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Biomedical subjects

J D Moreno

Publications and source records attributed to J D Moreno.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Consensus, contracts, and committees.

Following a brief account of the puzzle that ethics committees present for the Western Philosophical tradition, I will examine the possibility that social contract theory can contribute to a philosophical account of these committees. Passing through classical as well as contemporary theories, particularly Rawls' recent constructivist approach, I will argue that social contract theory places severe constraints on the authority that may legitimately be granted to ethics committees. This, I conclude, speaks more about the suitability of the theory to this level of analysis than about the ethics committee phenomenon itself.

Bioethical Issues↗
PubMed1990

Drug prophylaxis for human immunodeficiency virus-infected pregnant women: ethical considerations.

More than 5000 women infected with human immunodeficiency virus give birth annually in the United States. Many of these women are offered human immunodeficiency virus tests in prenatal settings. One of the incentives for them to be tested is access to medications that have been shown to prolong disease-free intervals in nonpregnant human immunodeficiency virus-infected individuals. However, the use of those medications during pregnancy has not been well studied and some have cautioned against their prenatal use. Thus consideration of these agents may be deferred by some clinicians until the postpartum period. In this article we argue that the availability of such agents should be disclosed to women who are seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus as part of the informed consent process.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1988

Ethics by committee: the moral authority of consensus.

Consensus is commonly identified as the goal of ethics committee deliberation, but it is not clear what is morally authoritative about consensus. Various problems with the concept of an ethics committee in a health care institution are identified. The problem of consensus is placed in the context of the debate about realism in moral epistemology, and this is shown to be of interest for ethics committees. But further difficulties, such as the fact that consensus at one level of discourse need not imply consensus at another, oblige us to look more closely at the deliberative process itself. That yields two complementary methods of deliberation that have proven their worth. Finally, placing ethics committees in the context of Dewey's philosophy of social intelligence suggests that consensus should be regarded primarily as a condition rather than as the goal of inquiry.

Bioethical Issues↗
PubMed1988

[Hallucinatory structure].

Systemic methodology is restored to so that a demonstration is made which shows hallucination not being an independent element. Quite contrary, it is the author's contention that this is a structure-formed interacting group element coupled in function of an arrangement the basis pathology thus determined. I.E., hallucination is an open system at a set point with pathology. Hence--within certain limits, of course--the equilibrium establishes an arrangement whose characteristics enable any observer to identify hallucination as such. Since the methodology is in accordance with the General System Theory, the elements involved are studied like functional parts within a system. In other words, neither determinism nor simple causation are resorted to. Since--according to the GST--there is a higher relevance among connected elements which is not to be found among independent ones, thus a functional description is of a higher relevance than a particular one. So, the structure is proposed as a functional arrangement.

Hallucinations↗
PubMed1987

Ethical and legal issues in the care of the impaired newborn.

The subject is approached from the standpoint of the debates and events of the "Baby Doe era," from 1982 to 1985. Historic episodes of mass infanticide and practices in other cultures, while often cited as warnings of moral peril, are difficult to apply to the problem of infant euthanasia. Key cases in American courts are reviewed, although no standard pattern of analysis is found to have emerged. The two streams of policy making at the national level, from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Congress, have effectively led back to underlying ethical dilemmas about the proper interpretation of the infant patient's best interests. The conclusion alludes to several issues that neonatal ethics has yet to confront.

Beneficence↗
PubMed1985

The limits of the ledger in public health promotion.

Recent efforts to support state regulation of risky behavior like cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, driving without seatbelts and riding motorcycles without helmets have focused on economic justifications--the costs to society of the consequences of these activities. However, opponents have successfully argued that the economic burdens of regulation outweigh the social benefits. To reduce the toll on society of these behaviors, we need justification for regulation that asserts the moral primacy of health and the well-being of the community.

Accident Prevention↗