The federal government is funding a sea change in health care by investing in interventions targeting social determinants of health, which are significant contributors to illness and health inequity. This funding power has encouraged states, professional and accreditation organizations, health care entities, and providers to focus heavily on social determinants. We examine how this shift in focus affects clinical practice in the fields of oncology and emergency medicine, and highlight potential areas of reform.

Articles on the ideologies of religion; includes some articles on caste, and women in the context of Tamil society.

Susan Feagin’s book offers a welcome redirection in the philosophical understanding of fictional literature as an art. In recent decades the appreciation of literature has been reduced by many theorists and critics to considering what literary works reveal about either the societies in which they were produced, moral life in general, or conflicts in class, race, and gender. On a more abstract plane, questions about the logic of interpretation have preoccupied many philosophical analysts.

Most people have a sense of obligation to family members that is more powerful than the law in compelling compliance with its demands. When families dissolve, however, the power of such nonlegal norms often dissolves as well. The question then becomes what the law should require in their stead. This Article is part of a larger series of studies that have examined this question by asking what citizens believe the law should demand, using surveys of persons called to jury service (...) in Tucson, Arizona. Respondents are asked to imagine they are the judge charged with deciding a series of cases in which the facts are systematically varied so as to reveal the implicit principles that survey respondents employ in deciding them. Previously reported results in this project have examined studies of the amount of child support that people believe appropriate, and how they believe child custody disputes should be resolved. This study examines lay views about alimony. It finds considerable divergence between American law in practice and the views of American citizens as to what the law should be. Survey respondents were willing to award alimony considerably more often than the law now does. More clearly, in deciding whether to allow an alimony award, they care most of all about the claimant’s responsibility as primary caretaker of the couple’s minor children, to some extent about the partners’ marital status and their relational duration, and very little at all about the claimant’s history of having cared for the couple’s now-grown children. Moreover, the way these factors affect our respondents’ judgments about alimony are not very dependent on who they are. Our respondents did vary among themselves, of course, in the frequency with which they allowed alimony, but they varied relatively little in how factors such as marriage, relational duration, the presence of minor children or the history of care for now-grown children affected their judgments. The citizen consensus reflected by these patterns differs, however, from the prevailing legal rules, the views of many scholars, and the recommendations of the American Law Institute. This striking discrepancy is interesting although not always surprising. Our respondents’ willingness to award alimony to non-marital partners, for example, is consistent with the law of some other Western countries, even if not with American law, suggesting perhaps that it is American law, not our respondents, that is peculiar. Perhaps it is also understandable that our respondents seem more concerned with the welfare of the couple’s current minor children than with addressing perceived inequities in the current economic circumstances of the adult partners. In any event, the views of our respondents pose a challenge to policymakers. Given the dearth of theoretical justification for current American practice, its rejection by American citizens seems all the more telling. (shrink)

Collection of studies on a leading moral philosopher and his work, or dedicated to him.

On the philosophy of some Hindu saints from Tamil Nadu.

Background In May 2020, England moved to an opt-out organ donation system, meaning adults are presumed to be an organ donor unless within an excluded group or have opted-out. This change aims to improve organ donation rates following brain or circulatory death. Healthcare staff in the UK are supportive of organ donation, however, both healthcare staff and the public have raised concerns and ethical issues regarding the change. The #options survey was completed by NHS organisations with the aim of understanding (...) awareness and support of the change. This paper analyses the free-text responses from the survey. Methods The #options survey was registered as a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) portfolio trial [IRAS 275992] 14 February 2020, and was completed between July and December 2020 across NHS organisations in the North-East and North Cumbria, and North Thames. The survey contained 16 questions of which three were free-text, covering reasons against, additional information required and family discussions. The responses to these questions were thematically analysed. Results The #options survey received 5789 responses from NHS staff with 1404 individuals leaving 1657 free-text responses for analysis. The family discussion question elicited the largest number of responses (66%), followed by those against the legislation (19%), and those requiring more information (15%). Analysis revealed six main themes with 22 sub-themes. Conclusions The overall #options survey indicated NHS staff are supportive of the legislative change. Analysis of the free-text responses indicates that the views of the NHS staff who are against the change reflect the reasons, misconceptions, and misunderstandings of the public. Additional concerns included the rationale for the change, informed decision making, easy access to information and information regarding organ donation processes. Educational materials and interventions need to be developed for NHS staff to address the concepts of autonomy and consent, organ donation processes, and promote family conversations. Wider public awareness campaigns should continue to promote the positives and refute the negatives thus reducing misconceptions and misunderstandings. Trial registration National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) [IRAS 275992]. (shrink)

Objective To explore attitudes towards conscientious objections among medical students in the UK. Methods Medical students at St George's University of London, Cardiff University, King's College London and Leeds University were emailed a link to an anonymous online questionnaire, hosted by an online survey company. The questionnaire contained nine questions. A total of 733 medical students responded. Results Nearly half of the students in this survey stated that they believed in the right of doctors to conscientiously object to any (...) procedure. Demand for the right to conscientiously object is greater in Muslim medical students when compared with other groups of religious medical students. Discussion Abortion continues to be a contentious issue among medical students and this may contribute to the looming crisis in abortion services over the coming years. This project sheds some light on how future doctors view some of their ethical rights and obligations. Using empirical evidence, it reveals that conscientious objection is an issue in the UK medical student body today. These data could help anticipate problems that may arise when these medical students qualify and practise medicine in the community. Conclusion Clearer guidance is needed for medical students about the issue of conscientious objection at medical school. (shrink)

Abstract Energy typically is discussed in terms of science, technology, economics, and politics. Little attention has been given to fundamental religious and ethical questions surrounding the upcoming transition to renewable energy. The essays in this thematic section seek to redress that deficiency. This introductory essay raises some key questions and summarizes various presentations on energy and religion, as these were held at the 2010 conference of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS). Some presentations described the energy (...) landscape and provided data and perspectives needed for sound policy. Others raised ethical and religious considerations for energy decisions as the transition from nonrenewable to renewable sources is faced. Some posed the challenges of the energy transition to religion itself. Yet others offered examples of sustainable energy use and/or promising sources for meeting future needs sustainably. At the conclusion of the conference, presenters crafted a common “Statement on Energy and Climate Change” that includes a “Call to Action.” The “Energy Statement” follows as an appendix. (shrink)

Meynell, a Lecturer at Leeds and the author of a study of Bernard Lonergan, is, generally speaking, a temperate, moderating sort of writer--at almost opposite extremes from a polemicist such as Lenin. Typically, Meynell has something positive to say even about the latter, as for instance in the paragraph which begins with the following sentence: "Lenin had a way of referring to intellectuals as 'insects', and then as now, I am sure, they often richly deserved the epithet." But then (...) the author goes on to say that intellectuals, when they are doing their job, must interfere with self-righteous leaders. (shrink)

Les politiques technologiques visant à mettre en relation les acteurs scientifiques et économiques se sont profondément transformées entre 1962 et 1988. Aux politiques technologiques prenant la forme de « grands programmes technologiques » succèdent des politiques dites « de soutien à l’innovation » caractérisées notamment par des dispositifs de soutien à l’investissement destinés aux entreprises ou la mise en œuvre de réseaux visant à accroître les synergies entre les mondes scientifiques et industriels. Cette inflexion s’accompagne d’une reconfiguration des temporalités de (...) ce secteur de l’action publique. Au caractère occasionnel de la mise en œuvre des programmes technologiques se substitue une réforme que nous qualifions de permanente, essentiellement orchestrée par les ministres de l’Industrie. En nous intéressant au travail réformateur de quatre d’entre eux, nous proposons dans cet article d’interroger le processus de construction d’une temporalité de la réforme autonome. Nous... (shrink)

Ibn Mattawayh, al-Tadhkira fī aḥkām al-jawāhir wa-l-aʿrāḍ. Edited by Daniel Gimaret. 2 vols. Cairo: IFAO, 2009. Pp. 818. €89. Kausalität in der muʿtazilitischen Kosmologie: Das Kitāb al-Muʾaṯṯirāt wa-miftāḥ al-muškilāt des Zayditen al-Ḥasan ar-Raṣṣāṣ. By Jan Thiele. Islamic Philosophy, Theology, and Science, vol. 84. Leiden: Brill, 2011. Pp. x + 155 + 57. $136.

Seneca’s philosophy dedicates a special attention to passions, regarded as the main obstacle to attaining wisdom, and in particular to anger, considered the most dreadful of them all. Scholars have usually interpreted his treaty On anger as a private handbook of ethics containing advice about how to become wise. However, this article explores a different approach to the text, placing it in the context of Seneca’s discussion about the virtue of courage. Thus, in Seneca’s thought anger appears as a social (...) issue that affects both political communities and isolated individuals. (shrink)

In this major intellectual history, Ira Katznelson examines the works of Hannah Arendt, Robert Dahl, Richard Hofstadter, Harold Lasswell, Charles Lindblom, Karl Polanyi, and David Truman, detailing their engagement with the larger project of reclaiming the West's moral bearing.