Donor conception legislation in Victoria, Australia: the "Time to Tell" campaign, donor-linking and implications for clinical practice

The State of Victoria in Australia was one of the first jurisdictions in the world to introduce legislation regulating donor conception. Under the Infertility (Medical Procedures) Act 1984 (Vic), donor-conceived people, aged 18 years and over, parents of children under 18 years, and donors gained the right to apply for the release of identifying information about each other recorded in a Central Register. As a result, of this and subsequent legislation, services providing donor treatment were obliged to change clinical practice relating to recruitment of donors, counselling of donors and recipients and recordkeeping. Since this legislation was introduced in 1988, over 5,000 donor-conceived children have been born and in 2006 the first 100 of these children reached the age of 18. The Victorian Infertility Treatment Authority (ITA) conducted a public education campaign to provide information and support to people affected by the legislation. This article describes clinical practice changes prompted by legislation, the 'Time to Tell" campaign and the service model developed for linking parties on the donor registers. The Victorian experience demonstrates that laws allowing the parties involved in donor conception access to information about each other must be accompanied by changes to clinical practice, public education about the implications of the laws, and services to meet the needs of those seeking information relating to donor conception and those contacted as a result.     

“I Didn’t Want To Put Them Through That”: The Influence Of Children on Victim Decision-making in Intimate Partner Violence Cases

For mothers, intimate partner violence (IPV) presents a concern not only for their own well-being but also for that of their children who are exposed to the violence and its aftermath. In focus groups with adult women (N = 39) across three jurisdictions who had experienced legal system intervention for IPV victimization, mothers raised unsolicited concerns about the negative effects of IPV exposure on their children. These comments were not prompted by the facilitator but were raised by women in all seven of the focus groups during discussions about motivations and barriers to participation in prosecution of their abusive partners. The overall message was that victims with children felt very conflicted. Children both facilitate and inhibit leaving the abusive relationship. Mothers wanted to spare their children from harmful effects of violence but also wanted to keep their families together and protect their children from potential agitation and instability caused by legal system involvement. Participants described how fears and threats of involvement from child protective services inhibited help-seeking while simultaneously voicing a desire for services that would help their children. More research is needed to help service providers understand the quagmire mothers who are victims of IPV encounter regarding their children’s wellbeing.     

Intimate partner homicide,immigration and citizenship: evidence from Norway 1990–2012

Intimate partner homicides (IPH) are fatal violent attacks perpetrated by intimate partners. Immigrants are overrepresented in the IPH statistics as both perpetrators and victims. If explanatory factors for this are not studied, immigrants may be stigmatized. The present study investigates whether IPHs committed by immigrant perpetrators have characteristics that differentiate them from IPHs committed by the native majority of IPH perpetrators. All IPHs in Norway from 1990 to 2012 (N = 177) were included. Quantitative data were extracted through structured investigation of court documents. Information concerning risk factors (previous intimate partner violence and sociodemographic, contextual and clinical factors) was drawn from three validated risk assessment instruments. Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted. When adjusted for other group differences, very few differences remained in the multivariate models. IPHs perpetrated by immigrants differed from cases with native perpetrators on modus operandi and ascribed motives and resulted in longer sentences than IPHs with native perpetrators. This study indicates considerable similarities in IPHs perpetrated by immigrants and natives. Findings indicating that IPHs by immigrants were perceived differently in the justice system need further investigation.     

Young Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence Describe their Abused Parent: A Qualitative Study

The negative impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) begins early in the child’s relationship with a caregiver. Children’s relationships with, and internal working models of, abused parents have rarely been documented. The aim of this study was to collect and interpret young children’s accounts of their abused parent. Interviews were conducted with 17 children aged 4 to 12 years who had witnessed IPV. Thematic analysis identified three main themes and seven sub-themes: “Coherent accounts of the parent” (sub-themes of “general benevolence”, “provision of support, protection, and nurture”, and “parental distress”); “Deficient accounts of the parent” (“vague accounts” and “disorganized narrations”); and “The parent as a trauma trigger” (“avoidance” and “breakthrough of intrusive memories and thoughts”). The results indicate these children may hold integrated, deficient, or blocked internal representations of an abused parent, and they illustrate the benefit of including young children as informants in research.     

Risk for Revictimization of Intimate Partner Violence by Multiple Partners: a Systematic Review

Are victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) by multiple partners (MP) different from victims of IPV by one partner? Are there different victim-related risk factors for IPV by MP? This systematic literature review identified seven empirical studies that related to these issues. The review findings indicated that (1) empirical research on IPV by MP appears to be scarce, with only limited recent development; (2) there were significant differences between women who had been subjected to IPV in a single relationship and women with IPV by MP; (3) IPV by MP was significantly associated with childhood domestic trauma, drug abuse, IPV characteristics, and attachment style; (4) regarding PTSD and personality disorders, the results were mixed and inconclusive; and (5) depression did not appear as a salient risk factor for IPV by MP. Interpretations must be made cautiously because of the wide diversity in measurement approaches. It is important that service personnel and researchers attend with increased awareness to women with IPV by MP.     

Achieving the 1.5 °C objective: just implementation through a right to (sustainable) development approach

Achieving the 1.5 °C objective of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in a just manner requires equitably sharing the responsibilities and rights that relate to this objective. This paper examines how international law concerning the Right to Promote (Sustainable) Development can contribute to determining what would be a “just” approach to achieving the 1.5 °C objective. This entails building on both the Right to Development (RtD) and the Right to Promote Sustainable Development (RtPSD). The RtD is a central notion within international human rights law and the RtPSD has been adopted under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Based on a literature review and legal analysis, we argue that, although the two Rights are prima facie different, in the context of the unanimously adopted Agenda 2030, including the SDGs, they partly complement and partly merge with each other. Together they provide a framework for assessing how a just transition towards a low greenhouse gas development process could be achieved and what this means for phasing out fossil fuels especially in the context of prospective oil producing countries.     

A measure of risk taking for young adolescents: Reliability and validity assessments

Researchers often define adolescent risk taking in terms of individual behaviors such as alcohol and drug use, early sexual activity, and reckless driving. It is not clear whether these behaviors defined by adults as risky have the same meaning for adolescents. This paper describes the development and preliminary testing of an instrument to assess risk taking among young adolescents. The six item scale was constructed by asking small groups of eighth grade boys and girls to describe things that teenagers your age do for excitement or thrills. The measure was then used in a longitudinal study of 758 young adolescents from three rural counties in Maryland. The scale shows good reliability, as indicated by coefficient alpha and factor analyses. Eighth-grade scores on the scale are associated with the initiation of sexual activity and substance use in ninth grade among virgins and nonusers of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and pills in eighth grade.     

Going beyond technocratic and democratic principles: stakeholder acceptance of instruments in Swiss energy policy

Policy Sciences - This paper is about stakeholders’ acceptance regarding regulatory instruments in energy policy. We expect that today’s introduced instruments not only correspond most...