Human rights and human nature

Do human rights constitute a new world ethos (Weltethik)? And are these rights one of the few places where general agreement is possible, despite the various divisions which trouble the modern world? Many would say yes, but mainly in the Western World, notwithstanding the growing difference in the interpretation of their content. In other places, however, the question receives different answers and can be controversia!. This occasion suggests a more careful examination of the problem, as we shall soon do. On the contrary it doesn't seem controversia! that, beginning with the declarations of human rights in XVIII century and then in a particularly accelerated manner in our century, the process of their development occurred in three fundamental directions: 1) the growing affirmation of human rights (regarding the human person as such, and civil, political and social rights), and their reception in positive law; 2) their extension, in the sense that new rights relative to the most different areas of human life are introduced; 3) their internationalization - that is, their inclusion in the norms of international law. In spite of the various clouds which are gathering around the issue of human rights, the process just described establishes a positive direction in history, in which person's dignity has been better understood and the arbitrary pretences of power limite

La bioetica alla ricerca dei principi: la persona

Ad una considerazione obiettiva la attuale condizione della bioetica e dei suoi problemi, nonostante i1 convergere su di essa di tante ricerche e attenzioni, non puo non apparire alquanto precaria perla difficolta a fare emergere "evidenze etiche" (e prima ancora metafisiche) condivise e per la propensione di numerose corren ti a non affrontare l'interrogativo sul senso e sulla vita, nel quale non si puo fare a meno di un atteggiamento meditante e contemplativo rivolto all'essere. Anche l'urgenza di trovare soluzioni ai dilemmi morali, suscitati in misura crescente dal progredire di tecnologie miranti ad un integrale potere di disposizione sulla vita, ha il suo peso nell'indirizzare a elaborazioni precipitose. Cío che appare in questione non sono tanto o in primo luogo le risposte a singoli problemi, ma il significato stesso dell'impresa etica nella vita umana. Emerge tuttora in maniera vivida che cosa sia per noi la morale, quale "luogo" del bene e della liberta? Oppure i1 suo significato si e a tal punto ridotto da venir considerata quale strumento di regolazione sociale ai fini di regolamentare le reciproche tensioni e pervenire al benessere? In questo caso !'apertura all'altro risulterebbe rimpiazzata da una soggettivita autocentrata e la dedizione al bene colpita

A Search for Pulsed and Bursty Radio Emission from X-ray Dim Isolated Neutron Stars

We have carried out a search for radio emission from six X-ray dim isolated neutron stars (XDINSs) observed with the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Radio Telescope (GBT) at 820 MHz. No bursty or pulsed radio emission was found down to a 4sigma significance level. The corresponding flux limit is 0.01-0.04 mJy depending on the integration time for the particular source and pulse duty cycle of 2%. These are the most sensitive limits yet on radio emission from these objects.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, to be appeared in the Proceedings of the conference "40 Years of Pulsars: Millisecond Pulsars, Magnetars, and More" held on August 12-17, 2007, McGill University, Montreal, Canad

Point X-ray sources in the SNR G 315.4-2.30 (MSH 14-63, RCW 86)

We report the results of a search for a point X-ray source (stellar remnant) in the southwest protrusion of the supernova remnant G 315.4-2.30 (MSH 14-63, RCW 86) using the archival data of the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The search was motivated by a hypothesis that G 315.4-2.30 is the result of an off-centered cavity supernova explosion of a moving massive star, which ended its evolution just near the edge of the main-sequence wind-driven bubble. This hypothesis implies that the southwest protrusion in G 315.4-2.30 is the remainder of a pre-existing bow shock-like structure created by the interaction of the supernova progenitor's wind with the interstellar medium and that the actual location of the supernova blast center is near the center of this hemispherical structure. We have discovered two point X-ray sources in the "proper" place. One of the sources has an optical counterpart with the photographic magnitude $13.38\pm0.40$, while the spectrum of the source can be fitted with an optically thin plasma model. We interpret this source as a foreground active star of late spectral type. The second source has no optical counterpart to a limiting magnitude $\sim 21$. The spectrum of this source can be fitted almost equally well with several simple models (power law: photon index $=1.87$; two-temperature blackbody: $kT_1 =0.11$ keV, $R_1 =2.34$ km and $kT_2 =0.71$ keV, $R_2 =0.06$ km; blackbody plus power law: $kT =0.07$ keV, photon index $=2.3$). We interpret this source as a candidate stellar remnant (neutron star), while the photon index and non-thermal luminosity of the source (almost the same as those of the Vela pulsar and the recently discovered pulsar PSR J 0205+6449 in the supernova remnant 3C 58) suggest that it can be a young "ordinary" pulsar.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures,revised version accepted for publication in A&