Adoption Support and the Negotiation of Ambivalence in Family Policy and Children's Services

In this paper ambivalent commitments to parenting and family life by the New Labour government are explored by reference to the example of adoption support. Developments in adoption illuminate contrasting expectations in family policy and children's services more generally. Traditional normative concerns to support family status and parental autonomy are unsettled by contemporary anxieties about child outcomes and social mobility. Impatience with the attitudes and behaviour of parents has led to a 'progressive universalism' in which enhanced parenting services and expectations for all are combined with increasingly insistent and targeted interventions for the particularly needy, reluctant or recalcitrant few. At the same time demands for greater service modernization and professional effectiveness have led government to position parents as (potential) consumers too. The paper discusses these policy and practice tensions and concludes that new spaces are being opened up for the negotiation between parents and professionals about rights and responsibilities in family life and its support.     

Alternatives to NIMBY gridlock: voluntary approaches to radioactive waste facility siting in Canada and the United States

Abstract: Neither Canada nor the United States has sited a new radioactive waste management facility in more than two decades, despite the continuous generation of new waste and the paucity of reliable disposal capacity. Both nations have stirred up considerable political controversy in attempting to site such facilities, with aggressive local collective action consistently blocking proposals. Building on provincial experience in gaining public support for hazardous waste facility siting tlirough a voluntary, comprehensive process, both Ontario and Nebraska Show signs of devi?ting from the classic Not-in-My-Back-Yard (NIMBY) response for low-level radioactive waste. Through a variation of the process used successfully in Alberta and Manitoba for hazardous waste, Ontario and Nebraska have demonstrated the potential applicability of these alternative siting principles for radioactive waste. Sommaire: Ni le Canada, ni les États-Unis n'ont construit de nouvelles installations de gestion des déchets radioactifs depuis plus de deux décennies, malgré la production continuelie de déchets supplémentaires et malgré la faible capacité d'élimination fiable. Les deux nations ont déclenché des controverses politiques considérables en essayant de mettre en place de telles installations, et leurs propositions ont été bloquées systématiquement et agressivement par les collectivités locales. Forts de certaines expériences provinciales pour gagner le soutien du public ewers l'emplacement d'une installation de déchets dangereux grâce à un processus volontaire et extensif, l'Ontario et le Nebraska semblent dévier de la réaction classique “ pas dans ma cour ” en ce qui concerne les déchets faiblement radioactifs. Par l'entremise d'une variante du processus utilisé avec succès pour les déchets dnngereux en Alberta et au Manitoba, l'Ontario et le Nebraska ont démontré qu'on pourrait éventuellement appliqucr ces principes de rechanpe pour l'emplacement des installations traitant les déchets radioactifs.     

The papal allocution on caring for persons in a "vegetative state"

On March 20, 2004, Pope John Paul II issued a statement to the International Conference on "Life Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State: Scientific and Ethical Dilemmas" on the provision of food and water to patients in a "vegetative state." The purpose of this allocution was to promote and protect the dignity of patients, even when they are in a seriously ill and disabled state. To promote the dignity of these patients, the Pope explicitly stated that "quality of life judgments" were not to be applied to the administration of nutrition and fluids. The Holy Father made it clear that he was avoiding any position that could be construed as tolerating, permitting, or promoting euthanasia by omission. His statement sought to prevent Catholics and Catholic health care facilities from becoming involved in euthanasia by omission that has become a fast-growing threat.