Children’s Health in a Legal Framework

The interdisciplinary periodical Future of Children has dedicated an issue to children’s health policy. This contribution to the issue maps the legal landscape influencing policy choices. The authors demonstrate that in the U.S. legal system, parents have robust rights, grounded in the Constitution, to make decisions concerning their children’s health and medical treatment. Following from its commitment to parental rights, the system typically assumes the interests of parents and children are aligned, even when that assumption seems questionable. Thus, for example, parents who would limit their children’s access to health care on the basis of the parents’ religious belief have considerable latitude to do so, unless the child’s life is imminently threatened. There are some exceptions to this legal regime. Adolescents have the right to obtain some health services independently; in these contexts, social welfare needs such as pregnancy prevention trump parental rights. Minors also have access to abortion (although this right is more restricted than for adults). Moreover, the state has the power to intervene when parents place their children’s health at risk through abuse or neglect. A hallmark feature of the legal regime based on parental rights is that the state has no affirmative obligation to help parents care for their children’s health needs. This libertarian framing of the family-state relationship has profound implications for the development of public policy. To the extent the state provides support for families and children, it is doing so as a matter of policy choice (as with Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program) and not enforceable legal obligation. The importance of family autonomy thus results in a weak conception of shared responsibility for children. The framework also means that the state often takes a reactive approach to child wellbeing, intervening primarily when families have broken down or parents have seriously defaulted on their duties. Appreciation of the legal framework underscores the need to develop political support for any initiative to improve health services for children. Often, as this article shows, the state intervenes to promote children’s health only in response to compelling social welfare needs such as crime or disease prevention, or to crises in which parents abuse their children or fail to provide adequate care

Introduction: what’s new about gender inequalities in the 21st century?

Both women and men strive to achieve a work and family balance, but does this imply more or less equality? Does the persistence of gender and class inequalities refute the notion that lives are becoming more individualised? This book documents how gender inequalities are changing and how many inequalities of earlier eras are being eradicated

Do lemurs know when they could be wrong? An investigation of information seeking in three species of lemur (<i>Lemur catta, Eulemur rubriventer, </i>and<i> Varecia variegata</i>)

Sixteen lemurs, including representatives from three species (Lemur catta, Eulemur rubriventer, Varecia variegata), were presented with a food seeking task where information about the rewards location, in one of two plastic tubes, was either known or not known. We evaluated whether lemurs would first look into the tube prior to making a choice. This information-seeking task aimed to assess whether subjects would display memory awareness, seeking additional information when they became aware they lacked knowledge of the rewards location. We predicted lemurs would be more likely to look into the tube when they had insufficient knowledge about the rewards position. Lemurs successfully gained the reward on most trials. However, they looked on the majority of trials regardless of whether they had all the necessary information to make a correct choice. The minimal cost to looking may have resulted in checking behaviour both to confirm what they already knew and to gain knowledge they did not have. When the cost of looking increased (elevating end of tube requiring additional energy expenditure to look inside - Experiment 2), lemurs still looked into tubes on both seen and unseen trials; however, the frequency of looking increased when opaque tubes were used (where they could not see the rewards location after baiting). This could suggest they checked more when they were less sure of their knowledge state

Particles and Waves: Poetic Responses to Place - Psycho-geography and/as practice

Utilising a range of psychogeographic practices, this project comprises a hybrid creative response to the natural landscape of West Wales, using the River Towy as a focal point. It is concerned with an exploration of the importance of identity, and with themes of the spiritual, land, gender, culture and history. The work’s originality results from the application of predominantly male urban writing practices in a rural Welsh environment from a woman’s standpoint. The journey recounted in the creative piece is understood essentially as a transformative, personal process of a transcendental nature, whilst also exploring and depicting the nature of the differing stages of the river and those who live in or come to the specific locations, including Carmarthen, the Cambrian Mountains, Llandeilo, Llandovery, and Llansteffan. It is informed by the belief that some places are imbued with energies that may cause specific types of human interaction and responses. The project was developed through investigative visits to predetermined sites at significant positions and with notable histories, in order to ascertain and record what might be felt, observed and experienced, leading to site-specific writing. It is formally diverse, including short essays, prose and poetry of various kinds, the use of found texts. It is presented as a ‘scrapbook’ and makes creative use of the interplay between text and image. The multi-layered approach assumes that myths, fiction and fact are all of equal importance and intuitive skills are acknowledged as essential. The work, thus, is informed by recent developments in psychogeography, i.e. ‘mythogeography’ or ‘deep topography’. The writing is experimental and influenced by the zeitgeist preference for abbreviated/truncated writing. The methodologies of this practice-based project include autoethnographic responses and an exploration of psychogeographic literature and practice. The creative piece is supported by a wide and deep contextual background, which has informed its development

What It’s Like to Ride a Bike: Understanding Cyclist Experiences

Cyclists can make important contributions to transport policy, if only we ask them. This thesis explores how people experience cycling in three case study cities – Perth, Melbourne and Utrecht. Cyclists were recruited for semi-structured and go-along interviews. The key findings indicate that the combination of traditional and mobile methods yield valuable information for developing understandings of the embodied experience of cycling, which can be used to inform policy and guide the creation of sustainable cities

The influence of serial carbohydrate mouth rinsing on power output during a cycle sprint

The objective of the study was to investigate the influence of serial administration of a carbohydrate (CHO) mouth rinse on performance, metabolic and perceptual responses during a cycle sprint. Twelve physically active males (mean (± SD) age: 23.1 (3.0) years, height: 1.83 (0.07) m, body mass (BM): 86.3 (13.5) kg) completed the following mouth rinse trials in a randomized, counterbalanced, double-blind fashion; 1. 8 x 5 second rinses with a 25 ml CHO (6% w/v maltodextrin) solution, 2. 8 x 5 second rinses with a 25 ml placebo (PLA) solution. Following mouth rinse administration, participants completed a 30 second sprint on a cycle ergometer against a 0.075 g·kg-1 BM resistance. Eight participants achieved a greater peak power output (PPO) in the CHO trial, resulting in a significantly greater PPO compared with PLA (13.51 ± 2.19 vs. 13.20 ± 2. 14 W·kg-1, p &lt; 0.05). Magnitude inference analysis reported a likely benefit (81% likelihood) of the CHO mouth rinse on PPO. In the CHO trial, mean power output (MPO) showed a trend for being greater in the first 5 seconds of the sprint and lower for the remainder of the sprint compared with the PLA trial (p &gt; 0.05). No significant between-trials difference was reported for fatigue index, perceived exertion, arousal and nausea levels, or blood lactate and glucose concentrations. Serial administration of a CHO mouth rinse may significantly improve PPO during a cycle sprint. This improvement appears confined to the first 5 seconds of the sprint, and may come at a greater relative cost for the remainder of the sprint

The Enduring Importance of Parental Rights

Parental rights are—and should remain—the backbone of family law. State deference to parents is warranted not because parents are infallible, nor because parents own their children, but rather because parental rights, properly understood and limited, promote child wellbeing.1 This is true for several reasons, but two stand out. First, parental rights promote the stability of the parent-child relationship by restricting the state’s authority to intervene in families. This protection promotes healthy child development for all children, and it is especially important for low-income families and families of color, who are subject to intensive state scrutiny.2 Second, parental rights ensure that parents, rather than a private third party or state actor such as a judge or social worker, make decisions about what advances a child’s interests. The legal system defers to parents’ decisions both because parents are well positioned to know what an individual child needs, and because state intervention to vindicate the decision-making power of a nonparent would expose the child to significant risks of family disruption and contentious litigation.

Flipping Flop?: Can Guest Lecturers Use the Flipped Classroom Format

Presentation from the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction 2013 Conference for Law School Computing This session examined the “flipped classroom” teaching model through the point of view of the ad hoc or guest lecture, addressing the unique challenges in that context. The potential merits of the “flipped classroom” teaching approach for traditional courses with multiple class meetings are well-documented. For a guest lecturer already faced with limited in-class time, the flipped classroom may be particularly intriguing because technology transfers much of the content out of the classroom, allowing the instructor to use classroom time for collaborative exercises and practical applications. Despite those benefits, a guest lecture faces unique challenges that may limit the effectiveness of the flipped teaching model, such as limited ability to explain the format ahead of time or get student buy-in. Presenters share their own experiences using the flipped classroom format to teach upper level legal research lectures in ad hoc sessions. Using these experiences as a case study, presenters discuss the benefits and potential pitfalls of attempting the flipped classroom approach as a guest lecturer, as well as the logistics and technologies used to implement this increasingly popular teaching model. To view this file, download the free Prezi software

Flipping Flop?: Can Guest Lecturers Use the Flipped Classroom Format

Presentation from the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction 2013 Conference for Law School Computing This session examined the “flipped classroom” teaching model through the point of view of the ad hoc or guest lecture, addressing the unique challenges in that context. The potential merits of the “flipped classroom” teaching approach for traditional courses with multiple class meetings are well-documented. For a guest lecturer already faced with limited in-class time, the flipped classroom may be particularly intriguing because technology transfers much of the content out of the classroom, allowing the instructor to use classroom time for collaborative exercises and practical applications. Despite those benefits, a guest lecture faces unique challenges that may limit the effectiveness of the flipped teaching model, such as limited ability to explain the format ahead of time or get student buy-in. Presenters share their own experiences using the flipped classroom format to teach upper level legal research lectures in ad hoc sessions. Using these experiences as a case study, presenters discuss the benefits and potential pitfalls of attempting the flipped classroom approach as a guest lecturer, as well as the logistics and technologies used to implement this increasingly popular teaching model. To view this file, download the free Prezi software

Conceptualizing Legal Childhood in the Twenty-First Century

The law governing children is complex, sometimes appearing almost incoherent. The relatively simple framework established in the Progressive Era, in which parents had primary authority over children, subject to limited state oversight, has broken down over the past few decades. Lawmakers started granting children some adult rights and privileges, raising questions about their traditional status as vulnerable, dependent, and legally incompetent beings. As children emerged as legal persons, children’s rights advocates challenged the rationale for parental authority, contending that robust parental rights often harm children. And a wave of punitive reforms in response to juvenile crime in the 1990s undermined the state’s long-standing role as the protector of children. We address this seeming incoherence by identifying a deep structure and logic in the regulation of children that is becoming clear in the twenty-first century. In our conceptual framework, the law’s central goal, across multiple legal domains, is to promote child wellbeing. This unifying purpose has roots in the Progressive Era, but three distinct characteristics distinguish the modern approach. Today, lawmakers advance child wellbeing with greater confidence and success by drawing on a wide body of research on child and adolescent development and the efficacy of related policies. This is bolstered by the clear understanding that promoting child wellbeing generally furthers social welfare, leading to a broader base of support for state policies and legal doctrines. Finally, there is a growing recognition that the regulation of children and families has long been tainted by racial and class bias and that a new commitment to minimizing these pernicious influences is essential to both the legitimacy and fairness of the regime. In combination, these features make the contemporary regulatory framework superior to earlier approaches. Rather than pitting the state, parents, and child in competition for control over children’s lives—the conception of family regulation since the 1960s—our Child Wellbeing framework offers a surprisingly integrated regulatory approach. Properly understood, parental rights and children’s rights, as well as the direct role of the state in children’s lives, are increasingly defined and unified by a research-driven, social-welfare-regarding effort to promote child wellbeing. This normatively attractive conceptualization of legal childhood does not define every area of legal regulation, but it is a strong through-line and should be elevated and embraced more broadly. In short, our framework brings coherence to the complex legal developments of the past half-century and provides guidance moving forward for this critical area of the law