NONJUDICIAL ALTERNATIVES FOR RESOLVING END-OF-LIFE DECISIONS FOR MINORS

This note will discuss end-of-life decision making for minors. Minors who suffer from a terminal illness or who are in a persistent vegetative state are "children on the edge"—they are on the edge of life and death, as well as on the edge of the law. The judicial system and legislative action have proven to be ineffective tools in helping families find a peaceful resolution to life-threatening questions. Judicial intervention is often intrusive, as well as emotionally and financially difficult for the family to endure. As a result, alternatives have arisen, such as hospital ethics committees and mediation, which address these issues. These alternatives demonstrate respect for patient autonomy and family privacy, by considering the family's wishes in addition to the minor's medical condition. If people avail themselves of the resources already in place, judicial intervention only becomes necessary in extreme circumstances. Nonjudicial alternatives provide a more appropriate forum for resolution than the courtroom by eliminating opportunities for public spectacle and family intrusion.     

THE ETHICS OF SURROGACY

This article explores the ethics of surrogacy and examines categories of arguments pertaining to this issue, among them deontological concerns (objections and justifications), consequential concerns (objections and justifications), contractual issues, and a feminist perspective. Also analyzed are competing alternatives. An overall assessment is provided.     

COMMUNITY, BUSINESS ETHICS, AND GLOBAL CAPITALISM

The absorption of the cultural sphere into the commercial sphere signals a fundamental change in human relationships with troubling consequences for the future of society. From the beginning of civilization to now, culture has always preceded markets. People create communities, construct elaborate codes of social conduct, reproduce shared meanings and values, and build social trust in the form of social capital Only when social trust and social exchange are well developed do communities engage in commerce and trade…. When the commercial sphere begins to devour the cultural sphere … it threatens to destroy the very social foundations that give rise to commercial relations. ¹     

MARRIAGE LAW AND CONFUCIAN ETHICS IN THE QING DYNASTY

The Qing Dynasty is the last dynasty of all the twelve dynasties in Chinese history. Its family law embodied the Confucian conception of the integration of family, country and the world under heaven. The rule of traditional Chinese society was depicted as ＂the Rule of Propriety and Music＂ which had been established by Duke Zhou as an instrumentalist mechanism and refined by the Confucian humanistic value orientation. This rule exhibited the intricate fabric of both family and country in five-types in dressing-service, making the laws and legalities in the Qing Codes and Cases peculiar in marriage, divorce, property inheritance and heir adoption and confirmation with obvious female and juvenile discriminations. Since Confucian ethics was introduced as a remedy to the deficiency in regulation and the stereotypes of mentality in the late Zhou Dynasty, their suggestions on equal and universal moral rights have become apparent in the relative enactments and cases ever since. As a system of social regulation, the Qing Codes and Cases demonstrated validity and stability in all areas of family law as well as in their compromise with Confucian ethics in the solidarity of family, clan, country and worm where the right to live and the balance between right and duty had been always prioritized.     

DISCRETE TASK REPRESENTATION, ETHICS, AND THE BIG PICTURE

This paper discusses the long term implications of the "unbundled legal services movement" with particular focus on overcoming perceived "ethical" barriers to unbundling and on the possibility of laying a foundation for the creation of a right to counsel in civil cases for those who cannot afford a lawyer.