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Biomedical subjects

H Lesser

Publications and source records attributed to H Lesser.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1989

Obligation and consent.

It is often supposed, as in Professor Kluge's article (1), that one can only acquire an obligation by free consent. This paper argues that although this is true of some types of obligation, including the ones discussed by Professor Kluge, it is by no means true of all. In particular, it is argued, society may legitimately impose obligations on us without our consent, if the obligations are reciprocated, or if it is simply enforcing an already existing moral obligation.

Ethics↗
PubMed1983

Consent, competency and ECT: a philosopher's comment.

By way of comment, I suggest: 1) That the definitions of 'competence' and 'rationality' require some modification. 2) That Professor Sherlock is right to argue that a competent but irrational decision to refuse beneficial treatment ought to be overruled; but in practice it is extremely difficult to be sufficiently sure that the decision is really irrational and the treatment really will be beneficial, except when the patient's life is in danger or he is refusing basic necessities. 3) That in practice the issue is further complicated by such questions as whether there are alternative treatments, whether persuasion is possible, what the doctor's or institution's legal obligations are, and what resources are available. 4) That the presumption should be against coercion, and the patient--however irritating this may be to some doctors--should be considered 'rational until proved irrational'.

Depressive Disorder↗
PubMed1977

Problem-solving rigidity of children on perceptual tasks as a function of parental authoritarianism.

The effect of parental authoritarianism on the rigid problem-solving behavior of 25 10- to 12-year-old children was examined. Children were tested on three perceptually ambiguous tasks in an experimentally induced ego-involving situation. Authoritarianism in one parent was associated with authoritarianism in the other. Children's greater difficulty on all three tasks was associated with higher parental authoritarianism; opposite sex correlations betweens sons' and mothers' and between daughters' and fathers' scores are stronger than same sex correlations. Children were consistent across all three tasks on rigid problem-solving behavior. It is suggested that rigid problem-solving behavior may mediate the transmission of authoritarianism from parent to child.

Anxiety↗