bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Demographic models of birth outcomes and infant mortality: An alternative measurement approach
Authors: Solís Patricio , G. Pullum Starling , Frisbie W. Parker
Published: February 2007

Most demographic studies use 2,500 grams of birth weight and 37 weeks of gestation as cutpoints for evaluating the effects of adverse birth outcomes on infant mortality. We propose an alternative strategy, which relies on continuous measures of birth outcomes, identifies an optimal combination of birth weight and gestational age for infant survival, and estimates the effects of adverse birth outcomes in terms of their departure from this “optimal point.” We illustrate the advantages of this approach by estimating a logistic model using data from the 1989–1991 NCHS linked birth/infant death files. Finally, we discuss future applications and methodological issues to be resolved in subsequent research.
A step in another direction: Looking for maternal genetic and environmental effects on racial differences in birth weight
Authors: Van Den Oord Edwin J.C.G. , Rowe David C.
Published: February 2007

To advance research on birth weight differences between black and white infants, it may be useful to study maternal effects. These effects present a set of risk factors that are largely unrelated to those that are presently under investigation and fail to explain the gap in birth weight; empirical findings suggest their involvement. Although maternal effects can be environmental, as illustrated by recent findings, genetic effects could be important as well because gene frequencies are known to differ across the “racial” groups as studied by birth weight researchers, and maternal genes can exert a causal effect on birth weight.
Child care subsidies and the employment of welfare recipients
Authors: Meyers Marcia K. , Heintze Theresa , Wolf Douglas A.
Published: February 2007

Changing patterns of maternal employment, coupled with stronger work requirements for welfare recipients, are increasing the demand for child care. For many families, the cost of child care creates a financial burden; for mothers with low incomes and those who are former welfare recipients, these costs may be an insurmountable barrier to employment or economic self-sufficiency. Despite increased public spending in this area, the receipt of any child care subsidy appears to be a relatively rare and uncertain event. In this study, we use data from a sample of low-income single mothers (current and recent welfare recipients in California) to estimate the probability of their receiving child care subsidies and the effect of this probability on labor market activity.
Good things come in threes: Single-parent multigenerational family structure and adolescent adjustment
Authors: Deleire Thomas , Kalil Ariel
Published: February 2007

Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS), we found that teenagers who live in nonmarried families are less likely to graduate from high school or to attend college, more likely to smoke or drink, and more likely to initiate sexual activity. Not all nonmarried families are alike, however. In particular, teenagers living with their single mothers and with at least one grandparent in multigenerational households have developmental outcomes that are at least as good and often better than the outcomes of teenagers in married families. These findings obtain when a wide array of economic resources, parenting behavior, and home and school characteristics are controlled for.
Neoplatonic Theurgy and Dionysius the Areopagite
Authors: Shaw Gregory
Published: February 2007

Until recently, Neoplatonic theurgy has been defined by scholars as
an attempt to manipulate the gods through ritual, and its influence
in late antique Platonic circles has been interpreted as evidence for the
decline of Greek rationality caused in large part by the teachings of the
fourth-century Syrian Platonist, Iamblichus. Although scholarly research
on theurgy and Iamblichus has now corrected these misunderstandings, they
have left their mark on related areas of research: a notable example is
the role of theurgy in the Christian liturgy of Dionysius the Areopagite. This essay argues that the distinction between Iamblichean and Dionsyian
theurgy--asserted by leading theologians and scholars--is based on a
caricature of Iamblichean theurgy. When Iamblichean theurgy is properly
understood, the Christian theurgy of Dionysius may be seen as an example
of the same kind of theurgy that Iamblichus defined in the De
mysteriis. This essay aims to refute the false distinction between
"pagan" and Christian theurgy and to suggest that such distinctions
reflect more the apologetic interests of scholars than an accurate
reading of the evidence.
Crossed Texts, Crossed Sex: Intertextuality and Gender in Early Christian Legends of Holy Women Disguised as Men
Authors: Davis Stephen J.
Published: February 2007

Early Christian legends of monastic women disguised as men have recently been the object of psychological, literary, sociohistorical, anthropological, and theological study. In this article, I will raise new questions about these legends from the perspective of the poststructuralist theory of intertextuality. What are the cultural "texts" that these legends "play upon"? What does this intertextuality tell us about how such legends participated in late antique cultural discourse on gender and the female body? Here, I examine five cultural "texts" reworked in the legends: 1) the lives of earlier transvestite saints like St. Thecla; 2) the Life of St. Antony ; 3) late antique discourse about eunuchs; 4) the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife from Genesis; and 5) the textual deconstruction and reconstitution of the female body in early Christian literature. These "intertexts," along with key christomimetic elements in the legends, suggest how binary conceptions of gender identity were ultimately destabilized in the figure of the transvestite saint.
Reading Patriot Art: James Barry's King Lear
Authors: Gordon Scott Paul
Published: February 2007

The Shakespearean subject matter of James Barry's King Lear weeping over the Body of Cordelia (1786-87) has insulated it from readings that might expose its assault on political sensibilities: the painting offers a "patriot" narrative about a monarch's fall and the emergence of a fraternal, republican order. This argument emerges not through plot but through contrasting styles. Barry deposits Lear, whose contorted body and extravagant white hair derive from the mannerist figures of Michelangelo, in a painting devoted to the antique. This stylistic competition characterizes Lear as an obsolete and impertinent intrusion into a world organized according to new principles: the stylistic triumph of the antique figures of Edgar and Albany, who occupy the painting's center, spills over to the political scene playing out such that, irrespective of Shakespeare's plot, this painting celebrates the new order that has naturally and inevitably replaced the outmoded monarchy embodied by Lear.
Economic Romanticism: Monetary Nationalism in Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Adam Muller
Authors: Gray Richard T
Published: February 2007

This essay reflects on the history of German monetary nationalism by examining texts written by two Romantic thinkers, Fichte's Der geschlossene Handelsstaat (1800) and Müller's Versuche einer neuen Theorie des Geldes (1816), that articulate theories of German nationhood based on the community-building power of monetary symbols. It argues that these theories of economic union preceded Romantic conceptions of German nationhood grounded in ethno-linguistic or racial criteria, and that in this respect these Romantic ideas anticipate the economic unification of Germany that has characterized its history since 1945.
Virgilian Models of Colonization in Shakespeare's Tempest
Authors: Wilson-Okamura David Scott
Published: February 2007

The age of discovery, the age of reconnaissance, was also a great age of classical scholarship. This is probably not a coincidence: colonization is one of the leading themes in ancient history, and figures prominently in literary texts like the Aeneid. The colonization of Italy, as narrated in the second half of Virgil's poem, has been characterized as "the founding legend of Western civilization." But there were other models, as well. In particular, there was the ancient colony at Carthage, Virgil's description of which, in the Aeneid, provided Shakespeare, in The Tempest, with a setting, a situation, and some of his characters.
Rhetoric of Difference: Le Page du Pratz on African Slave Management in Eighteenth-Century Louisiana
Authors: Galloway Patricia Kay
Published: February 2007

Antoine Simon Le Page du Pratz est bien connu pour ses portraits
sympathiques des Am�rindiens, mais il d�crivit aussi des
esclaves africains dans son Histoire de la Louisiane. Comme surveilleur
d'esclaves, surtout pour la Compagnie des Indes, Le Page du Pratz
donna des observations d�taill�es sur les africains
sous son contr�le. Son r�cit sur les africains est aussi
bienfaisant que celui sur les sauvages Natchez, mais ses sujets africains
ne l'int�ress�rent personnellement. Au contraire, le
caract�re et le conduit des esclaves lui servirent pour se
pr�senter comme administrateur comp�tent et rationnel.
Co-Teaching at the Secondary Level: Unique Issues, Current Trends, and Suggestions for Success
Authors: Dieker Lisa A , Murawski Wendy W
Published: February 2007

This paper provides readers with an overview of the unique issues present in secondary classrooms and their impact on the practice of collaborative teaching between general and special educators. The authors focus on the changes that are occurring in secondary classrooms related to varied structures (such as block scheduling), higher standards, high stakes testing, a more diverse society, and how co-teaching can better address these issues. Readers are provided with practical strategies to enhance the effectiveness of teachers working together as well as tips to avoid the potential pitfalls when teaming at the secondary level.
Transparent Masks: The Ideology and Practice of Disguise in Contemporary Cajun Mardi Gras
Authors: Sawin Patricia
Published: February 2007

Stories and prescriptive statements recorded from participants in Cajun country Mardi Gras, as well as standard scholarly descriptions, insist that complete disguise is essential. However, actual masking practice varies between groups and among members of each group. I reject the claim that the tradition is truly degenerating and interpret statements about disguise as rhetorical moves. These portray Mardi Gras as promoting community cohesion and thus defend it against detractors' negative characterizations. Alternate masking practices articulate contemporary visions of a changing community and link participants to new audiences not seen as legitimate in older conceptions.
Personal Experience Narratives and the Social Construction of Meaning in Confrontational Discourse
Authors: Butler Gary Reginald
Published: February 2007

Toronto�s African Caribbean community is marked by the different, sometimes conflicting perspectives on oral traditions held by those who had acquired primary enculturation in their home countries and those who had been raised in the metropolitan Canadian context. This article analyzes an instance of naturally occurring discourse where the interactants hold asymmetrical cultural definitions of the tradition of Trinidadian obeah. It demonstrates how narrative is used to construct authoritative evidence during verbal conflict, illustrating how negotiated discourse and status-role identities are emergent attributes of the interaction itself and not qualities of the performer or the text when considered independently of this situational context.
Monde Creole: The Cultural World of French Louisiana Creoles and the Creolization of World Cultures
Authors: Spitzer Nicholas R
Published: February 2007

The analogy of linguistic creolization to cultural creolization is examined with reference to the evolution, form, style, and performance of zydeco music and related community aesthetic expressions among rural African-French Louisiana Creoles. The expressive culture demonstrates African, European, and Native sources both conserved and transformed in this New World setting where Creole is a local group identity. The processes observed in this particular creole culture are extended and applied to other aspects of folk and vernacular culture in America and worldwide—with the implication that cultural creolization is the central process in the maintenance and evolution of culture and cultures globally. Originally presented as a keynote address framed and punctuated by musical examples, this essay is offered in a manner that attempts to maintain its oral character. Discussion of the musical examples is augmented with selections on the web at www.americanroutes.org under the heading "Deep Routes."
Metaphors of Incommensurability
Authors: Szwed John F.
Published: February 2007

The idea of creolization as a creative cultural process following the meeting of unrelated cultures is a centuries-old folk concept, one developed and fought over primarily in the arena of African and European contact in the Americas. Renewed interest in the idea among social scientists and various art movements suggests that it may also be useful in a broader cultural arena, and one in which the role of folklorists may be central.
Folklore in a Hurry: The Community Experience Narrative in Newspaper Coverage of the Loma Prieta Earthquake
Authors: Frank Russell
Published: February 2007

Personal experience narratives are staples of newspaper
reporting. Though the stories are elicited, summarized, and retold in
the third person as community experience narratives, they retain their
power to make sense of experience and to bind readers into a symbolic
community. This study examines coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake
in San Francisco newspapers to explore some of the methodological and
ethical issues that confront reporters and folklorists who elicit and
inscribe personal experience narratives.
General Hoche and Counterinsurgency
Authors: North Jonathan
Published: February 2007

General Louis Lazare Hoche was one of the outstanding generals of
Revolutionary France. His instructions on how to fight and defeat enemies
of that revolution are crisp and precise, and of significant relevance
to any exponent of counter-insurgency. As a practical guide to fighting
and winning in enemy territory the instructions of General Hoche are of
considerable merit and eminently worthy of study. Incredibly they have
not been available to English-speaking students of military art until
now. In this clear and readable translation General Hoche's advice to
officers combating guerrillas and partisans rings out as fresh as the
day it was written.
Classical Blitzkrieg: The Untimely Modernity of Schlieffen's Cannae Programme
Authors: Holmes T. M. (Terence Michael)
Published: February 2007

This article reconsiders Schlieffen's Cannae ideal and offers an
historical perspective on the question of its applicability. Concurring
with Hans Delbr�ck's interpretation, Schlieffen understood that
the battle of Cannae was decided by a cavalry attack on the rear of the
Roman phalanx. This model had no influence on the Schlieffen plan of
1905, which reflects a quite different method of envelopment taught by
Schlieffen before he adopted the Cannae paradigm in 1909. Cannae was in
any case a problematic exemplar, given that modern firepower severely
limited the scope of cavalry operations. But if the Cannae programme
was untimely in Schlieffen's own time, it also prefigured a rebirth of
the cavalry idea in the age of mechanized warfare.
"Russians at the Gates of India"? Planning the Defense of India, 1885-1900
Authors: Johnson Robert
Published: February 2007

The annexation of Central Asia by Russia in the second half of the
nineteenth century, which brought the Tsar's armies to the borders of
Afghanistan, compelled the British to consider how to defend their prize
imperial possession, India. In the absence of a General Staff, senior
officers and the Intelligence Division in London drew up a series of plans
over a twenty year period. A variety of solutions were proposed, including
amphibious operations in the Black Sea, a thrust through Persia and
guerrilla attacks against Russian railroads. However, the most prominent
idea, known as the "Scientific Frontier," was to defend India by holding
a line along the Hindu Kush mountains deep inside Afghanistan. The chief
difficulty was Afghanistan itself. The British were unable to resolve
its status: was it an ally, or an enemy? This article seeks to highlight
the development of the British plans, and the problems they presented.
Guerrilla, Mobile, and Base Warfare in Communist Military Operations in Manchuria, 1945-1947
Authors: Tanner Harold Miles
Published: February 2007

Historians have explained the Communist victory in the Chinese civil war
(1945-49) in terms of either "standard" or "guerrilla" warfare. Analysis
of the Communist experience in Manchuria, 1945-47, demonstrates that the
Communists initially adopted a conventional war strategy and doctrine. As
the situation developed, the Party faced a contradiction between economic
and political necessity on the one hand and strategic reality on the other
that sometimes put Communist forces into indefensible positions. After
setbacks, the Communists recovered and developed a decisive hybrid
strategy and doctrine that enabled them to turn the tide of the civil
war and to make a second, more successful transition from guerrilla to
mobile and base warfare.
The U.S. War Department in the Gaslight Era: Stephen Vincent Benet at the Ordnance Department, 1870-91
Authors: Beaver Daniel R.
Published: February 2007

Examination of the career of Chief of Ordnance Stephen Vincent
Benét suggests that the War Department was a more active place
during the last two decades of the nineteenth century than has been
conventionally asserted. Benét played a significant role in the
American Army's organizational/technological modernization, which had
its modest beginnings before the Spanish-American War and continued,
incrementally, through the Progressive Era.
Field Officer Courts and U.S. Civil War Military Justice
Authors: Fitzharris Joseph C.
Published: February 2007

Generalizations about Civil War soldiers extend to the military justice
system: army discipline was very poor, and military justice, implemented
by regimental and general courts-martial, was arbitrary, capricious,
and disproportionate. In contrast, the 3rd Minnesota Volunteer Infantry
Regiment had good discipline, and in its field officer courts, justice
was deliberate, consistent, and compassionate. This article examines
the nature and function of field officer courts, which the 3rd used,
although many units ignored the Congressional Act of July 1862 that
replaced regimental courts-martial with field officer courts. More work
is needed on these largely unknown field officer courts and on army
justice and discipline in the Civil War era.
Political Competition and Economic Growth
Authors: Bueno de Mesquita Bruce , Morrow James D. , Siverson Randolph M , Smith Alastair
Published: February 2007

Under many nondemocratic systems, good policy is bad politics, and bad policy helps leaders stay in office. The result is poorer performance in terms of economic growth.
How People View Democracy: Halting Progress in Korea and Taiwan
Authors: Chu Yun-han , Diamond Larry , Shin Doh Chull
Published: February 2007

Abstract: Judging from their citizens' middling levels of support for and satisfaction with democracy, both Korea and Taiwan are still far from democratic consolidation.
Italy Decentralizes
Authors: Amoretti Ugo M
Published: February 2007

Italy has long mixed great local and regional diversity with a unitary approach to governance.In October 2001,however,Italian voters approved a series of changes to their country 's Constitution that could mark a decisive turn toward federalism.
Bulgaria's Royal Elections
Authors: Barany Zoltan D
Published: February 2007

Last year,Bulgarians elected their newly returned former king as prime minister and then,in a shocking upset,ousted their incumbent president.What do these results portend for the future of Bulgarian democracy?
Electoral Systems for Divided Societies
Authors: Reilly Ben
Published: February 2007

Political scientists have long theorized that the use of Òpreferential Ó election systems can help promote successful conflict management in divided societies.As it turns out,evidence from five real-world cases supports this conclusion.
What Europe Means for Poland
Authors: Michnik Adam
Published: February 2007

Poland, whose citizens always considered themselves European, for
more than a decade has been free to decide her own fate. Just like
other European countries, we recognize the freedom of the individual,
democracy, private property and tolerance as the fundamentals of
civilization. Also, like the rest of Europe, we are struggling with the
problems of unemployment, corruption, increasing economic inequality, and
populism. We need a united and safe Europe, able to oppose international
crime, terrorism and corruption. The fight against these pathologies
cannot lead to the egoistic isolation form the nations of Eastern Europe
and blindness to the issues that have global dimensions. We are against
anti-Americanism and against the political and economic confrontation
of Europe and the United States. Europe and the United States should
strive to reduce world poverty, corruption and suffering.
A Gentlemen's Club in a Woman's Sphere: How Dorothy Whitney Straight Created the New Republic
Authors: Rauchway Eric
Published: February 2007

This article uses new research to explicate the
traditionally slighted role of Dorothy Whitney Straight in establishing
and running the New Republic. By situating the journal among Straight's
other reform projects, Rauchway illustrates the extent to which her
efforts shared a similar reform ideology that derived from and extended
her experience in women's benevolent work. Rauchway suggests here that
reform institutions such as the ones Straight created, which tended
to bring together the distinct worlds of men's and women's reform, may
characterize American Progressivism generally.
Contrasting Female Identities: Women in Coal Mining Communities in Northumberland, England, 1900-1939
Authors: Hall Valerie Gordon
Published: February 2007

This article evaluates the stereotypical image of
mining society--of
rigidly segregated sex roles and patriarchy--in an examination of women
in mining communities in central Northumberland, England from 1900 to
1939. The author identifies two contrasting female identities:
"domestic women" who fit the picture of subordination to males
and of domesticity and who bore a maternal and domestic burden more
onerous than that of other working-class women; and "political women"
who rejected the lifestyle of their peers, chose a public life of
political action, and fought for socialist and feminist causes. These
findings suggest that, even in traditional communities known for
homogeneity and conformity, female identity was variable and women
embraced new ideologies to express their identities.
Women in the 1848-1849 Hungarian Revolution
Authors: Nemes Robert
Published: February 2007

In March 1848, revolution swept through Central Europe, bringing
with it new opportunities for political participation and patriotic
displays. Many women actively supported the 1848 revolutions,
fighting on the barricades, sewing national flags, forming
democratic associations, and taking part in demonstrations. They also
took up their pens, and in Hungary, women produced the "Demands of
the Radical Hungarian Women," which appeared in a newspaper in late
April. This twenty-four-point petition, reprinted below in English
translation and the original Hungarian, addresses issues common to women
across Europe in 1848. Conditioned by the context in which it appeared,
the petition places emphasis on displays of Hungarian patriotism and
support for national culture.
The Birth of the New Order State in Indonesia: Sexual Politics and Nationalism
Authors: Wieringa Saskia
Published: February 2007

Scholars have suggested that Indonesia's former president Suharto's New
Order state legitimated itself by destroying the Partai Komunis Indonesia
(Communist Party of Indonesia, PKI). In this article, the author points
to the sexual politics underlying this process of legitimation that have
been largely ignored in earlier analyses. She focuses on the military's
orchestrated campaign of slander and sexual innuendo against the PKI's
women's organization Gerwani (Gerakan Wanita Indonesia, Indonesian Women's
Movement). This campaign was pursued for more than 30 years since the
1 October 1965 putsch in Indonesia that eventually brought Suharto to
power. It embodied a powerful, supportive logic by which Suharto's rule
was sustained until mid-1998, creating a particular form of national,
militarized identity. Another consequence of the sexual accusations
Gerwani endured was the destruction of what was at the time one of the
most powerful women's movements in the world. Not only was Gerwani banned
and destroyed, but the remaining women's organizations were also brought
under strict government control. The state even set up its own mass
women's organizations, under the umbrella of Dharma Wanita (Women's Duty),
which were intended to re-subordinate rather than emancipate women.
Experimental Social Policymaking During World War II: The United Service Organizations (USO) and American War-Community Services (AWCS)
Authors: Knapp Gretchen
Published: February 2007

Winning the war on the home front and overseas meant that citizens of different races, religions, and ethnic appellations needed to work together peacefully in the “arsenal of democracy.” Prior to America's entrance into the war, community leaders recognized that selected social problems must be addressed in order to promote domestic harmony and boost urgently needed defense production in war communities. Instead of viewing the war years as distracting community interest from social problems, social welfare organizations pressed localities to acknowledge and act to alleviate ongoing difficulties that presented themselves, sometimes in dramatic fashion, as serious obstacles to the war effort. Race riots in Harlem and Detroit, the “zoot-suit” struggles on the West Coast, “khaki-wacky” girls who chased after servicemen, the erosion of child labor laws, significant population shifts across the nation, and a record number of teenage dropouts highlighted the structural cracks in American society. Clear understanding of the expedient nature of wartime social work mobilized efforts to establish national and local strategies that would enable wartime programs to continue into the postwar era.
Clio's Lost Tribe: Public Policy History Since 1978
Authors: Zelizer Julian E.
Published: February 2007

Policy history has straddled two disciplines—history and policy analysis—neither of which has taken it very seriously. What unites those who study policy history is not that they are ”policy historians“ per se, but that they organize their analysis and narrative around the emergence, passage, and implementation of policy. Rather than a subfield, as the historian Paula Baker recently argued, policy history has resembled area studies programs. Policy history became an interdisciplinary arena for scholars from many different fields to interact. While founders hoped that policies would become an end in themselves, rather than something used to understand other issues, scholarship since 1978 has shown that the two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, some of the most innovative scholarship has come from social or political historians who have used policy to understand larger historical phenomena. In the process, the work provided a much richer understanding of how policymaking evolved.
Finding the Third Way: Bill Clinton, the DLC, and the Democratic Platform of 1992
Authors: Borrelli Stephen A.
Published: February 2007

For those who subscribe to the theory of ldquo;responsible parties,” party platforms should offer voters a basis for choosing between the parties and give politicians the basis for a mandate. As Krehbiel points out, U.S. platforms are routinely dismissed as “amorphous” and “hardly ever … (serving) effectively as constraints during the campaign or after the election.” Yet, for better or worse, party platforms are the only authoritative statement of national party positions available, so political scientists have frequently used them as a basis for studies of party policymaking. Contrary to expectations based on the stereotype of “irresponsible” U.S. parties, studies by Gerald Pomper, Jeff Fishel, and others show that U.S. parties make fairly specific policy promises and are able to carry most of them out, even under the adverse condition of divided government. Cross-national studies show that although U.S. parties are not as successful as parties in parliamentary regimes, they look surprisingly good in international comparisons.
American Catholicism, Catholic Charities U.S.A., and Welfare Reform
Authors: Coleman John A. , S.J.
Published: February 2007

In this article I want to give at least a thumbnail sense of the background assumptions, policy contours, and vehicles for American Catholicism in engaging in public policy discussions. To do so, I will eventually concentrate on one major recent public policy discussion in the United States: the debates on welfare reform that led up to, and continue vigorously even after, the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. I do so because American Catholic institutions, including the United States Catholic Conference and Catholic Charities U.S.A., played a crucial and continuous role in these debates about welfare reform. Indeed, New York's Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, a vigorous opponent of the proposed welfare reform bill, in excoriating his fellow liberals for signing on to the bill, could lift up the example of the Catholic bishops' lobbying and exclaim: “The bishops admittedly have an easier time with matters of this sort. When principles are at stake, they simply look them up. Too many liberals, alas, make them up!” This particular debate (which is not, by any means, over) also helps to show some of the unique assumptions behind proposals found in Catholic interventions in the policy sector. In what follows, I will develop, briefly, four sections or subthemes to the paper:

1. Catholilc Social Thought: Five Background Assumptions for Policy: Human Dignity; The Common Good; Solidarity; Subsidiarity; Justice

2. The Move from Background Assumptions to Policy

3. Catholic Policy Proposals: Their Style and Instrumentalities

4. Catholicism and Welfare Policy
Faith in Politics
Authors: Reichley A. James
Published: February 2007

In the closing years of the twentieth century, religion became a paramount concern for practitioners and analysts of American politics. During the campaign for the crucial 2000 election, probably shaping the balance of power in national politics for years to come, presidential candidates and party leaders made religion a central factor in their strategies.
The National War Labor Board and American State Building: A Response
Authors: Sparrow Bartholomew H.
Published: February 2007

In his article “Creating the National War Labor Board: Franklin Roosevelt and the Politics of State Building in the Early 1940s,” Andrew Workman argues for a revised “institutionalist” understanding of the creation of the National War Labor Board (NWLB). Specifically, Workman includes interest groups, networks of policy intellectuals, and intragovernmental relations in an institutionalist account of the origin of the NWLB. Existing accounts that focus on the government's dependence on labor unions (Sparrow) or partisan politics (Katznelson and Pietrokowski; Katznelson, Geiger, and Kryder) do not explain the complex origins of this key wartime board.
“A Rational Coalition”: Euthanasia, Eugenics, and Birth Control in America, 1940–1970
Authors: Dowbiggin Ian
Published: February 2007

In 1940, at the second annual meeting of the Euthanasia Society of America (ESA), its first president, Charles Francis Potter (1885–1962), rose to give a speech. “Euthanasia, or merciful release from suffering,” Potter declared, “is rapidly emerging from the stage when it was considered merely the obsession of a few left-wing social reformers to the period when it is being recognized as an important social measurein the same class with birth control and eugenics.” Almost thirty years later, at another ESA gathering, clergyman Henry Pitney Van Dusen said much the same thing. “Popular attention centers on the Planned Parenthood movement at the other end of life,” Van Dusen declared, and “[e]uthanasia is concerned with the responsible termination of life. The more we can relate these two movements practically the better, because they are both concerned with the responsible care of human life, one at its beginning and the other at its end.”
Policy Punctuations and Regulatory Drug Review
Authors: Ceccoli Stephen J.
Published: February 2007

The FDA has dramatically decreased the regulatory review time for new drugs since the early 1990s. For example, according to the Tufts University Center for the Study of Drug Development (CSDD), which conducts triennial analyses of new drug approvals in the United States, the average FDA review time for approved New Chemical Entities (NCEs) decreased from 35.6 months in 1984–86 to 16.8 months in 1996–98. Thus, in a little more than a decade, the FDA has essentially cut its average review time in half. In addition to the declining review times, the agency's workload, as measured in terms of the number of drugs approved each year, also rose considerably in the 1990s. Specifically, the agency approved a total of 232 NCEs between 1993 and 1999, compared to just 163 approvals during the previous seven-year span—a 42 percent increase. Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the agency's decreased review times and increased workload, respectively. Thus, over the past decade the FDA has approved more drugs and done so in less time than at any other period in history. Simply stated, this change in regulatory performance, especially the declining review times, has been absolutely stunning.
"The World's Oldest Trade": Dutch Slavery and Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century
Authors: Vink Markus
Published: February 2007

This article discusses various aspects of slavery and the slave trade of the Dutch East India Company in the Indian Ocean world: the markets of supply and demand or geographic origins and destinations of slaves; the routes to slavery or the diverse means of recruitment of forced labor; the miscellaneous occupations performed by company and private slaves; the size of Dutch slavery and the volume of the accompanying annual slave trade; and the various forms of slave resistance and slave revolt. The discussion transcends the ahistorical, incomplete, descriptive, static, one-dimensional picture and conventional generalized abstractions of slavery that characterize much of traditional scholarship. Instead, an alternative historicized, holistic, analytical, dynamic, multidimensional, and open model is suggested-one that is sensitive to
chronological and geographic variations, socioeconomic and political contexts, and cross-cultural interactions.
Feminism, Law, and Bioethics
Authors: Rothenberg Karen H.
Published: February 2007

Feminist legal theory provides a healthy skepticism toward legal
doctrine and insists that we reexamine even formally gender-neutral
rules to uncover problematic assumptions behind them. The article
first outlines feminist legal theory from the perspectives of liberal,
cultural, and radical feminism. Examples of how each theory
influences legal practice, case law, and legislation are highlighted.
Each perspective is then applied to a contemporary bioethical
issue, egg donation. Following a brief discussion of the common
themes shared by feminist jurisprudence, the article incorporates a
narrative reflecting on the integration of the common feminist
themes in the context of the passage of the Maryland Health Care
Decisions Act. The article concludes that gender does matter and
that an understanding of feminist legal theory and practice will
enrich the analysis of contemporary bioethical issues.
Are Research Subjects Adequately Protected? A Review and Discussion of Studies Conducted by the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments
Authors: Sugarman Jeremy , Kass Nancy E
Published: February 2007

In light of information uncovered about human radiation experiments
conducted during the Cold War, an important charge for the
Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments was to
assess the current state of protections for human research
subjects. This assessment was designed to enhance the
Committee's ability to make informed recommendations for the
improvement of future policies and practices for the protection of
research subjects. The Committee's examination of current
protections revealed great improvement over those from the past,
yet some problems remain. Although the data collected by the
Committee highlight specific areas in need of attention, the
Committee's work should be viewed in part as the beginning of a
series of ongoing assessments of the adequacy and effectiveness
of the protections afforded to human subjects.
Disagreement, Consensus, and Moral Integrity
Authors: Macklin Ruth
Published: February 2007

The Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments
experienced some disagreements among its members in the
course of its work. An epistemological controversy over the nature
and degree of evidence required to draw ethical conclusions
pervaded the committee's deliberations. Other disagreements
involved the proper role of a governmental advisory committee and
the question of when it is appropriate to notify people that they were
unknowing subjects of radiation experiments. In the end, the
Committee was able to reach consensus on almost all of its
findings and recommendations through a process that preserved
the integrity of its members.
If I Am Only My Genes, What Am I? Genetic Essentialism and a Jewish Response
Authors: Wolpe Paul Root
Published: February 2007

With the advent of the Genetic Age comes a unique new set of
problems and ethical decisions. There is a tendency to take the
scientific developments presented by modern genetics at face
value, as if the science itself were value-neutral and not influenced
by cultural and religious images. One example of the fallout of the
Genetic Age is the development of a "genetic self," the idea that
our essential selfhood lies in our genes. It is important to
understand the assumptions of the Genetic Age, the development
of genetic selfhood, and the broader cultural trends and
assumptions that underlie modern genetic thinking. It is equally
important, however, to shape a reaction to the concept of a genetic
self. Judaism has long carried on a unique discussion about the
nature of selfhood in different times and places and about the
relation of the corporeal self to the essential self. Insights from
Judaism therefore may help to craft a reaction to the modern
genetic self that incorporates the best of modern genetics as well
as the integrity of a more transcendent selfhood.
State Regulation of Managed Care: Fragments of Reform
Authors: Schwartz Jack
Published: February 2007

State legislatures consider numerous bills to regulate managed
care organizations. After identifying the legal, political, and
economic barriers to state reform efforts, the paper assesses
recent types of state regulation, particularly mandated benefits and
disclosure requirements. Two prerequisites to future reform,
coalition building and the diffusion of information about managed
care, are analyzed.
Some Reflections on the Problem of Advance Directives, Personhood, and Personal Identity
Authors: Kuhse Helga
Published: February 2007

In this paper, I consider objections to advance
directives based on the claim that there is a discontinuity of
interests, and of personal identity, between the time a person executes
an advance directive and the time when the patient has become severely
demented. Focusing narrowly on refusals of life-sustaining treatment for
severely demented patients, I argue that acceptance of the psychological
view of personal identity does not entail that treatment refusals
should be overridden. Although severely demented patients are morally
considerable beings, and must be kept comfortable whilst alive, they no
longer have an interest in receiving life-sustaining treatment.
The Plurality of Chinese and American Medical Moralities: Toward an Interpretive Cross-Cultural Bioethics
Authors: Nie Jing-Bao
Published: February 2007

Since the late 1970s, American appraisals of Chinese medical
ethics and Chinese responses to American bioethics range from frank
criticism to warm appreciation, from refutation to acceptance. Yet in
the United States as well as in China, American bioethics and Chinese
medical ethics have been seen, respectively, as individualistic and
communitarian. In this widely-accepted general comparison, the great
variation in the two medical moralities, especially the diversity of
Chinese experiences, has been unfortunately minimized, if not totally
ignored. Neither American bioethics nor Chinese medical ethics is a field
with only one dominant way of thinking. Medical moralities in America and
China--traditional and modern--have always been plural and diverse. For
example, American and Chinese cultures and medical moralities both
exhibit individualistic and communitarian traditions. For this reason,
bioethics in general and cross-cultural bioethics in particular must be fundamentally
interpretive. Interpretive cross-cultural bioethics appreciates the
plurality of medical morality within any culture. It can serve as a vital
means of social and cultural criticism through engaged interpretations.
On the Intersection of Casuistry and Particularism
Authors: Kaebnick Gregory E
Published: February 2007

A comparison of casuistry with the strain of particularism
developed by John McDowell and David Wiggins suggests that casuistry is
susceptible to two very different mistakes. First, as sometimes developed,
casuistry tends toward an implausible rigidity and systematization of
moral knowledge. Particularism offers a corrective to this error. Second,
however, casuistry tends sometimes to present moral knowledge as
insufficiently systematized: It often appears to hold that moral
deliberation is merely a kind of perception. Such a perceptual model
of deliberation cannot offer a convincing account of the possibility
of moral progress. This second problem is one to which particularism is
itself prone. To redress it, other aspects of casuistry must be exploited:
Casuistry contains an account of presumptive generalizations that explains
how moral deliberation might be structured by rules while also depending
at critical junctures on perception.
Method in Catholic Bioethics
Authors: Quinn Kevin P
Published: February 2007

Method in Catholic bioethics is distinguished by a specific
philosophical and theological anthropology. Human beings are not to
be considered simply as selves, but as selves in relation to God and
each other. This essay reflects on that claim by reviewing four areas
of concern from Catholic social teaching: common good, human dignity,
option for the poor, and stewardship.
The Ethics of Human Stem Cell Research
Authors: Outka Gene H
Published: February 2007

The medical and clinical promise of stem cell research is
widely heralded, but moral judgments about it collide. This article takes
general stock of such judgments and offers one specific resolution. It
canvasses a spectrum of value judgments on sources, complicity, adult
stem cells, and public and private contexts. It then examines how debates
about abortion and stem cell research converge and diverge. Finally,
it proposes to extend the principle of "nothing is lost" to current
debates. This extension links historic discussions of the ethics of
direct killing with unprecedented possibilities that in vitro
fertilization procedures yield. A definite normative region to inhabit is
located, within a larger range of rival value judgments. The creation of
embryos for research purposes only should be resisted, yet research on
"excess" embryos is permissible by virtue of an appeal to the "nothing
is lost" principle.
Organ Donation: A Communitarian Approach
Authors: Etzioni Amitai
Published: February 2007

Recently, various suggestions have been made to respond to
the increasingly great shortage of organs by paying for them. Because
of the undesirable side effects of such approaches (commodification,
injustice, and costs), a communitarian approach should be tried
first. A communitarian approach to the problem of organ shortage
entails changing the moral culture so that members of society will
recognize that donating one's organs, once they are no longer of use
to the donor, is the moral (right) thing to do. This approach requires
much greater and deeper efforts than sharing information and making
public service announcements. It entails a moral dialogue, in which the
public is engaged, leading to a change in what people expect from one
another. Among the devices that could help to change the moral culture
are a public statement, endorsed by community members and leaders, that
expresses the community sense that donation "is what a good person does"
and a community-specific web page that lists those who have made the
commitment. A change in law so that a person's wishes in the matter are
recognized as final and binding is also desired. This position paper
deals only with cadaver organs and not living donors.
Why Liberals Should Accept Financial Incentives for Organ Procurement
Authors: Veatch Robert M
Published: February 2007

Free-market libertarians have long supported incentives to
increase organ procurement, but those oriented to justice traditionally
have opposed them. This paper presents the reasons why those worried
about justice should reconsider financial incentives and tolerate them
as a lesser moral evil. After considering concerns about discrimination
and coercion and setting them aside, it is suggested that the real moral
concern should be manipulation of the neediest. The one offering the
incentive (the government) has the resources to eliminate the basic needs
that pressure the poor into a willingness to sell. It is unethically
manipulative to withhold those resources and then offer payment for
organs. Nevertheless, the poor have been left without basic necessities
for 20 years since the passage of the prohibition on incentives. As long
as the government continues to withhold a decent minimum of welfare,
liberals should, with shame, cease opposing financial incentives for
organ procurement.
Revisiting the Problem of Jewish Bioethics: The Case of Terminal Care
Authors: Barilan Y. Michael
Published: February 2007

This paper examines the main Jewish sources relevant to
end-of-life ethics, two Talmudic stories, the early modern code of law
(Shulhan Aruch), and contemporary Halakhaic (religious law)
responsa. Some Orthodox rabbis object to the use of artificial life
support that prolongs the life of a dying patient and permit its active
discontinuation when the patient is suffering. Other rabbis believe that
every medical measure must be taken in order to prolong life. The context
of the discussion is the recent release of the "Steinberg Report," which
proposes a law regulating end-of-life issues in Israel. It is argued that
the Orthodox rabbis base their views on a strongly positivist concept
of the religious law. The rabbis deliberate the law as a manifestation
of the will of God and try to stretch the law as much as possible in
order to benefit the patient, even when it is good for the patient to
die. Direct and active actions that kill are prohibited; certain forms of
passive euthanasia and contrivances that terminate life support without
needing direct human action are accepted.