural violence are often transmogrified into “patients” with mental health problems to be “treated” with psychopharmaceuticals and individualized psychological therapies. Drawing from three socio-political issues India witnessed in the past 3 years, concerning three marginalized sections, namely, farmers, LGBTQIA+ people, and migrant workers, I illustrate the silence of mainstream mental health disciplines in India on sheer instances of structural violence and social suffering. Deflection of attention from human rights violations by mainstream mental health systems raises critical questions about the ethics and politics of mental health disciplines. The social, political, and material contexts that are central to lived experiences are almost always unaccounted in mental health academia, research, and practice. Engaging people with lived experiences advances equity by breaking down power dynamics, establishing collaborative decision-making, and improving equitable outcomes. Thus, knowledge production in mental health becomes irrelevant to political action and transformative policies that are crucial for positive mental health outcomes. By ignoring and thus implicitly sanctioning discriminatory, exploitive neoliberal architecture, mental health systems maintain the very upstream factors that cultivate and sustain mental distress. In this way, mainstream mental health practice in India fails to undertakeworld-making, raising deeper questions in public mental health ethics.

Elevating leadership learning: Critical considerations for training, design, and implementation.

This article focuses on the research and scholarship of leadership training. We begin by defining and giving context to the concept of leadership training. Then, we provide a high-level literature review of the history and components of leadership training (e.g., content, pedagogy, and assessment). Next, we connect leadership training with the leadership learning framework (LLF) to address common critiques of leadership training. The article concludes with projections of leadership training in the future and ethical questions for leadership educators to consider when designing leadership training programs.

Special Issue on Informatics Education: ChatGPT Performs Worse on USMLE-Style Ethics Questions Compared to Medical Knowledge Questions.

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the ability of the Large Language Model ChatGPT to accurately answer USMLE board style medical ethics questions compared to medical knowledge based questions. This study has the additional objectives of comparing the overall accuracy of GPT-3.5 to GPT-4 and to assess the variability of responses given by each version. Using AMBOSS, a third party USMLE Step Exam test prep service, we selected one group of 27 medical ethics questions and a second group of 27 medical knowledge questions matched on question difficulty for medical students. We ran 30 trials asking these questions on GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, and recorded the output. A random-effects linear probability regression model evaluated accuracy, and a Shannon entropy calculation evaluated response variation. Both versions of ChatGPT demonstrated a worse performance on medical ethics questions compared to medical knowledge questions. GPT-4 performed 18% points (P < 0.05) worse on medical ethics questions compared to medical knowledge questions and GPT-3.5 performed 7% points (P = 0.41) worse. GPT-4 outperformed GPT-3.5 by 22% points (P < 0.001) on medical ethics and 33% points (P < 0.001) on medical knowledge. GPT-4 also exhibited an overall lower Shannon entropy for medical ethics and medical knowledge questions (0.21 and 0.11, respectively) than GPT-3.5 (0.59 and 0.55) which indicates lower variability in response. Both versions of ChatGPT performed more poorly on medical ethics questions compared to medical knowledge questions. GPT-4 significantly outperformed GPT-3.5 on overall accuracy and exhibited a significantly lower response variability in answer choices. This underscores the need for ongoing assessment of ChatGPT versions for medical education. ChatGPT, Large Language Model, Artificial Intelligence, Medical Education, USMLE, Ethics.

Marshaling a Triumph: The Park Chung Hee Era, Developmental State Theory, and the Meaning of Success in South Korea

South Korea has long been looked to as a model of developmental success. Undoubtedly, South Korean society has experienced a remarkable expansion of wealth, social well-being, and technological capacity over the last half-century. The central turning point in this momentous transformation coincided with the authoritarian rule of Park Chung Hee (1961-1979). As such, scholars of political economy and development have paid close attention to the various facets of his regime to glean the primary causes underpinning South Korea's developmental feats. The most significant of these efforts have emerged from works emphasizing the role of the South Korean developmental state. This paper critically explores the theoretical foundations of developmental state theory to consider intellectual architecture of the success narrative widely appended to the era. The analysis builds from a premise that, given its widespread use of political violence and surveillance, framing the Park regime as a success carries significant ethical undertones. As such, the paper centers the interplay of ethics and empirics in the theoretical engagement with this crucial site in both Korean and development history. As such, it demonstrates that developmental state theory's reluctance to engage with these significant ethical questions systematically corresponds to distorted analytical and empirical representations of the case.

Chatbots, Robots, and the Ethics of Automating Psychotherapy

Recent developments in artificial intelligence—AI--have caused considerable discussion among both philosophers of technology and psychotherapists. In particular, the question of whether or not new forms of AI will complement or even replace traditional psychotherapists has emerged as a major contemporary debate. This debate is not entirely new, as it has its origins in the Turing Test of 1950, and an early psychotherapy chatbot named Eliza, developed in 1966 at MIT. However, recent developments in AI technology, coupled with long waiting lists and variable access to psychotherapists have raised the question of machine psychotherapists in an urgent manner. Already, there are psychotherapy apps that one can download onto a standard smartphone and use in lieu of a human psychotherapist. In the near future, this simulacrum of a human therapist may be enhanced by the use of android therapists, programed to duplicate the knowledge and behavior of human therapists instantly, appealing to convenience or self-gratification through technology. This raises a host of ethical questions: can such beings be equally effective, and if so, ought we to reason in a consequentialist manner in their favor so as to increase accessibility and reduce costs through technology? Would there be a psychological difference between automated and potentially anthropomorphic therapy and genuine human therapy, if only a subtle one? Even if a chatbot or robot therapist is transparently such, is there an element of emotional manipulation and potential dishonesty in this interaction? Can the security of clients and their data be thus secured? I will argue that key aspects of chatbot psychotherapy present major ethical and clinical challenges in these areas, although transparent forms of it should not be legally banned. Keywords: chatbots, technological momentum, automation, psychotherapy, trust, anthropomorphism, data

From Suffering to Sovereignty: The Dimensions of Euthanasia and Right to Die with Dignity

Provided the complex socio-legal fabric of India, the discourse on Euthanasia and the Right to die with dignity provokes profound ethical, legal, and societal questions. Therefore, a need to meticulously examine the varied dimensions of Euthanasia arises. Beginning with the basic understanding of the concept, a comprehensive analysis shall be made in regard to various philosophies associated of renowned political thinkers and philosophers. Additionally, comparative insights from foreign legal frameworks shall be drawn. The research includes judgments passed by the Indian judiciary regarding the legalization of Euthanasia with a clear debate in its context. The High Court Judgement of Gian Kaur v. The State of Punjab (1996) and Supreme Court judgments of Aruna Shanbaug v. Union of India (2011) and Common Cause v. Union of India (2018) proved to be the turning points in Indian legal history and shaped the stance of Indian judiciary on the legislation of Euthanasia. The breakdown of Law Commission reports (2006 &amp; 2008) also finds their mention. Can the freedom to choose a dignified death—the ultimate act of human autonomy—be recognized by the law in a culture that is highly pro-life? If so, there’s a need to structure and strengthen regulations to adopt this choice.

When a gatekeeper denies a researcher access: circumstances of gate closure in social work research

Social work research often requires the exploration of sensitive topics that concern hard-to-reach populations. In order to gain access to these groups, researchers are often forced to rely on gatekeepers during the research process. Gatekeepers become intermediaries who help the researchers to establish this access. In this article, we focus on institutional gatekeepers and the circumstances under which they deny access to research participants. And how the researchers themselves react to this situation in the context of Czech social work research. We used qualitative research, in particular semi-structured interviews with researchers. Based on the research, we identified three main practices of researchers when gatekeepers refuse access. These are conducting research despite denial, making changes to methodology and conducting covert research. The identified procedures bring with them a number of ethical questions that need to be addressed.