Moral Implications Research Articles

Informed consent with people judged incapable of legally consenting

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to consider informed consent with those who may be legally judged incapable of consent. Frequently individuals with traumatic brain injuries and intellectual disabilities may fall into this category. This paper seeks to consider aspects of guardianship, moral and legal implications and best practices for mental health professionals.Design/methodology/approachThis practice piece reviews literature regarding informed consent, as well as pertinent issues in the professional literature regarding types of guardianship as well as the occurrence of “Lucid intervals.” Furthermore, literature from moral philosophy and current legal research was examined to fully provide readers with a grasp of the legal and ethical landscape of this issue.FindingsThe paper finds that treating consent as a one-time binary event is lacking in both practicality and nuance. Moral philosophy and issues regarding paternalism are raised, as well as practice approaches to assessment of capability and how to engage in therapy in meaningful ways.Originality/valueThis paper provides insight into providing dignity-affirming therapy with a population that is often not considered in the literature of mental health ethics. When it is considered, the suggestions are so vague as to be of limited use. This manuscript provides nuance and practical applications to be a therapist that promotes dignity in those who might have varying levels of capacity to consent.

The Rule of Law and Jury Trials

In The Rule of Law in the Real World, Paul Gowder presents a new account of the rule of law based on three conditions: publicity, regularity, and generality. In this essay, I examine two closely related questions that are prompted by Gowder’s version of the rule of law. First, does the rule of law require citizens to follow the law? Second, what does Gowder’s account mean for jury nullification? I argue that the rule of law does not require citizens to follow the law, but it does prohibit jury nullification. A discussion of some moral implications and objections follow.

The Nightmare Island: Representations of St. Barthélemy in Swedish Novels

The Nightmare Island: Representations of St. Barthélemy in Swedish Novels

A Linguistic Study of Al-Zahraa’s Inheritance Speech

The sermon of Fatima Al-Zahra on her confiscated inheritance is characterized by a highly elevated language. Moreover, it bears religious, political and moral implications. The choice of words and the way messages composed usually affect how they are conveyed and received. The more proper the words and structures are, the more effective the message is. However, it is not true that the sermon did not change anything after being delivered. The power of this sermon, nevertheless, is constantly everlasting for all people in all ages. Here lies the rationale behind scrutinizing it in terms of the linguistic perspectives.
 Accordingly, this study sets for itself the task of answering the following question: What are the linguistic features that characterize this sermon of Al-Zahra (peace be upon her)? The aim is to identify the different linguistic levels of this piece of discourse in terms of semantics, pragmatics, stylistics and rhetorics. It is hypothesized that this sermon is coherent and eloquent due to the distinct linguistic tools employed by Al-Zahra (peace be upon her). This research paper hinges on the various levels of linguistic description utilizing some relevant linguistic theories. The findings of the analysis verify the set hypothesis. It is hoped that this study is valuable to those interested in pragmatics, stylistics, rhetorics and those concerned with oratory and religious studies.

An assessment of when moral stories promote children’s honesty

Stories are widely used around the world to try to teach children moral lessons. However, it is often difficult for children to figure out how lessons from stories can be applied to real-life settings. In the present research, we tested whether encouraging children to be like the protagonists helps explain the success of positive moral stories (i.e., emphasizing positive consequence of truth-telling) in promoting honesty. Participants were 3- to 6-year-old children (N = 383), and honesty was operationalized in terms of truthful admission to cheating in the Temptation Resistance Paradigm (TRP). The results showed that stories were only effective at promoting honesty among young children when they were encouraged to try being like the protagonist in positive moral stories. Theoretical implications for moral development and practical implications for moral education are discussed.

Ethical Dimension and Divergence of Climate Change; An Approach to Climate Change Morality

The study examined the ethical dimension and divergence of climate change; an approach to climate change morality which has raised imminent concerns and propositions. People’s attitudes, behaviours, wrong perceptions and involvement in unhealthy acts engenders climate change; hence putting our ecosystems, environment and biodiversity in danger. Considering the excesses and negative impacts of climate change, various stakeholders involving governments, corporations, NGOs, groups, and individuals are taking practical steps in addressing climate change issues, by considering the ethical and moral implications. However, addressing these disturbances draws strength and energy from right motives and guided behavioral approaches. In as much as financial remunerations is required in counterbalancing climate change, human behaviors and attitudes are the best bet and offers a lasting solution. Consequently, globally climate justice and environmental justice are currently being deployed as ethical weapons in addressing global warming. This hopes to provide fresh perspectives on climate change ethics and modifications. it is recommended that orientations, seminars, workshops, symposiums and climate change conferences bothering on ethics, morality and responsibility should be provided at all levels of the socio-strata by various governments of nations to reposition the mind and mindset of the individuals, group of persons and the populace. How to Cite: Osuji E. E., Onyemauwa C. S., Obasi I. O., Nwachukwu E. U., Olaolu M. O., Obi J. N., Nkwocha G. A., Nzeakor F. C., Ifejimalu A. C. T., Iroegbu C. S., Osang E. A., Inyang P., 2023. " Ethical Dimension and Divergence of Climate Change; An Approach to Climate Change Morality." Journal of Agriculture and Crops, vol. 9, pp. 211-221.

Moral distance, AI, and the ethics of care

This paper investigates how the introduction of AI to decision making increases moral distance and recommends the ethics of care to augment the ethical examination of AI decision making. With AI decision making, face-to-face interactions are minimized, and decisions are part of a more opaque process that humans do not always understand. Within decision-making research, the concept of moral distance is used to explain why individuals behave unethically towards those who are not seen. Moral distance abstracts those who are impacted by the decision and leads to less ethical decisions. The goal of this paper is to identify and analyze the moral distance created by AI through both proximity distance (in space, time, and culture) and bureaucratic distance (derived from hierarchy, complex processes, and principlism). We then propose the ethics of care as a moral framework to analyze the moral implications of AI. The ethics of care brings to the forefront circumstances and context, interdependence, and vulnerability in analyzing algorithmic decision making.

Vērtību aspekts kvalitatīvas izglītības nodrošināšanai

Values guide the cultural, economic and educational spheres, shaping the collective knowledge of society that is passed from one generation to the next. Values are sustainable, motivating and influence people's emotional state and behaviour in stressful situations. Values acquisition can also be defined as the learning of values that takes place in the family, in society and in school. Values education is carried out in a scientific, systematic, planned and targeted manner. It aims at translating acquired/learned values into real-life actions of the individual. A constructivist approach to values education is becoming relevant, based on the active development of an individual's moral understanding, processes of social interaction and moral discourse. The values acquired by a person are the result of his or her active action and life experience. The choice of a profession is also strongly influenced by the values that a person holds, both personal and societal values. Personal development, material values, contribution to the common good of society, pleasure and satisfaction may have different meanings for different individuals. Creativity, reducing tensions and stress, and taking responsibility have become relevant values in the 21st century labour market. However, an individual's views and values in the context of their chosen profession may also change in the face of difficulties. Pro-social values that contribute to the common good of society as a whole therefore become important. Values underpin decision-making in all areas of private and public life. The influence of education on the process of values formation in society is considerable. However, the adoption of values is also influenced by the challenges that have become topical today, including environmental, economic and social challenges, which include the consequences of global warming and climate change, the regular and unpredictable emergence from comfort zones, human competition with the opportunities offered by modern technology, migration, urbanisation, and increasing social and cultural diversity. In the 21st century, humanity is also confronted with epidemic and security challenges. Therefore, reasoning, scientific explanations, discussions on dilemmas with moral implications, and decision-making in real-life situations become important in value education. Competency-based curriculum change implies that education is an ecosystem with multiple stakeholders: students, teachers, school leaders, parents, community representatives, etc. Values acceptance is also the outcome of a learning process based on the principles of constructivism and social constructivism, fostering knowledge and understanding of values through reflection and contemplation of own behaviour and the behaviour of others' and actions, gaining deeper knowledge, insight and understanding of oneself, others and society as a whole.

The Blue Beret

The Blue Beret

The Relationship between Health and morality of the Female Drug Addicts

At present, there are a large number of drug users and drug dealers in our country, this phenomenon will cause a certain degree of seriousness to the normal life of the people and the stability of the social order influences. With the implementation of China's first "Drug Control Law," more attention has been paid to drug control, drug treatment, and rehabilitation, as well as the psychological status of drug users. Drug treatment institutions and researchers have also increased their focus on these areas. The issues of drugs, crime, and suicide were once considered social epidemics in Western countries, with each influencing and being related to the others. In recent years, there has been an increase in both the types of drugs abused and the number of drug users. Consequently, there has been a shift in the demographics of drug users; it is no longer predominantly men but also includes a significant rise in female drug users. This phenomenon raises great concerns because not only does drug abuse have a profound impact on society but also specifically affects women due to their unique roles within society and families. After conducting a systematic investigation, it was found that women have become a high-risk group for substance abuse. The particularity of women's societal roles and responsibilities determines that female drug users pose greater harm to society overall. Female drug users exhibit distinct characteristics associated with poor health conditions that are closely linked to their substance abuse behaviors. This article aims to analyze the current situation, characteristics, moral implications of female drug use while providing relevant suggestions and countermeasures through studying this issue within in China.

The World as God’s Property in Psalm 24:1-2 as the Source of Man’s Right Attitude Towards Creation

The ongoing discussion on various forums regarding human responsibility for the ecological state of the surrounding world, should include the voice of the word spoken in the Bible by God, the Creator of heaven and earth. For believers, this very voice has a decisive power, however, it has been neglected for so long and the effects that can be seen with the naked eye. The binding power of this word can become an important argument in that discussion and catalyst for actions in the area of environmental protection, to which Pope Francis draws so much attention. This paper joins the unanimous choir of nature defenders, and it aims at drawing the reader’s attention to selected aspects of human relationship with the world, presented in the opening verses of Psalm 24. The passages provide a clear testimony to the biblical authors’ awareness of both the dependence of the world - including man - on its Creator, and the essential moral implications of that fact. It may help us realize our responsibility for the world around us as well as the necessity to react whenever the positive interaction between man and the environment is at risk. That is how, the beauty and richness of creation can become a path to God, its Creator.

The Etiquette of Equality

The Etiquette of Equality

LEADERSHIP ETHICS PARADOX: ANALYSIS OF PARADOXES IN ETHICAL LEADERSHIP

The Leadership ethics paradox highlights the challenges faced by leaders in navigating the complexities of ethical decision-making. Leaders must balance their obligations to deliver results for their organizations and be mindful of the moral and ethical implications of their actions. Paradoxes in ethical leadership include paradoxes of power, transparency, loyalty, growth, integrity, risk and many more. To dissolve the paradoxes in ethical leadership, leaders must be proactive in developing their ethical decision-making skills as well as understanding the ethical implications of their decision and actions by thinking critically and creatively and seeking out diverse perspectives and solutions.

Considering the moral implications of psychiatric diagnosis for children

AbstractIncreasing numbers of children are meeting criteria for psychiatric disorders. While diagnoses may be of situational and individual benefit, they also have sustained and significant impacts on children's lives, including what they believe to be true, and how they understand themselves. Psychiatric diagnosis, therefore, has moral implications for children. This paper considers these moral implications, including uncertainty about the accuracy, treatment efficacy and long‐term effects of psychiatric diagnosis for children through a critical lens. Challenges of identifying, diagnosing and treating childhood mental illness are explored, including a discussion of the familial and societal contexts of adversity and understandings of accepted behaviour and responses. Emphasis is sustained on the importance of child agency and rights and how these may conflict with protective discourses about childhood, compounding epistemic injustices for children. The author proposes that there is a need to consider the child voice, while also being conscious of the boundaries of possibility of constructed reality, alongside the development of new ways of speaking about and understanding child distress. Achieving this requires questioning and critique of systems of psychiatric diagnosis applied to children and increased consideration of shared social and political responsibilities to prevent childhood adversity.

Voting on the questions as a pedagogical practice in a community of philosophical enquiry

This article considers two of the methodological steps in a Community of Philosophical Enquiry: developing the questions and voting on the questions. Both of these practices are enacted by the 8-9 year old children who are the participants in a philosophical enquiry, which I facilitated at a government primary school in South Africa. Matthews (1994) reminds us that children as philosophical thinkers/doers have been left out of the dominant narratives about children and childhood. A question that guides this research is where is the place for philosophical questions (developed by children) and the kind of philosophical thinking/drawing/creating/being for child (and adults) in schools? How do we make space for such questioning–so that the richness of these pedagogical encounters can really matter and make a difference to the teaching and learning taking place? Gandorfer in an interview with Barad (2021), suggests that critical thought “is to encounter what is unrecognizable and imperceptible, yet sensible and constructive of sense without separating it from the physical world” (p. 20). I would agree and apply this to the critical thoughts of child. This thinking is not located in the child, in their mind and does not emerge only through the thoughts, child verbalises. A critical posthumanism theory/practice analysis ensures that as researcher, I do not stand outside of the research peering in at a distance. Similarly the children, the questions, the voting and the enquiries are not separate from the world, they are all already entangled with the world. When the children are voting on the questions, this performs as a pedagogy of interruption (Michaud, 2020). As the facilitator, I do not know which question will receive the largest number of votes for the philosophical enquiry. This makes possible an emergent curriculum in its be(com)ing. Toby Rollo’s (2016) formulations about child as political agent and not just moral agent and the implications for more democratic and just schooling are theorised in this paper through the act of the children voting on the questions. I argue that children are not just excluded from participating in decisions about what and even how they are learning at school but from most pedagogical practices in classrooms and schools. I show how the children creating the questions and voting on the questions can be democratic practices with political and moral implications in a community of philosophical enquiry.

Mexica Monism and Daoist Ethics in the Philosophy of Gloria Anzaldúa

Critical scholarship regarding the philosophy of Gloria Anzaldúa has proliferated in recent decades, especially in the fields of feminist theory, phenomenology, and epistemology. However, there is little analysis of the metaphysics which undergird their work and make possible their views on identity, experience, and community politics. First, this article will explore the significance of Anzaldúa’s ‘nos/otras’ and its relation to Mexica (Aztec) monistic metaphysics. Such a concept resists an us/them construction of the world because it situates the other as us: the Spanish word for ‘we’ is ‘nosotros’ and holds the ‘other/otros’ as its root, which Anzaldúa feminizes to ‘otras’. Second, we will compare Daoist and Mexica metaphysics, two monist systems, and unpack the moral implications for spirituality. Doing so, we will see that according to Anzaldúa’s monistic view, we are affected by each other’s spirit and have an obligation to be spiritually active in the world. This claim is found throughout Anzaldúa’s philosophy and is the key to understanding the spiritual implications of her work. Lastly, we will apply such a view to sexual trauma and see that Anzalduan metaphysics lays out a path of recovery. If sexual violence is the severing of trust with others, then Anzaldúa’s understanding of how the world is constructed gives us a way to re-establish trust with ourselves, each other, and our communities.

Applying an extended theory of planned behavior to predict willingness to pay for green and low-carbon energy transition

Green and low-carbon energy transition (GALCET) is essential for achieving carbon neutrality and promoting sustainable social development. Retrofitting rooftops with solar photovoltaic tiles (SPVT) is a new solution for promoting rural GALCET, which has great potential. However, whether the public supports this initiative is not well understood. This study investigates rural households' (in the Shandong province, China) willingness to pay (WTP) for retrofitting rooftops with SPVT to promote the GALCET and determines the WTP drivers. To better predict the WTP, three variables—moral perception (MP), policy perception (PP), and perception of personal interest (POPI)—were added to the traditional theory of planned behavior (TPB). The results show that MP, PP, and POPI could predict WTP well, with POPI being the most decisive predictor. The demographic variables of income, education, and age also affected WTP. The mean WTP was 133.55 CNY (18.57USD) per month. Remarkably, the expanded TPB model has a 12% increase in predictive power over the TPB model without additional variables. We believe that developing appropriate incentives to increase the public's POPI and improved policy advocacy related to GALCET and its moral implications may help promote GALCET and sustainable social development.

"Where my responsibility lies": Reflecting on medicine during the Holocaust to support personal and professional identity formation in health professions education.

Physicians and the medical/scientific establishment during Nazism and the Holocaust committed egregious ethical violations including complicity with genocide. Critical reflection on this history serves as a powerful platform for scaffolding morally resilient professional identity formation (PIF) with striking relevance for contemporary health professions education and practice. Study aim was to explore the impact of an Auschwitz Memorial study trip within the context of a medicine during Nazism and the Holocaust curriculum on students' personal and PIF. The authors analyzed 44 medical and psychology students' reflective writings from a 2019 Auschwitz Memorial study trip using immersion-crystallization qualitative thematic analysis. Six distinct themes and 22 subthemes were identified and mapped to a reflective learning process model: 1. "What am I bringing?" 2. "What am I experiencing through the curriculum?" 3. "What am I initially becoming aware of as a first response?" 4./5. "How and what am I processing?" 6. "What am I taking with me?" Particularly compelling subthemes of power of the place, emotional experience, reflection on myself as a moral person, and contemporary relevance referred to impactful course elements. This curriculum catalyzed a critically reflective learning/meaning-making process supporting personal and PIF including critical consciousness, ethical awareness, and professional values. Formative curriculum elements include narrative, supporting emotional aspects of learning, and guided reflection on moral implications. The authors propose Medicine during Nazism and the Holocaust curriculum as a fundamental health professions education component cultivating attitudes, values, and behaviors for empathic, moral leadership within inevitable healthcare challenges.

Some Aspects of Esan Ontology and Their Moral Implications

Some Aspects of Esan Ontology and Their Moral Implications

Vecinatati domeniale: casatoria in mediul nobiliar din comitatele Banatului medieval (1300–1450)

Marriage was in the nobiliary environment a familial question they usually didn’t dwell at random upon. Seen as a regulation and formalizing of a certain social status, the institution of marriage was submitted, due to its role and position, to severe rituals and interdictions. To create new alliances, to consolidate the old ones or to set political relations through the means of matrimonial strategies and women operated as a capital obligation for the head of any nobiliary family. After all, joing in marriage was taken along the way for a contract with obligations and rights involving both the couple and the members of the widened family. On the other hand, from a spiritual point of view, matrimony was defined by ecclesiastic statements, as a sacral mystery with moral and religious implications, an unbreakable relation between a man and a woman. A model of the Christian marriage was after conceptualized, placed exclusively under the control of the ecclesiastic authorities, not under that of the secular ones. First of all, nobiliary domenial neighborship created opportunities to matrimonial alliances in order to sanction, consolidate, and secure certain agreements in the case of neighboring noble families. In fact, given the low mobility at that time, marriages were set most frequently in proximity and reflected the nature of some relations of neighborliness.