Breaking through the silence: illegality of performing resuscitation procedures on the "newly-dead"

Israeli author Daniel Sperling brings to a light a disturbing practice that is taking place in some teaching hospitals throughout the world--the practice of resuscitation procedures on newly dead patients without the consent of the next-of-kin. Mr. Sperling examines some of the policies and procedures in place to prevent such practice and also looks at the ethical principles that should guide such procedures. The paper also reviews the general issue of consent in the context of medical decision-making and discusses potential legal claims that might be available to persons who have not been consulted or informed before such procedures are performed. The evolving jurisprudence surrounding the treatment of the newly dead is analyzed and Mr. Sperling concludes by suggesting ways to improve upon the procedures currently in place at some teaching facilities.     

State political culture, primary frontloading, and democratic voice in presidential nominations: 1972–2000

In light of the notorious “frontloading” phenomenon in U.S. presidential nominating elections, this paper examines the relationship between state political culture and state primary scheduling, for the purpose of understanding how differences in institutionalized community values may have affected the equity with which democratic voice has been distributed in modern presidential nominations. Using stratified event history analyses of nomination campaign schedules from 1972 to 2000, we find that “moralistic” states tend to schedule primary dates earlier in the campaign season than do individualistic or (especially) traditionalistic states, particularly in states with more ideologically liberal elites. Moreover, this tendency toward frontloading among moralistic states becomes more dramatic as racial homogeneity increases relative to other states. These results disturbingly reveal that the democratic voices of racial minorities have often been muffled under the modern institution of presidential nominations.     

HAVA and the States

Two major events—the 2000 vote counting crisis in Floridaand passage of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in October 2002—spawneda wave of federal, state, and local policy innovation and policyimplementation. The major effect of the Florida crisis was anationwide effort to analyze information on elections and todebate policy solutions. Subsequently, HAVA, the first majorelection law in U.S. history that includes federal funds forelection equipment and operations, had a more substantial effecton policy innovation and implementation. Both before and afterHAVA, election law changes have been affected by partisan considerations,policy analyses, and entrepreneurial leadership. Thus far, HAVAhas positively affected election administration, though administrativepractices and their effectiveness vary across and within thestates.     

A Comparison of the Values and Commitment of Private Sector, Public Sector, and Parapublic Sector Employees

This study investigated differences in general values, work values and organizational commitment among 549 private sector, public sector, and parapublic sector knowledge workers. No differences in general values were observed across sectors, although five significant work value differences were revealed: parapublic employees value work that contributes to society more than public servants, who value it more than private sector employees; parapublic employees value opportunities for advancement less than both public and private sector employees; public servants value intellectually stimulating and challenging work more than parapublic employees; and private sector employees value prestigious work more than public servants. Private sector employees displayed greater organizational commitment than the employees in the other two sectors. Overall, the findings suggest only limited value differences among employees of the various sectors. The finding of some work value differences between employees in the public and parapublic sectors suggests that these two groups merit separate consideration in comparative studies such as this one.     

Alternative Ulster? Political Parties and the Non-constitutional Policy Space in Northern Ireland

This article uses data from a survey of the candidates in the 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election to measure the policy positions of the Northern Irish political parties on scales that are the usual measurements of party policy in Western Europe, such as on economic and social issues, the European Union, morality issues, environmental issues and minority groups. These data were then used to test whether the Northern Ireland party system was conducive to integration or consociationalism, which is the current debate on conflict resolution in Northern Ireland. It argues that this debate has been under-theorised and that empirical data can be used to test the likelihood of either scenario. It concludes that, in most aspects, the Northern Ireland party system tends towards the consociational scenario but there are, nevertheless, aspects which suggest that an integrationist scenario could be produced in the long term.     

A comparison of adjustment methods to test the robustness of an STR DNA database comprised of 24 European populations

An aim of the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI) is to produce a DNA database of second generation multiplex (SGM) STR profiles that is representative of the resident cosmopolitan populations. To achieve this, data were collected from 24 different populations. All of the data were combined to form one database of 5700 profiles from which allele proportions were calculated. The robustness of this combined European database was tested by estimating parameter d for every DNA profile, where d=log(10)(Pm(c)/Pm(E)) Pm(c) is the match probability of the profile calculated from its cognate database and Pm(E) is the match probability of the combined European database. Overall there was a small tendency for Pm(c)>Pm(E) primarily because of sampling bias. This bias was removed by the simple expediency of applying an adjustment factor to the calculation of Pm(E). These were selected from the Balding size bias correction, the Balding and Nichols Fst correction, a minimum allele proportion (between 0.01 and 0.02), an upper bound of a 95% confidence interval (CI) and a lower bound on the genotype match probability. It was demonstrated that a single European database is a feasible proposition. A combination of different adjustment methods can be used to ensure that the result is conservative relative to the cognate database, and their effect measured by parameter d.     

Public health law in the new century

Public health law is a broad and sometimes nebulous field which has undergone extensive reform and rethinking over the past decade. This article provides a survey of current issues in public health law, highlighting these reforms and the potential for public health legislation to deal with upcoming threats, notably bioterrorism. While recognising the anxieties bioterrorism brings, public health responses must be grounded in a coherent philosophy of risk management. Its administrators must also be aware that large-scale threats to public health are not unprecedented and that past experience can provide an important guide for future strategies.     

The disutility of advance directives: we know the problems, but are there solutions?

Advance directives (ADs) are recognized in some form by the laws of every state. Despite the availability of ADs for more than twenty years, few adults have completed any type of AD document. Even when ADs are validly executed, physicians routinelyfail to honor patients' wishes. The lack of communication between physicians and patients may be the primary reason why AD completion rates remain so low. The failure to honor an AD may stem from the physician's belief that to honor a directive would not be in the patient's best interest. The adoption and enforcement by all states of the Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act, recognition of a physician's ethical duty to assist patients in AD formulation, and routine third-party payor reimbursement to physicians for their role in patients' advance care planning will encourage and facilitate the completion and subsequent honoring of patients' directives.