Catholic Dioceses in Bankruptcy

The Catholic Church is coping with mass tort liability for sexual abuse of children by priests. Since 2004, eighteen Catholic organizations have filed for relief in bankruptcy. Fifteen debtors emerged from bankruptcy after settling with sexual abuse claimants and insurers. During settlement negotiations, sexual abuse claimants and debtors clashed over the extent of the debtors’ property and ability to pay claims. Although such disputes are common in chapter 11 plan negotiations, the Catholic cases required the parties and bankruptcy courts to account for unique religious attributes of Catholic debtors. This article reviews the arguments and outcomes on property issues based on reported decisions, pleadings, plans, and disclosure statements. It explains the key characteristics of Catholic dioceses under canon and secular organization law and the bankruptcy contexts in which these characteristics became hot button issues. It offers an analysis of the legacy of the Catholic cases for bankruptcy law, religious liberty, and for the relationships among entities within a Catholic diocese

A Paradigm for Sexual Harassment: Toward the Optimal Level of Loss

This article proposes a paradigm that draws from the common-law rule of negligence. It defines actionable sexual conduct in the workplace in terms of the cost of precautionary conduct and the increased safety such precaution would have yielded. Like the rule of negligence, the proposed paradigm creates incentives for men and women to take steps to prevent sexual conduct loss to the point at which the cost of an additional increment of precaution is equal to the value of the reduction in risk of loss. This point is the optimal level of precaution. After this point, additional precaution might further reduce sexual conduct loss, but the cost of such precaution would outweigh the resulting benefit

A Paradigm for Sexual Harassment: Toward the Optimal Level of Loss

The emerging law of sexual harassment has focused discussion on the political, sociological, and legal issues surrounding sexual conduct. Some commentators have argued that the developing law insufficiently addresses an underlying political imbalance between men and women. Although these commentators eschew sexual harassment law as a plausible means of achieving an egalitarian, sex-blind society, they offer few concrete suggestions for reaching their goal. A few scholars have taken a position at the other extreme, that sexual harassment is more or less a chimera, and that the injury women claim to experience is simply part of the vicissitudes of life, or, in the case of workplace harassment, of their employment bargain. Sexual harassment, however defined, is an unusual social problem in that one group of people engage in the challenged conduct and another group bears the loss, with virtually no overlap. The groups are easily identified as men and women. Commentators have explained the phenomenon as evidence of the subordination of women by men.\u27 The insular quality of the groups and the political imbalance between them has prompted some commentators to draw the conclusion that sexual harassment should be addressed as part of global social policy, not as an issue of allocation of loss among individuals

The International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC): a functional catalogue of the mammalian genome that informs conservation.

The International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC) is building a catalogue of mammalian gene function by producing and phenotyping a knockout mouse line for every protein-coding gene. To date, the IMPC has generated and characterised 5186 mutant lines. One-third of the lines have been found to be non-viable and over 300 new mouse models of human disease have been identified thus far. While current bioinformatics efforts are focused on translating results to better understand human disease processes, IMPC data also aids understanding genetic function and processes in other species. Here we show, using gorilla genomic data, how genes essential to development in mice can be used to help assess the potentially deleterious impact of gene variants in other species. This type of analyses could be used to select optimal breeders in endangered species to maintain or increase fitness and avoid variants associated to impaired-health phenotypes or loss-of-function mutations in genes of critical importance. We also show, using selected examples from various mammal species, how IMPC data can aid in the identification of candidate genes for studying a condition of interest, deliver information about the mechanisms involved, or support predictions for the function of genes that may play a role in adaptation. With genotyping costs decreasing and the continued improvements of bioinformatics tools, the analyses we demonstrate can be routinely applied

Design and methods of a longitudinal study investigating the impact of antiretroviral treatment on the partnerships and sexual behaviour of HIV-infected individuals in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

BACKGROUND: Diagnosed HIV-infected people form an increasingly large sub-population in South Africa, one that will continue to grow with widely promoted HIV testing and greater availability of antiretroviral therapy (ART). For HIV prevention and support, understanding the impact of long-term ART on family and sexual relationships is a health research priority. This includes improving the availability of longitudinal demographic and health data on HIV-infected individuals who have accessed ART services but who are not yet ART-eligible.DESIGN AND METHODS: The aim of the study is to investigate the impact of ART on family and partner relationships, and sexual behaviour of HIV-infected individuals accessing a public HIV treatment and care programme in rural South Africa. HIV-infected men and women aged 18 years or older attending three clinics are screened. Those people initiating ART because they meet the criteria of WHO stage 4 or CD4 ? 200 cells/?L are assigned to an 'ART initiator' group. A 'Monitoring' group is composed of people whose most recent CD4 count was >500 cells/?L and are therefore, not yet eligible for ART. During the four-year study, data on both groups is collected every 6 months during clinic visits, or where necessary by home visits or phone. Detailed information is collected on social, demographic and health characteristics including living arrangements, past and current partnerships, sexual behaviour, HIV testing and disclosure, stigma, self-efficacy, quality of family and partner relationships, fertility and fertility intentions, ART knowledge and attitudes, and gender norms. Recruitment for both groups started in January 2009. As of October 2010, 600 participants have been enrolled; 386 in the ART initiator group (141, 37% male) and 214 in the Monitoring group (31, 14% male). Recruitment remains open for the Monitoring group.DISCUSSION: The data collected in this study will provide valuable information for measuring the impact of ART on sexual behaviour, and for the planning and delivery of appropriate interventions to promote family and partner support, and safe sexual behaviour for people living with HIV in this setting and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa