Inescapable Decisions

The main ethical principle in prenatal testing is the autonomous decision of the pregnant woman concerned. However, recent developments in prenatal testing undermine this model. The overall number of invasive prenatal examinations has dropped significantly. Yet, the amount of pathologic results has increased. Due to the improvement in ultrasound diagnostics the predictability of possible disabilities or diseases of the unborn child has increased substantially. As a result of this pregnant women can take the decision whether or not to undergo invasive prenatal examinations on the basis of personal risk "evidence" produced earlier on by means of non-invasive screening. It can be questioned, how autonomous decisions can be if they are increasingly pre-informed through upstream riskassessments on the basis of non-invasive screening. Particularly ultrasound screening is often carried out without thorough counselling and sometimes even without consent. The concept of autonomy is difficult to uphold if women do not deliberately decide whether to undergo non-invasive screening, but the moment of such a deliberate decision comes only after positive screening results. Taking into account that public discourses have rather focused on other aspects of genetic or reproductive technologies such as stem cell research or pre-implantation diagnosis it is important to analyse how technological innovations transform medical practices without a re-articulation on a discursive level as I will try to show in this paper for the case of prenatal testing

Regional and cross-sectoral approaches to library provision

The organisation of libraries and their suppliers fails to recognize the cross-sectoral and regional approaches to information provision by many of their users. Co-operation between sectors is the inescapable way forward

Universality is Inescapable

This paper argues that universal classification systems – that is, systems that are general in coverage – are necessary in an era that values interoperability. Such systems have numerous other advantages. Questions regarding the feasibility of such KOSs can only be addressed empirically. The paper outlines avenues for empirical exploration

The Inescapable Global Security Arena

The author outlines the violent characteristics of the new security-stability environment and briefly examines the problem of terrorism and the related problem of governance. Then he analyzes the complex threat and response situation and outlines a multidimensional response to these problems. Finally, he enumerates some civil-military implications for playing effectively in the contemporary global security arena. His recommendations focus on the interagency and the military in general, and the U.S. Army in particular.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1823/thumbnail.jp

Why Doha Is Inescapable

The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) ran into rough weather in Miami last November. The patchwork deal to let countries go in different directions on several issues, as each FTAA member might fancy its interests to lie in, was little more than a face-saving formula. But if one looks closely at the face, it is evident that USTR Zoellick’s love affair with the strategy of going bilateral and regional, both as desirable in itself (when many see these proliferating deals as a pox on the world trading system) and as a strategic means to spur multilateralism (when in fact many regard it as harming it), had floundered

Effects of Prior and Interpolated Shock Exposures on Subsequent Escape/Avoidance Conditioning with Goldfish

The relationship between inescapable shocks and subsequent escape/avoidance learning was first deomonstrated by Overmier and Seligman (1967). They found that dogs exposed to inescapable electric shock, while restrained in a harness, later failed to learn to escape shock in a two way shuttle box where escape was possible. Ninety goldfish were randomly assigned to one of five groups (N=18 per group). Ninety fish were tested in a Lafayette Aquatic Unit A-660 type shuttle tank. There are four independent variables in this study. The first independent variable is the presence of prior inescapable shock. The second independent variable is the level of shock intensity, 6V vs. 10V. The third independent variable is the amount of delay of subsequent conditioning, 1 hour vs. no delay. The fourth independent variable is the presence of interpolated shock. All subjects, except group 1 which did not receive prior inescapable electric shock, were treated with both prior and interpolated inescapable electric shock to assess the effects on subsequent escape/avoidance performance. Prior inescapable shock caused a significant reduction in all measures of performance. When inescapable shock immediately preceded conditioning measures based on both escapes and avoidances were significant. The level of shock intensity interacted with the amount of delay of subsequent conditioning. The presence of interpolated shock produced a significant decrement in performance for the 53 fish in the last phase of the study