Moral Relevance Research Articles

RMND1 mutations in two siblings: Severe renal hypoplasia but different levels of extrarenal abnormality severity: The ethics of decision making

Mutations in the RMND1 gene, causing defects in the mitochondrial respiratory chain, result in a very heterozygous phenotype. Currently there are 36 cases reported in the literature. We report two siblings from a non-consanguineous family who were severely affected by a compound heterozygous RMND1 mutation that had not been described previously and were treated differently for their end-stage renal disease. We summarize all previous published cases and focus on the importance of extrarenal comorbidities in the context of therapeutic decision making (renal replacement therapy) and its ethical relevance.

Ethics in conservation

During recent years the relevance of environmental ethics to nature conservation has been increasingly questioned. This doubt mainly takes two forms: (1) Conservation biology is regarded as solely a scientific endeavor, and therefore ethics is redundant; (2) It is acknowledged that values are part and parcel of conservation science, practice and policy, but environmental ethics is considered to have little positive contribution to make. We focus on the latter form and argue that it enables only suppressed normative premises omitted from critical scrutiny, and that relying on suppressed premises for making prescriptive conclusions is normatively unreasonable. Furthermore, even if the normative premises were well-founded, the stance has unwelcome implications. We show ways in which environmental ethics provides critical and structured manners of reasoning on normative premises. This invites more collaboration between nature conservation and environmental ethics in the future.

The ethical relevance of two types of adverse health effects on research bystanders as applied to HIV, mosquito bednet and organ transplant trials.

Using cases from this symposium, I illustrate a distinction between clinical trials that harm research non-participants' health and clinical trials that reduce a distinct health benefit to research non-participants. This distinction is ethically relevant for the design and justification of clinical trials. The relative stringency of the ethical duty to avoid harm makes it more important, all other things being equal, to avoid harms rather than avoid reduction of benefits. This is especially ethically important as it is often difficult to identify research non-participants who will suffer health harms due to research, let alone obtain their informed consent. In these difficult cases, all other things being equal, we have ethical reason to prefer clinical trials that only reduce non-participants' health benefits to those that only involve harms to non-participants' health. When such trials are not feasible and we are unable to get consent for the significant harms to research non-participants, these (and other) countervailing considerations must be outweighed by substantial social benefits in order for the trial to be ethically justified. Ethical research design must not just be concerned with the magnitude of adverse health effects on research non-participants but also the types of those effects.

Contribuciones al debate sobre la relevancia moral de los artefactos tecnológicos

Este artículo revisa el reciente debate sobre la relevancia moral de los artefactos tecnológicos, fundamentalmente generado a partir de los planteamientos de Peter-Paul Verbeek y, además, propone algunas contribuciones a la discusión. Antecedida por las teorías que afirman su agencia moral, la afirmación de la relevancia moral de los artefactos es posiblemente el más importante planteamiento realizado en el campo de la ética de la tecnología en las últimas décadas, Para comprender este planteamiento, el texto sintetiza la tesis de la relevancia moral de los artefactos; luego, hace algunas precisiones acerca de los argumentos que la sostienen para esclarecer algunos malentendidos, alrededor de los cuales se ha generado un amplio debate; adicionalmente, valora sus aportes al campo de la ética de la tecnología; finalmente, evalúa las críticas a esta perspectiva. El texto concluye con la presentación de algunas contribuciones al debate, relacionadas con las concepciones de agencia y relevancia moral. Específicamente, se argumenta que este planteamiento se puede sustentar en varias teorías de la agencia moral, en contraposición a las críticas que reducen el sentido de esta concepción a la teoría de la agencia moral sostenida desde la Teoría del Actor-Red.

The relevance of socially responsible blue-collar human resource management

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how Chinese factories can attract and retain blue-collar workers. While higher wages are typically considered to be an effective HR instrument in this regard, this paper argues for the relevance of ethics in the HR domain. To this end, the paper develops and tests the concept of socially responsible blue-collar human resource management (SRBC-HRM).Design/methodology/approachIn a scenario-based experiment, 296 blue-collar employees from a Chinese garment factory responded to questionnaires measuring their job choice determinants regarding a fictitious employer. In the scenarios, pay level (average vs above average) and SRBC-HRM (good vs poor) were manipulated.FindingsThe results revealed significantly positive relationships between SRBC-HRM and Chinese blue-collar workers’ job choice determinants (employer attractiveness, employer prestige and recommendation intentions), which were moderated by workers’ perceived importance of employer prestige. However, there was no significant effect of above-average pay on the three job choice determinants. Moreover, average pay in combination with good SRBC-HRM had stronger effects on job choice determinants than above-average pay in combination with poor SRBC-HRM.Practical implicationsThe study highlights the economic relevance of the ethical treatment of employees in the manufacturing sector. In addition, the findings challenge the predominant managerial view that monetary rewards are the most important factor for instilling productive employee attitudes and intentions.Social implicationsPoor labor practices are still widespread in factories in emerging countries. By indicating that SRBC-HRM improves factories’ bottom line, the study provides a powerful rationale for factory managers to improve working conditions.Originality/valueThe present paper introduces the concept of SRBC-HRM specifically tailored to the context of blue-collar workers in emerging countries, who have received little attention in the literature. In addition, the findings demonstrate the economic relevance of SRBC-HRM.

Is the non-identity problem relevant to public health and policy? An online survey

BackgroundThe non-identity problem arises when our actions in the present could change which people will exist in the future, for better or worse. Is it morally better to improve the lives of specific future people, as compared to changing which people exist for the better? Affecting the timing of fetuses being conceived is one case where present actions change the identity of future people. This is relevant to questions of public health policy, as exemplified in some responses to the Zika epidemic. There is philosophical disagreement about the relevance of non-identity: some hold that non-identity is not relevant, while others think that the only morally relevant actions are those that affect specific people. Given this disagreement, we investigated the intuitions about the moral relevance of non-identity within an educated sample of the public, because there was previously little empirical data on the public’s views on the non-identity problem.MethodsWe performed an online survey with a sample of the educated general public. The survey assessed participants’ preferences between person-affecting and impersonal interventions for Zika, and their views on other non-identity thought experiments, once the non-identity problem had been explained. It aimed to directly measure the importance of non-identity in participants’ moral decision-making.ResultsWe collected 763 valid responses from the survey. Half of the participants (50%) had a graduate degree, 47% had studied philosophy at a university level, and 20% had read about the non-identity problem before. Most participants favoured person-affecting interventions for Zika over impersonal ones, but the majority claimed that non-identity did not influence their decision (66% of those preferring person-affecting interventions, 95% of those preferring impersonal ones). In one non-identity thought experiment participants were divided, but in another they primarily answered that impersonally reducing the quality of life of future people would be wrong, harmful and blameworthy, even though no specific individuals would be worse off.ConclusionsNon-identity appeared to play a minor role in participants’ moral decision-making. Moreover, participants seem to either misunderstand the non-identity problem, or hold non-counterfactual views of harm that do not define harm as making someone worse off than they would have been otherwise.

Digital Trust and Cooperation with an Integrative Digital Social Contract

I argue for the role of trust and cooperation as part of the foundation of digital commerce by expanding the reach of the Integrative Social Contract Theory (ISCT) of Donaldson and Dunfee (Ties that Bind, 1999). I propose that a digital business community can be a community in the morally relevant ways that Donaldson and Dunfee describe, and that the basic framework of ISCT can apply to the digital business world similarly to its application in the offline business world. I then analyze the roles of trust and cooperation in e-commerce, showing how they are important to the digital business community and explaining their moral relevance under a digital form of ISCT. I use the ISCT framework to show that trust and cooperation are an instantiation of the hypernorm of necessary social efficiency, and that authentic microsocial norms developed for the ends of trust and cooperation carry moral responsibility.

Política de indexação e ética

A ética na representação da informação é cada vez mais conceituada, tendo sido discutidos valores éticos necessários tanto na atuação do bibliotecário como nas suas tarefas. Apontam-se definições de ética, no âmbito geral e no contexto da representação da informação, assim como a relevância da ética em uma política de indexação. Assim, mediante a importância conferida à ética, no contexto da organização e representação da informação, foram analisados manuais de política de indexação de uma biblioteca universitária e de uma biblioteca escolar. Foi possível observar que há alguns valores éticos nos manuais de política de indexação, inclusive valores em comum, destacando-se os proeminentes e sua pertinência na recuperação da informação.

Migration, justice and health: Reimagining the earth as one country and humankind its citizens

Migration is a significant feature of the political discourse around the world. It is bewildering and polarizing policy makers, leaders and communities, grappling to address the questions raised. The growing body of empirical data on migrant health have profound ethical relevance for example around risk-benefit-analysis, justice and discrimination at the individual, micro, meso and macro levels. The policy decisions and actions to address the issues appear to be often guided by self-interest and increasing pressures to protect national interests, and the current structures and systems. This paper briefly outlines and reflects on the ethical dimensions of migration, diversity and health and implications for policy, and practice.We argue that there is a case for new paradigms of global solidarity, social justice, and health equity in an interconnected world. Health care for migrants should be built on values of equal human rights and of shared humanity and the health and wellbeing of migrants and citizens should be promoted and protected alike.Migrant health is of global concern and international strategies for global governance are required. Migration policies it is suggested should be based on the understanding of interconnectedness of our societies and founded on shared humanity, and health equity for all. There is a case to reimagine the earth as one country and humankind its citizens with its implications on policy and practice and the organized efforts of society.

Moderate Conventionalism and Cultural Appropriation

Cultural appropriation, also called cultural borrowing, has been the topic of much discussion in recent years. Roughly speaking, cultural appropriation happens when someone outside of a cultural or ethnic group takes or uses some object that is characteristic or in some way important to the group without the group’s permission. Individuals who find cultural appropriation (or borrowing) unproblematic have often argued that if we express moral criticism of the use of traditional Sami outfits by non-Sami, then we are logically committed to criticize all kinds of habits that are clearly acceptable –such as using jeans, eating pizza or drinking tea. However, we will argue that in many cases that objection is problematic. We point out that if one social habit or practice is prohibited (or supported) by existing social conventions but another is not, then there is a convention difference between the cases. The convention difference is in turn a morally relevant difference, or so we aim to show. We refer to “moderate conventionalism,” according to which existing social conventions are morally relevant facts that should be taken into account when choosing how to act, whatever the content of the conventions happens to be. The claim is analogous with the traditional view that laws have some moral relevance and binding force independent of their content.
 Keywords: cultural appropriation, conventionalism, moderate conventionalism, convention difference

The notion of free will and its ethical relevance for decision-making capacity

BackgroundObtaining informed consent from patients is a moral and legal duty and, thus, a key legitimation for medical treatment. The pivotal prerequisite for valid informed consent is decision-making capacity of the patient. Related to the question of whether and when consent should be morally and legally valid, there has been a long-lasting philosophical debate about freedom of will and the connection of freedom and responsibility.Main textThe scholarly discussion on decision-making capacity and its clinical evaluation does not sufficiently take into account this fundamental debate. It is contended that the notion of free will must be reflected when evaluating decision-making capacity. Namely, it should be included as a part of the appreciation-criterion for decision-making capacity. The argumentation is mainly drawn on the compatibilism of Harry Frankfurt.ConclusionsA solution is proposed which at the same time takes the notion of free will seriously and enriches the traditional understanding of decision-making capacity, strengthening its justificatory force while remaining clinically applicable.

Pricing Carbon for Climate Justice

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on one particular case that connects climate justice and climate economics. Its contribution is twofold. First, it aims at providing a sound normative foundation for carbon pricing mechanisms around the notions of a ‘right to energy’, the ‘duty not-to-harm’ and an argument for ‘restricted compensation’. Second, it identifies the normative elements from theories of climate justice that should guide the design of market-based instruments for climate change mitigation. This will cast light on the particular moral relevance of the act of internalizing a negative externality and of the funds generated by putting a price on carbon.

The Search for Consciousness

In recent years, rapid technological developments in the field of neuroimaging have provided new methods for assessing residual cognition, detecting consciousness, and even communicating with patients who clinically appear to be in a vegetative state. Here, I highlight some of the major implications of these developments, discuss their scientific, clinical, legal, and ethical relevance, and make my own recommendations for future directions in this field.

Research versus practice: The dilemmas of research ethics in the era of learning health-care systems.

In this article we attempt to answer the question of how the ethical and conceptual framework (ECF) for a learning health-care system (LHS) affects some of the main controversies in research ethics by addressing five key problems of research ethics: (a) What is the difference between practice and research? (b) What is the relationship between research ethics and clinical ethics? (c) What is the ethical relevance of the principle of clinical equipoise? (d) Does participation in research require a higher standard of informed consent than the practice of medicine? and (e) What ethical principle should take precedence in medicine? These questions allow us to construct two opposite idealized positions on the distinction between research and practice: the integration model and the segregation model of research and practice. We then compare the ECF for an LHS with these two idealized positions. We argue that the ECF for a LHS does not, in fact, solve these problems, but that it is a third, separate position in the relationship between research ethics and clinical ethics. Moreover, we suggest that the ECF for a LHS raises new ethical problems that require additional ethical analysis and justification. Our article contributes to the discussion on the relationship between research ethics and clinical ethics, revealing that although a learning health-care system may significantly change the landscape of health care, some ethical dilemmas still require resolving on both theoretical and policy-making levels.

IMPLEMENTATION OF TAWHID THROUGH MORAL EDUCATION TO BUILD SANTRI’S CHARACTER IN AL ISLAM ISLAMIC BOARDING SCHOOL LAMONGAN

Abstract: This study aimed to understand how tawhid education in Al-Islam Islamic boarding school Tenggulun, and how tawhid implement in moral education to build santri character and how far tawhid and moral relevance in character building and its effect to santri. This study was qualitative, the primary data from this study obtain from literature study, utterances, action, and documentation from institution, directure, head master, teacher staff and santri in Islamic boarding school. The implementation of this study indicated that tawhid education through moral education give strong effect on character building of santri. The effects are tawhid become main basis of education in building character of santri to be moslem who knows their God’s purpose and apply it in every life aspect and ready to preach and fight for Islam; has storng character of tawhid; has understanding of aqidah ahlu sunnah wal jama’ah; has strong spirit to preach; has obvious aqidah wala’ and baro’; has akhlaqul karimah; and apply it to society. Keywords: Implementation, Tawhid, Moral, Character Building, Al-Islam Lamongan

Moral relevance of cognitive complexity, empathy and species differences in suffering

Moral relevance of cognitive complexity, empathy and species differences in suffering

Ethics Relevance of Interpersonal Communication in Ihya Ulun Al-Din with Islamic Communication

The purpose of this research were to analyze and relate what was conveyed by Al-Ghazali about communication and interpersonal through his work which was abandoned by the author 900 years ago with the phenomenon of conventional communication developed by communication experts in the current era with the formulation of the problem namely; First, what is the ethics of Interpersonal communication in the Ulum Al-Din Ihya book by Imam Al-Ghazali: Second, What is the relevance of the ethics of interpersonal communication in IhyaUlum Al-Din by Imam Al-Ghazali with Islamic communication ethics in the Qur'an, - Imam Al-Ghazali's work qualitatively regarding the ethics of interpersonal communication. Primary data sources, namely the main data source of the author is literature by Imam al-Ghazali, especially in Sufism which focuses on the book IhyaUlum Al-Din. In terms of data collection, the author took a library survey technique and literature study, a library survey that is collecting data in the form of a number of literature. The collected data will be analyzed using the principle of content analysis. Research findings include; 1). Ethics of Interpersonal Communication according to Imam Al-Ghazali in the book IhyaUlum Al-din, consists of ethics messages on interpersonal communication with fellow human beings which includes good oral communication ethics, mutual help and forgiveness of others, have a generous nature. The relevance of Imam Al-Ghazali's communication ethics with Islamic religious communication contained in the Koran, in that context, there are six da'wah communications according to the Qur'an or also called Islamic communication principles.

Moral and Affective Film Set (MAAFS): A normed moral video database.

Moral psychology has relied nearly exclusively on text stimuli in the development and testing of theories. However, text stimuli lack the rich variety of morally-relevant social and contextual cues available in everyday interactions. A consequence of this pervasive ecological invalidity may be that moral psychological theories are mischaracterized by an overreliance on cue-impoverished moral stimuli. We address this limitation by developing a cue-rich Moral and Affective Film Set (MAAFS). We crowd-sourced videos of moral behaviours, using previously validated text stimuli and definitions of moral foundations as a guide for content. Crowd-sourced clips were rated by 322 American and 253 Australian participants on a range of moral and affective dimensions, including wrongness, moral foundation relevance, punishment, arousal, discrete emotion-relevance, clarity, previous exposure, and how weird/uncommon the moral acts were. The final stimulus set contained sixty nine moral videos. Ratings confirmed that the videos are reliably rated as morally wrong and feature a variety of moral concerns. The validation process revealed features that make the MAAFS useful for future research: (1) the MAAFS includes a range of videos that depict everyday transgressions, (2) certain videos evoke negative emotions at an intensity comparable to mood induction films, (3) the videos are largely novel: participants had never seen more than 90% of the videos. We anticipate the MAAFS will be a particularly valuable tool for researchers in moral psychology who seek to study morality in scenarios that approximate real-life. However, the MAAFS may be valuable for other fields of psychology, for example, affective scientists may use these videos as a mood induction procedure. The complete stimulus set, links to videos, and normative statistics can be accessed at osf.io/8w3en.

Persona y naturaleza en la ética de Leonardo Polo

Polo's anthropology differs both from aristotelian and modern anthropology in his concept of person. In this paper, I explore the ethical relevance of this concept and its conection with the concept of «human nature», which Polo assumes making a distinction between «essence» and «type». This distinction is important in order to focus the ethical aspect of the relationship between nature and culture correctly.

Ostracism drives group moralization and extreme group behavior

ABSTRACTSharing beliefs, particularly moral beliefs, is a way to establish social connections. We hypothesized that ostracism leads people who are high in the need to belong to adhere to the moral beliefs of an ingroup, and that moralizing the beliefs of one’s group increases the willingness to endorse extreme behavior on behalf of the group. Across two studies, participants were ostracized or included, rated the moral relevance of their group values, and indicated their endorsement of extreme behavior on behalf of the group. Across studies, ostracism increased group moralization in participants high in the need to belong. In Study 2, group moralization translated into endorsement of extreme behavior. Our findings suggest that morality serves a binding function that may be channeled into extreme behaviors. (120 words)