Study of a Character

Non-fiction by Walter O. Carter

Parents' and children's beliefs and concerns about taking medicines

Editoria

Probability models for the variation in the number of thunderstorm hits per day

Negative binomial distribution as new probability model for representing thunderstorm hit variation per day at Cape Kenned

Agricultural policy implications of biotechnology

Advances in genetic engineering involve more than scientific breakthroughs. Potential economic effects - some possibly undesirable - also need to be considered.biotechnology; agricultural commodities; agricultural policy

SIMULATING BST INTRODUCTION IN CALIFORNIA FOR DAIRY POLICY ANALYSIS

An econometric model is estimated to simulate the impact of introducing bovine somatotropin (BST) on the California dairy industry. Forecasts of 1991-94 milk production and prices without BST are compared to those with BST under the 1990 Farm Bill. The effects are evaluated under a range in assumptions, given the uncertainty about BST's commercial benefits and costs. Results indicate the aggregate returns of BST introduction for California are positive, but small, assuming no adverse consumer reaction.Agricultural and Food Policy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

The Pedagogical Significance of the Bush Stem Cell Policy: A Window into Bioethical Regulation in the United States (President George W. Bush, Fifth Anniversary Essay Collection)

The enormous significance of the Bush stem cell funding policy has been evident since its inception. The announcement of the policy on August 9, 2001 marked the first time a U.S. president had ever taken up a matter of bioethical import as the sole subject of a major national policy address. Indeed, the August 9th speech was the President\u27s first nationally televised policy address of any kind. Since then, the policy has been a constant focus of attention and discussion by political commentators, the print and broadcast media, advocacy organizations, scientists, elected officials, and candidates for all levels of office (including especially the 2004 Democratic nominee for President, Senator John Kerry, who made his opposition to the Bush policy a centerpiece of his domestic campaign, mentioning it explicitly in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention). The biotechnology industry has taken a keen interest in stem cell research as a possible avenue for medical therapies; one study suggests that as of 2002 private sector companies had spent an aggregate of $208 million on research and development of stem cell technologies. In response to the policy, there has been a flurry of state legislation proposed and enacted, with some states affirming and others condemning the Administration\u27s approach. Finally, the great prominence of the national and international debate on human cloning has drawn further attention to the issue of embryonic stem cell research (and by extension, the Bush policy), given that one application of somatic cell nuclear transfer is the production of cloned human embryos from which stem cells may be derived (so-called Therapeutic Cloning). To date, the significance of the Bush stem cell policy has been framed and publicly debated in terms of its practical import: Does it impede the scientific and medical progress that the research seems to promise? Is it adequately protective and respectful of embryonic human life? Aside from its great practical significance, however, the Bush policy is arguably one of the most important recent legal developments for the field of bioethics for an additional reason: its deep pedagogical significance. The Bush policy provides an unparalleled window into the nature and substance of bioethical regulation within the unique framework of the American system of government. And it does so in dramatic fashion, against the backdrop of some of the most enduring and vexing questions in all of bioethics: What is owed to developing human life, and how does this obligation stand in relation to the aim of science to advance knowledge with the ultimate aspiration of alleviating human suffering? Reflecting on the nature and scope of the policy yields insights into a number of crucial matters that are central to the problem of whether and how to govern science and medicine according to bioethical principles. This Essay will briefly explore five areas in which the Bush policy is thus instructive: (1) the conceptual understanding of regulation as a legal category; (2) the principles of federalism; (3) the significance of federal funding; (4) the nature of governance according to a particular type of moral principle (e.g., bright line); and (5) the influence of political prudence and respect for pluralism. stem cell, zygote, embryo, blastocyst, morula, fetus, cloning, somatic cell nuclear transfer, personhood, regulation, federal funding, federalism, pluralism, pluripotent, totipotent, multipotent, research, Bush, Kerry, bioethics, medical ethics, biotechnology, medicine, science, biolog

Neuroimaging and the Complexity of Capital Punishment

The growing use of brain imaging technology to explore the causes of morally, socially, and legally relevant behavior is the subject of much discussion and controversy in both scholarly and popular circles. From the efforts of cognitive neuroscientists in the courtroom and the public square, the contours of a project to transform capital sentencing both in principle and in practice have emerged. In the short term, these scientists seek to play a role in the process of capital sentencing by serving as mitigation experts for defendants, invoking neuroimaging research on the roots of criminal violence to support their arguments. Over the long term, these same experts (and their like-minded colleagues) hope to appeal to the recent findings of their discipline to embarrass, discredit, and ultimately overthrow retributive justice as a principle of punishment. Taken as a whole, these short- and long-term efforts are ultimately meant to usher in a more compassionate and humane regime for capital defendants. This Article seeks to articulate, analyze, and provide a critique of this project according to the metric of its own humanitarian aspirations. It proceeds by exploring the implications of the project in light of the mechanics of capital sentencing and the heterogeneous array of competing doctrinal rationales in which they are rooted. The Article concludes that the project as currently conceived is internally inconsistent and would, if implemented, result in ironic and tragic consequences, producing a death penalty regime that is even more draconian and less humane than the deeply flawed framework currently in place