Robert Baker Research Articles

Making Modern Medical Ethics: How African Americans, Anti-Nazis, Bureaucrats, Feminists, Veterans, and Whistleblowing Moralists Created Bioethics, by Robert Baker. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2024

Making Modern Medical Ethics: How African Americans, Anti-Nazis, Bureaucrats, Feminists, Veterans, and Whistleblowing Moralists Created Bioethics, by Robert Baker. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2024

‘To be avoided by every correct Writer’: George Harris’s Observations upon the English Language and the first English usage guide

ABSTRACT Robert Baker is generally acknowledged to have written the first English usage guide in 1770, but in 1752, George Harris published a short pamphlet called Observations upon the English Language in a Letter to Friend that shares many features of a usage guide. Though smaller than Baker’s book, Harris’s pamphlet nonetheless collects some 66–126 usage items (depending on how one counts categories and instances) and pronounces his preference for one of the variants within each item. Harris’s Observations upon the English Language starts out mainly as a proposal for respelling several words in English, but ends up also prescribing variants for pronunciation, grammar, word meaning, and phrasing. Harris seems to have taken his impetus from an earlier pamphlet published in 1724 (The Many Advantages of a Good Language to Any Nation) that calls for just such codifying of usage issues. In many ways Harris’s Observations upon the English Language looks at least like a precursor to the English usage guide and may be a usage guide itself.

A Study on 'Insul (An Art of Benevolence)': Formation of Korean Medical Ethics in Modern Korea.

"Medicine is an art of benevolence [Kr. 인술 Insul, Ch. Renshu]." This slogan is widely accepted in East Asia, and at least in South Korea, it is generally regarded as an innate medical ethic. However, the original meaning of 'In' (Ch. Ren), which means 'benevolence,' 'humanity,' or simply 'love for one another,' is a Confucian virtue emphasized by Mencius. It is unclear when this Confucian term became the representative medical ethic in South Korea. The term "medical ethic" was not coined until the 19th century in the West (Robert Baker and Laurence B. McCullough, eds. 2009). We often use the terms 'Insul,' 'affection,' 'Hippocratic Oath,' and other related concepts interchangeably, but these words come from different times and have different ideological implications (Shin 2000). This paper examines how 'Insul' has been recreated under the tensions between Western and Eastern Medicine in modern Korea. The arrival of Western medicine caused an existential crisis in traditional Korean medicine. The status of TKM doctors was demoted by the 'Uisaeng Regulation' in 1913 by the JGGK, which aimed to establish a unicameral medical system based on Western medicine. In response, the scientification of Eastern medicine became an inevitable task, and Eastern medicine had to maintain its identity while also modernizing itself to avoid being absorbed into Western medicine. Until the late Joseon period, 'Insul' was rarely used in medicine but rather for political practices. Medical practice was a peripheral way of conducting Ren, the Confucian benevolence. However, TKM rediscovered the concept during the modern era. With the Convention of Korean Uisaeng in October 1915, the TKM community actively used 'Insul' as their identity. At this convention, Governor General Terauchi Mastake used the term to mean traditional medicine and implied that without scientification, 'Insul' would be disused. This address was immediately and widely quoted in TKM journals. TKM doctors and adherents interpreted his address to mean that if they could achieve scientification of TKM, their medical ideal (Insul) would be used in the future. Soon, a number of articles on 'Insul' as a medical ethic were published in newspapers and journals. From the mid-1920s, regardless of whether the doctors practiced East or West medicine, people started to claim that only those who pursued 'Insul' were true medical personnel, and they used this as a criterion for evaluating medical doctors. The people's demand for 'Insul' influenced medicine in general, and Western doctors also linked their medical practices to 'Insul.' This is an interesting example of the localization of Western medicine in Korea. Through the rivalry relationship or interaction between East and West medicine that took place in modern Korea, 'Insul' gradually became a representative term of Korean medical ethics since the mid-1920s. The process took place gradually over a decade, and it has now become firmly established throughout medicine in Korea.

Casting Indra’s Net across the Pacific: Robert Aitken and the Growth of the Diamond Sangha as a Trans-Pacific Zen Movement

Robert Baker Aitken and Anne Hopkins Aitken cofounded Diamond Sangha (DS) as a small living room sangha in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, in 1959. By 1993, DS served as the primary hub for an international network of sanghas, extending across the Pacific region. This paper traces DS's development from its humble beginnings into a major conduit for the flow of trans-Pacific Zen from Hawaiʻi to the continental USA, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand. It argues that DS played a vital role in the rapid growth of Zen throughout the Pacific region by utilizing a horizontal networking style of visiting teachers nurturing local leadership in distant sanghas, creating a lattice of interrelated sanghas across the Pacific. It likewise argues that Aitken's vision for DS entailed a blending of innovation and tradition, straddling the divide between the imperatives to meet the needs of local contexts and to preserve inherited styles of practice.

Robert Baker: The Structure of Moral Revolutions: Studies of Changes in the Morality of Abortion, Death, and the Bioethics Revolution

Robert Baker: The Structure of Moral Revolutions: Studies of Changes in the Morality of Abortion, Death, and the Bioethics Revolution

Robert Baker, The Structure of Moral Revolutions: Studies of Changes in the Morality of Abortion, Death, and the Bioethics Revolution

Robert Baker, <i>The Structure of Moral Revolutions: Studies of Changes in the Morality of Abortion, Death, and the Bioethics Revolution</i>

Disruptive Innovation and Moral Uncertainty

This paper develops a philosophical account of moral disruption. According to Robert Baker, moral disruption is a process in which technological innovations undermine established moral norms without clearly leading to a new set of norms. Here I analyze this process in terms of moral uncertainty, formulating a philosophical account with two variants. On the harm account, such uncertainty is always harmful because it blocks our knowledge of our own and others’ moral obligations. On the qualified harm account, there is no harm in cases where moral uncertainty is related to innovation that is “for the best” in historical perspective or where uncertainty is the expression of a deliberative virtue. The two accounts are compared by applying them to Baker’s historical case of the introduction of mechanical ventilation and organ transplantation technologies, as well as the present-day case of mass data practices in the health domain.

How a Laser Physics Induced Kerr-Newman Black Hole Can Release Gravitational Waves without Igniting the Black Hole Bomb (Explosion of a Mini Black Hole in a Laboratory)

Note, that micro black holes last within micro seconds, and that we wish to ascertain how to build, in a laboratory, a black hole, which may exist say at least up to 10^−1 seconds and provide a test bed as to early universe gravitational theories. First of all, it would be to determine, if the mini black hole bomb, would spontaneously occur, unless the Kerr-Newmann black hole were carefully engineered in the laboratory. Specifically, we state that this paper is modeling the creation of an actual Kerr Newman black hole via laser physics, or possibly by other means. We initiate a model of an induced Kerr-Newman black Holes, with specific angular momentum J, and then from there model was to what would happen as to an effective charge, Q, creating an E and B field, commensurate with the release of GWs. The idea is that using a frame of reference trick, plus E + i B = −function of the derivative of a complex valued scalar field, as given by Appell, in 1887, and reviewed by Whittaker and Watson, 1927 of their “A Course of Modern Analysis” tome that a first principle identification of a B field, commensurate with increase of thermal temperature, T, so as to have artificially induced GW production. This is compared in part with the Park 1955 paper of a spinning rod, producing GW, with the proviso that both the spinning rod paper, and this artificial Kerr-Newman Black hole will employ the idea of lasers in implementation of their respective GW radiation. The idea is in part partly similar to an idea the author discussed with Dr. Robert Baker, in 2016 with the difference that a B field would be generated and linked to effects linked with induced spin to the Kerr-Newman Black hole. We close with some observations about the “black holes have no hair” theorem, and our problem. Citing some recent suppositions that this “theorem” may not be completely true and how that may relate to our experimental situation. We close with observations from Haijicek, 2008 as which may be pertinent to Quantization of Gravity. Furthermore as an answer to questions raised by a referee, we will have a final statement as to how this problem is for a real black hole being induced, and answering his questions in his review, which will be included in a final appendix to this paper. The main issue which is now to avoid the black hole bomb effect which would entail an explosion of a small black hole in a laboratory. Furthermore as an answer to questions raised by a referee, we will have a final statement as to how this problem is for a real black hole being induced, and answering his questions in his review, which will be included in a final appendix to this paper. In all, the main end result is to try to avoid the so called black hole bomb effect, where a mini black hole would explode in a laboratory setting within say 10^−16 or so seconds, i.e. the idea would be to have a reasonably stable configuration within put laser energy, but a small mass, and to do it over hopefully 10^15 or more times longer than the 10^−16 seconds where the mini black hole would quickly evaporate. I.e. a duration of say up to 10^−1 seconds which would provide a base line as to astrophysical modeling of a Kerr-Newman black hole.

Abstract 4699: Single domain antibody (sdAb) localizes in cancer cells to inhibit signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) resulting in therapeutic inhibition of multiple cancers

Abstract STAT3 is involved in the pathogenesis of many malignancies, so we developed an anti-STAT3 VHH (variable region of the heavy chain), SBT-100, that internalizes in cancer cells and binds unphosphorylated STAT3 (U-STAT3) and phosphorylated STAT3 (P-STAT3) and results in significant inhibition of multiple cancers. ATCC cell lines for triple negative breast cancers (MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468, MDA-MB-453), ER+/PR+ breast cancer (MCF-7), HER2+ breast cancer (BT474), pancreatic cancers (PANC-1, BX-PC3), murine mammary cancer (4T1), STAT3 null cells (PC-3), and castrate-resistant prostate cancer (DU145) were tested. Athymic nude mice were obtained from Envigo. The IL-6 Reporter Cell Assay was obtained from Promega. VEGF inhibition ELISA was done using retinal epithelial cells (ATCC). In vitro growth inhibition was done using a MTT assay. Immunoprecipitation (IP) and western blot studies in MDA-MB-231, PANC-1, HeLa, DU145, 4T1 and PC-3 showed that SBT-100 binds U-STAT3 and P-STAT3. No STAT3 binding was seen in PC-3. Binding to P-STAT3 was seen in lysates from the 4T1 cells, which have constitutively activated STAT3. Since rodent and human STAT3 have a 99% homology, rodents are excellent models for extrapolating to human disease for over production of P-STAT3. Within 24 hrs IL-6 assay showed that SBT-100 blocked the production of IL-6 (p&amp;lt;0.0001) compared to control. The degree of IL-6 suppression was comparable to the negative control, BB1608 (STAT3 inhibitor). VEGF ELISA showed significant (p&amp;lt;0.0001) inhibition of VEGF production within 12 hrs and was maintained for up to 48 hrs. After 3 days with SBT-100 the MTT assay showed growth inhibition (p&amp;lt;0.001) in BT474 (93%), MCF-7 (93%), MDA-MB-231 (77%), MDA-MB-468 (85%), MDA-MB-453 (64%), PANC-1 (79%), BX-PC3 (90%), and DU145 (92%). MDA-MB-231 tumors grown in xenograft athymic mice showed suppression (p&amp;lt;0.001), IHC staining in the cytoplasm, and nucleus after 7 days of SBT-100 treatment. U-STAT3 and P-STAT3 activate genes that promote growth, proliferation, angiogenesis, immune suppression, cancer stem cells, metastasis, and apoptosis inhibition. SBT-100 enters the cancers cells, binds STAT3 and P-STAT3 causing growth inhibition (p&amp;lt;0.001) in MCF-7, BT474, MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468, MDA-MB-453, PANC-1, BX-PC3, and DU145. These results suggest that SBT-100 can be developed as a therapeutic for cancers expressing either STAT3 or P-STAT3. Citation Format: Sunanda Singh, Genoveva Murillo, Amanda Rom, Avani Singh, Samara Singh, Meenakshi Parihar, Dong Chen, Rajendra Mehta, Robert Baker, Anjali Singh, Ashutosh S. Parihar. Single domain antibody (sdAb) localizes in cancer cells to inhibit signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) resulting in therapeutic inhibition of multiple cancers [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4699. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4699

Before Bioethics: A History of American Medical Ethics from the Colonial Period to the Bioethics Revolution by Robert Baker (review)

Before Bioethics: A History of American Medical Ethics from the Colonial Period to the Bioethics Revolution by Robert Baker (review)

Apostrophe(')s, who needs them?

The improper use of the possessive apostrophe has for a long time been a subject of concern among the authors of usage guides in English. Apostrophes do not represent any sounds, and since nouns in the genitive, and plural nominative and accusative nouns with few exceptions sound the same, their spelling distinctions are purely grammatical (Bryant et al., 1997: 93). Because the sign exists only in the written language, its usage has been rather unstable ever since it was first introduced to the English language in the sixteenth century to mark dropped letters (Little, 1986: 15−16), and it was not until the eighteenth century when the possessive apostrophe was first introduced (Crystal, 2003: 68). The usage guide database HUGE (Hyper Usage Guide of English), which is built by Robin Straaijer as part of the ‘Bridging the Unbridgeable’ project that Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade wrote about in an earlier issue of English Today, proves that apostrophe ‘misuse’ is the most popular topic in the field of language advice when it comes to punctuation. The apostrophe holds its own among numerous disputed items, such as ending sentences with prepositions, using me for I, who for whom or splitting infinitives. The first historical reference to the apostrophe in the HUGE database appears in Reflections on Language Use by Robert Baker in 1770 and it continues to be discussed to the present day. The discussion of the mark's ‘misuse’ has been widely popularized by the publication of Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation in 2003.

Robert Baker, Before Bioethics: A History of American Medical Ethics from the Colonial Period to the Bioethics Revolution

Robert Baker, Before Bioethics: A History of American Medical Ethics from the Colonial Period to the Bioethics Revolution

Between Relativism and Imperialism: Navigating Moral Diversity in Cross-Cultural Bioethics.

The need for explicit theoretical reflection on cross-cultural bioethics continues to grow as the spread of communication technologies and increased human migration has made interactions between medical professionals and patients from different cultural backgrounds much more common. I claim that this need presents us with the following dilemma. On the one hand, we do not want to operate according to an imperialist ethical framework that denies and silences the legitimacy of cultural values other than our own. On the other hand, we do not want to backslide into a form of cultural relativism that is unable to critically appraise cultural practices that are harmful, unjust, or oppressive. I examine two prominent attempts - the principlism of Tom Beauchamp and James Childress and the Contractarianism of Robert Baker - to frame cross-cultural bioethics between these two extremes and argue that both approaches have significant flaws. The principlist approach fails to provide a non-question begging way to identify cross-cultural norms that does not already assume the universal legitimacy of moral principles dominant in North American society. Baker's contractarianism cannot grapple with the realities of political power imbalances that often characterize cross-cultural moral disputes. I suggest that a naturalized feminist framework, though not free of its own theoretical difficulties, provides the best alternative for approaching moral diversity respectfully and critically.

Race and Rights: Fighting Slavery and Prejudice in the Old Northwest, 1830–1870 by Dana Elizabeth Weiner (review)

Race and Rights: Fighting Slavery and Prejudice in Old Northwest, 1830-1870. By Dana Elizabeth Weiner. (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2013. Pp. 327. Cloth, $38.00.)Reviewed by Kyle G. VolkHistorian Dana Weiner's Race and Rights is a welcome addition to growing body of literature examining abolitionists who battled slavery and racial prejudice in antebellum Midwest. Focusing on struggles of activists-female and male, black and white-in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois, Weiner argues that these four states constituted the central battleground over race and rights in antebellum America (3). This key claim about significance of Old Northwest over other regions is difficult to gauge, especially given absence of substantial comparative analysis. Nonetheless, Weiner illustrates that this region was an important hotbed of controversy over slavery, race, and freedom of expression. This well-researched study will interest scholars of abolitionism and civil liberties and should be read alongside recent work of Stephen Middleton, H. Robert Baker, and Stacey Robertson, among others.1Weiner's nine chapters are arranged both thematically and chronologically, and within each chapter Weiner uses repeated section breaks to bring order to many controversies occurring in region over space and time. A preliminary chapter sets stage for ascension of abolitionist activism in 1830s by detailing Old Northwest's racial, political, religious, and reform landscape. The second chapter focuses on early battles over fugitive slave laws and region's notorious Black Laws, which restricted black migration into these states and hampered black residents by denying them a range of rights that were enjoyed by whites. From continued black migration and black conventions to court action, petitions, and use of rights arguments, Weiner describes ways that activists contested these hostile measures. In final chapter, Weiner returns to these issues as they persisted in era of sectional crisis, Civil War, and Reconstruction. In both chapters, she persuasively makes case that resistance to Black Laws constituted a vital aspect of Midwestern abolitionism and that these efforts at legal reform advanced new egalitarian conceptions of rights. Especially in light of repeated failures of activists to change public policy and only limited signs of local progress (232) that appeared by post-Civil War period, public reception and lasting impact of these rights claims, particularly outside of activist circles, is less clear.The middle four chapters explore perils of publicly advocating abolitionism and racial equality in Old Northwest. At least since Russel Nye's classic Fettered Freedom: Civil Liberties and Slavery Controversy, 1830-1860, abolitionism's role in provoking controversies over civil liberties has been well known.2 Weiner's study, however, takes readers away from gag rules in Washington, DC, to show how freedoms of speech, assembly, and press were contested on ground in combustible Old Northwest. In describing vitality of public meetings, itinerant lecturers, and press to Midwestern abolitionists' grassroots crusade against slavery and racial prejudice, Weiner provides new readings of such well-known events as murder of abolitionist printer Elijah Lovejoy in 1837. …

WHEN WORDS UNINTENTIONALLY WOUND: A DUTY TO SELF-CENSOR

Based on Robert Baker's metaphorical view of damaging language, I argue that morally responsible individuals are obligated to refrain from using the word ‘gay’ as a negative adjective directed towards that which the speaker dislikes. According to the metaphorical view, while a speaker may understand her use of the word ‘gay’ as devoid of homosexual connotations, the hearer – particularly a young person still coming to understand his own sexuality – is likely to conclude that his ‘gayness’ puts him in the same hated category as all of those other objects, events, and persons who are negatively called ‘gay’.

“Prigg v. Pennsylvania”: Slavery, the Supreme Court, and the Ambivalent Constitution by H. Robert Baker (review)

“Prigg v. Pennsylvania”: Slavery, the Supreme Court, and the Ambivalent Constitution by H. Robert Baker (review)

Prigg v. Pennsylvania: slavery, the Supreme Court, and the ambivalent Constitution

Margaret Morgan was born in freedom's shadow. Her parents were slaves of John Ashmore, a prosperous Maryland mill owner who freed many of his slaves in the last years of his life. Ashmore never laid claim to Margaret, who eventually married a free black man and moved to Pennsylvania. Then, John Ashmore's widow sent Edward Prigg to Pennsylvania to claim Margaret as a runaway. Prigg seized Margaret and her children - one of them born in Pennsylvania - and forcibly removed them to Maryland in violation of Pennsylvania law. In the ensuing uproar, Prigg was indicted for kidnapping under Pennsylvania's personal liberty law. Maryland, however, blocked his extradition, setting the stage for a remarkable Supreme Court case in 1842. In Prigg v. Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court considered more than just the fate of a single slavecatcher. The Court's majority struck down the free states' personal liberty laws and reaffirmed federal supremacy in determining the procedures for fugitive slave rendition. H. Robert Baker has written the first and only book-length treatment of this landmark case that became a pivot point for antebellum politics and law some fifteen years before Dred Scott. Baker addresses the Constitution's ambivalence regarding slavery and freedom. At issue were the reach of slaveholders' property rights into the free states, the rights of free blacks, and the relative powers of the federal and state governments. By announcing federal supremacy in regulating fugitive slave rendition, Prigg v. Pennsylvania was meant to bolster what slaveholders claimed as a constitutional right. But the decision cast into doubt the ability of free states to define freedom and to protect their free black populations from kidnapping. Baker's eye-opening account raises crucial questions about the place of slavery in the Constitution and the role of the courts in protecting it in antebellum America. More than that, it demonstrates how judges fashion conflicting constitutional interpretations from the same sources of law. Ultimately, it offers an instructive look at how constitutional interpretation that claims to be faithful to neutral legal principles and a definitive original meaning is nonetheless freighted with contemporary politics and morality. Prigg v. Pennsylvania is a sobering lesson for those concerned with today's controversial issues, as states seek to supplement and preempt federal immigration law or to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Nano-Lime for Consolidation of Plaster and Stone

Stone consolidants should, ideally, be physically and chemically compatible with the materials requiring consolidation. The theoretical principle of getting calcium hydroxide into a decayed calcareous substrate, and allowing it to carbonate, has long been understood and was the reason why limewatering (a method refined by Professor Robert Baker in the 1970s and 1980s) was used on several important projects, including the carvings to the west front of Wells Cathedral. Nano-lime has been developed as a method of consolidating limestone and lime plasters because it offers theoretical advantages over traditional materials such as limewater and lime grouts. Preliminary investigations to determine its performance characteristics prior to its specification and subsequent use on medieval wall paintings were undertaken by Hirst Conservation in 2010. Although these tests were limited to only a few materials, results were encouraging and highlighted some of the product's advantages and disadvantages. The results clearly show that rates of penetration vary significantly according to the type of material, its porosity and other factors. Nano-lime dispersed in alcohol can work well as a consolidant if used in the correct manner, allowing time for maximum penetration, precipitation and carbonation of the nano-lime. This may take days or even weeks for each saturation.

Wells Cathedral: Conservation of Figure Sculpture 1977–1986

The present article is a critical review of the decision process and conservation measures at Wells Cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England over a period of approximately 14 years. Conservation of figure sculptures on the West Front of Wells Cathedral was undertaken without adequate prior study and without provision for training conservators. Early experiments with limewater for stone hardening predisposed the architect, A. D. R. Caroe, and his Clerk of Works to the methods developed by Eve and Robert Baker. An advisory committee was appointed; however, the decision to appoint Robert Baker as Consultant Conservator was taken by Caroe. Baker resigned midway through the work, after which the training and supervision of conservators was limited. The campaign (1977–1986) resulted in lime mortar repairs to figures that improved their capacity for survival; however, the excessive use of water resulted in dissolving the sulphate crusts that replicated the original carved surfaces.

Robert M. Veatch, Disrupted Dialogue: Medical Ethics and the Collapse of Physician‐Humanist Communication (1770–1980). New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. xxii+317 pp. $49.95 (cloth).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewRobert M. Veatch, Disrupted Dialogue: Medical Ethics and the Collapse of Physician‐Humanist Communication (1770–1980). New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. xxii+317 pp. $49.95 (cloth).Robert Baker, Robert BakerUnion College and Union Graduate College. Search for more articles by this author , Union College and Union Graduate College.PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Religion Volume 89, Number 1January 2009 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/595913 Views: 9Total views on this site © 2009 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.