scholarly journals Withdrawal of life-prolonging treatment in the face of severely limited resources: Ethical and legal analysis of the law in Israel

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-255
Author(s):  
Roy Gilbar ◽  
Nili Karako-Eyal

The provision of lifesaving treatment subject to severely limited resources can lead to serious moral dilemmas and legal challenges on many levels. The issue becomes particularly acute in a crisis such as the current Covid-19 pandemic. In this context, legal questions arise regarding withdrawal of treatment, particularly withdrawal of ventilation. Israeli law prohibits withdrawal of ventilation, a situation that affects the prioritization criteria for patients who can benefit from ventilation. This issue is discussed in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic where the legal prohibition may lead to a situation in which patients will not have access to ventilators. In addition, a theoretical framework is proposed that includes not only beneficence, nonmaleficence, and distributive justice but also a relational approach to autonomy and justice. We also propose potential solutions under the current legal framework. Based on the legal analysis, it is proposed that Israeli law be amended so that more patients will have access to ventilation during a pandemic. It is argued that clinicians cannot act beneficently to prolong life if they ignore patients’ fundamental rights or the distributional effects of ethical policies. Autonomy and justice and their accompanying liberal and relational perspectives should remain relevant even during a pandemic, a time when resources are scarce.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (204) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Gabriela Dantas da Silva

The main topic of this article is to analyze the philosophical contributions on the subject and to criticize the State's actions as an entity that supports this family model. In a second moment, emphasis is given to the philosophical contributions of Immanuel Kant and Aristotle on morals and ethics, extending them to the family and social sphere. The concept of the Eudemonist Family with great Aristotelian influence, as well as some of the main contemporary family entities in brief contextualization, is also presented, to finally address the main problem of this article: the legal challenges of the Eudemonist family in the face of the majority understanding of biological bond as a characterizing element of the family entity. In conclusion, the philosophical nature is of great importance for the understanding of these new conceptions of the family, since the Brazilian legal system did not, in fact, contemplate the experience of society, not giving up texts that were expressly discriminatory and that excluded fundamental rights of individuals.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-484
Author(s):  
Niovi Vavoula

Abstract Since the past three decades, an elaborate legal framework on the operation of EU-Schengen information systems has been developed, whereby in the near future a series of personal data concerning almost all third-country nationals (TCN s) with an administrative or criminal law link with the EU/Schengen area will be monitored through at least one information system. This article provides a legal analysis on the embedment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools at the EU level in information systems for TCN s and critically examines the fundamental rights concerns that ensue from the use AI to manage and control migration. It discusses automated risk assessment and algorithmic profiling used to examine applications for travel authorisations and Schengen visas, the shift towards the processing of facial images of TCN s and the creation of future-proof information systems that anticipate the use of facial recognition technology. The contribution understands information systems as enabling the datafication of mobility and as security tools in an era whereby a foreigner is risky by default. It is argued that a violation of the right to respect for private life is merely the gateway for a series of other fundamental rights which are impacted, such as non-discrimination and right to effective remedies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismael Saka Ismael ◽  
Abdulmumini Adebayo Oba

Under Islamic law, succession is divided into inheritance (mirath) and wills (wasiyyah) with detailed rules on how the estate of a deceased Muslim should be distributed. Islamic law of succession of the Maliki school is applicable in Nigeria as part of the personal law of Muslims. The application of Islamic legal norms in the country is generally limited by the parameters set by the state. Islamic law and its administration face many challenges from the absence of a legal framework for a systematic administration of estates governed by Islamic law. Other challenges come from the cultures and social practices of the people and from international human rights law and the bill of rights in the Nigerian constitution that  vary from some provisions of Islamic succession law. This article analyses the effects of the above on the following classes of beneficiaries: non-Muslims, female heirs, illegitimate children, adopted children, heirs outside the jurisdiction of the court, orphaned grandchildren, dissenting heirs whose concurrence is required, successors to deceased heirs, and the Bait ul-Mal (‘Public Treasury’). The article found that in the face of these challenges, Nigeria remains largely faithful to the Maliki School. The article suggests areas where more compliance with Islamic law is needed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 1240-1243
Author(s):  
Pradyuman Singh Rajput ◽  
Asish Kumar Saha ◽  
Insiya Gangardiwala ◽  
Anand Vijayakumar Palur Ramakrishnan

The COVID-19 pandemic initially started from the Wuhan capital city of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China had now led to a severe public health hazard across the globe, the recorded death is approximately 958 thousand globally and counting. With the enormous amount of spread of the disease, a severe crisis for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is being noticed across the globe. Face masks being the first line of defence for all the healthcare workers as well for the common public. It became mandatory to wear face masks before entering the patient care area. The countries who are not manufacturing it locally had to depend on other countries for the procurement. As there is a severe supply chain disruption due to the lockdown measures taken by all the countries to contain the disease, so it had become difficult to procure the face masks from the manufacturing countries. The price for these PPEs is also rising at an alarming rate with the increase in the COVID-19 cases and the huge rate of consumption by the healthcare and other sectors. Therefore, with limited resources, the hospital has to run its services. The CDC, WHO and ICMR have released several guidelines from time to time for sterilization and reuse of face masks. This article will discuss the various methods that can be utilized to sterilize the face masks and reuse of it.


Author(s):  
Ewa Krogulec ◽  
Jacek Gurwin ◽  
Mirosław Wąsik

AbstractThis paper describes the complex hydrogeological, legal framework and socioeconomic costs of the groundwater protection in major groundwater basins (MGBs) in Poland in accordance with European directives. The hydrogeological criteria developed in Poland for establishing MGBs and the principles of their protection provide more details to the directives that are in force in Europe, which define the general principles for groundwater protection. The procedure of establishing MGB protection zones is connected with a change in local plans and land development and requires an analysis of the cost–benefit relationship in the sphere of social economy in the sector of public economics. The cost assessment was performed on the basis of data from hydrogeological documentations, and the aggregation of subareas to which the same existing and planned development can be attributed. A legal analysis of bans, orders and restrictions together with the identification of the risk of claims in specific hydrogeological and development conditions was a fundamental issue of research. These costs depend on the acreage and land use of the protected area. The unit costs of MGB protection, calculated per 1 km2 of the protection area, for six sample basins were estimated at €120 to €208,000/2 years/1 km2. The highest costs are generated by establishing protection in urban areas, while the lowest costs are generated in forest areas.


2011 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. MERRITT

ABSTRACTStudies of the rise of London's vestries in the period to 1640 have tended to discuss them in terms of the inexorable rise of oligarchy and state formation. This article re-examines the emergence of the vestries in several ways, moving beyond this traditional focus on oligarchy, and noting how London's vestries raised much broader issues concerning law, custom, and lay religious authority. The article reveals a notable contrast between the widespread influence and activities of London vestries and the questionable legal framework in which they operated. The political and ecclesiastical authorities – and in particular Archbishop Laud – are also shown to have had very mixed attitudes towards the legitimacy and desirability of powerful vestries. The apparently smooth and relentless spread of select vestries in the pre-war period is also shown to be illusory. The granting of vestry ‘faculties’ by the authorities ceased abruptly at the end of the 1620s, amid a series of serious legal challenges, on both local and ideological grounds, to the existence of vestries. Their rise had thus been seriously contested and stymied well before the upheavals of the 1640s, although opposition to them came from multiple sources – Laudians, Henry Spelman and the royal Commission on Fees, and local parishioners – whose objectives could vary.


1971 ◽  
Vol os-18 (6) ◽  
pp. 241-253
Author(s):  
Eugene A. Nida

Culture change is of great interest to anthropologists, but none has developed a satisfactory model to explain it. The existence of various approaches to the study of religion points to the multidimensional nature of religion. In order to account for deletion, addition, substitution, and coalescence in religious change, the author proposes the use of models from economics and linguistics (the latter will be handled in the next issue). Economics models provide useful insights through the concepts of value and cost. For experience shows that in religion as in the market place, lowering the price of a “commodity” can also lower its value and therefore its desirability. It is shown also that values are based upon the total worldview of a society. They must also be related to the felt needs of people rather than to artificially ascribed needs. Finally, the author discusses the relevance of the concepts of “unlimited desire” in the face of “limited resources”.


2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva C. Winkler ◽  
Christoph Schickhardt

Abstract:The use of whole genome sequencing in translational research not only holds promise for finding new targeted therapies but also raises several ethical and legal questions. The four main ethical and legal challenges are as follows: (1) the handling of additional or incidental findings stemming from whole genome sequencing in research contexts; (2) the compatibility and balancing of data protection and research that is based on broad data sharing; (3) the responsibility of researchers, particularly of non-physician researchers, working in the field of genome sequencing; and (4) the process of informing and asking patients or research subjects for informed consent to the sequencing of their genome. In this paper, first, these four challenges are illustrated and, second, concrete solutions are proposed, as elaborated by the interdisciplinary Heidelberg EURAT project group, as guidelines for the use of genome sequencing in translation research and therapy in Heidelberg.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Kuner

The European Union (EU) has supported the growing calls for the creation of an international legal framework to safeguard data protection rights. At the same time, it has worked to spread its data protection law to other regions, and recent judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) have reaffirmed the autonomous nature of EU law and the primacy of EU fundamental rights law. The tension between initiatives to create a global data protection framework and the assertion of EU data protection law raises questions about how the EU can best promote data protection on a global level, and about the EU’s responsibilities to third countries that have adopted its system of data protection.


Law and World ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 8-13

In the digital era, technological advances have brought innovative opportunities. Artificial intelligence is a real instrument to provide automatic routine tasks in different fields (healthcare, education, the justice system, foreign and security policies, etc.). AI is evolving very fast. More precisely, robots as re-programmable multi-purpose devices designed for the handling of materials and tools for the processing of parts or specialized devices utilizing varying programmed movements to complete a variety of tasks.1 Regardless of opportunities, artificial intelligence may pose some risks and challenges for us. Because of the nature of AI ethical and legal questions can be pondered especially in terms of protecting human rights. The power of artificial intelligence means using it more effectively in the process of analyzing big data than a human being. On the one hand, it causes loss of traditional jobs and, on the other hand, it promotes the creation of digital equivalents of workers with automatic routine task capabilities. “Artificial intelligence must serve people, and therefore artificial intelligence must always comply with people’s rights,” said Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.2 The EU has a clear vision of the development of the legal framework for AI. In the light of the above, the article aims to explore the legal aspects of artificial intelligence based on the European experience. Furthermore, it is essential in the context of Georgia’s European integration. Analyzing legal approaches of the EU will promote an approximation of the Georgian legislation to the EU standards in this field. Also, it will facilitate to define AI’s role in the effective digital transformation of public and private sectors in Georgia.


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