By Olga Khazan
The Atlantic
Originally posted April 7, 2015
Here is an excerpt:
The numbers are even more stark when parsed by gender: 55 percent of male inmates in state prisons are mentally ill, but 73 percent of female inmates are. Meanwhile, the think-tank writes, "only one in three state prisoners and one in six jail inmates who suffer from mental-health problems report having received mental-health treatment since admission."
An increasingly popular program might help thin the ranks of these sick, untreated inmates. What are known as "mental-health courts" have sprung up in a number of states as an alternative to incarceration. A shoplifter who has, say, schizophrenia might be screened and found eligible for mental-health court, and then be sentenced to judicially supervised treatment. These types of courts have expanded rapidly since 2000, and there are now hundreds around the country.
The entire article is here.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Guatemalans deliberately infected with STDs sue Johns Hopkins
By Oliver Laughland
The Guardian
Originally posted April 2, 2015
Nearly 800 plaintiffs have launched a billion-dollar lawsuit against Johns Hopkins University over its alleged role in the deliberate infection of hundreds of vulnerable Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases, including syphilis and gonorrhea, during a medical experiment programme in the 1940s and 1950s.
The lawsuit, which also names the philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation, alleges that both institutions helped “design, support, encourage and finance” the experiments by employing scientists and physicians involved in the tests, which were designed to ascertain if penicillin could prevent the diseases.
The entire article is here.
The Guardian
Originally posted April 2, 2015
Nearly 800 plaintiffs have launched a billion-dollar lawsuit against Johns Hopkins University over its alleged role in the deliberate infection of hundreds of vulnerable Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases, including syphilis and gonorrhea, during a medical experiment programme in the 1940s and 1950s.
The lawsuit, which also names the philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation, alleges that both institutions helped “design, support, encourage and finance” the experiments by employing scientists and physicians involved in the tests, which were designed to ascertain if penicillin could prevent the diseases.
The entire article is here.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Ways to Build Strong Ethical Cultures
By Keith Darcy
Risk and Compliance Journal
Here is an excerpt:
Not surprisingly, the group found strong support for the idea that culture needs top-down support and bottom-up buy-in. Senior managers need to be confident that in addition to following the letter of the law, the people they manage “get” the larger aim of a compliance and ethics initiative. That makes them more responsive to the necessary coaching and training. As for top leaders, one compliance panelist shared, “I view sales as a big part of my job. I have to sell senior management on why this is important—why they have to do this. I don’t expect them to know every rule, policy and procedure, but if they can more easily identify values, and make decisions based upon those values, we have a better chance to avoid a disaster.” Another executive added the importance of the tone at the top, “You have to show people the way. If it’s not important to senior leadership, it’s not important to the third level down.”
The entire article is here.
Risk and Compliance Journal
Here is an excerpt:
Not surprisingly, the group found strong support for the idea that culture needs top-down support and bottom-up buy-in. Senior managers need to be confident that in addition to following the letter of the law, the people they manage “get” the larger aim of a compliance and ethics initiative. That makes them more responsive to the necessary coaching and training. As for top leaders, one compliance panelist shared, “I view sales as a big part of my job. I have to sell senior management on why this is important—why they have to do this. I don’t expect them to know every rule, policy and procedure, but if they can more easily identify values, and make decisions based upon those values, we have a better chance to avoid a disaster.” Another executive added the importance of the tone at the top, “You have to show people the way. If it’s not important to senior leadership, it’s not important to the third level down.”
The entire article is here.
Aristotle on 'Flourishing'
How to live a good life? Aristotle’s answer was live virtuously: do what a virtuous person would do.
Learn more about Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics explained how to flourish.
Narrated by Stephen Fry. Scripted by Nigel Warburton. Originally published 30 March 2015.
Learn more about Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics explained how to flourish.
Narrated by Stephen Fry. Scripted by Nigel Warburton. Originally published 30 March 2015.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
The Autism Paradox
Kathleen K. Miller
AMA Journal of Ethics. April 2015, Volume 17, Number 4: 297-298
Through the process of researching this issue, I became fascinated with recent research on neurodiversity as it applies to autism. To oversimplify vastly, neurodiversity is the idea that neurological differences (including autism) are the result of normal variation. In other words, we may be creating pathology where there is none. Should we consider autism a disease? Or is it a variation of normal? This question has been the source of heated debate, with many autism advocates arguing that autism should not be considered a disease or disorder.
As a pediatrician, this is a question I struggle with. I support autism advocacy and the rights of people with autism. I believe we need to adjust our mental framework and see people with autism as more than their diagnoses.
The entire article is here.
AMA Journal of Ethics. April 2015, Volume 17, Number 4: 297-298
Through the process of researching this issue, I became fascinated with recent research on neurodiversity as it applies to autism. To oversimplify vastly, neurodiversity is the idea that neurological differences (including autism) are the result of normal variation. In other words, we may be creating pathology where there is none. Should we consider autism a disease? Or is it a variation of normal? This question has been the source of heated debate, with many autism advocates arguing that autism should not be considered a disease or disorder.
As a pediatrician, this is a question I struggle with. I support autism advocacy and the rights of people with autism. I believe we need to adjust our mental framework and see people with autism as more than their diagnoses.
The entire article is here.
The Myth of the Normal Brain: Embracing Neurodiversity
By Thomas Armstrong
AMA Journal of Ethics. April 2015, Volume 17, Number 4: 348-352
Here is an excerpt:
Such strengths may suggest an evolutionary explanation for why these disorders are still in the gene pool. A growing number of scientists are suggesting that psychopathologies may have conferred specific evolutionary advantages in the past as well as in the present. The systemizing abilities of individuals with autism spectrum disorder might have been highly adaptive for the survival of prehistoric humans. As autism activist Temple Grandin, who herself has autism, surmised: “Some guy with high-functioning Asperger’s developed the first stone spear; it wasn’t developed by the social ones yakking around the campfire”.
Similarly, the three-dimensional thinking seen in some people with dyslexia may have been highly adaptive in preliterate cultures for designing tools, plotting out hunting routes, and constructing shelters, and would not have been regarded as a barrier to learning.
The entire article is here.
AMA Journal of Ethics. April 2015, Volume 17, Number 4: 348-352
Here is an excerpt:
Such strengths may suggest an evolutionary explanation for why these disorders are still in the gene pool. A growing number of scientists are suggesting that psychopathologies may have conferred specific evolutionary advantages in the past as well as in the present. The systemizing abilities of individuals with autism spectrum disorder might have been highly adaptive for the survival of prehistoric humans. As autism activist Temple Grandin, who herself has autism, surmised: “Some guy with high-functioning Asperger’s developed the first stone spear; it wasn’t developed by the social ones yakking around the campfire”.
Similarly, the three-dimensional thinking seen in some people with dyslexia may have been highly adaptive in preliterate cultures for designing tools, plotting out hunting routes, and constructing shelters, and would not have been regarded as a barrier to learning.
The entire article is here.
Monday, April 27, 2015
Science’s Big Scandal
Even legitimate publishers are faking peer review.
By Charles Seife
Slate.com
Originally published April 1, 2015
Here is an excerpt:
When something at the core of scientific publishing begins to rot, the smell of corruption quickly spreads to all areas of science. This is because the act of publishing a scientific finding is an essential part of the practice of science itself. You want a job? Tenure? A promotion? A juicy grant? You need to have a list of peer-reviewed publications, for publications are the coin of the scientific realm.
This coin has worth because of a long-standing social contract between scientists and publishers. Scientists hand over their work to a publication for free, and even sometimes pay a fee of several hundred to several thousand dollars for the privilege. What’s more, scientists often feel duty-bound to vet their colleagues’ work for little or no compensation when a publication asks them to. In return, the publications promise a thorough review process that establishes that a published article has some degree of scientific merit. Just like modern coinage, most of scholarly publications’ value resides in a stamp of approval from a trustworthy body.
The entire article is here.
By Charles Seife
Slate.com
Originally published April 1, 2015
Here is an excerpt:
When something at the core of scientific publishing begins to rot, the smell of corruption quickly spreads to all areas of science. This is because the act of publishing a scientific finding is an essential part of the practice of science itself. You want a job? Tenure? A promotion? A juicy grant? You need to have a list of peer-reviewed publications, for publications are the coin of the scientific realm.
This coin has worth because of a long-standing social contract between scientists and publishers. Scientists hand over their work to a publication for free, and even sometimes pay a fee of several hundred to several thousand dollars for the privilege. What’s more, scientists often feel duty-bound to vet their colleagues’ work for little or no compensation when a publication asks them to. In return, the publications promise a thorough review process that establishes that a published article has some degree of scientific merit. Just like modern coinage, most of scholarly publications’ value resides in a stamp of approval from a trustworthy body.
The entire article is here.
Do You Google Your Shrink?
By Ana Fels
The New York Times - Opinionator
Originally published April 4, 2015
Here are two excerpts:
Patients’ access to huge amounts of information about therapists’ lives can’t help but change both members of the therapeutic dyad. It can have, for instance, a chilling effect on the therapist’s work outside the office. As a psychiatrist who occasionally writes and speaks, I now have to think about the impact of these activities on prospective patients. If I write a feminist article, will I end up with only female patients?
(cut)
The blurring of boundaries between the personal and professional can get quite creepy. A patient told me, in greater detail than I wished to know, about her Match.com date with a psychoanalyst with whom I’ve had professional dealings. It was an encounter that almost certainly would not have occurred in the pre-Internet-dating era, and it will be hard ever to think of him in quite the same way.
The entire article is here.
The New York Times - Opinionator
Originally published April 4, 2015
Here are two excerpts:
Patients’ access to huge amounts of information about therapists’ lives can’t help but change both members of the therapeutic dyad. It can have, for instance, a chilling effect on the therapist’s work outside the office. As a psychiatrist who occasionally writes and speaks, I now have to think about the impact of these activities on prospective patients. If I write a feminist article, will I end up with only female patients?
(cut)
The blurring of boundaries between the personal and professional can get quite creepy. A patient told me, in greater detail than I wished to know, about her Match.com date with a psychoanalyst with whom I’ve had professional dealings. It was an encounter that almost certainly would not have occurred in the pre-Internet-dating era, and it will be hard ever to think of him in quite the same way.
The entire article is here.
Sunday, April 26, 2015
The Empathic Civilisation
RSA Animate
Uploaded on May 6, 2010
Bestselling author, political adviser and social and ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society. Taken from a lecture given by Jeremy Rifkin as part of the RSA's free public events programme.
Watch the full lecture here.
Uploaded on May 6, 2010
Bestselling author, political adviser and social and ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society. Taken from a lecture given by Jeremy Rifkin as part of the RSA's free public events programme.
Watch the full lecture here.
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