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PubMed2000

Social determinants of birthweight and length of gestation in Estonia during the transition to democracy.

BACKGROUND: To investigate social variation in birthweight and length of gestation in Estonia in the period of transition to a democracy and market economy. METHODS: All live births resulting from singleton pregnancies reported to the Estonian Medical Birth Registry in 1992-1997 (n = 84, 629) were studied with respect to social variation in birthweight and preterm delivery (<37 weeks gestation). The results were adjusted for maternal age, parity, education, nationality, marital status, smoking in pregnancy, sex of the infant (and gestational age). RESULTS: Between 1992 and 1997, mean birthweight increased from 3,465g to 3,497g (P < 0.001) and the preterm rate fell from 5.8% to 5.1% (P = 0.001). Maternal education, marital status and nationality were all independently related to the mean birthweight and the risk of preterm birth. The mean difference in birthweight between children of mothers with basic and university education was 87 g (95% CI : 74-100). Children born to mothers of non-Estonian compared to Estonian nationality were on average 77 g lighter (95% CI: 70-84). While the effect of nationality and marital status on birthweight was relatively stable during the study period, differences in birth outcome by maternal education became stronger. CONCLUSIONS: The mean birthweight increased and the preterm rate decreased in Estonia as a whole during the transition. However, the improvements were not shared equally by all social groups. An increase in variation in birthweight by maternal education was particularly notable.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Democracy, embryonic stem cell research, and the Roman Catholic church.

The Roman Catholic Church in Australia has lobbied politicians to prohibit embryonic stem cell research, on the grounds that such research violates the sanctity and inherent dignity of human life. I suggest, however, that reasoned reflection does not uniquely support such conclusions about the morality of stem cell research. A recent parliamentary standing committee report recommended that embryonic stem cell research be allowed to proceed in certain circumstances, and there appears to be widespread support in the Australian community for this position. I argue that the moral value of democracy requires parliamentarians to acknowledge the informed views of the wider community here, and to resist lobbying by church leaders on this issue.

Australia↗
PubMed1998

Epidemic neuropathy in Cuba: a public health problem related to the Cuban Democracy Act of the United States.

In 1992, the USA embargo on Cuba was tightened through the passage of the Cuban Democracy Act (CDA) that explicitly restricts food and medical supplies. The embargo has contributed to cause a number of public health problems in Cuba including: (1) an epidemic of more than 50,000 cases of optic and peripheral neuropathies in 1992-1993, resulting from dietary deficiency; (2) an epidemic of esophageal stenoses in toddlers who inadvertently drank liquid lye as a result of a soap shortage for which liquid lye was substituted; (3) an outbreak of Guillain-Barré syndrome in Havana, in June and July 1994, resulting from water contamination due to lack of chemicals for water treatment to eliminate Campylobacter sp.; (4) outbreaks of self-inflicted disease and injuries caused by rioting among Cubans detained at the US Naval base at Guantánamo Bay, and (5) a decline in medical practice standards and public health indicators in Cuba resulting from the enactment of the CDA, documented by the American Public Health Association in 1993 and confirmed in March 1997 by the American Association for World Health. Despite this evidence, the Cuban embargo remains a politically sensitive subject in the USA, resistant to public health concerns, as evidenced by the recent passage of the Helms-Burton Act. The public health effects of the CDA need to be reviewed with possible revocation or at least modification.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Psychiatry residents in a milieu participatory democracy: a resident's view.

Psychiatry residents respond with a variety of coping mechanisms to the lack of traditional structure in a milieu participatory democracy. To incorporate themselves into the system they must accept such democratic ideals as equality among staff and patients, group decision making, and free self-expression and give up some of their traditional ideas about staff and patient roles, treatment modalities, and the therapeutic environment. The author was a first-year resident in psychiatry on a university hospital inpatient therapeutic community; he discusses the conflicts between residents, who often adopt a "we-they" attitude, and the permanent staff, whose protectiveness of the ward community reflects their personal commitment to its ideals.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1989

When violence has a benevolent face: the paradox of hunger in the world's wealthiest democracy.

During the last two decades, Americans initially discovered that millions of fellow-citizens were going hungry, then acted to virtually eliminate the problem, and, in the 1980s, learned that hunger has reappeared in epidemic proportions. Hunger, particularly in a wealthy democracy, is most appropriately seen as a form of institutionalized violence, the product of ideologies that fail to distribute national abundance in a manner that achieves the possible goal of preventing hunger. The return of hunger to the United States is associated with economic and tax policies that have reallocated income distribution from poor and middle-income groups to the wealthy, and with a concomitant reluctance to utilize the federal government to protect needy citizens from undernutrition associated with growing economic deprivation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Ideologies in the Swedish health sector today: the crisis of the social democracy.

Sweden has a long tradition of social democracy and corporate cooperation. Social problems are treated as technological questions that always should be solved through rational and neutral means. Today Sweden faces a crisis of economy as well as a crisis of medicine. In the spirit of consensus, the state has proposed a new health reform emphasizing the responsibility of the public health service to prevent disease and provide equal access to care. It is claimed that improved health planning, based on epidemiological knowledge on inequalities, can solve the crisis in medicine within an improved system of primary care and prevention. However, in the context of the current economic crisis, the struggle against health hazards and cuts in public spending has intensified and the gap between the ideology of technological rationalism and reality has widened.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

[Animal welfare policy between democracy and lobbyism]

The egalitarian pathocentrism postulates, that all sentient beings should have the same moral regard. This opinion is the backbone of a radical animal welfare policy which logically cannot accept violence against man, also. Painful and very stressing experiments could only be justified with freely and rationally agreeing persons. Animal ethics based upon self-interests is superior to altruistic considerations. The latter are addressed to "saints and heroes" and cannot be a common ideal. But the good moral reasons for respecting the self-worth and the individual lifeplan of animals always have to be called to attention by strong animal welfare organizations. Dangerous in the argumentation is the trichotomy: thing-animal-man. It leads to equalize amoebas with elephants. From the moral point of view only the difference between sentient and insentient beings is relevant, even if it is sometimes difficult to draw the line. In a democracy animal welfare has to articulate itself as a lobby, and must not loose sight of the welfare of animals aside from its own interests. Radical animal welfare activists not resorting to violence would represent animal welfare policy under different coalitions.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2002

Water policy differences between a western democracy and a country in economic transition.

Where environmental policy is concerned Western democracies and transition economies share more similarities than differences. Sound environmental policies require substantial investment. Public-private cooperation can play a major role in the search for solutions, but politicians, environmentalists and academics must act vigorously to ensure that big business does not acquire a final say in the implementation of environmental policy. Lithuania as a transition economy faces major environmental challenges, but international collaboration, including working with the European Union and cross-border cooperation with neighbouring states, is bringing good results. A major unifying factor for the Baltic Sea states is the continuing struggle to purify and protect the Baltic Sea.

Baltic States↗
PubMed1996

Stress, suicide, and military service during Operation Uphold Democracy.

The initial weeks of Operation Uphold Democracy were marked by a high rate of major axis I disorders among soldiers presenting for treatment at the 528th Combat Stress Center. The mission to Haiti was also marked by three suicides during the first 30 days. The author explores psychodynamic sources of stress that may have contributed to the high level of psychiatric acuity observed during that first month. Then, distinctions are made between psychiatric conditions that present in combat and those that occur on peacekeeping missions.

Combat Disorders↗
PubMed2002

Moral education for the elite of democracy: the classe de philosophie between sociology and philosophy.

In this article, I address the issues at stake in the relationship between sociology and philosophy in the second half of the nineteenth century by focusing on a debate between two parties: Emile Durkheim, who was attempting to found an independent scientific sociology, and the editors and collaborators of the Revue de métaphysique et de morale (RMM), one of the central philosophical journals of the period. This debate focused on the role of philosophy in secondary school education, but at its heart, this was a struggle between two disciplines over which ought to direct the formation of good citizens for Third Republic France.

Democracy↗
PubMed2006

"A gold mine and a tool for democracy": George Gallup, Elmo Roper, and the business of scientific polling, 1935-1955.

"Scientific" public opinion polls arrived on the American scene in 1936. Examining the work of opinion surveyors George Gallup and Elmo Roper, this essay tracks the early career of a new social scientific technology, one that powerfully shaped conceptions of "the public." Pollsters described their craft as a democratic one that could accurately represent the U.S. populace. Yet, their assumptions about that same public-and the techniques they employed to measure it-undermined such claims, and even risked calling the polling profession into question. To understand why Gallup and Roper fell short of their stated ambitions, one must turn not only to the state of midcentury sampling methods but also to the corporate sponsors and commercial pressures underlying their enterprise.

Democracy↗