Genetic enhancement in the twenty-first century: three problems in legal imagining

By what method should we resolve the ethical and public policy issues surrounding genetic enhancement: a utilitarian calculus, appeal to Scripture, application of neo-Kantian principles? In this Article, the author claims that, despite the diversity of our basic methodological commitments, we can advance our shared understanding of the issues surrounding genetic enhancement and come to agree upon certain central features as essential to any adequate method for resolving those issues. The author attempts to make modest headway on both fronts by engaging in "legal imagining." Legal imagining consists of examining hypothetical problems from the lawyer's perspective, the perspective of a caring, professional friend. This Article examines and discusses three problems in legal imagining.     

DSM-5 and Malingering: a Modest Proposal

The DSM criteria for identifying malingering are reviewed and found to be flawed on both conceptual and practical grounds. Alternative models for diagnosing feigned psychiatric, physical, and neuropsychological symptoms are presented. A number of useful features of these systems are highlighted for potential contributions to modified DSM criteria. It is recommended that the present DSM text on malingering be replaced with feigned psychiatric, physical, or neuropsychological symptoms and suggestions for developing criteria for this condition are made.     

Can Cephalometrics Discriminate Between the Sexes in a Diverse Juvenile Sample?

A critical component of the biological profile is sex estimation. Methods commonly used for sex estimation in adults do not work well for juveniles. Population‐specific studies have used cephalometrics to estimate juvenile sex with 80–90% accuracy. Our study attempts to estimate sex in individuals less than 18 years of age using a sample of 1618 lateral cephalograms incorporating all three Angle Class occlusions as well as population diversity. For the sample as a whole, 10 skeletal cephalometrics were found to have significant differences between the sexes. Males and females classify correctly about 50% of the time. Dividing the sample by age groups and race/ethnicity improves results for older age groups and Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. Our results indicate that cephalometrics are not useful in determining sex of unidentified juveniles when age and race are not known.     

CITIZEN GROUPS AND ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO REGULATORY REFORM

Berry examines alternative regulatory reform proposals which could lead to greater citizens group control over regulatory policy making. Citizens groups have been handicapped by problems of maintaining large-scale lobbying efforts, seeing little in the way of long-term rewards for accomplishing deregulation, being unwilling to play the Congressional logrolling game, and simultaneously favoring regulation in one area and deregulation in another. The costs and benefits to citizen group organizations are emphasized in considering the alternatives they advocate. Citizen participation programs are seen as the most likely to expand in the future.     

Land Use Regulation and Residential Segregation: Does Zoning Matter?

Critics of zoning have attributed to it much of the responsibilityfor the persistent and severe patterns of racial and economicsegregation that characterize urban America. Yet, little empiricalevidence has been produced to demonstrate the degree to whichobserved patterns of residential segregation are attributableto zoning. This article explores that question by comparingpatterns of residential segregation in Houston, the nation'sonly unzoned large city, and Dallas, a similar zoned city. Houston'sunique system of "nonzoning" is described. The index of dissimilarityis used to measure segregation by race, tenure, and housingtype, and a variation of the index is developed to measure segregationby income. No significant differences in residential segregationare evident between the two cities. These results suggest that,absent zoning, private voluntary institutions produce nearlyidentical patterns of residential segregation.     

Rent-seeking with multiple winners

This paper examines the impact of the number of winners allowed by regulators on rentseeking expenditures. It is demonstrated in a widely used model that an increase in the number of winners will decrease total rent-seeking expenditures. This result is generally obtained regardless of whether the firms are risk-averse or risk-lovers. When regulators award coveted market franchises, there will be smaller welfare losses if more winners are allowed.I am grateful to an anonymous referee whose comments were very helpful. The usual caveats apply.     

The world as a moral community

He is the author and co-author of numerous books, among them The Sociology of the Future; The Democratic Revolution in the West Indies; Decisions of Nationhood; Jamaican Leaders; Ethnicity, and Nation Building; Public Leadership;and Social Area Analysis.He is currently working on a book titled Foundations of the Futures Field.     

From agribusiness to agriculture

Abstract

One way in which colonialism injured Africa was through the rupture it caused in the integration of the civil with the political aspect of her social life. That integration was one of the strong points of traditional society. Indeed, in traditional life the distinction between the state and civil society was largely inoperative. This seamless‐ness was, however, not complete. It was still possible in traditional times to distinguish between societies with states and societies without state apparatus. The Zulu of South Africa are an example of societies with an organized state, while the Tallensi of Ghana exemplify societies without state apparatus.