scholarly journals Challenges posed by novel vaccines in a hyperlinked society both to doctors and the health of their patients

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Alojz Ihan

Medicine in the developed world is becoming progressively more commercialized since patients (or, more accurately, medical consumers) are increasingly becoming the driving force of what we call medical progress. The doctors are primarily obliged to treat and help patients, but will always have also (commercial) temptation before him: to facilitate the consumer's desires and, with a warm heart, shoot to the far borders of medical knowledge and technology. A good example illustrating dilemma of beneficial vs commercial medicine are ethical challenges of some new vaccines developed recently. Since their earliest introduction in the late 18th century, vaccines have undoubtedly saved the lives of millions, while also fundamentally changing the way modern medicine is practiced. Many diseases that were once widespread are now eradicated, yet vaccine development faces ongoing challenges, including some important ethical considerations. Today there are over 300 vaccines in development and included in clinical trials. Among them, anti-addiction vaccines (Cocaine, Nicotine, Fentanyl, Heroin, Oxycodone) received a burst of media attention, because these vaccines could help people in recovery from addiction; however, many ethical and legal questions may arise before clinical use.

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 1709-1719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley A. Plotkin

ABSTRACT Vaccine development, which began with Edward Jenner's observations in the late 18th century, has entered its 4th century. From its beginnings, with the use of whole organisms that had been weakened or inactivated, to the modern-day use of genetic engineering, it has taken advantage of the tools discovered in other branches of microbiology. Numerous successful vaccines are in use, but the list of diseases for which vaccines do not exist is long. However, the multiplicity of strategies now available, discussed in this article, portends even more successful development of vaccines.


Author(s):  
M. McNEIL

Erasmus Darwin was the focus and embodiment of provincial England in his day. Renowned as a physician, he spent much of his life at Lichfield. He instigated the founding of the Lichfield Botanic Society, which provided the first English translation of the works of Linnaeus, and established a botanic garden; the Lunar Society of Birmingham; the Derby Philosophical Society; and two provincial libraries. A list of Darwin's correspondents and associates reads like a "who's who" of eighteenth century science, industry, medicine and philosophy. His poetry was also well received by his contemporaries and he expounded the evolutionary principles of life. Darwin can be seen as an English equivalent of Lamarck, being a philosopher of nature and human society. His ideas have been linked to a multitude of movements, including the nosological movement in Western medicine, nineteenth century utilitarianism, Romanticism in both Britain and Germany, and associationist psychology. The relationships between various aspects of Darwin's interests and the organizational principles of his writings were examined. His poetical form and medical theory were not peripheral to his study of nature but intrinsically linked in providing his contemporaries with a panorama of nature. A richer, more integrated comprehension of Erasmus Darwin as one of the most significant and representative personalities of his era was presented.


2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-185
Author(s):  
Edyta Sokalska

The reception of common law in the United States was stimulated by a very popular and influential treatise Commentaries on the Laws of England by Sir William Blackstone, published in the late 18th century. The work of Blackstone strengthened the continued reception of the common law from the American colonies into the constituent states. Because of the large measure of sovereignty of the states, common law had not exactly developed in the same way in every state. Despite the fact that a single common law was originally exported from England to America, a great variety of factors had led to the development of different common law rules in different states. Albert W. Alschuler from University of Chicago Law School is one of the contemporary American professors of law. The part of his works can be assumed as academic historical-legal narrations, especially those concerning Blackstone: Rediscovering Blackstone and Sir William Blackstone and the Shaping of American Law. Alschuler argues that Blackstone’s Commentaries inspired the evolution of American and British law. He introduces not only the profile of William Blackstone, but also examines to which extent the concepts of Blackstone have become the basis for the development of the American legal thought.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-204
Author(s):  
Carolin Rocks

"Praktiken zur Autonomie Zu Moritz’ Über die bildende Nachahmung des Schönen Karl Philipp Moritz’ Über die bildende Nachahmung des Schönen (1788) gilt als der autonomieästhetischeProgrammtext in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts. DerAufsatz stellt diese ästhetikgeschichtliche Klassifikation nicht in Frage, zeigt aber,dass die im Kern unbestreitbar kunstmetaphysische Argumentation über ethischePraktiken begründet wird. Diese Praktiken nehmen in der Arbeit an der Autonomieeinen so entscheidenden Stellenwert ein, dass sich eine heteronomieästhetischeGrundierung der Moritz’schen Kunsttheorie aufweisen lässt. Diese tritt hervor,wenn man den Fokus darauf richtet, wie Ethik und Ästhetik zueinander insVerhältnis gesetzt werden: Moritz verpflichtet die autonome Kunst nicht einfachauf moralische Normen oder soziale Funktionen, modelliert aber den genialenKünstler als Praktiker, als ›Hand-Werker‹, dessen künstlerische Produktivität immerschon einem ›guten Leben‹ zuarbeitet. Der Aufsatz demonstriert, wie Moritz ineinem eigenwilligen Begriffsspiel mit dem Schönen und dem Guten ›Nachahmung‹neu entwirft als auf Moralität zusteuernde ästhetische Praxis. Diese praxeologischeGrundlage der Argumentation wirft zusätzlich ein neues Licht auf Moritz’ Rezeptionneuplatonistischer Philosopheme. Karl Philipp Moritz’s »Über die bildende Nachahmung des Schönen« (1788) is regarded asone of the key texts of autonomous aesthetics from the late 18th century. This article doesnot challenge this classification. Instead, it argues that Moritz’s metaphysics of art is foundedupon ethical practices. These practices are so essential to his conception, that one can show thatit is also based on heteronomous aesthetics. This aspect of his argument emerges from how herelates ethics to aesthetics. Moritz does not simply reduce autonomous art to moral norms orsocial functions. Instead he portrays the ingenious artist as an artisan (›Hand-Werker‹) whoseaesthetic productivity serves a ›good life‹. This article therefore demonstrates how Moritz playswith the concepts of the beauty and the good in order to remodel mimesis as an aesthetic practicethat significantly contributes to morality. Finally, by emphasising this praxeological foundationof Moritz’s argument, one can also reconsider his reception of Neo-Platonism "


1989 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-328
Author(s):  
Salahudeen Yusuf

The history of Islam in part of what is known today as Nigeria datesto about the loth Century. Christianity dates to the late 18th Century. Bythe middle of the 19th Century, when Nigerian newspapers began to appearon the streets of Nigeria, both religions had won so many followers and extendedto so many places in Nigeria that very few areas were untouched bytheir influence. The impact of both religions on their adherents not only determinedtheir spiritual life, but influenced their social and political lives aswell. It therefore became inevitable that both religions receive coverage frommost of the newspapers of the time. How the newspapers as media of informationand communication reported issues about the two religions is thetheme of this paper.Rationale for the StudyThe purpose of this study is to highlight the context in which such earlynewspapers operated and the factors that dictated their performance. Thisis because it is assumed that when a society faces external threat to its territory,culture, and independence, all hands (the press inclusive) ought tobe on deck to resist the threat with all might. Were newspapers used as verbalartillery and how did they present each religion? It is also assumed thatin a multireligious society a true press should be objective and serve as avanguard in the promotion of the interest of the people in general and notcreate or foster an atmosphere of religious conflict. The study also aims atfinding out whether the papers promoted intellectual honesty and fosteredthe spirit of unity particularly when the society was faced with the encroachmentof the British who posed a threat to their freedom, culture, economy ...


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-81

The article analyzes Michel Foucault’s philosophical ideas on Western medicine and delves into three main insights that the French philosopher developed to expose the presence of power behind the veil of the conventional experience of medicine. These insights probe the power-disciplining function of psychiatry, the administrative function of medical institutions, and the role of social medicine in the administrative and political system of Western society. Foucault arrived at theses insights by way of his intense interest in three elements of the medical system that arose almost simultaneously at the end of the 18th century - psychiatry as “medicine for mental illness”, the hospital as the First and most well-known type of medical institution, and social medicine as a type of medical knowledge focused more on the protection of society and far less on caring for the individual. All the issues Foucault wrote about stemmed from his personal and professional sensitivity to the problems of power and were a part of the “medical turn” in the social and human sciences that occurred in the West in the 1960s and 1970s and led to the emergence of medical humanities. The article argues that Foucault’s stories about the power of medical knowledge were philosophical stories about Western medicine. Foucault always used facts, dates, and names in an attempt to identify some of the general tendencies and patterns in the development of Western medicine and to reveal usually undisclosed mechanisms for managing individuals and populations. Those mechanisms underlie the practice of providing assistance, be it the “moral treatment” practiced by psychiatrists before the advent of effective medication, or treating patients as “clinical cases” in hospitals, or hospitalization campaigns that were considered an effective “technological safe-guard ” in the 18th and most of the 19th century.


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