Brain Banking – Bioethical Implications

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 68-68
Author(s):  
Ioana Diaconescu ◽  
◽  
Sorin Hostiuc ◽  
George Cristian Curca ◽  
◽  
...  

"Novel biotechnologies like brain banking pose a challenge in neurodegenerative diseases research, being not only a step towards a better understanding for these diseases, but also from a bioethical point of view. Brain banks collect tissue for research purposes from deceased persons suffering from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimes’s disease. In order to improve the quality in this research field, confidentiality and a detailed informed consent are aspects that should be emphasized. Moreover, given the fact that the brain collecting takes place during an autopsy, legal aspects also play an important role, hence a legal frame is also needed. The role of the deceased’s family should also be taken into account, especially when and how they can decide if the autopsy can be performed in the first place. The research participant should sign a detailed informed consent that must remain the research basis to which extent the collected data should be disclosed. Finally, only a framework of bioethical and legal norms can improve the quality of brain banking research. A comprehensive perspective for brain banking from obtaining, processing, and storage of brain material to bioethical and legal aspects should increase the scarce sapling of brain banking. "

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-98
Author(s):  
Юрий Поваров

One of the key factors in assessing the coordination of the third-party interference in a citizen’s private life (including when implementing activities related to the human genome) is his awareness of the actual and (or) legal aspects of such interference; however, many aspects of relevant information procedures remain blank or debatable. Aim: to identify the causes and significance (first of all, from the point of view of observing the principle of respect for the individual) of entrenchment in international legal acts and Russian legislation the requirement of informed consent of the subject; analysis of approaches to determining the content and volume of information provided, as well as to interpreting the provision on reporting data in an accessible form; studying the specifics of informing in extraordinary situations (refusal to receive information, etc.). Methods: general theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic; private scientific methods such as comparative legal, legal dogmatic, the method of interpreting legal norms. Results: it is established that the main factors for introducing the sign of informed consent are the nature of the protected goods and the qualification of the citizen as a weak (vulnerable) side; the appropriateness of using the categories of “necessity” and “sufficiency” is justified in determining the completeness of the disclosed information; a close relationship between the signs of awareness and voluntariness of consent is disclosed, which, however, does not cancel their autonomy.


Author(s):  
M.G. Tirskikh ◽  
◽  
G.V. Druzhinin ◽  
I.M. Siliveev ◽  
◽  
...  

The article examines the problems of corporate regulation and political regime mutual influence, and describes the role and place of corporate regulation in the system of social and normative regulation. The corporate law structure is described as a set of corporate and legal norms from the point of view of narrow and broad approaches. Some features of corporate regulation in liberal, democratic, totalitarian and authoritarian regimes are analyzed. It is noted that a democratic political regime is characterized by a variety of corporate structures of a commercial and political nature, the predominance of the dispositive nature of the corporations’ activities legal regulation, and the admissibility of political and public corporations’ broad participation in government. The authors note that in a liberal political regime, there is a high degree of commercial corporations’ autonomy, while limiting the political and social corporations’ activities. The author reveals a variety of approaches to the manifestation of corporate regulation in authoritarian political regimes. It is described that in a totalitarian political regime, corporations actually become a part of the state mechanism, and corporate regulation is actually replaced by direct or delegated regulation of individual executive bodies. It is concluded that there is a connection between the nature of corporate regulation and the political regime of the respective state. It is established that the influence is mutual and stable and is determined both by the properties of certain types of political regimes and by the specifics of national systems of corporate regulation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1416
Author(s):  
Yurii S. SHEMSHUCHENKO ◽  
Anatoliy V. KOSTRUBA

This study sets the task of studying the legal aspects of corporate governance in the context of existing international law. Consideration of issues related to the legal aspects of corporate governance is of great importance for the development of common criteria for evaluating their activities from the point of view of existing legal norms. The development of ever new forms of public organizations and the need to develop legislative norms to regulate their activities only emphasizes the importance of the issue under study. The relevance of this problem is of particular importance in light of the fact that to date, the laws of most countries have not yet developed clear criteria governing the corporate activity. This fact leads to difficulties in studying this issue and the high probability of misunderstanding in matters of corporate activity and corporate governance features, not to mention giving this activity a proper assessment from the standpoint of the norms of current legislation. This study sets the task of studying the fundamental legal rules regulating the corporate governance of Ukraine and foreign countries with the identification of the similarities and differences of existing legal standards. The method of comparative analysis of works of domestic and foreign researchers in the framework of the subject under consideration was selected. The applied value of this material is to identify the main criteria for the compliance of the current aspects of corporate governance with international law with a view to the subsequent application of the results in practice. The research prospects in this direction from a legal point of view consist in comparing the current legislative acts regulating international law with regard to corporate governance issues, which opens up great opportunities for analysis of all the provisions of corporate governance and bringing them into line with the norms of existing international law.  


Author(s):  
Almaz F. Abdulvaliev

This article presents the conceptual foundations for the formation of a new research field “Judicial Geography”, including the prerequisites for its creation, academic, and theoretical development, both in Russia and abroad. The purpose of the study is to study the possibility of applying geographical methods and means in criminal law, criminal procedure, and in judicial activity in general via the academic direction “Judicial Geography”. The author describes in detail the main elements of judicial geography and its role and significance for such legal sciences, as criminal law, criminal procedure, criminalistics, and criminology among others. The employed research methods allow showing the main vectors of the development of judicial geography, taking into account the previous achievements of Russian and worldwide academics. The author indicates the role and place of judicial geography in the system of legal sciences. This study suggests a concept of using scientific geographical methods in the study of various legal phenomena of a criminal and criminal-procedural nature when considering the idea of building judicial bodies and judicial instances, taking into account geographical and climatic factors. In this regard, the author advises to introduce the special course “Judicial Geography”, which would allow law students to study the specifics of the activities of the judiciary and preliminary investigation authorities from a geographical point of view, as well as to use various geographical methods, including the mapping method, in educational and practical activities. The author concludes that forensic geography may become a new milestone for subsequent scientific research in geography and jurisprudence.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 475-478
Author(s):  
Matthé Scholten ◽  
Jochen Vollmann

In this case commentary, we analyze ethical concerns that were raised in response to an interview with a woman with bipolar disorder who was under involuntary commitment. We focus on competence and voluntariness as two prerequisites for valid informed consent. We recommend that judgments of competence be based on whether prospective research participants sufficiently possess certain decision-making abilities. Based on this functional approach, we argue that manic symptoms need not undermine competence and that, even if we were to assume that the research participant became incompetent during the interview, this would not invalidate her consent retroactively. It would, however, compromise her ability to revoke her consent. We furthermore show that obtaining additional proxy consent for research participation may compromise the autonomy of service users who are competent to consent. Then we turn to the issue of voluntariness. Arguing that neither the great strength nor the external etiology of a desire compromises voluntariness, we propose that the voluntariness of a decision instead depends on whether the decision-maker endorses it on reflection. The researchers disclosed that prospective research participants’ decision about study participation would have no influence on the duration of the commitment or the quality of care. We contend that because of this neither coercion nor undue influence was exerted in the informed consent process. Nevertheless, there is an increased likelihood of perceived coercion and undue influence under conditions of involuntary commitment, and we close by suggesting some safeguards to prevent this.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Jonas Folke ◽  
Sertan Arkan ◽  
Isak Martinsson ◽  
Susana Aznar ◽  
Gunnar Gouras ◽  
...  

Background: α-synuclein (α-syn) aggregation contributes to the progression of multiple neurodegenerative diseases. We recently found that the isoform b of the co-chaperone DNAJB6 is a strong suppressor of a-syn aggregation in vivo and in vitro. However, nothing is known about the role of the endogenous isoform b of DNAJB6 (DNAJB6b) in health and disease, due to lack of specific antibodies. Objective: Here we generated a novel anti-DNAJB6b antibody to analyze the localization and expression this isoform in cells, in tissue and in clinical material. Methods: To address this we used immunocytochemistry, immunohistochemistry, as well as a novel quantitative DNAJB6 specific ELISA method. Results: The endogenous protein is mainly expressed in the cytoplasm and in neurites in vitro, where it is found more in dendrites than in axons. We further verified in vivo that DNAJB6b is expressed in the dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc), which is a neuronal subpopulation highly sensitive to α-syn aggregation, that degenerate to a large extend in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA). When we analyzed the expression levels of DNAJB6b in brain material from PD and MSA patients, we found a downregulation of DNAJB6b by use of ELISA based quantification. Interestingly, this was also true when analyzing tissue from patients with progressive supranuclear palsy, a taupathic atypical parkinsonian disorder. However, the total level of DNAJB6 was upregulated in these three diseases, which may indicate an upregulation of the other major isoform of DNAJB6, DNAJB6a. Conclusion: This study shows that DNAJB6b is downregulated in several different neurodegenerative diseases, which makes it an interesting target to further investigate in relation to amyloid protein aggregation and disease progression.


2021 ◽  
pp. 80-87
Author(s):  
Terdi E. S. ◽  
◽  
Skrynnik I. K. ◽  

The article is devoted to the problem of the inconsistency of the Russian imperative model of active legal capacity, according to which the content of active legal capacity in case of its restriction due to mental disability of a person is prescribed by the law, to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ratified by Russia in 2012. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the shortcomings of the imperative model, the main of which is the lack of authority of the Russian court to individually determine the consequences of restriction of active legal capacity of a person due to mental disorder, taking in account degree of actual decrease of his cognitive and volitional abilities. This purpose is achieved by the consistent implementation of the following tasks. First of all, characteristic of the Russian imperative model of active legal capacity is given. Secondly, the French dispositive model of legal capacity is described. In this model the forms of legal protection, but not the categories of active legal capacity, incapacitation and restricted active legal capacity are the backbone concepts for the legal regulation of this group of relationship. It is noted that under the influence of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities the more progressive, from the point of view of international law, forms of this model are stipulated in many foreign countries. Thirdly, the evolved form of the French dispositive model of active legal capacity, implemented in the Bill 18 «An Act to amend the Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, the Public Curator Act and various provisions as regards the protection of persons», that was adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec in 2 June 2020, is analyzed. The main advantage of the latter is that the court, establishing the form of protection, is not bound by the legal norms that imperatively determine the content of active legal capacity of a person with mental disorder. The court is able, based on the cognitive and volitional abilities of particular person, to individually determine which acts person can perform by himself, alone or with the assistance of the tutor, and which one can be performed by the tutor only. The objectives of the study determine the leading role of the comparative legal method in its implementation. The provided research makes possible to assess the perspectives of borrowing of French or Quebec dispositive models of active legal capacity of people with mental disorder by the Russian legislator.


F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Benchoufi ◽  
Raphael Porcher ◽  
Philippe Ravaud

Clinical trial consent for protocols and their revisions should be transparent for patients and traceable for stakeholders. Our goal is to implement a process allowing the collection of patients’ informed consent, which is bound to protocol revisions, storing and tracking the consent in a secure, unfalsifiable and publicly verifiable way, and enabling the sharing of this information in real time. For that, we will built a consent workflow using a rising technology called Blockchain. This is a distributed technology that brings a built-in layer of transparency and traceability. Additionally, it removes the need for third parties, and gives participative control to the peer-to-peer users. From a more general and prospective point of view, we believe Blockchain technology brings a paradigmatical shift to the entire clinical research field. We designed a Proof-of-Concept protocol consisting of time-stamping each step of the patient’s consent collection using Blockchain; thus archiving and historicising the consent through cryptographic validation in a securely unfalsifiable and transparent way. For each revision of the protocol, consent was sought again. We obtained a single document, in a standard open format, that accounted for the whole consent collection process: timestamped consent status with regards to each version of the protocol. This document cannot be corrupted, and can be checked on any dedicated public website. It should be considered as a robust proof of data. In the future, we think that the complex data flow of a clinical trial can be tracked using Blockchain. Moreover, a blockchain core functionality, named Smart Contract, can help prevent clinical trial events not to happen in the right chronological order: including patients before they consented or analysing case report forms data before freezing the database. This will help reaching reliability, security, and transparency, and could be a consistent step towards reproducibility.


2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (7) ◽  
pp. 1533-1538
Author(s):  
Sandra Kaija ◽  
Inga Kudeikina ◽  
Nataliya Gutorova

The aim: The aim of the study is to define the legal framework of forensic psychiatric examination commissioned by the court in relation to the competence of medical practitioners and the position of the subject as a patient in the process of forensic psychiatric examination in order to determine the correlation of special legal regulation with criminal and civil procedure regulation and to make proposals for the enhancement of the legal regulation. Materials and methods: This study is based on the analysis of international law, medical civil procedure and criminal procedure legislation, juridical practice, medical law legal doctrine. The following methods were used in this research: the method of interpretation of legal norms, analysis of legal acts, and the induction-deduction method, upon which the conclusions were drawn and recommendations were provided. Conclusion: The current regulatory framework does not provide for the procedure by which the subject’s medical treatment is conducted during forensic psychiatric examination, nor does it determine the criteria for the admissibility of treatment of the persons concerned and the extent of treatment. During the examination, the medical practitioner who is in the expert’s procedural position in relation to the subject under examination in the particular examination should not carry out the treatment of the subject.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-78
Author(s):  
M. Poliak ◽  
N. Yu. Lakhmetkina

In 1956 there was a significant step in international road freight transport – conclusion of Convention on the contract of carriage in international road freight transport (CMR Convention), the basic purpose of which was to unify the rules in the international transport of goods and thus promote the development of international trade. From a practical point of view, this was very important for both carriers and transporters. The Convention describes the most important document in the carriage of goods – the CMR consignment note.Recently, the term «neutralization» has been used in connection with the CMR consignment note, which is considered as an interference with the system of functioning of transport documents, which aims to obscure the actual movement of the consignment during transport. At the same time, neutralization of the consignment note is not so much contrary to legal norms as it can lead to undesirable consequences for carriers. For this reason, the question of whether it is possible to neutralize the CMR consignment note in accordance with the current rules and whether the neutralization of the CMR consignment note does not violate the functionality of the existing system is relevant. Therefore, the objective of this work is to study the reasons and methods for neutralizing CMR consignment notes, as well as options for handling neutralized consignment notes.Considering that neutralization of the consignment note has become a relatively common practice and means the exchange of original consignment notes or transport documents with other consignment notes or transport documents, canceling the actions of the first consignment note, in the article the authors, based on their own research, identified the possibilities of using the neutralization of the CMR consignment note in practice for certain types of goods, routes of the most frequent use, as well as the risks of these procedures in road transport. 


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