bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Kin Selection, Socialization, and Patriotism: An Integrating Theory
Authors: Johnson Gary R.
Published: February 2017

Patriotism may be interpreted as one brand of human altruism. Contemporary evolutionary theory suggests that the roots of human altruism lie in kin selection. However, patriots in contemporary large-scale societies make their patriotic sacrifices on behalf of groups that are composed predominantly of non-kin. This fact appears to call into question the view that human altruism is founded on kin selection. This article attempts to resolve the problem by linking kin recognition cues to the socialization process. The result is a theory which integrates kin selection and socialization as foundations of human altruism. Since patriotism is a noteworthy example of human altruism, and one especially relevant for political science, the theory is applied to patriotism in order to generate hypotheses about the process of patriotic socialization.
Donor Gametes and Embryos: Who Wants to Know What about Whom, and Why?
Authors: Broderick Pia , Walker Iain
Published: February 2017

Many treatments for infertility require the use of donated gametes or embryos. Arguments have been made that all parties involved (donors, recipients, and children) should have open access to information about one another. The present article reports a survey of attitudes of 77 donors and 327 recipients in the state of Western Australia. Donors and recipients endorsed a register of nonidentifying information, but were less keen on a register of identifying information. They believed that medical personnel should have access to such registers, and that donors and recipients (but not children) should have access to nonidentifying, but not identifying, information. Typically, the sort of information respondents wanted to access pertained to health status and physical characteristics. Overwhelmingly, both donors and recipients saw gamete and embryo donation as more like blood donation than like adoption.
Young Biomedical Scientists: Undervalued and Overabundant
Authors: Finn John T.
Published: February 2017

Biomedical research is a success by any standard. It has led to treatments and preventive practices that have caused rates of death from the major killers—heart disease, cancer, and stroke—to decline steadily over the past few decades (National Center for Health Statistics, 2002: Table 30). Hundreds of new drugs have been approved over the past decade (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2002), and another 1000 potential drugs are under development (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, 2002). The past year alone has seen breakthroughs in understanding afflictions as diverse as sickle cell anemia, tuberculosis, breast cancer, Alzheimer's disease, depression, and substance abuse.
The Age of Transition to Sustainability: The End of the Exponential Growth Period
Authors: Cairns John
Published: February 2017

Arguably, no curve in the world increases indefinitely—certainly no growth curve of human society. The quest for sustainable use of the planet involves estimating levels of activity, particularly resource use, that can continue indefinitely. Since the biosphere is dynamic, this continuation is not a stagnant, steady-state situation but rather a mutualistic interactive relationship between human society and the planet's ecological life support system. Human technology, creativity, and ingenuity may modify natural laws, but cannot be used to repeal them. Attempts to maintain the recent exponential growth of the human population, affluence, and artifacts cannot continue forever, or probably even for another century. At best, quality of life will be diminished, and, at worst, a substantial loss of human life will occur if both ethical and ecological issues are not freely and openly discussed. Sustainability may be visionary and unattainable, but it does offer an opportunity to improve the quality of life for future generations of humans and the other life forms, an opportunity that is far greater than possible with present unsustainable practices.
Who Favors Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide? The Vote on Michigan's Proposal B
Authors: Strate John , Kiska Timothy , Zalman Marvin
Published: February 2017

At the November 1998 general election, Michigan citizens were given the opportunity to vote on Proposal B, an initiative that would have legalized physician-assisted suicide (PAS). PAS initiatives also have been held in Washington State, California, Oregon, and Maine, with only Oregon's passing. We use exit poll data to analyze the vote on Proposal B. Attributes associated with social liberalism—Democratic Party identification, less frequent church attendance, more education, and greater household income—led to increased odds of a “yes” vote. Attributes associated with social conservatism—Republican Party identification and frequent church attendance—led to decreased odds of a “yes” vote. Similar to the abortion issue, PAS's supporters strongly value personal autonomy, whereas its opponents strongly value the sanctity of life. Voter alignments like those in Michigan will likely appear in other states with the initiative process if PAS reaches their ballots.
Darwinism, Dominance, and Democracy: a Reaffirmation
Authors: Somit Albert , Peterson Steven A.
Published: February 2017

So that the reader can better adjudge possible disagreements, we would like to begin by stating, at the very outset, the thesis argued in our book,Darwinism, Dominance, and Democracy(Somit and Peterson, 1997). As Peter Corning correctly reports in his commentary (2000), we contend that “the most important reason for the rarity of democracy is that evolution has endowed our species, as it has other primates, with a predisposition for hierarchically structured social and political systems” (1997: 1). In short, we argue that Homo sapiens has a “genetic bias” toward authoritarian political societies characterized by hierarchy, dominance, and submission.
Continuing Dialoguethe Sociobiology of Democracy Revisited: A Reply and a Reiteration
Authors: Corning Peter A.
Published: February 2017

The response by Somit and Peterson to my earlier commentary in this journal (Corning, 2000), which sharply criticized their little-noticed 1997 book (by their own admission), must seem like old news that should be relegated to the obituary pages. On the contrary, it concerns one of the central political issues of our time—what sustains modern democracy, and what are its future prospects. Somit and Peterson in their modest book offered both a diagnosis and a prescription. I concluded in my essay that the result was disappointing—more for what was omitted than for any commissions. My critique involved a rather subtle argument, and, judging by the authors' response (Somit and Peterson, 2001), it seems to have been lost on them as well.
Coping with presidential disability: The proposal for a standing medical commission
Authors: Gilbert Robert E.
Published: February 2017

On June 29, 2002, President George W. Bush invoked the United States Constitution's Twenty-Fifth Amendment, ratified in 1967. By so doing, he helped focus attention on the amendment's two disability provisions, Sections 3 and 4. Section 3 provides for voluntary transfer of power from the president to the vice president and is wholly dependent on the president's wishes. Section 4 provides for involuntary transfers of power, possibly over the president's objection. This controversial provision allows a vice president, with the assent of a majority of the cabinet, to become acting president. Critics have long argued that the vice president and cabinet officers, since they all owe their positions to the president, may be excessively reluctant to act even when action clearly is warranted. Therefore, some of these critics have proposed that a presidential disability commission be established at the beginning of every administration either to act under Section 4 in place of the cabinet or to provide formal and regular medical assessments so as to press for action in the event of presidential inability. I argue that such proposals are unwise and that their implementation would be counterproductive and even dangerous, both to the presidency and to the nation.
How ethics shape the policy preferences of environmental scientists: What we can learn from Lomborg and his critics
Authors: Balint Peter J.
Published: February 2017

Some environmental ethicists have proposed that different environmental values lead in principle to different environmental policy preferences. The controversy provoked by Bjørn Lomborg's book, The Skeptical Environmentalist (2001), has provided an opportunity to test this hypothesis in practice for scientists and other technical experts. In analyzing the language of the argument between Lomborg and his critics, I find that environmental scientists participating prominently in the debate fall into one of two camps according to whether their valuations of nature tend to be anthropocentric or nonanthropocentric. I find further that for these scientists moral philosophies correlate both with policy preferences and with interpretations of data. I conclude that unexplored differences in environmental values make important and underappreciated contributions to the politicization of science and to polarization among scientists and other technical experts involved in environmental disputes.
The emotive causes of recurrent international conflicts
Authors: Long William J. , Brecke Peter
Published: February 2017

Many international conflicts are recurrent, and many of these are characterized by periods of violence, including wars, that are hard to describe as planned products of rational decision-making. Analysis of these conflicts according to rational-choice international-relations theory or constructivist approaches has been less revealing than might have been hoped. We consider the possibility that emotive causes could better explain, or at least improve the explanation of, observed patterns. We offer three emotive models of recurrent conflict and we outline a method by which the reliability of emotive explanations derived from these models could be tested prospectively.
Embryo disposal practices in IVF clinics in the United States
Authors: Gurmankin Andrea D. , Sisti Dominic , Caplan Arthur L.
Published: February 2017

Background.

The moral status of the human embryo is particularly controversial in the United States, where one debate has centered on embryos created in excess atin vitrofertilization (IVF) clinics. Little has been known about the disposal of these embryos.

Methods.

We mailed anonymous, self-administered questionnaires to directors of 341 American IVF clinics.

Results.

217 of 341 clinics (64 percent) responded. Nearly all (97 percent) were willing to create and cryopreserve extra embryos. Fewer, but still a majority (59 percent), were explicitly willing to avoid creating extras. When embryos did remain in excess, clinics offered various options: continual cryopreservation for a charge (96 percent) or for no charge (4 percent), donation for reproductive use by other couples (76 percent), disposal prior to (60 percent) or following (54 percent) cryopreservation, and donation for research (60 percent) or embryologist training (19 percent). Qualifications varied widely among those personnel responsible for securing couples' consent for disposal and for conducting disposal itself. Some clinics performed a religious or quasi-religious disposal ceremony. Some clinics required a couple's participation in disposal; some allowed but did not require it; some others discouraged or disallowed it.

Conclusions.

The disposal of human embryos created in excess at American IVF clinics varies in ways suggesting both moral sensitivity and ethical divergence.
On linking cognitive mechanisms to game play: A critique of Morikawa, Hanley, and Orbell
Authors: Stone Peter
Published: February 2017

Tomonori Morikawa, James E. Hanley, and John Orbell have argued that natural selection leads populations who play Hawk-Dove, a game-theoretic stylization of confrontation, to develop the capacity for various “orders of recognition.” Such an argument requires a model linking game play to the presence or absence of various cognitive mechanisms. Morikawa and colleagues present such a model but, I argue, leave it incomplete, unable to sustain the conclusions they wish to defend. The development of a more fully specified model would significantly assist future studies of cognitive structures related to game play.
The brain, aggression, and public policy
Authors: Blank Robert H.
Published: February 2017

Investigational, conceptual, and interventional advances in the neurosciences strain consensus in research ethics, clinical ethics, legal ethics, and jurisprudence and demand innovative adaptation in public policy. I review these advances, ask how they might change a range of policies, and conclude that their implications — particularly relating to aggression — are likely to have been underestimated.
Response to Baer and Bositis
Authors: Elshtain Jean Bethke
Published: February 2017

Baer and Bositis's openness in taking biology seriously is welcome and refreshing. For good reasons and bad, social scientists, including those who see themselves as feminist, have suppressed consideration of biological realities. They have tended, implicitly, to accept the notion of tabula rasa-that “blank” creature waiting to be written on by the organized forces of society-that underlies so much political theorizing in the West. As the philosopher Mary Midgley points out in her fascinating book, Beast terpretive account of human thought and action that aims for understanding and probes meaning.) The method understood as scientific, and the authors implicitly endorse it, is one that may broadly be called methodological individualism. One builds from certain rock-bottom particulars- adding them up, or relating them to one another- and the sum of these particulars is one's explanation of a given phenomenon. “Science,” says Hobbes, “is the knowledge of consequences and the dependence of one fact upon another.” I Baer and Bositis implicitly endorse this model, despite the fact that natural sclentists long ago gave up on this understanding of causality. So-although they are absolutely correct to argue that “psychological” explanation alone will not serve, nor will social learning arguments-the particular way in which they draw biology into the picture simply affixes it to the multi-causal scene as another variable or set of variables to be concatenated with many others.
Gender and Political Cognition: Integrating Evolutionary Biology and Political Science
Authors: Masters Roger D.
Published: February 2017

Although men and women often differ in political attitudes and behavior, there is no widely accepted scientific explanation of such phenomena. After surveying evidence concerning gender differences in the fields of social psychology, ethology, neurology, cultural anthropology, and political science, five hypotheses concerning the way males and females respond to social cues are derived from the neo-Darwinian theory of natural selection. The predicted differences in the mode of political cognition are then shown to be consistent with findings from experimental studies of emotional and cognitive reactions to televised facial displays of political leaders.
Commitments and Grudges
Authors: de Waal Frans B. M.
Published: February 2017

One of the gender differences reported here, women's commitment to particular political figures and men's sensitivity to competitive situations, has my particular interest inasmuch as it appears to match behavioral sex differences in chimpanzees. While the author is aware of this similarity, I intend to explore it further, in the meantime correcting point by point a misleading dichotomy underlying much of the author's discussion. Females are said to emphasize social bonding and positive emotions, seeking political solutions based on informal agreement, whereas males are considered to be more confrontational and dominance-oriented. Yet, aggressive and cohesive tendencies are not as antithetical as they appear, and less sex-linked than suggested. In fact, one could argue that human males owe their success in the political arena to their ability to combine both tendencies.
Negotiating “Sound Science”: Expert Disagreement about the Risks of Release of Genetically Engineered Micro-organisms
Authors: Segerstrale Ullica
Published: February 2017

During recent years scientists coming from the ecologist and molecular biologist traditions have argued very differently about the risks of deliberate release of genetically engineered micro-organisms (GEOs) into the environment. When actual guidelines for regulation have been drawn up and “scientific experts” have been consulted, representatives of these different scientific camps have given quite different advice. In fact, we have a tacit battle between scientific experts as to who has the right to speak “for” science to the public and policy makers. It seems that the molecular biologists so far have had the upper hand because of concrete and spectacular achievements in this field. Meanwhile, these experts can profit from the fact that the general public and policy makers tend to see science as a unified enterprise and are typically unaware of systematic differences in conceptions about science between experts from different scientific traditions. Thus, a scientist from any scientific field may easily be seen as an expert on science in general.
The Matrix of Biological Disarmament: Strategy, Law, and Technology
Authors: DeForest Paul H.
Published: February 2017

During this century strategy, law, and technology have worked to the distinct advantage of biological arms control over weapons proliferation. Reliable strategies for biological warfare were never formulated. Customary and treaty law severely constrained use of biological weapons. Advances in technology were inadequate to overcome moral and tactical objections to disease as an instrument of war. As the first treaty prohibiting possession of an entire category of weapons, the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention signalled the apparent achievement of biological disarmament.

Subsequently, the rise of genetic engineering and renewal of superpower hostility engendered fear that biological disarmament was threatened by technological advances in biological weapons promoting their increased military utility. Neither the recent past nor the foreseeable future justify such fear. Instead, there is now the opportunity to entirely eliminate biological warfare research, to extend disarmament to chemical weapons, and to redirect resources to the global war against disease.
Medical Benefits of the Biological Defense Research Program
Authors: Dasey Charles F.
Published: February 2017

The U.S. Army conducts the Biological Defense Research Program to provide medical protection for U.S. military personnel against the threat of biological weapons. The unclassified medical research program is consistent with the Biological Weapons Convention, which prohibits the production and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons, and encourages the international exchange of scientific and medical information on the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. The program is the source of secondary benefits to civilian public health in the form of vaccine and drug development, diagnostic capability, and contributions to the world body of knowledge on infectious diseases. As the executive agent for the program, the Army submits descriptions of the work conducted under the program to Congress as part of its budget request, and provides numerous other responses to Congressional scrutiny of the program. Internal monitoring of the program is conducted from the perspectives of safety, compliance with regulatory agencies, quality assurance, and close administrative and technical oversight of contracts.
The Need for a Defensive Biological Research Program1
Authors: Dashiell Thomas R.
Published: February 2017

The biological defense research program maintained by the Department of Defense as a deterrent to the potential use of biological warfare against United States forces or national interests has been subjected to intense criticism. Concerns center on developments in the protective programs and the potential for new offensive developments through the application of biotechnology. The arms control activities intended to preclude any offensive developments are reviewed which point out the relative ineffectiveness of these control mechanisms. The nature, scope and direction of the biological defense research program and the openness of the program are noted. The proliferation of biological warfare capabilities adds to the urgency of an adequate defense program. The political nature of the problem and its relationship to control of biological warfare is examined and the interplay between the technical and the political roles leads to a potential solution. Key attributes of a control program should be enhanced efforts to develop the political framework to achieve effective control mechanisms while maintaining a complementary biological defense research program as the only effective deterrent at this time.
Galloping Biotechnology: a New Global Malady?
Authors: Pirages Dennis
Published: February 2017

The articles by Alan Russell and Winfried Lang make an excellent but somewhat frightening combination. The former deals with the emerging international challenges of biotechnology and the latter with institutional or regime responses. This combination is sobering because the potential challenges to international stability outlined by Russell give the appearance of easily overwhelming the regulatory regimes suggested by Lang. Growth in biotechnology is part of a more general acceleration of scientific discovery and technological innovation which threatens to overwhelm existing regulatory mechanisms. Developments in biotechnology, however, are much more challenging than in other fields because of both the threat they pose to established values and because of the relative cheapness with which “designer weapons” could potentially be produced.
Biotechnology, International Law, and the National Interest
Authors: Hanson Elizabeth Crump
Published: February 2017

On November 25, 1969 Richard Nixon announced that because of the “massive, unpredictable, and potentially uncontrollable consequences” of biological weapons, the United States would never use these weapons, would destroy all existing stocks, and would confine its research to strictly defined measures of defense (Harris, 1987:193). This unilateral renunciation followed an extensive review by the National Security Council of U.S. chemical and biological warfare policy, which lasted six months and involved every relevant agency in the U.S. government and which concluded that U.S. biological warfare capabilities provided no compelling military advantages (Tucker, 1984-85:61). Three years later the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) was signed; it was the first postwar arms control agreement to elminate an entire class of weapons from the arsenals of states (U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 1982:122). The treaty was ratified unanimously by the U.S. Senate in 1974, and over 100 nations have acceded to it. This arms control achievement has been attributed in part to the serious doubts which many countries, including the United States, shared about the military value of biological weapons (Harris, 1987:205-6). Within a decade of the signing of this treaty, however, the development of recombinant-DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) technology had raised the possibility of a new and more effective form of biological warfare.
Strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention: Comments on the Contributions of Marie Isabelle Chevier and Lynn Marvin Hansen
Authors: Geissler Erhard
Published: February 2017

In agreement with the overwhelming number of experts, I certainly share the view of Chevier and Hansen that the Biological Weapons Convention needs to be strengthened. Of course it is still a matter of discussion whether the military utility of biological and toxin weapons (hereafter, respectively, BW and TW) changed after the introduction of biotechnology. It is impossible, however, to ignore the 1986 statement of the U.S. Department of Defense (1988), that:

… perhaps the most significant event in the history of biological weapons development has been the advent of biotechnology. It enables the development of new microorganisms and products with new, unorthodox characteristics… Conceptually, then, a nation or terrorist group can design a biological weapon to meet a variety of contingencies or needs… The break through and the subsequent achievements make biological warfare much more feasible and effective for countries which either are not bound by the convention or which choose to violate it.
Further Commentary on Fox's “In the Matter of ‘Baby M’”
Authors: Bard Robert L. , Kurlantzick Lewis
Published: February 2017

Modern science has made it easy for fertile women to become pregnant by artificial insemination. And childless couples have been able to find women willing, for a fee, to accept insemination by a prospective father and agree to transfer custody of the resulting child to the father. Enterprises designed to match willing mothers and sperm-donating fathers have established themselves. The central public policy dilemma raised by this union of technology and the ancient desire for issue of one's own loins—is it wiser for the legal system to provide its normal protections to the participants in surrogacy arrangements or withdraw from the field—was brought to national attention by the Baby M case.
From Ideological Critique to the Methods and Morals of Science
Authors: Voorzanger Bart
Published: February 2017

This much I recently learned: don't expect your audience to react to what yousaywhen you talk about ideological critique. Some people love anything with “ideology” in it. They will congratulate you for every use of that term. Others hate the very word and they will shower you with questions they had ready before you even started. I can sympathize with both, I really can; “ideology” is an exciting topic, but that is small comfort if there is something you want to get across. So let me say clearly and right form the start: what I am going to do here is quite boring for those who are heavilyintoideological critique, and it is gristoffthe mill for those who hate it.

I will discuss what people mean when they use the phrase “ideological critique” and I will suggest that they talk about different things at different occasions. Each of those things can be important but they should be kept apart because what one ought to do about it is different in each case. For that reason, the conceptual scheme I will propose is relevant both for theoretical and for practical reasons.
A Far Famine, Global Policy Science, and a “Truly” Conscious Species
Authors: O'Neill Jack
Published: February 2017

Vestal's study of the Ethio-African famine process inspires comment along several lines. As a not-policy scientist writing about policy science matters I beg tolerance in what follows, consistent with my express intention to focus on famine in perspective, including alternative ones. But first, in the spirit of Science.
Biotechnology and Economic Development: The Role of the States
Authors: Portz John , Eisinger Peter
Published: February 2017

In recent years policymakers in a number of American states have chosen biotechnology as a key element in their economic development efforts. With visions of business growth and new jobs, state officials have targeted biotechnology as an important industry of the future. In this paper we focus on the political dynamics that underlay the choice of biotechnology in eleven states. With those states providing examples, we identify three major models of policy choice. The first involves an interest-based process in which state policymakers respond to explicit or implicit pressures from different parties. The second involves a strategic planning exercise in which state officials analyze the economic structure of the state and seek to develop a comparative advantage in the field of biotechnology. And the third starts with a strategic analysis but then relies upon a competitive, interest-based process to determine the allocation of state funds. We conclude by briefly discussing major issues for science policymaking at the state level.
Response From Portz and Eisinger
Authors: Portz John , Eisinger Peter
Published: February 2017

In their respective commentaries Browne and Shelley raise a number of important questions and issues. While each critique has a different perspective and orientation, there is also significant common ground. Our response is organized around four points common in each critique.
Physiognomic Similarity and Political Cooperation: An Exploratory Investigation
Authors: Heschl Adolf
Published: February 2017

Cooperation between politicians is often explained primarily by applying utilitarian concepts to coalition-building behavior. Usually, some direct or indirect advantage is held to be the main motive for cooperation, especially among those who are otherwise competitors. Drawing on sociobiological theory, this study presents an alternative approach in which truly altruistic motives may underlie and influence, as a biosocial substrate, even modern politics. This approach suggests that phenotypic similarities among individual politicians may play a role in the formation and stability of political alliances. To examine this hypothesis, physiognomic comparisons were made of the 65 delegates who gave speeches at the Nineteenth All-Soviet Party Congress of the Communist Party of the USSR, held in Moscow in 1988. The association between physiognomic similarity and expressions of verbal support was analyzed to test the hypothesis. Results suggest that speakers with faces more closely resembling that of the secretary-general were more likely to express verbal support for his policies than were others.
Advance Medical Directives in U.S. Hospitals and Nursing Homes: The Implementation and Impact of the Patient Self-Determination Act
Authors: Glick Henry R. , Cowart Marie E. , Smith J. Donald
Published: February 2017

In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court endorsed living wills and other written advance medical directives as the best way for people to indicate their desires regarding end-of-life medical treatment. Congress then enacted the Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA), which requires most medical facilities to provide information about advance medical directives. However, results from a national survey of hospital and nursing home administrators reveal that the law is having little practical effect on patients and residents. Medical institutions need to institutionalize a more positive approach to advance directives, but other right-to-die policies are also needed.
The Emerging Federalism of U.S. Biotechnology Policy
Authors: Webber David J.
Published: February 2017

Biotechnology is an evolving policy issue involving a wide variety of federal and state policymakers. While most public and scholarly attention has been focused at the national level, a good deal of state policymaking activity regarding biotechnology has already taken place. The biotechnology issue is not a single, well-defined policy issue but rather a cluster of related issues and concerns. This analysis identifies eight facets of the biotechnology policy issue that have surfaced during congressional debate, committee hearings, and public discussions. This eight-fold characterization of biotechnology development is used to describe recent congressional and state legislative activity affecting biotechnology. Both the complexity and multifaceted nature of the biotechnology issue, and the manner with which it has been dealt by federal and state policymakers, have contributed to the dynamic nature of federalism surrounding this issue.
Secrecy Still the Best Policy: Donor Insemination in Cameroon
Authors: Savage O. M. Njikam
Published: February 2017

In their recent PLS article, Ken R. Daniels and Karyn Taylor (1993) advocate policies of openness in regard to donor insemination (DI). In this commentary, I examine openness within the social context of fertility, infertility, human reproduction, and social parenthood in Cameroon. The traditional concept of secrecy in reproductive failure, especially in the case of male infertility, is outlined. Some of the social alternatives, such as natural insemination and social parenthood, are discussed. The inappropriateness of openness in DI within a sociocultural milieu that places a high premium on male reproductive ability is highlighted.
Health Policy in a Surgical Clerkship
Authors: Spielman Bethany
Published: February 2017

During Each Surgery Clerkship at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, I meet with students in small groups for required discussions of legal, ethical, and policy issues in the cases they are working on. The surgery clerkship is offered four times per year; I typically meet with students for an hour four times per clerkship, or sixteen times per academic year.
Ethical Debates in Genetic Engineering: U.S. Scientists' Attitudes on Patenting, Germ-Line Research, Food Labeling, and Agri-Biotech Issues
Authors: Rabino Isaac
Published: February 2017

A 1995 survey of 1,257 scientists working in the field of recombinant DNA research indicates wide areas of agreement as well as some noteworthy divisions when it comes to such thorny questions as patenting, germ-line research, food labeling, and biodiversity. In general, the scientists surveyed approve of patenting living organisms that result from rDNA research, but vary significantly on what should be patentable. They advocate human germ-line therapy, yet have reservations about using it for any but serious diseases. They oppose mandatory labeling of biologically engineered food products, but understand that the public has a right to know and advocate openness. Finally, they favor development of genetically modified crops, but recognize potential threats to biodiversity and maintain that publicly funded researchers should be legally obligated to consider the potential environmental effects of their research. Some clear differences arise between scientists working in industry and those in academia and between men and women.
Why Science and Technology Require Political Guidance to Sustain Development
Authors: Harrison Neil E.
Published: February 2017

It is commonly hoped that technological innovation will sustain development and obviate the need for extensive socioeconomic change. Historically, free markets have increased the quantity of technological innovation, which has in turn enhanced economic growth. This article shows that market selection probably will not produce the technological innovation required to sustain development. Social structures and habitual practices also inhibit technological change, and market choices of technology could prevent ecologically efficient technological innovations. Only political direction of science and technology will optimize the contribution of technology to sustainable development. However, there is no theory or experience to act as a guide to policymaking. In addition, in the medium to long term, technology is indeterminate, selected by local process perturbations. This article suggests some policy directions for science and technology and argues that models borrowed from the life sciences may permit more effective government direction of the technology system.
Born to Rebel: The Science of Birth Order
Authors: Somit Albert , Peterson Steven A.
Published: February 2017

In accordance with the principle of full disclosure, we believe we should inform the reader about several matters. First, as associate book review editors of the Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, we recommended for publication (but did not commission) a review by Frederic Townsend of Born to Rebel (Townsend, 1997). That recommendation was accepted, and the review appeared in the journal's Volume 2, Issue 2 in 1997.
Born to Rebel and Its Critics
Authors: Sulloway Frank J.
Published: February 2017

Frederic Townsend's critique of Born to Rebel (Sulloway, 1996) is based on an unfortunate pattern of misrepresentation and faulty empirical methods. First, the historical data in Born to Rebel are neither unrepresentative nor undisclosed. They were compiled with the help of 110 expert raters, who validated their representative nature and operationalized the principal outcome measures. Second, birth order is moderately associated with political radicalism, especially in real-life and within-family studies. Third, the meta-analytic data are statistically compelling for various behavioral attributes, although effect sizes are generally modest. Fourth, recent studies using large samples and anchored scales demonstrate the influence of birth order on a wide variety of personality traits, especially in within-family comparisons. In addition, the relationship between birth order and openness to radical innovation—highlighted in Born to Rebel—has been replicated by other researchers. Because Townsend fails to employ formal methods of hypothesis testing—relying instead on selected anecdotal examples, adversarial tactics, and an inadequate grasp of statistical principles—he has drawn numerous false conclusions about the influence of birth order.
Neither a Genre of Feminism nor of Ethical Naturalism: Primatology as a Source of Naturalistic Truth and Fallacy
Authors: Fedigan Linda Marie
Published: February 2017

Important insight into a problem can result from cross-disciplinary thinking. And yet, when I read an argument such as Arnhart's, I am often struck by the difficulty of bridging the gaps between disciplines, especially in relation to words that may be commonly used but differentially understood. The word nature is used without definition in many different forms and contexts in Arnhart's paper; and yet, throughout my reading of it, I felt that the author and I had not arrived at a firm and common understanding of the word.
The Biology of Morality
Authors: Krage Michael , Daood Christopher
Published: February 2017

A conference titled “The Biology of Morality: A Multidisciplinary Dialogue” was held at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, on March 13 and 14, 1992. Organizers James Hurd (anthropology) and Carole Young (psychology) focused the conference around the question, “Are adaptation and natural selection sufficient explanations for the rise of morality and moral systems, or must we seek explanation beyond the natural sciences?” The presenters came from a variety of fields, including biology, theology, psychology, philosophy, and anthropology.
Celebrating Darwin's Legacy
Authors: White Elliott
Published: February 2017

To find oneself cited sympathetically along with one's colleagues—notably Roger Masters, Glen Schubert, and Fred Willhoite—in an intellectual history by a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian is pleasant discovery. But it also constitutes something of a conflict of interest in pronouncing a judgment upon the work—it could, after all, turn out to be a disappointing dud. So it is doubly a pleasure, even allowing for an inevitable bias, to report that Carl Degler's In Search of Human Nature is a masterly account of the influence of Darwinism upon American social thought. (I was a bit troubled, though, by one or two omissions; there was no mention, for example, of Ellsworth Huntington among early Darwinis ts.)
Book Reviews: Gordon and Suzuki - It's a Matter of SurvivalAnita Gordon and David Suzuki Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991, 278 pp. US$19.95 cloth. ISBN 0-674-46970-4. Harvard University Press, 79 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Authors: Bonnicksen Andrea L.
Published: February 2017

Précis

In 1989 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired a five-part radio series, “It's a Matter of Survival.” Anita Gordon was the originator and executive producer of the series. David Suzuki is Professor of Zoology at the University of British Columbia and the host of “The Nature of Things,” a science television program. This book grew out of the radio series and is described on the jacket cover by Edward O. Wilson as “the best piece of extended environmental journalism I've seen to date.” Cited in the end notes are publications in the popular press (e.g., The New York Times) and CBC interviews with a range of environmental commentators such as Lester Brown and Paul Erlich. The book indicts the environmental irresponsibility of human beings as a species and is intended as a response to the radio listeners who wrote to the CBC following the 1989 broadcasts asking what they could do to forestall environmental catastrophe.

Gordon and Suzuki begin with a hypothetical glimpse into the “nightmare world of 2040.” Subsequent chapters question how we reached the stage of environmental crisis, explore myths that have blinded us to the crisis, predict future growth trends, describe the ethic of domination over nature, and review the devastation wrought by prevailing definitions of “progress.” The authors end with an alternative (and positive) look at the year 2040 that can be possible if the resolutions they discuss are sought. They conclude that humans as a species have “lost the ability to hear the warning cries of nature” (p. 234), but they hold the hope that humans can emerge from the crisis with a “new collective image of ourselves as a species integrated into the natural world” (p. 238).
Book Reviews: Leichter - Free To Be Foolish: Politics and Health Promotion in the United States and Great BritainHoward M. Leichter Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991, 281 pp. US$35.00 cloth. ISBN 0-691-07867-X. Princeton University Press, 41 William St., Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.
Authors: Bonnicksen Andrea L.
Published: February 2017

Précis

The author is Professor of Political Science at Linfield College and Clinical Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Oregon Health Science University. In this book he traces a recent and “important shift in the debate over how people can maximize their chances of staying healthy” (p.7). Populations in both the United States and Great Britain for most of the century have regarded equitable access to health care as the basis for individual health. Within the last two decades, however, assumptions have shifted. Health is now thought to be a preventive exercise to be secured by reducing dangerous and foolish behaviors. In seeking to regulate dangerous behaviors of citizens, policymakers confront deeply seated values of individualism and choice.

Leichter advances the thesis that policies that regulate life-styles are fundamentally different from other health policies. As a consequence, a distinct framework for evaluation is necessary, which he presents and elaborates upon throughout the book. He uses historical experiences in two countries—the United States and Great Britain—to develop and refine his thesis.

Following historical overviews of the two health revolutions (access to health care and personal life-style monitoring), Leichter deals with four areas in which governments have sought to limit individual activities: smoking, alcohol control, road safety, and behaviors relating to AIDS. In his final chapter he evaluates “when and under what circumstances [it is] appropriate for the state to intervene in life-style decisions” (p. 31). This literate book is supplemented by four figures and thirteen tables.
Book Reviews: Leichter
Authors: Weston Richard C.
Published: February 2017

Government policy can further the health of the public in four ways, notes Howard Leichter: “It can support biomedical research; improve, guarantee, or subsidize access to health care; regulate environmental and product hazards; and encourage people, through education or regulation, to adopt more healthy life-styles” (p. 6).
Strong Planks, Weak Platform
Authors: Mealey Linda
Published: February 2017

Mary Maxwell set out to accomplish three things with this book: to “demonstrate the wide influence sociobiology has had on other academic disciplines,” “to show that the majority of developments in human sociobiology have in fact taken place in various disciplines outside of biology,” and “to introduce the major principles of sociobiology” (pp. 1-2, reiterated p. 9). To do this, she enlisted a set of expert sociobiologists who work in a variety of academic areas and asked each of them to contribute a chapter demonstrating the impact ofsociobiology in their field. Despite the expert help and the fact that the overall quality of each contribution is excellent, Maxwell has failed to achieve any of her three goals.
Ethical and Value Choices in the Selection of National Agricultural Research Goals
Authors: Dahlberg Kenneth A.
Published: February 2017

“Ethical and Value Choices in the Selection of National Agricultural Research Goals” is a research project funded under an NSFJNEH grant. It involves bringing together a team of twelve nationally known experts to try to build a broadened base from which to evaluate agriculture and agricultural research. The team will meet twice in Washington, D.C., the first time to work out the full range of problems and interrelationships to be addressed and the second time to hear the papers presented by each of the team members. The meetings in Washington will be hosted by the General Accounting Office and will include various agency representatives and analysts, Congressional staff members, and representatives of interested groups. After being reviewed, the papers will be revised by the authors and edited into a book. The editing will be done by Kenneth A. Dahlberg, Western Michigan University, who is the principal investigator for the project.
The Health of the Polity: Results from a National Sample
Authors: Peterson Steven A.
Published: February 2017

Health status has been held to affect people's political orientations and behavior. Using the 1987 National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey, this paper tests for the existence of that relationship. Results suggest that healthier people are more likely to be conservative and status quo oriented, somewhat more politicized, less alienated, and more active in politics. Results, although modest, support the thesis that health status has an effect on political orientations and behavior.
Can Biological, Toxin, and Chemical Warfare be Eliminated?
Authors: Nass Meryl
Published: February 2017

Is it possible to prevent biological, chemical, and toxin warfare from occurring? The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), an international treaty banning the possession and hostile use of biological and toxin weapons, already exists; and a similar chemical weapons treaty is currently being negotiated. The older Geneva Protocol of 1925 bans the “first use” of these weapons in war. It might seem that the threat of use of these weapons of mass destruction is nearly at an end.
Conference on the Future of the European Market
Authors: Flohr Heiner
Published: February 2017

A conference on “The Infrastructure and Superstructure of the European Market: Implications for the Next Two Decades,” was held in St. Moritz, Switzerland, August 26-28, 1991. Sponsored by the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research, the planning and the most important intellectual impulses originated with Margaret Gruter. In this and in matters of organization, she was considerably supported by Michael McGuire of the University of California, Los Angeles.
Book Reviews: Masters & Gruter
Authors: Losco Joseph
Published: February 2017

Précis. Collected in this volume are the proceedings of the Fourth Monterey Dunes Conference on the Sense of Justice at the Gruter Institute. Contributors from law, political science, ethology, the biobehavioral sciences and psychology explore the concept of justice from the vantage points of its universal and particularistic, cognitive and emotional, innate and cultural properties.