The neurological determination of death: what does it really mean?

The recent Canadian forum's recommendations regarding "neurological determination of death" claim to have determined a "Canadian definition, criteria, and minimum testing requirements for neurological determination of death." In this review the problems with this statement are discussed. The criterion of neurological determination of death does not fulfill the definition of death, because there is continued integration of the organism as a whole. The tests for neurological determination of death do not fulfill the criterion of neurological determination of death because they do not show the irreversible loss of all critical brain functions. The forum has provided no coherent argument for why neurological determination of death should be considered death. I suggest that one cannot invoke expert opinion to clarify a criterion of death, and tests for this criterion of death, without a clear concept of what death is. The forum has clarified tests for what they call "neurological determination of death," but this is not death itself; rather, it is a neurologically devastating state. Whether this state of "neurological determination of death" is enough to justify the morality of harvesting organs prior to death is the real question. A potential solution to this question is discussed.     

Criterion Analysis and Content Validity for Standardized Behavioral Tests in a Detector-Dog Breeding Program

Many working-dog programs assess behavior during a dog's first year of life with the aim of predicting success in the field. However, decisions about which tests to administer are frequently made on the basis of tradition or intuition. This study reports results from a survey given to U.S.A.'s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) detection-dog handlers (N = 34). We categorized and summarized handlers’ responses regarding traits they felt were important for work. We used this criterion analysis to examine the content validity of the TSA's puppy tests. Results indicate that 13 of 15 traits that are currently being measured are relevant. However, several traits not currently measured were identified as being highly important, notably “play” and off-duty “calmness.” These results provide support that the TSA tests are measuring traits relevant to operational search team performance but also highlight other traits that may be profitable to assess in this and other detection-dog programs.     

The relationship between crime and “objective” versus “subjective” strains

Agnew's (2001, 2006) general strain theory makes a distinction between “objective” strains, which refer to events and conditions which are disliked by most people in a given group, and “subjective” strains, which refer to events and conditions which are disliked by the people who have experienced them. Agnew argues that there is only partial overlap between objective and subjective strains, since many people do not subjectively evaluate the objective strains they experience in a negative manner. Further, Agnew argues that subjective strains should be more strongly associated with crime, since they are more likely to generate the negative emotions that lead to crime. This article tests Agnew's arguments with data from a sample of Italian youth. The results provide some support for Agnew, suggesting that many people do not evaluate the objective strains they experience in a negative manner and that subjective strains are more strongly associated with crime than are objective strains. These findings have important implications for the research on general strain theory.     

R&D consortia: Impact on competitiveness?

This research examines the impact of research and development (R&D) consortia on the competitiveness of American companies. It also concludes that since passage of the 1984 National Collaborative Research Act, which allows companies to jointly perform research, only a few R&D consortia have been formed and they do not have much impact on companies through applications of new technology. It is suggested that R&D consortia may have more impact on firms that are catching-up technologically or for which the particular research is tangential to their core business. He holds a Ph.D. in public policy from the George Washington University (1988), and has worked for the National Science Foundation, the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and the National Academy of Sciences. His interests focus on technology, economic competitiveness, and government policy. He has recently published on these topics in Research Policy (August 1990), and Policy Studies Review (Spring 1991, forthcoming).     

美国打击色情物品犯罪的司法实践及困境

美国联邦最高法院从1957年开始掀起审查色情案件的高潮,形成了一系列先例,确立了"硬核色情物品"和"儿童色情物品"不受宪法第一修正案保护的原则.但是美国社会,尤其是联邦最高法院的大法官们对色情物品的危害、淫秽物品的标准以及色情物品受不受宪法第一修正案的保护等问题一直争论不休,导致色情物品泛滥成灾.     

Cyber-Stalking Victimization: What Predicts Fear Among Portuguese Adolescents?

A large body of research clearly demonstrates that adolescents use technology to a staggering degree and that they are one of the main groups that are vulnerable to online victimization. However, the study of cyber-stalking, which is a form of cyber-harassment victimization, has been limited to the adult population and has resulted in some controversy regarding whether fear is a definitional criterion for this phenomenon. In Portugal, the study of cyber-stalking among adolescents is limited, as it is not yet a target of scientific research, public politics or social attention. The current study assessed the cyber-stalking victimization of 627 Portuguese adolescents (12- to 16-years-old). The prevalence of victimization, the cyber-victim’s profile, cyber-stalking dynamics, the cyber-stalker’s profile, parental cyber-involvement and adolescents fear reporting were analysed. The majority of the current sample admitted to having been the victim of cyber-stalking at some point in their life, and nearly half of the adolescents reported experiencing fear after the victimization. A logistic regression model was developed to predict fear reporting. Consistent with previous research, the results indicated that fear is strongly associated with female victims and shed light on the self-perception of online risk and a number of parental involvement practices. Being the target of 1) messages of exaggerated affection, 2) persistent cyber-stalking or 3) older cyber-stalkers was also associated with fear. These results underscore the importance of understanding fear as a complex emotion that results from the interaction of different variables. Thus, it is critical to adopt fear as a key criterion of the cyber-stalking definition. Implications for social, educational, political and judicial practices are also discussed.     

Incidental findings in genetics research using archived DNA

Despite calls by some commentators for disclosing incidental findings in genetics research, several factors weigh in favor of caution. The technology of genetics has the power to uncover a vast array of information. The most potent argument for restraint in disclosure is that much research is pursued without consent so that the individual participant may not know that research is being conducted at all. Often the work is done by investigators and at institutions with which the person has no prior contact. Past practice is also relevant; genetics researchers historically have chosen not to disclose incidental findings, of which misattributed paternity and pleiotropic alleles such as ApoE have been the most common. Many people choose not to have genetic tests when given a choice. It may be desirable to discuss the topic of incidental findings when consent for research is obtained, but given the risk of unwanted surprise when there has been no prior discussion, the potential utility of incidental findings should be very high before they are even offered to individuals.     

The Whole-Brain Concept of Death Remains Optimum Public Policy

"Brain death," the determination of human death by showing the irreversible loss of all clinical functions of the brain, has become a worldwide practice. A biophilosophical account of brain death requires four sequential tasks: (1) agreeing on the paradigm of death, a set of preconditions that frame the discussion; (2) determining the definition of death by making explicit the consensual concept of death; (3) determining the criterion of death that proves the definition has been fulfilled by being both necessary and sufficient for death; and (4) determining the tests of death for physicians to employ at the patient's bedside to demonstrate that the criterion of death has been fulfilled. The best definition of death is "the cessation of functioning of the organism as a whole." The whole-brain criterion is the only criterion that is both necessary and sufficient for death. Brain death tests are used only in the unusual case in which a patient's ventilation is being supported. Brain death critics have identified weaknesses in its formulation. But despite its shortcomings, the whole-brain death formulation comprises a concept and public policy that make intuitive and practical sense and that has been well accepted by many societies.     

Methodological artifacts in tests of rational choice theory

Criminal decision making is an inherently natural and highly individualized process; however, rather than allowing participants to self-identify the costs and benefits that impact their own decisions to offend, rational choice researchers have typically provided participants with a uniform list of consequences to consider. Indirect evidence suggests this technique may alter the participants’ perceptions of consequences, yet no study to date has examined this supposition directly. In the current study, participants were randomly assigned to experimental conditions in which they either received a list of traditional costs and benefits to assess or were asked to self-generate their own list to assess. As in past research, when participants were allowed to self-generated consequences they identified several “novel” costs/benefits that have certainty/severity rating comparable to many of the traditionally examined consequences. Results also showed that consequences are more likely to be perceived as possible outcomes (i.e., receive a non-zero probability) when they are presented by researchers than when they are self-generated. Finally, the average certainty and severity of negative consequences do not differ across condition, while ratings of the certainty and value of benefits from crime are relatively lower when they are presented by researchers. Implications for rational choice theory and survey research in criminology more broadly are discussed.     

DIFFERENTIAL POLICE TREATMENT OF MALE-ON-FEMALE SPOUSAL VIOLENCE*

Recent studies of police response to violence in which men attack women with whom they have a history of shared intimacy have not addressed the issue that inspired research in the first place: the “leniency thesis” that police treat men who beat their spouses less punitively than other violent offenders. In addition, research examining the deterrent effects of various police treatments of misdemeanor domestic violence is not responsive to complaints that abused women are denied protection of law when they have been victims of serious, felony-grade, abuse by their spouses. This research analyzes the response of the Chester, Pennsylvania, police to 392 consecutively reported felony-grade assaults by persons whose identities were known to victims and police. Results confirm the leniency thesis. Tabular analysis demonstrates that arrests occurred in 13% of male-on-female spousal assaults and 28% of other assaults. Logit analysis indicates that this difference in police response is not attributable to other variables that might be expected to result in differential treatment. We conclude that the practices and results reported by research conducted in progressive police jurisdictions that volunteer to participate in studies of police response to violence against women may not be generalizable to the great majority of U.S. police agencies that have not welcomed such study.     

The Impact on Juror Verdicts of Judicial Instruction to Disregard Inadmissible Evidence: A Meta-Analysis

The effect on juror verdicts of judicial instructions to disregard inadmissible evidence was evaluated using meta-analysis. One hundred seventy-five hypothesis tests from 48 studies with a combined 8,474 participants were examined. Results revealed that inadmissible evidence (IE) has a reliable effect on verdicts consistent with the content of the IE. Judicial instruction to ignore the inadmissible evidence does not effectively eliminate IE impact. However, if judges provide a rationale for a ruling of inadmissibility, juror compliance may be increased. Contested evidence ruled admissible accentuates that information, resulting in a significant impact on verdicts. Suggestions for how the courts may mitigate the impact of inadmissible evidence more effectively are discussed.     

Parental Alienation in U.S. Courts, 1985 to 2018

Courts have been dealing with alienating behaviors in high conflict family litigation for hundreds of years. Experts in the behavioral sciences have been writing about mothers and fathers manipulating their children to disparage the other parent for more than seventy years. But in the last two decades some social scientists and legal professionals have questioned the legitimacy of parental alienation as a concept and its admissibility in child abuse and child custody litigation. This study was designed to examine the extent to which courts in the United States have found the concept of parental alienation material, probative, relevant and admissible. Thirty‐four years of cases were found with a WESTLAW query and analyzed. Cases were selected for study only if the record reflected that a judge or an independent expert found the concept of parental alienation to be of value in the litigation. Results illustrate increasing awareness of the concept and document its admissibility in every one of the United States. The numbers, sex of the alienating parent and prevalence of significant custody changes are discussed. Limitations inherent in this form of quantitative analysis are also discussed with recommendations for future research.     

国际人权法上的迁徙自由和移徙工人的权利保护--以中国农民工为例

经济全球化促使人们充分享有迁徙自由这项不可剥夺的基本人权的同时,更促成了移徙工人的群体规模,从而使移徙工人权利保护成为国际人权法的一项重要内容。以中国农民工为例,移徙工人在其迁徙地的经济和社会发展中作出了巨大的贡献,但其所应当得到的与其所付出的存在着严重的不均衡态势。从长远来看,必须高度重视人类社会生态链中移徙工人权利保护这一环。     

Five Words for Assisted Dying

Motivated by Lord Joffe’s Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, but with one eye on any possible future legislation, I consider the justifications that might be offered for limiting assistance in dying to those who are suffering unbearably from terminal illness. I argue that the terminal illness criterion and the unbearable suffering criterion are not morally defensible separately: that a person need be neither terminally ill (or ill at all), nor suffering unbearably (or suffering at all) to have a right to assisted dying. Indeed: I shall suggest that the unbearable suffering criterion undermines the Bill (or any proposal like it) wholesale. On the other hand, the criteria taken together are defensible, and this defence would be built on a concern for the protection of the vulnerable. However, I also claim that this implies that the law might justifiably—and maybe even properly—aim to prevent a person from gaining access to that to which they have a serious moral right. This seems paradoxical, and, towards the end of the paper, I seek to tease apart the paradox.     

Segmental hair analysis in order to evaluate driving performance

On the 31st of July 2002 the Lombardy local government issued a memorandum, C.R. 35/SAN, providing "guidelines to investigate drugs of abuse addiction in order to judge driving performance". About hair samples, this memorandum advises that the proximal lock of 6 cm-length would be analysed for opiates, cocaine, cannabinoids, amphetamine and derivatives, divided into two segments of 3 cm each. The Local Medical Driving Licence Commissions (CML) can decide whether or not to enforce these instructions; from our survey it resulted that most CMLs do not abide by the memorandum, not requiring segmental analysis. The purpose of our study was to verify whether this procedural discordance could affect analytical results and, consequently, the evaluation of the subject's driving performance. We analysed hair samples taken from subjects who were requesting the renewal of their driving licence in our Laboratory during the period from 1 August 2002 to 31 December 2006. We divided samples into two groups: (1) samples previously analysed in one single segment which resulted positive for at least one analyte, but under the cut-off (0.5 ng/mg), were re-analysed in accordance with the guidelines; (2) samples previously processed following guidelines which resulted positive in one of the segments were newly analysed in a single segment. Comparing the new results with the original ones, an increase of positive results emerged in the first group. The second set of results fully supported the first ones. These results underscore the importance of the 35/SAN memorandum, so if the guidelines had been followed there would have been a larger amount of driving licence renewal denied.     

Initials: A question of identity

It has been a generally accepted practice among document examiners to request known handwriting standards which duplicate the questioned material under examination.When initials are questioned it is not always possible to have initials duplicated and known signatures are sometimes substituted.A research study was conducted using a sample of 65 writers to determine if the letters in a group of initials were written in the same manner as the capital letters in a signature. The study showed that 69% of the writers in the sample made one or more changes or additions to their initials which were not present when they wrote their signatures.     

The legal ethics of pediatric research

Since the mid- to late 1990s, the scientific and medical research community has sought to increase its access to healthy children for research protocols that involve harm or a risk of harm. This move reverses longstanding policy within that community generally to exclude healthy children from such protocols on the grounds that the research as to them is non-therapeutic, that they are particularly vulnerable to research-related abuses, and that they are unable themselves to give informed consent to their participation. The research community's new posture has been supported by prominent pediatric bioethicists who have argued that unless healthy children are included as research subjects in harmful or risky research, the pediatric population will continue to suffer relative to the adult population in the extent to which it benefits from modern advances in science and medicine. In their view, it is possible for the research community to self-administer a rule that strikes a balance between protecting healthy children from research-related abuses and allowing their inclusion in cutting-edge pediatric research. In this scheme, parental consent is central to the research community's claims about child protection. This Article explores the flaws inherent in this ethics of pediatric research. Specifically, it challenges the view from ethics that the law permits parents to consent to their children's inclusion in harmful or risky research to the extent that related invasions would meet legal maltreatment standards. More broadly, it challenges the movement to increase access to healthy children for harmful and risky research on the ground that it risks two important regressions: First, in its willingness to risk harm to individual children in the interests of the group, it threatens the progress the law has made in its development of the concept of the child as an individual worthy of respect in his or her own right, a concept that imagines parents as fiduciaries and that includes strong protections against invasions of bodily integrity. Second, in its failure to assure that the burdens of non-therapeutic research are not placed disproportionately on children of lower socioeconomic and minority status, it violates the antidiscrimination principle, which has only begun to make good on its promise of equal treatment for all children. Ultimately, this Article argues that harmonization of the rules governing pediatric research with the law of child protection and parents' consent authority is the best way to assure that children are protected in the research setting in these respects and to the same extent they are otherwise in the society.     

The ethics of promulgating principles of research ethics: the problem of diversion effects

There is an important distinction between ethical standards for the conduct of research with human subjects and the ethics of promulgating principles of research ethics. Those who promulgate ethical standards for the conduct of research have an ethical responsibility to consider the consequences to which those promulgations give rise. In particular, they must consider whether their promulgations will give researchers incentives not to conduct research or not to conduct research in locales in which participants would benefit from participation. I first show how such ‘diversion effects’ are possible and then examine four principles of research ethics in that light. I then consider several objections to the argument that those who promulgate principles of research ethics should consider diversion effects.     

Subnational governments in transnational networks for sustainable development

Since the 1970s, subnational entities such as provinces, states or regions have joined together in transnational associations based upon common interests, especially in Europe. Such transnational networks of subnational governments have also been created in the sphere of sustainable development, a policy domain that is largely shaped in multilateral decision-making settings and that is characterized by complexity and uncertainty, urging policy-makers to learn from other governments. Those networks have both external and internal objectives. On the one hand, they want to represent their members at international organizations and influence multilateral decision-making. On the other hand, they are aimed at fostering cooperation between subnational governments and at stimulating policy learning. After presenting a typology of existing networks in the sphere of sustainable development, the article presents a comparative analysis of the participation of the Belgian entities Flanders and Wallonia in ENCORE (Environmental Conference of the European Regions) and nrg4SD (Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development). The research shows that Flanders and Wallonia use networks mostly for formal and informal cooperation but not for influencing multilateral decision-making for sustainable development. The external dimension of the networks, however, is applied for identity politics. The analysis also demonstrates that little political capital is invested in the networks.