Sudden death as the initial manifestation of primary pulmonary hypertension. Report of four cases

Four autopsy cases are presented in which sudden death was the initial manifestation of primary pulmonary hypertension. The arteriopathy was plexogenic in two cases (a 3-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy) and was thrombotic in two other cases (55- and 59-year-old women). The diagnosis of primary pulmonary hypertension, particularly in forensic cases, requires that the pathologist be especially aware of the possibility and that a careful evaluation of multiple sections of lung be performed. Determination of the histopathologic type also is important because some forms of the disease may be familial and may be treatable in other family members if they are detected early.     

Perceived coercion and need for hospitalization related to psychiatric admission

Psychiatric hospitalization constitutes a moment of major stress to the point that occurrences of posttraumatic stress disorders have been described. Feelings of coercion are usual, whatever the legal status of admission. Patients may also consider afterwards that they needed hospitalization even if they refused it initially. A cross-sectional survey has been conducted among the inpatients of a Swiss psychiatric hospital to assess their subjective view of admission with emphasis on legal status, perceived coercion and need for hospitalization. Eighty-seven questionnaires were completed and analyzed. Results indicated that 74% of patients felt that they had been under pressure to be hospitalized, whether or not they were involuntarily admitted. Seventy percent felt their admission was necessary. More involuntary patients reported a subjective lack of improvement. Clinicians could decrease feelings of coercion of their patients while discussing need for hospitalization, legal status and subjective feeling of coercion as different dimensions. An argument is presented to favor positive pressure from social environment over legal involuntary commitment in many hospitalizations.     

Sharing aquatic genetic resources across jurisdictions: playing ‘chicken’ in the sea

International regimes regulating access and benefit sharing were originally designed to promote conservation and fairness objectives concerning the use of the world’s biological resources for their genetic material value. These regimes determine from whom permission is required to take the resources and who obtains the benefits of their use. They have evolved separate frameworks in three distinct jurisdictional areas—within national jurisdiction, beyond national jurisdiction and in the Antarctic Treaty Area. This article argues that if these regimes continue to evolve separately, there is a strong temptation for countries to play ‘chicken’ with biological resource governance through forum shopping or opting out of agreements that do not suit their political ends. Using game theory and a transgenic tilapia fish example incorporating genetic material from the three jurisdictional areas, it illustrates the legal and ethical dilemmas that can arise from the territorial (jurisdictional) approach to access and benefit sharing—to the detriment of fairness and conservation in tilapia’s countries of origin. Tilapias are known as the ‘chicken of the sea’ because they dominate global farmed production and developing countries depend on them as their primary source of protein, livelihoods and trade. This means there will be serious consequences if the regimes do not achieve their fairness and conservation objectives for sharing their genetic material. This article concludes that a purpose-driven cooperative governance approach can sidestep the game of chicken and promote fairer and more conservation focused outcomes than the current jurisdictional approach for the developing country providers of migratory aquatic resources.     

Pouvoir royal et représentation provençale du XVIIème au XVIIIème siècle

SUMMARY

This paper examines assemblies of the clergy in early modern Castile and France. It provides a short overview of the representative nature of these assemblies, their functions, and their power over the ecclesiastical purse strings. In the process it argues that, in addition to secular representative institutions, historians need to take a closer look at ecclesiastical assemblies in order to understand politics, finance and representation in Catholic polities.     

Victor’s Justice: The Next Best Moral Theory of Criminal Punishment?

In this essay, I address one methodological aspect of Victor Tadros’s The Ends of Harm – namely, the moral character of the theory of criminal punishment it defends. First, I offer a brief reconstruction of this dimension of the argument, highlighting some of its distinctive strengths while drawing attention to particular inconsistencies. I then argue that Tadros ought to refrain from developing this approach in terms of an overly narrow understanding of the morality of harming as fully unified and reconciled under the lone heading of justice. In a final and most critical section, I offer arguments for why this reconciliatory commitment, further constrained by a misplaced emphasis on corrective justice, generates major problems for his general deterrence account of the core justification of criminal punishment.