Conflicts of Interest

Author(s):  
Neil Soni ◽  
Andrew Lawson ◽  
Carl Waldmann

Definition of conflict of interest: ‘When an individual, a group of individuals or an organization has competing interests or loyalties.’ This simple definition has applications in most aspects of daily living, so it is unremarkable that in almost every aspect of the administration of healthcare it becomes a significant consideration. Identification or recognition of where a conflict of interest exists is not always easy. Once identified, in many if not most circumstances it necessitates compromise. In all cases the overall intention should not be subsumed by the interest of the individual or the organization. The two outstanding areas usually highlighted in medicine are those of nepotism in the job market and the interactions between medicine and industry. The former is allegedly of only historic interest due to rigorous, almost draconian, selection procedures. The latter has recently become both a recognized problem and the bête noire of the profession.

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-142
Author(s):  
Alonso Villarán ◽  

What is a conflict of interest? What is morally problematic about one? Beginning with the definition, this paper organizes the core (philosophical) literature and creates two continuums—one devoted to the more specific definition of ‘interest,’ and the other to that of ‘duty’ (two elements that belong to the definition of conflicts of interest and over which the debate revolves). Each continuum places the authors according to the narrowness or broadness of their positions, which facilitates the understanding of the debate as well as what is at stake when defining conflicts of interest. The paper then develops a moral analysis that leads to the sought-for definition and to an explanation of why we should treat conflicts of interest carefully. While doing so, the paper discloses the criterion to judge whether a definition is right and presents the duties that makes conflicts of interest special as ‘tertiary’ duties of morality.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Arend

In this case-based essay, we explore how conflicts of interest can corrupt the postpublication oversight process in academic business journals. We build on Carson’s comprehensive definition of the conflict of interest construct by arguing that it is, in a practical sense, not isolated and dyadic but instead is multirelational to the point of being viral. Specifically, we argue that conflicts of interest produce further conflicts of interest; this occurs at any oversight level that is tasked with investigating and addressing any allegations of conflict of interest violations at lower levels. A real recent case illustrates that this complexity is not understood in our social sciences—five different levels of “checks and balances” in our postpublishing oversight failed to address an obvious initial conflict of interest. A discussion covering the harms of the violations, the causes, and the possible solutions fleshes out our arguments about this core ethical construct.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 28-39
Author(s):  
E. V. Ryabtseva ◽  

The complexity of regulation of issues to prevent conflicts of interest in the activities of state, including judicial bodies, is due to the uncertainty of law arising from the lack of clear legislative structures to correlate the rule of law with the actual circumstances that indicate conflicts of interest. The aim of the study is the formation of scientifically based knowledge about the nature of conflicts of interest. The main objectives of the study are connected with the scientific substantiation of a general approach to the definition of «conflicts of interest», taking into account industry-specific features of their regulation; analysis of the main elements of the content of conflicts of interest, features of their legal regulation in Russian and foreign legislation. The modern methodology of comparative law makes it possible to analyze the substantive aspect of conflicts of interest, issues of their regulation, specifics of prevention in international and Russian legislation, for the optimal construction of the linguistic structure of their regulation in judicial activity. As a result of the study, the definition of «conflict of interest» is formulated. The systematic approach to determining the content of «conflicts of interest» is justified, taking into account the particular legal status of a judge.


2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-187
Author(s):  
E. S. Burt

Why does writing of the death penalty demand the first-person treatment that it also excludes? The article investigates the role played by the autobiographical subject in Derrida's The Death Penalty, Volume I, where the confessing ‘I’ doubly supplements the philosophical investigation into what Derrida sees as a trend toward the worldwide abolition of the death penalty: first, to bring out the harmonies or discrepancies between the individual subject's beliefs, anxieties, desires and interests with respect to the death penalty and the state's exercise of its sovereignty in applying it; and second, to provide a new definition of the subject as haunted, as one that has been, but is no longer, subject to the death penalty, in the light of the worldwide abolition currently underway.


1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-42
Author(s):  
Елена Старовойтенко

Персонологическая интерпретация текстов предполагает реализацию общенаучных, а также специфических для персонологии, герменевтических установок, к которым относятся: установка на интерпретацию текста как исследование, установка на разнообразие герменевтических действий с текстом, установка на выявление неисследованных содержаний текста, установка на творческое постижение тайн текста, установка на целостное отношение к личности и "Я" автора текста, установка на выявление способности автора быть "практикующим феноменологом", установка на определение места изучаемого текста в континууме текстовых репрезентаций "личности", установка на соотнесение своего понимания текста с другими интерпретациями и их интеграцию, установка на раскрытие сущности авторской "идеи личности", возможное только в единстве интерпретаций, установка на построение и применение герменевтической модели, определяющей процедуру интерпретации как исследования и творчества, установка на определение места проделанного герменевтического поиска в культуре познания и жизни личности, установка на интерпретацию различных видов "текстов личности". Personological interpretation of texts suggests the implementation of the general scientific and also hermeneutical settings specific for Personology which include the setting of the interpretation of the text as a research, setting of a variety of hermeneutical actions with the text, setting to identify unexplored contents of the text, setting of the creative comprehension of the mysteries of the text, setting of the integrity of the attitude of the individual and the "I" of the author of the text, setting to reveal the author's ability to be "practicing phenomenologist", setting of the definition of the place in the text in the continuum of textual representations of the "personality", setting in the correlation of the understanding of the text with other interpretations and their integration, setting of the disclosure of the author's "ideas person" is possible only in the unity of interpretation, setting of the construction and usage of hermeneutical models defining the procedure for the interpretation of both studies and work, the setting to determine the place of hermeneutical research in culture and knowledge of a person's life, setting of the interpretation of various types of "texts of the individual."


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-149
Author(s):  
Aurelia Teodora Drăghici

SummaryTheme conflicts of interest is one of the major reasons for concern local government, regional and central administrative and criminal legal implications aiming to uphold the integrity and decisions objectively. Also, most obviously, conflicts of interest occur at the national level where political stakes are usually highest, one of the determining factors of this segment being the changing role of the state itself, which creates opportunities for individual gain through its transformations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-31
Author(s):  
Francisco Xavier Morales

The problem of identity is an issue of contemporary society that is not only expressed in daily life concerns but also in discourses of politics and social movements. Nevertheless, the I and the needs of self-fulfillment usually are taken for granted. This paper offers thoughts regarding individual identity based on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. From this perspective, identity is not observed as a thing or as a subject, but rather as a “selfillusion” of a system of consciousness, which differentiates itself from the world, event after event, in a contingent way. As concerns the definition  of contents of self-identity, the structures of social systems define who is a person, how he or she should act, and how much esteem he or she should receive. These structures are adopted by consciousness as its own identity structures; however, some social contexts are more relevant for self-identity construction than others. Moral communication increases the probability that structure appropriation takes place, since the emotional element of identity is linked to the esteem/misesteem received by the individual from the interactions in which he or she participates.


Author(s):  
Katherine Severi

Ralston et al present an analysis of policy actor responses to a draft World Health Organization (WHO) tool to prevent and manage conflicts of interest (COI) in nutrition policy. While the Ralston et al study is focussed explicitly on food and nutrition, the issues and concepts addressed are relevant also to alcohol policy debates and present an important opportunity for shared learning across unhealthy commodity industries in order to protect and improve population health. This commentary addresses the importance of understanding how alcohol policy actors – especially decision-makers – perceive COI in relation to alcohol industry engagement in policy. A better understanding of such perceptions may help to inform the development of guidelines to identify, manage and protect against risks associated with COI in alcohol policy.


Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Mastracci

In this paper, the author examines public service as depicted in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS). First, she shows how slaying meets the economist’s definition of a public good, using the BtVS episode “Flooded” (6.04). Second, she discusses public service motivation (PSM) to determine whether or not Buffy, a public servant, operates from a public service ethic. Relying on established measures and evidence from shooting scripts and episode transcripts, the author concludes Buffy is a public servant motivated by a public service ethic. In this way, BtVS informs scholarship on public service by broadening the concept of PSM beyond the public sector; prompting one to wonder whether it is located in a sector, an occupation, or in the individual. These conclusions allow the author to situate Buffy alongside other idealized public servants in American popular culture.


Author(s):  
Ursula Renz

This chapter discusses the implications of Spinoza’s concept of individual bodies, as introduced in the definition of individuum in the physical digression. It begins by showing that this definition allows for an extremely wide application of the term; accordingly, very different sorts of physical entities can be described as Spinozistic individuals. Given the quite distinct use of the terms divisibilis and indivisibilis in his metaphysics, however, the chapter argues that the physical concept of individuality is not universally applied in the Ethics but reserved for physical or natural-philosophical considerations. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the problem of collective individuals. It is argued that, while societies or states are described as individual bodies, they do not constitute individual group minds in the strict sense of the term for Spinoza. This in turn indicates that minds are not individuated in the same way as bodies.


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