O zborniku Človekovo dostojanstvo in bioetika

Pred dobrim letom dni je svet za bioetiko tedanjega predsednika ZDA izdal zbornik esejev različnih avtorjev, katerih cilj je analizirati pomen in vlogo človekovega dostojanstva v sodobnih bioetiških razpravah. Čeprav knjiga vsebuje nekaj pomembnih izvirnih prispevkov, pa je vtis zbornika kot celote precej skažen zaradi nesorazmernega poudarjanja verskih (predvsem krščanskih) razlag izvora koncepta dostojanstva ter njegove vloge pri spornih temah s področij sodobne medicine in biotehnologije.The last publication of the President’s Council for Bioethics, Human Dignity and Bioethics, is a compilation of essays written by authors whose aim it was to analyze the role of human dignity in controversial bioethical debates. Despite some important contributions, the impression of the collection as a whole is tainted by a disproportional presence of religious accounts regarding the sources of the concept of dignity and their implications for controversial topics in bioethics. I single out a few contributions that I find worthwhile (notably those provided by professors Martha Nussbaum, Daniel Dennett, Patricia Churchland, Susan Shell, Rebecca Dresser, and Edmund Pellegrino), but I conclude that even these essays don’t help shake the sense that the collection is devoted too much to the discussions of the possibility of secular ethics (and thus secular understanding of bioethics); the result is that this volume, with a few notable exceptions, offers much too little on its professed topic: the meaning and the role of the concept of human dignity with respect to ethical issues in modern medicine and biotechnology

Dostojanstvo: avtonomija ali omejitev?

Stéphanie Hennette-Vauchez v članku A Human Dignitas? utemeljuje genealoško povezavo med starodavnim pravnim principom dignitas in sodobnejšim načelom človeškega dostojanstva, na katerem temeljijo argumenti v prid zakonske prepovedi nekaterih praks, za katere se vpleteni odločijo avtonomno (na primer evtanazija in prostitucija). Pričujoči pregled vsebuje predstavitev in kritično analizo avtoričinega argumenta.In her article »A Human Dignitas?«, Stéphanie Hennette-Vauchez argues in favour of a strong genealogical link between the ancient legal concept dignitas and a more contemporary human dignity principle which is often used in arguments against practices which have been autonomously chosen by those involved (e.g. euthanasia and prostitution). Hennette-Vauchez argues that such constraints cannot be based on the modern conception of dignity, which is understood primarily in terms of autonomy, and therefore she suggests that we look at the legal principle which has been in use since the times of the Roman Empire throughout the medieval era and is still present in some legal documents today. According to this concept, dignitas, the dignity bearer is understood as a mere “temporary repository” of dignity rather than its absolute owner. Hennette-Vauchez argues that we can translate this notion of dignity as a property that can be temporarily borne but never owned, as corresponding to the contemporary understanding which requires to respect dignity not just in others but also in ourselves by refusing to participate in practices and interactions that allegedly diminish human dignity.However, while there are certainly some similarities a comparison of this relatively modern humanistic principle to the ancient dignitas bears many costs. The essential difference between them is the fact that while human dignity today is understood as belonging to all people unconditionally, dignitas was defined essentially as based on inequality and hierarchy and its “ownership” was conditional on the bearer’s conduct and fulfilment of duties required by his specific function – in other words, it was “alienable”. The fact that today dignity is occasionally still understood as depending on contingent properties such as one’s profession or citizenship does not do much to confirm Hennette-Vauchez’s claim that dignitas underlines the modern principle which essentially considers all humans as intrinsically valuable and, above all, deserving of equal respect and consideration. At the end, I suggest that such problems could perhaps be avoided if we relied on much more contemporary principle than dignitas, which nevertheless manages to define dignity as referring to all humans and, at the same time, to ground constraints in terms of inalienable rights and duties to self: the concept of humanity as it has been introduced in Kant’s moral theory

O zborniku Človekovo dostojanstvo in bioetika

Pred dobrim letom dni je svet za bioetiko tedanjega predsednika ZDA izdal zbornik esejev različnih avtorjev, katerih cilj je analizirati pomen in vlogo človekovega dostojanstva v sodobnih bioetiških razpravah. Čeprav knjiga vsebuje nekaj pomembnih izvirnih prispevkov, pa je vtis zbornika kot celote precej skažen zaradi nesorazmernega poudarjanja verskih (predvsem krščanskih) razlag izvora koncepta dostojanstva ter njegove vloge pri spornih temah s področij sodobne medicine in biotehnologije.The last publication of the President’s Council for Bioethics, Human Dignity and Bioethics, is a compilation of essays written by authors whose aim it was to analyze the role of human dignity in controversial bioethical debates. Despite some important contributions, the impression of the collection as a whole is tainted by a disproportional presence of religious accounts regarding the sources of the concept of dignity and their implications for controversial topics in bioethics. I single out a few contributions that I find worthwhile (notably those provided by professors Martha Nussbaum, Daniel Dennett, Patricia Churchland, Susan Shell, Rebecca Dresser, and Edmund Pellegrino), but I conclude that even these essays don’t help shake the sense that the collection is devoted too much to the discussions of the possibility of secular ethics (and thus secular understanding of bioethics); the result is that this volume, with a few notable exceptions, offers much too little on its professed topic: the meaning and the role of the concept of human dignity with respect to ethical issues in modern medicine and biotechnology

Etika vrlin, moralne dileme in abortus

Etika vrlin si v zadnjih nekaj desetletjih skuša izboriti enakopravno mesto poleg deontologije in utilitarizma, dveh osrednjih filozofskih moralnih teorij. Rosalind Hursthouse, ena najvidnejših predstavnic etike vrlin, zagovarja tezo, da lahko ta teorija usmerja in vrednoti posameznikovo ravnanje prav tako zanesljivo in dosledno kot njeni tekmici. Še več, Hursthousova trdi, da lahko etika vrlin nudi napotke za etično ravnanje celo v situacijah, ki jim ostale moralne teorije niso kos; to naj bi bilo očitno predvsem v primerih mučnih moralnih dilem, torej dilem, kjer mora posameznik izbrati med dvema ali več moralno spornimi dejanji. Hursthousova obravnava nekaj primerov mučnih moralnih dilem, med katerimi se najbolj posveti odločitvam v zvezi s prekinitvijo nosečnosti. Namen tega članka je kritična analiza dejanske zmožnosti etike vrlin pri usmerjanju ravnanja v takšnih situacijah.The claim that virtue ethics is in an inferior position when compared to other leading normative moral theories is still widespread, and the main charge against the theory is that it cannot provide reliable action guidance. In her book On Virtue Ethics, Rosalind Hursthouse provides an account of the right action according to virtue ethics, and argues that it fares no worse than deontology and utilitarianism regarding action guidance. She further specifies how virtue ethics deals with moral dilemmas, and draws a distinction between resolvable and irresolvable dilemmas. She further presents us with the concept of distressing moral dilemmas, where the agent has to choose between two morally problematic actions. Hursthouse argues that distressing moral dilemmas can only be resolved if the agent’s right action (the one that’s less morally problematic than the alternatives) is also accompanied by appropriate moral remainder – that is, appropriate feelings of regret, guilt, a painful examination of options, and an awareness of the moral evil that can be produced even by performing the correct action in the given circumstances. The purpose of this paper is applying Hursthouse’s claims that virtue ethics can offer action guidance in distressing moral dilemmas to her own views on when a pregnant woman’s decision for abortion can be the morally right decision, as long as accompanied with the appropriate moral remainder. I argue that Hursthouse’s own accounts of when abortion is morally acceptable show that virtue ethics really offers no action guidance in such cases, since we can easily imagine that a decision against abortion in all of those cases can be just as morally right as the decision in favor of abortion. I do concede, however, that virtue ethics does offer some guidelines on action assessment that elude other leading moral theories

O zborniku Človekovo dostojanstvo in bioetika

Pred dobrim letom dni je svet za bioetiko tedanjega predsednika ZDA izdal zbornik esejev različnih avtorjev, katerih cilj je analizirati pomen in vlogo človekovega dostojanstva v sodobnih bioetiških razpravah. Čeprav knjiga vsebuje nekaj pomembnih izvirnih prispevkov, pa je vtis zbornika kot celote precej skažen zaradi nesorazmernega poudarjanja verskih (predvsem krščanskih) razlag izvora koncepta dostojanstva ter njegove vloge pri spornih temah s področij sodobne medicine in biotehnologije.The last publication of the President’s Council for Bioethics, Human Dignity and Bioethics, is a compilation of essays written by authors whose aim it was to analyze the role of human dignity in controversial bioethical debates. Despite some important contributions, the impression of the collection as a whole is tainted by a disproportional presence of religious accounts regarding the sources of the concept of dignity and their implications for controversial topics in bioethics. I single out a few contributions that I find worthwhile (notably those provided by professors Martha Nussbaum, Daniel Dennett, Patricia Churchland, Susan Shell, Rebecca Dresser, and Edmund Pellegrino), but I conclude that even these essays don’t help shake the sense that the collection is devoted too much to the discussions of the possibility of secular ethics (and thus secular understanding of bioethics); the result is that this volume, with a few notable exceptions, offers much too little on its professed topic: the meaning and the role of the concept of human dignity with respect to ethical issues in modern medicine and biotechnology

Blogi s področja bibliotekarstva in informacijske znanosti

Splet 2.0 je v zadnjih letih pomembno vplival na hitrejši pretok informacij ter lažjo komunikacijo ljudi. Eno od orodij Spleta 2.0 je tudi blog, ki je zaradi lahkega dostopa in enostavne uporabe postal zelo priljubljen tudi na področju bibliotekarske in informacijske znanosti. Namen magistrskega dela je bila predstavitev nekaterih slovenskih in tujih blogov ter ugotoviti ali obstaja povezava med Google PageRankom in upoštevanjem izbranih meril kakovosti. V raziskavo smo zajeli 8 tujih in 2 slovenska bloga. Primerjali smo objave na blogih v obdobju januar-julij 2015. V raziskavo smo sprva želeli zajeti 4 bloge z najvišjim PageRankom (glede na seznam LIS Wiki), vendar smo kasneje v raziskavi ugotovili, da se je od objave seznama PageRank spremenil. Bloge smo opisovali, primerjali in točkovali v ekspertni študiji. Ugotovili smo, da za te bloge med Google PageRankom in upoštevanjem kriterijev obstaja delna povezanost. Opazili smo še, da se je količina komuniciranja med bralci in blogerji zmanjšala. Knjižničarji bodo morali razmisliti o dodatni promociji ali pa o preoblikovanju svojih blogov.In recent years Web 2.0 has had a significant effect on faster flow of information and communication. A blog is one of the tools of Web 2.0. Thanks to ease of access and simplicity of use it has become very popular in the field of library and information science. The purpose of the master\u27s thesis was to present certain Slovene and foreign blogs and to find out whether there is a link between Google PageRank and our selection of blog\u27s quality criteria. The analysis focuses on eight foreign and two Slovenian blogs. We compared the posts on blogs in the period from January to July 2015. Initially we wanted to include four blogs with the highest PageRank (according to the list of LIS Wiki) but we later found out that PageRank\u27s have changed since this list was published. In an expert study, we have described, compared and evaluated blogs. We have found that there is a moderate correlation between the quality criteria and Google PageRank. We noticed that the amount of communication between readers and bloggers decreased. Librarians will have to think about the additional promotion or the transformation of their blogs

What Are the Ethical Issues Facing Global-Health Trainees Working Overseas? A Multi-Professional Qualitative Study

The aim of this study was to identify global health ethical issues that health professional trainees may encounter during electives or placements in resource-limited countries. We conducted a qualitative study involving focus groups and an interview at the University of California San Francisco. Participants were multi-professional from the Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy and had experience working, or teaching, as providers in resource-limited countries. Eighteen participants provided examples of ethical dilemmas associated with global-health outreach work. Ethical dilemmas fell into four major themes relating to (1) cultural differences (informed consent, truth-telling, autonomy); (2) professional issues (power dynamics, training of local staff, corruption); (3) limited resources (scope of practice, material shortages); (4) personal moral development (dealing with moral distress, establishing a moral compass, humility and self awareness). Three themes (cultural differences, professional issues, limited resources) were grouped under the core category of “external environmental and/or situational issues” that trainees are confronted when overseas. The fourth theme, moral development, refers to the development of a moral compass and the exercise of humility and self-awareness. The study has identified case vignettes that can be used for curriculum content for global-health ethics training

What Are the Ethical Issues Facing Global-Health Trainees Working Overseas? A Multi-Professional Qualitative Study.

The aim of this study was to identify global health ethical issues that health professional trainees may encounter during electives or placements in resource-limited countries. We conducted a qualitative study involving focus groups and an interview at the University of California San Francisco. Participants were multi-professional from the Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy and had experience working, or teaching, as providers in resource-limited countries. Eighteen participants provided examples of ethical dilemmas associated with global-health outreach work. Ethical dilemmas fell into four major themes relating to (1) cultural differences (informed consent, truth-telling, autonomy); (2) professional issues (power dynamics, training of local staff, corruption); (3) limited resources (scope of practice, material shortages); (4) personal moral development (dealing with moral distress, establishing a moral compass, humility and self awareness). Three themes (cultural differences, professional issues, limited resources) were grouped under the core category of "external environmental and/or situational issues" that trainees are confronted when overseas. The fourth theme, moral development, refers to the development of a moral compass and the exercise of humility and self-awareness. The study has identified case vignettes that can be used for curriculum content for global-health ethics training