bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Evidence for reduced domain‐specificity in auditory processing in autism
Authors: Järvinen‐Pasley Anna , Heaton Pamela
Published: October 2007

Neurological and behavioral findings indicate that atypical auditory processing characterizes autism. The present study tested the hypothesis that auditory processing is less domain‐specific in autism than in typical development. Participants with autism and controls completed a pitch sequence discrimination task in which same/different judgments of music and/or speech stimulus pairs were made. A signal detection analysis showed no difference in pitch sensitivity across conditions in the autism group, while controls exhibited significantly poorer performance in conditions incorporating speech. The results are largely consistent with perceptual theories of autism, which propose that a processing bias towards featural/low‐level information characterizes the disorder, as well as supporting the notion that such individuals exhibit selective attention to a limited number of simultaneously presented cues.
Linking working memory and long‐term memory: a computational model of the learning of new words
Authors: Jones Gary , Gobet Fernand , Pine Julian M.
Published: October 2007

The nonword repetition (NWR) test has been shown to be a good predictor of children's vocabulary size. NWR performance has been explained using phonological working memory, which is seen as a critical component in the learning of new words. However, no detailed specification of the link between phonological working memory and long‐term memory (LTM) has been proposed. In this paper, we present a computational model of children's vocabulary acquisition (EPAM‐VOC) that specifies how phonological working memory and LTM interact. The model learns phoneme sequences, which are stored in LTM and mediate how much information can be held in working memory. The model's behaviour is compared with that of children in a new study of NWR, conducted in order to ensure the same nonword stimuli and methodology across ages. EPAM‐VOC shows a pattern of results similar to that of children: performance is better for shorter nonwords and for wordlike nonwords, and performance improves with age. EPAM‐VOC also simulates the superior performance for single consonant nonwords over clustered consonant nonwords found in previous NWR studies. EPAM‐VOC provides a simple and elegant computational account of some of the key processes involved in the learning of new words: it specifies how phonological working memory and LTM interact; makes testable predictions; and suggests that developmental changes in NWR performance may reflect differences in the amount of information that has been encoded in LTM rather than developmental changes in working memory capacity.
Development of action monitoring through adolescence into adulthood: ERP and source localization
Authors: Ladouceur Cecile D. , Dahl Ronald E. , Carter Cameron S.
Published: October 2007

In this study we examined the development of three action monitoring event‐related potentials (ERPs) – the error‐related negativity (ERN/Ne), error positivity (PE) and the N2 – and estimated their neural sources. These ERPs were recorded during a flanker task in the following groups: early adolescents (mean age = 12 years), late adolescents (mean age = 16 years), and adults (mean age = 29 years). The amplitudes of the ERN/Ne and N2 were greater in the adult and late adolescent groups than in the early adolescent group. Both of these components had neural sources in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Although PE was present across groups, PE amplitude was greater in the late adolescent group compared to the adult group and also had neural sources in the ACC. ERN/Ne amplitude was related to post‐error slowing across age groups; it was related to task performance only in the adult group. These findings are discussed in light of the role of the maturation of the ACC in the development of action monitoring processes.
Comparing infants’ use of featural and spatiotemporal information in an object individuation task using a new event‐monitoring design
Authors: Krøjgaard Peter
Published: October 2007

Discussions have recently taken place on whether spatiotemporal information is more important than featural information when infants attempt to individuate objects. Hitherto, spatiotemporal and featural information have only been compared directly by using cognitively demanding ‘event‐mapping designs’ (e.g.

Xu & Carey, 1996

), whereas the simpler event‐monitoring designs (e.g. the ‘wide‐screen/narrow‐screen’ by Wilcox and colleagues) have not been employed for such a comparison. The present research offers a new event‐monitoring design, the rotating screen design, that allows for such a direct comparison. Three experiments in which 9.5‐, 8.0‐, and 6.5‐month‐old infants attempt to individuate objects by spatiotemporal and featural information are reported. The results showed that whereas the 9.5‐month‐old infants were able to individuate objects by spatiotemporal as well as featural information, the infants of the younger age groups only successfully individuated objects when provided with spatiotemporal information, but not with featural information.
Children's subjective identification with social groups: a self‐stereotyping approach
Authors: Bennett Mark , Sani Fabio
Published: October 2007

We contend that previous work on children's identification with social groups has looked at the mere categorization of the self in group terms and not subjective identification properly conceived. Drawing upon self‐categorization theory, the present research operationalizes identification as self‐stereotyping (i.e. the ability to conceive of the self in group‐relevant terms). Children's self‐stereotyping was explored in two studies using gender as the relevant ingroup. Study 1 required 5‐, 7‐ and 10‐year‐old children, on two separate occasions, to rate their similarity to, and difference from, same‐sex peers. Relative to the control condition, when gender had been made salient, children perceived significantly greater similarity, and smaller difference, between themselves and same‐sex peers, thus providing evidence of a capacity for self‐stereotyping and, hence, for subjective identification with a social category. Similarly, Study 2 sought trait ratings of the self both when gender had been made salient and when it had not. Boys of all ages (though not girls) rated ingroup‐stereotypical traits (such as bravery and strength) to be more characteristic of the self when gender was salient than when it was not. Together, these findings suggest that the capacity for subjective identification with social groups is present at least by the age of 5 years. Moreover, they demonstrate that children's self‐conceptions are contextually variable.
What are you looking at? Infants’ neural processing of an adult's object‐directed eye gaze
Authors: Hoehl Stefanie , Reid Vincent , Mooney Jeanette , Striano Tricia
Published: October 2007

Previous research suggests that by 4 months of age infants use the eye gaze of adults to guide their attention and facilitate processing of environmental information. Here we address the question of how infants process the relation between another person and an external object. We applied an ERP paradigm to investigate the neural processes underlying the perception of the direction of an adult's eye gaze in 4‐month‐old infants. Infants showed differential processing of an adult's eye gaze, which was directed at a simultaneously presented object compared to non‐object‐directed eye gaze. This distinction was evident in two ERP components: The Negative component, reflecting attentional processes, and the positive slow wave, which is involved in memory encoding. The implications of these findings for the development of joint attention and related social cognitive functions are discussed.
Fourteen‐month‐olds pay attention to vowels in novel words
Authors: Mani Nivedita , Plunkett Kim
Published: October 2007

Recent research has shown that infants are sensitive to mispronunciations of words when tested using a preferential looking task. The results of these studies indicate that infants are able to access the phonological detail of words when engaged in lexical recognition. However, most of this work has focused on mispronunciations of consonants in familiar and novel words. Very little is known about the role that vowels play in constraining lexical access during the early stages of lexical development. We describe a word learning study with 14‐ and 18‐month‐old infants that tests their sensitivity to mispronunciations of word‐medial vowels using a preferential looking task. We found that both age groups demonstrated recognition of correctly pronounced tokens of the newly learnt words but not mispronounced tokens. These results indicate that vowels constrain lexical access of novel words by as early as 14 months of age, and add to the growing body of literature indicating that infants exploit detailed phonological information when processing both familiar and newly learnt words.
Assessing ‘fun foods’: nutritional content and analysis of supermarket foods targeted at children
Authors: Elliott C.
Published: October 2007

This article provides a nutritional profile of foods targeted specifically at children in the Canadian supermarket. Excluding confectionery, soft drinks and bakery items, 367 products were assessed for their nutritional composition. The article examines the relationship between ‘fun food’ images/messages, product claims and actual product nutrition. Among other findings, it concludes that approximately 89% of the products analysed could be classified as of poor nutritional quality owing to high levels of sugar, fat and/or sodium. Policy considerations need to be made in light of the fact that ‘fun food’ is a unique category that poses special challenges; as such, recommendations regarding food labelling and packaging are presented.
A Framework for the Strategic Design of Science and Technology Policy for African Development*
Authors: Bamiro O.A.
Published: October 2007

Abstract:  The key role of science and technology and the ways in which it can be developed and deployed to achieve the identified goals of development in Africa are articulated in this paper. Notable projects, programmes, declarations etc. addressing issues of development of Africa are: the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aimed at poverty reduction over a stipulated period of time with globally defined measurable indicators of progress; the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD); the Blair Commission Report for Africa; and the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) targeted at repositioning Africa in the world economy. During the WSSD Summit process, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI) identified the three pillars of sustainable development as the economic, environmental and social pillars, and emphasized the fact that ‘science and technology must be placed at the heart of policies to promote sustainable development’.
Africa's Economic Growth: Opportunities and Constraints
Authors: Collier Paul
Published: October 2007

Abstract:  Africa's economies have diverged from other developing regions: over the past three decades growth has been much slower. In this paper I relate this to the region's distinctive physical and political geography. These features not only make Africa different from other regions, they make some parts of Africa radically different from others. Understanding these differences is critical because they imply equally substantial differences in opportunities and hence in the strategies likely to be effective for growth. No pan‐African growth strategy offers a realistic prospect of success, nor can Africa simply copy the strategies of successful regions that have fundamentally different physical or political geography. I propose three strategies each of which is likely to be appropriate for a part of the region.
Debt Relief and Social Services Expenditure: The African Experience, 1989–2003
Authors: Dessy Sylvain E. , Vencatachellum Désiré
Published: October 2007

Abstract:  In June 2005 the G8 proposed the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) with the goal of canceling all International Development Association (IDA), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and African Development Fund (ADF) debt claims on countries that have reached, or will eventually reach, the completion point under the enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. The objective is to help HIPC make progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. The G8 initiative is worth $40 billion and would benefit 14 African countries immediately. It has the potential of freeing more resources than any past debt relief program. Between the 1988 Paris Club debt relief program up to 2003, Africa earned debt relief worth $65 billion. We take a critical look at the chances that the G8 initiative will reach its goals by empirically investigating the extent to which past debt relief granted to African countries did translate into a larger share of resources being allocated to social services expenditure. Our estimates indicate that debt relief provided to Africa between 1989 and 2003 had a positive impact on the share of a country's resources allocated either to public education or health in countries which have improved their institutions. Consequently, donors must address the need for institutional change as they grant debt relief to HIPC if the latter are to channel the freed‐up resources to the social sector.
La vulnérabilitééconomique, défi persistant à la croissance africaine
Authors: Guillaumont Patrick
Published: October 2007

Résumé:  Alors qu'après une longue période de stagnation la croissance semble être revenue en Afrique, la question se pose de savoir si la nouvelle croissance africaine est durable. Cet article examine dans quelle mesure la croissance africaine est vulnérable aux chocs exogènes et quelles en sont les implications pour le financement internatìonal du développement. It montre en premier lieu la persistance de la vulnérabilité des économies africaines au regard de l'indice de vulnérabilitééconomique des Nations unies (EVI), utilisant une première série rétrospective de cet indice. En second lieu, s'appuyant sur divers travaux récents, il souligne l'importance de la vulnérabilité structurelle pour la croissance et le développement, particullèrement en Afrique. Enfin il examine le rôle du financement international pour réspondre à la vulnérabilité des économies africaines, suggérant de faire de la vulnérabilité structurelle un des critères d'allocation de l'aide de d'adapter les modailités de l'aide pour lui faire jouer de façon efficace un rôle d'assurance.

Abstract:  While after a long stagnation growth seems to have come back in Africa, the issue remains to know whether the new African growth is sustainable. This paper examines to what extent African growth is vulnerable to exogeneous shocks and what are the implications for international developement finance. First it evidences the persistent vulnerability of African economies with regard to the U.N. Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI), using a first retrospective series of that index. Second, relying on several recent works, it unerlines that structural vulnerability matters, in particular in Africa. Finally it considers how international development finance can be used to face the vulnerability of African economies, suggesting to use structural vulnerability as one of the aid allocation criteria and to adopt modalities of aid so that it can effectively serve as an insurance.
Investir sur le capital humain: éducation et santé
Authors: Diagne Abdoulaye
Published: October 2007

Résumé:  Ce papier passe en revue les raisons d'investir dans le capital humain dans un pays en développement, évalue les performances accomplies au cours des ann ées 1990 et 2000 en matière d'éducation et de santé, particulièrement dans les pays africains, et soumet à une analyse critique les réformes de politiques qui ont sous‐tendu ces performances. Les contraintes et opportunités offertes par la mondialisation sont examinées dans le contexte des pays africains. Enfin, des recommandations sont faites pour accélérer l'accumulation d'un capital humain de qualité en Afrique à travers l'éducation et la santé.
Supply‐leading versus Demand‐following Hypothesis: Empirical Evidence from Three SSA Countries
Authors: Odhiambo Nicholas M.
Published: October 2007

Abstract:  This study investigates empirically the direction of causality between financial development and economic growth in three sub‐Saharan African countries — Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania. The study seeks to answer one critical question: Does financial development in sub‐Saharan African countries exhibit a supply‐leading or demand‐following response? Using three proxies of financial development against real GDP per capita (a proxy for economic growth), the study finds that the direction of causality between financial development and economic growth is sensitive to the choice of measurement for financial development. In addition, the strength and clarity of the causality evidence is found to vary from country to country and over time. On balance, a demand‐following response is found to be stronger in Kenya and South Africa, whilst in Tanzania a supply‐leading response is found to be dominant. The study therefore recommends that for Kenya and South Africa the real sector of the economy should be developed further in order to sustain the development of the financial sector. However, for Tanzania, there is need for further development of the financial sector in order to make the economy more monetized.
Spatial Equilibrium of Wheat Markets in Ethiopia
Authors: Getnet Kindie
Published: October 2007

Abstract:  Knowledge about the extent to which spatial markets are integrated is useful to assess the impact of liberalization policies on the performance of agricultural markets in the developing countries. In turn, this would help to guide subsequent interventions aimed at improving the performance of markets. Cointegration techniques provide an analytical framework to know whether markets are integrated, by making it possible to investigate the existence and magnitude of price transmission between spatial markets. This study tries to analyze the spatial equilibrium of wheat markets in Ethiopia by employing an autoregressive distributed‐lag modeling approach to cointegration analysis on wheat prices observed during the post‐liberalization period for the central wholesale market (Addis Ababa) and for a local market (Ambo). The major finding of a stable equilibrium relationship between the price series considered provides evidence of market integration. Since intervention in local markets is generally costly and less effective, the result suggests the possibility of targeting intervention at the central wholesale market level with the objective of influencing price dynamics in the local markets.
Corporate Governance and Shareholder Value Maximization: An African Perspective
Authors: Kyereboah‐Coleman Anthony
Published: October 2007

Abstract:  This study looks at corporate governance and its impact on shareholder value maximization in Africa. Data from South Africa, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria covering the period 1997–2001 were used and analysis done within the panel data framework. Results show that, though highly dispersed, both within and between firms, corporate boards in the selected countries are relatively not independent. The regression result shows that large board sizes enhance corporate performance and shareholder value maximization. Our study also shows that both sector and country‐specific effects have an impact on shareholder value maximization. While the mining sector is dominant in maximizing shareholder value, it also suffers from higher taxes and interest payments.
Farmers' Variety Attribute Preferences: Implications for Breeding Priority Setting and Agricultural Extension Policy in Ethiopia*
Authors: Wale Edilegnaw , Yalew Asmare
Published: October 2007

Abstract:  Technological progress in Ethiopian agriculture is the slowest by any standard, with rather very poor capacity to address the nation's problems of low agricultural productivity, poverty, and resource degradation. This paper argues and attributes the low level of technology adoption and impact to the discrepancy between the farmers' needs and the attributes of technologies generated. The empirical evidences have been generated based on the analyses of coffee farmers' variety attribute preferences, taking coffee seedlings as production technologies. Attribute preferences of smallholder farmers are governed by their contextual household characteristics, institutional, and socioeconomic factors. According to the results, risk vulnerable farmers prefer seeds adaptable to their local conditions and varieties with stable yield attribute. On the contrary, farmers in more accessible areas and/or those who are less concerned in securing subsistence income levels opt for income maximizing attributes, namely, yield and marketability. The study results have also shown the mechanisms of how farmers' attribute preferences change with development‐oriented interventions. The paper demonstrates why and how policy‐makers should formulate context specific technology development and agricultural extension strategies.
Decomposing filial piety into filial attitudes and filial enactments
Authors: Chen Sylvia Xiaohua , Bond Michael Harris , Tang Donghui
Published: October 2007

In an attempt to explore the attitude‐behaviour relationship, the present study examined the mixed findings from research on filial piety by differentiating filial attitudes from filial behaviours. The Filial Behaviour Scale was developed to tap the behavioural manifestations of filial piety, and its nomological network was established in two Chinese contexts, Hong Kong and Beijing. In addition to filial attitudes, we used values, social beliefs, and self‐construals to explain filial behaviours. The results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that the value factor of conservation and the social axiom of reward for application predicted filial behaviour above and beyond filial attitudes; an interdependent self‐construal moderated the effect of cultural group on filial behaviour. Gender and regional differences in filial piety were also examined. Males were found to score higher on filial attitudes, but not significantly higher on filial behaviours. Regional differences existed in filial behaviours, but not in filial attitudes, with Mainland Chinese displaying a higher level of filial behaviours than their Hong Kong counterparts. These identified differences suggest the importance of differentiating filial attitudes from filial behaviours in future attempts to understand Chinese filiality.
Consumption of dairy products in urban China: results from Beijing, Shangai and Guangzhou
Authors: Fuller Frank , Beghin John , Rozelle Scott
Published: October 2007

Using urban survey data collected by the authors in 2001–02, this paper analyses demographics, cultural factors and purchasing behaviours influencing the consumption of fresh milk, yogurt, ice cream and powered milk in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, China. Results from estimation of a double‐hurdle model of consumption show that income and marketing channels are the key determinants of milk consumption levels; however, education, advertising and convenience play a more important role in consumption of other dairy products. There is some evidence that milk powder, as a consumer good, may be becoming an inferior product in urban China. Finally, the survey data suggest that the growing sophistication of China's retail sector is influencing consumption of dairy products.
Beyond semi‐dwarf wheat yield increases: impacts on the Australian wheat industry of on‐going spillovers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
Authors: Brennan John P.
Published: October 2007

Wheat genetic materials developed from research at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico for developing countries have provided spillover benefits to Australia. Varieties developed from those genetic materials have resulted in yield increases in Australia. While the initial impact came through the introduction of higher‐yielding semi‐dwarf wheat crops, those impacts have continued in the post‐semidwarf period. CIMMYT's success in developing countries has also reduced the world price for wheat. While the lower prices affect returns in Australia, the increased yields in Australia from the CIMMYT spillovers from both the semi‐dwarfs and the post‐semidwarf phases have provided benefits to Australia averaging A$30 million per year.
Productivity growth and the returns from public investment in R&D in Australian broadacre agriculture
Authors: Mullen John
Published: October 2007

Investment in R&D has long been regarded as an important source of productivity growth in Australian agriculture. Perhaps because research lags are long, current investment in R&D is monitored closely. Investment in R&D has been flat while productivity growth has remained strong, relative both to other sectors of the Australian economy and to the agricultural sectors of other countries. Such productivity growth, at a time when the decline in terms of trade facing Australian farmers has slowed, may have enhanced the competitiveness of Australian agriculture. The econometric results presented here suggest no evidence of a decline in the returns from research from the 15 to 40 per cent per annum range estimated by Mullen and Cox. In fact the marginal impact of research increases with research over the range of investment levels experienced from 1953 to 2000, a finding which lends support to the view that there is underinvestment in agricultural research. These results were obtained from econometric models which maintain strong assumptions about how investments in research and extension translate into changes in TFP. Hence some caution in interpreting the results is warranted.
Soil conservation and technical efficiency among hillside farmers in Central America: a switching regression model*
Authors: Solís Daniel , Bravo‐Ureta Boris E. , Quiroga Ricardo E.
Published: October 2007

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate and analyse technical efficiency (TE) levels for hillside farmers under different levels of adoption of soil conservation in El Salvador and Honduras. A switching regression model is implemented to examine potential selectivity bias for high and low level adopters, and separate stochastic production frontiers, corrected for selectivity bias, are estimated for each group. The main results indicate that households with above‐average adoption show statistically higher average TE than those with lower adoption. Households with higher adoption have smaller farms and display the highest partial output elasticity for land. Constraints in the land and credit markets are likely explanations for these differences. In addition, all estimated models show that TE has a positive and significant association with education and extension.
WHOSE WILL IS IT, ANYWAY? A DISCUSSION OF ADVANCE DIRECTIVES, PERSONAL IDENTITY, AND CONSENSUS IN MEDICAL ETHICS
Authors: KUCZEWSKI MARK G.
Published: October 2007

I consider objections to the use of living wills based upon the discontinuity of personal identity between the time of the execution of the directive anbd the time the person becomes incompetent. Recent authors, following Derek Parfit's “Complex View” of personal identity, have argued that there is often not sufficient identity interests between the competent person who executes the living will and the incompetent patient to warrant the use of the advance directive. I argue that such critics err by seeking personal identity in a purely descriptive manner. By exploring Buchanan and Brock's concept of “surviving interests”, an argument is developed that certain future‐oriented acts have a normative force that contributes to the narrative unity which is constitutive of personal ideality. This narrative concept of the self is entailed by many of the our ordinary practices and challenges the philosophical consensus to view the self in a more dynamic and communitarian manner.
SAVING THE YOUNG BEFORE THE OLD ‐ A REPLY TO JOHN HARRIS
Authors: KAPPEL KLEMENS , SANDøE PETER
Published: October 2007

For a distribution of health care resources to be fair, it should consider the consequences for the whole lives of the affected persons and not just how badly off they are at the present moment. Since, other things being equal, a person is worse off if he dies young than if he dies old, it is fair to give scarce vital health care resources to young rather than to old persons. In the paper this ageist view is restated and defended against a number of objections raised by John Harris. According to Harris' so‐called anti‐ageist argument the only relevant consideration in the distribution of vital health care resources is people's desire to go on living. On reflection, this is highly counterintuitive. Instead, it is argued that both present desires to go on living and possible future happiness should weigh together with considerations of fairness. Both fairness and possible future happiness will in most cases speak in favour of saving the young before the old. A number of other problems for the ageist view are discussed, and solutions are suggested.
JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN: THE CHILD AS ORGAN DONOR
Authors: ROSS LAINIE FRIEDMAN
Published: October 2007

I argue that parents ought to be allowed to authorize their child's participation as an organ donor for another family member. I introduce a model of decisionmaking for children in intimate families which I call Constrained Parental Autonomy. This model permits wide parental discretion which is constrained absolutely by a broadly defined principle of respect for persons. In general, parental authorization alone is sufficient but I argue that the respect for persons constraint prevents certain donations and requires the child's assent for other donations. I also consider two controversial implications of the application of this model: the objection that the model does not respect the child's right to bodily integrity, and the objection that the model does not and is unable to address intrafamilial disgreement.
RATIONAL DESIRES AND THE LIMITATION OF LIFE‐SUSTAINING TREATMENT
Authors: SAVULESCU JULIAN
Published: October 2007

It is accepted that treatment of previously competent, now incompetent patients can be limited if that is what the patient would desire, if she were now competent. Expressed past preferences or an advance directive are often taken to constitute sufficient evidence of what a patient would now desire. I distinguish between desires and rational desires. I argue that for a desire to be an expression of a person's autonomy, it must be or satisfy that person's rational desires. A person rationally desires a course of action if that person desires it while being in possession of all available relevant facts, without committing relevant error of logic, and “vividly imagining” what its consequences would be like for her. I argue that some competent, expressed desires obstruct autonomy. I show that several psychological mechanisms operate to prevent a person rationally evaluating what future life in a disabled state would be like. Rational evaluation is difficult. However, treatment limitation, if it is to respect autonomy, must be in accord with a patient's rational desires, and not merely her expressed desires. I illustrate the implications of these arguments for the use of advance directives and for the treatment of competent patients.
ADVANCE DIRECTIVES, AUTONOMY AND UNINTENDED DEATH
Authors: STONE JIM
Published: October 2007

This Paper argues that Living wills are typically nebulous and confused documents that do not effectively enable you to determine your future treatment. Worse, signing a living will can end your life in ways you never intended, long before you are either incompetent or terminally ill. This danger is compounded by the fact that those who implement living wills are often themselves dangerously confused, so that, for example, they cannot be relied upon to distinguish living wills from DNR orders. In addition, the Paper argues that advance directives concerning resuscitation are often so confused that they end the lives of healthy, alert people who have not suffered cardiac or pulmonary arrest. Finally, the paper argues that advance directives establishing durable power of attorney for health care often preserve the chief dangers of living wills. Suggestions are offered as to how you can most effectively direct your future treatment without endangering your life.
THE ARCHITECT AND THE BEE: SOME REFLECTIONS ON POSTMORTEM PREGNANCY
Authors: NELSON HILDE LINDEMANN
Published: October 2007

Do physicians have a duty to sustain the pregnancies of women who die during the first or second trimester? Physicians cannot simply assume that the woman would have wished the pregnancy to continue, nor (in the U. S., at any rate) is it clear that the state has any interest in fetal life before viability. The conditions for beneficence‐based duties of fetal rescue will often be unmet, both because sustaining the pregnancy is not always a clear gain to the born child and because it may impose a substantial burden on the benefactor. And duties of special relationship cannot readily be applied in these cases, as it is difficult to see how the relationship between someone who no longer exists and someone who does not yet exist can breed special duties. Further, to draw on Marx's distinction between the architect, who builds purposefully, and the bee, who cannot help what she is doing, I argue that human pregnancy is in a number of respects purposeful, creative, and deliberate, and that postmortem pregnancy, which follows the model of the bee, is a destructive icon that undercuts women's agency.
MEDICAL EXPERIMENTATION, INFORMED CONSENT AND USING PEOPLE
Authors: COCKING DE AN , OAKLEY JU STIN
Published: October 2007

In this paper we argue that the standard focus on problems of informed consent in debates about the ethics of human experimentation is inadequate because it fails to capture a more fundamental way in which such experiments may be wrong. Taking clinical trials as our case in point, we suggest that it is the moral offence of using people as mere means which better characterizes what is wrong with violations of personal autonomy in certain kinds of clinical trials. This account also helps bring out another important way in which the autonomy of the participants in clinical trials my be violated, even in cases where they have given informed consent to their involvement. Where relevant information about the trial is framed in such a way as to induce a patient's participation by appeal to their nonrational preferences, this is also a violation of their autonomy, and one which is distinct from a failure of informed consent. The underlying wrongness of both kinds of violations, we argue, is plausibly captured by the moral offence of using people as mere means.
KILLING, LETTING DIE AND MORAL PERCEPTION
Authors: GILLETT GRANT
Published: October 2007

There are a number of arguments that purport to show, in general terms, that there is no difference between killing and letting die. These are used to justify active euthanasia on the basis of the reasons given for allowing patients to die. I argue that the general and abstract arguments fail to take account of the complex and particular situations which are found in the care of those with terminal illness. When in such situations, there are perceptions and intuitions available that do not easily find propositional form but lead most of those whose practice is in the care of the dying to resist active euthanasia. I make a plea for their intuitions to be heeded above the sterile voice of abstract premises and arguments by examining the completeness of the outline form of the pro‐euthanasia argument. In doing so, I make use of Nussbaum's discussion of moral perception and general claims to be found in the literature of moral particularism.
VALUE THEORY AND THE BEST INTERESTS STANDARD1
Authors: DEGRAZIA DAVID
Published: October 2007

The idea of a patient's best interests raises issues in prudential value theory–the study of what makes up an individual's ultimate (nonmoral) good or well‐being. While this connection may strike a philosopher as obvious, the literature on the best interests standard reveals almost no engagement of recent work in value theory. There seems to be a growing sentiment among bioethicists that their work is independent of philosophical theorizing. Is this sentiment wrong in the present case? Does value theory make a significant difference in interpreting best interests? In pursuing this question, I begin with a quick sketch of broad kinds of value theories, identifying representatives that are plausible enough to count as contenders. I then explore what each account suggests in (1) neonatal treatment decisions, and (2) decisions for patients in persistent vegetative states. I conclude that while these accounts converge somewhat in their interpretations of best interests, they also have importantly different implications.
THE METAPHYSICS OF BRAIN DEATH
Authors: MCMAHAN JEFF
Published: October 2007

The dominant conception of brain death as the death of the whole brain constitutes an unstable compromise between the view that a person ceases to exist when she irreversibly loses the capacity for consciousness and the view that a human organism dies only when it ceases to function in an integrated way. I argue that no single criterion of death captures the importance we attribute both to the loss of the capacity for consciousness and to the loss of functioning of the organism as a whole. This is because the person or self is one thing and the human organism is another. We require a separate account of death for each. Only if we systematically distinguish between persons and human organisms will we be able to provide plausible accounts both of the conditions of our ceasing to exist and of when it is that we begin to exist. This paper, in short, argues for a form of mind‐body dualism and draws out some of its implications for various practical moral problems.
THE FIFTH FREEDOM
Authors: KINCAID‐SMITH PRISCILLA
Published: October 2007

Women in developing countries suffer considerable moribidity and mortality due to inability to control their own fertility and lack of access to family planning services. Over 500,000 deaths each year are related to pregnancy. Two thirds of these maternal deaths could be prevented by providing contraception to those women who wish to use it in developing countries. There is no tenable ethical defence of cultural and religious behaviour which denies a woman a choice as to whether she will undertake a pregnancy or not. Implementation of the principles of the programme ofactionfrom the 1994 Cairo Population Conference would, through empowering women to control their own fertility, have a huge impact on maternal health in the developing world.
THE NON‐IDENTITY PROBLEM AND GENETIC HARMS – THE CASE OF WRONGFUL HANDICAPS
Authors: BROCK DAN W.
Published: October 2007

The Human Genome Project will produce information permitting increasing opportunities to prevent genetically transmitted harms, most of which will be compatible with a life worth living, through avoiding conception or terminating a pregnancy. Failure to prevent these harms when it is possible for parents to do so without substantial burdens or costs to themselves or others are what J call “wrongful handicaps”. Derek Parfit has developed a systematic difficulty for any such cases being wrongs — when the harm could be prevented only by preventing the existence of the individual who would have a worthwhile life even with the handicap, then bringing him into existence with the handicap does not make him worse off and so does not wrong him. I argue that a non “person‐affecting” principle requiring the avoidance of suffering and limited opportunity correctly accounts for cases of wrongful handicaps without requiring that the individuals with the handicap have been made worse off and therefore wronged. It is an advantage, not a difficulty, of this account that it does not imply that the person with the handicap has been wronged or is a victim with a special moral complaint.
PATERNALISM AND THE ARGUMENT FROM ILLITERACY
Authors: LUNA FLORENCIA
Published: October 2007

Throughout this essay, I will consider an argument frequently used to justify paternalistic behavior toward a specific class of persons: illiterate people. The argument states that illiterate people are uneducated, lack information and understanding, and are thus unable to make decisions. Therefore, it is argued, paternalism in their case is justified. The conclusion is that illiterate persons cannot be autonomous. The justification for this view is based on an a priori attitude: since it is impossible to communicate, physicians should decide which kind of treatment the illiterate patient should receive. This argument is frequently used even though its proponents may not be aware of its implications. Given the importance and uncritical acceptance this argument has in Argentina, and also in other Latin American countries, I think it is relevant to analyze carefully what it means. I propose a thorough analysis of this argument, of its implications and an evaluation of whether it is acceptable.
HIV +/AIDS RELATED BIOETHICAL ISSUES IN JAPAN
Authors: HOSHINO KAZUMASA
Published: October 2007

Annual and cumulative incidences of HIV + and AIDS in patients reported by the AIDS Surveillance Committee of the Ministry of Health and Welfare are cited to illustrate some characteristics in Japan: nearly 59% of either HIV + or AIDS patients were infected through injection of blood products or by blood transfusion. A number of plaintiffs have sued the Japanese government and pharmaceutical companies since 1989, but no judicial decisions have yet been made. The incidence of HIV decreases for each of the following routes of infection: the second highest route of transmission being heterosexual, followed by bisexual and unconfirmed or unknown cases, and less frequently homosexual, drug use and lastly via vertical transmission. The most serious bioethical problems with HIV + and AIDs patients in Japan is the social segregation of these patients. There are many emotional fears among the general public and medical personnel about AIDS because of their inadequate scientific knowledge of this disease. The Japan Hospital Association is doing The Stop AIDS Campaign and made several surveys. Japan has become increasingly aware of the importance of AIDS education and a great deal of effort is being made to enhance bioethical considerations.
FUTILITY AND THE OBLIGATIONS OF PHYSICIANS
Authors: WILSON BRADLEY E.
Published: October 2007

It is becoming increasingly common (at least in the United States) for doctors to appeal to futility judgments as the basis for certain types of clinical decisions, such as the decision to withhold CPR. The clinical use of futility judgments raises two basic questions regarding futility. First, how is the concept of futility to be understood? Secondly, once we have a clearer understanding of futility, what role should determinations of futility play in clinical decision‐making? Much of the discussion about the concept of futility has centered on the value‐ladenness of futility judgments. I argue that futility determinations need to be distinguished from two other types of value‐based judgments, namely, identification of the goals of treatment and treatment decisions based on an assessment of the benefits and burdens of treatment. If this distinction is sound, it suggests a very limited role for futility determinations in clinical decisionmaking, a role which should serve to promote communication between doctor and patient.
WOMEN AND AIDS: THE ETHICS OF EXAGGERATED HARM
Authors: MERTZ† DAVID , SUSHINSKY† MARY ANN , SCHÜKLENK UDO
Published: October 2007

This article examines the way in which some biomedical ethicists have constructed sexually transmitted AIDS as a significant threat to women's health. We demonstrate that the familiar claim that‘women are the fastest growing group'— whether of HIV‐infected or of AIDS patients — is misleading because it obscures the distinction between proportional rate of growth and absolute increase. Feminist ethicists have suggested that misogyny of a male dominated health care system has led to underreporting of women AIDS cases in order to support these feminists’claim of AIDS being a real threat to women's health. Given the apparent rarity of tertiary transmissions of AIDS, the assertion that most or even many women are at significant risk for AIDS seem wrong. Particularly disturbing in this campaign is the fact that the theme of‘risky sex’has been extended all the way to lesbians, even though their risk to acquire AIDS sexually is non‐existent to minuscule. We argue that actual harm is done to women by this exaggeration of their risk of contracting AIDS sexually. The scare has led to misappropriations of scarce health care funds. AIDS disproportionately affects women who inject drugs, and who suffer other diseases, poverty and malnutrition. It would have been better to concentrate health care efforts in this area instead of‘educating’women not at risk for AIDS how to prevent the acquisition of this disease. Unjustifiable AIDS anxiety has been created in women and has resulted in millions of unnecessary HIV‐tests, and many broken relationships. This anxiety has inevitably reduced the pleasure of having sex for many women. We reject the kind of‘victim ideology’that lies at the heart of this strategy which has, unfortunately, been supported by a number of influential feminist ethicists.
BIOETHICS: AN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE
Authors: TANGWA GODFREY B.
Published: October 2007

In this paper I have attempted to open a window on an African approach to Bioethics — that of the Nso’of the Bamenda Highlands of Kamerun—from the vantage position of someone who has familiarity with both African and Western cultures. Because of its scientific‐cum‐technological sophistication and its proselytising character, Western culture, as well as Western systems of thought and practice, have greatly affected and influenced other cultures, particularly African culture. But Western culture, systems of thought and practice, have been higly impervious and immune to influences from other cultures, philosophies, systems of thought and practice, even where these might have been salutary and enriching to Western culture and systems. What I have here termed Nso’eco‐bio‐communitarianism clearly indicates a viable alternative world‐view within which some of the bioethical perplexities and controversies of today might be more satisfactorily resolved than within a Western framework. I have further attempted to show, by way of example, how, within such a world‐view, abortion and suicide, for instance, would be disapproved of while euthanasia, in its etymological purity, is approved of.
COMMUNITY AND JUSTICE: THE CHALLENGES OF BICULTURAL PARTNERSHIP TO POLICY ON ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY
Authors: NICHOLAS BARBARA
Published: October 2007

Listening to other cultures offers challenges to our fundamental assumptions and world views. In New zealand public policy on Assisted Reproductive Technology (AR T) is being worked out in a society committed to the development of bicultural partnership honouring the Treaty of Waitangi, a treaty with the indigenous people.

Strong claims to the cultural significance of genetic heritage by Maori have made apparent to non‐Maori (Pakeha) their own assumptions. These claims also resist reductive understandings of genetics.

In this paper I review, as a Pakeha ethicist, initiatives taken in New zealand, and the impact of bicultural development on public policy on ART. I also discuss some of the issues this raises for western bioethics as it relates to non‐western approaches and include reference to the significance of genetic heritage as it is affecting guidelines for donor insemination and surrogacy.