Can Reading Animate Justice?

In this study, I make audible a conversation in Alf Layla wa-Layla (The Thousand and One Nights) on the meaning and application of justice. Without assuming that Alf Layla constituted an organized whole, the study identifies, in the frame narrative and the first two chains of stories—all three understood to belong to the earliest bundle—a debate on the coincidence of successful interpretation and just rulership. By the end of these tales, i.e., by the twenty-seventh night, a complete tale is told. In these stories, I propose, Alf Layla adopts an attitude that privileges multiplicity over singular interpretation, in a fashion that affirms thecontingency of ethical questions. The popularity of Alf Layla and the afterlives it enjoyed up to our present times—in the Arab world and the West—need not eclipse or substitute the Arabo-Islamic character the work came to exhibit, and the ethical questions it set out to address. In what has been read as fate, arbitrary logic, enchantment, magic, irrational thinking, and nocturnal dreamlike narratives, I suggest we can equally speak of a concern for justice. The study looks at Alf Layla’s affinity with advice literature, but stresses the need to read it as a work of (semipopular) literature that pays witness to societal debates on justice. Alf Layla, I suggest, belongs to Islamic culture in that the act of reading has been construed within hermeneutics that are largely informed by the ethical implication knowledge sharing entails. In how the stories find resolution to the crisis of the king, Alf Layla understands justice as an artificial and communal enterprise. The stories, more urgently, seem to suggest reading gears us towards a concern for the greater good. Keywords: The Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights, 1001 Nights, Alf Layla wa-Layla), Adab, Justice, Rulership, Readership, Advice Literature, Interpretation, Multiplicity, Legitimacy

What are the ethical implications of using prize-based contingency management in substance use? A scoping review

Background The area of substance use is notable for its early uptake of incentives and wealth of research on the topic. This is particularly true for prize-based contingency management (PB-CM), a particular type of incentive that uses a fishbowl prize-draw design. Given that PB-CM interventions are gaining momentum to address the dual public health crises of opiate and stimulant use in North America and beyond, it is imperative that we better understand and critically analyze their implications. Purpose The purpose of this scoping review paper is to identify the characteristics of PB-CM interventions for people who use substances and explore ethical implications documented in the literature as well as emerging ethical implications that merit further consideration. Methods The PRISMA-ScR checklist was used in conjunction with Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework to guide this scoping review. We completed a two-pronged analysis of 52 research articles retrieved through a comprehensive search across three key scholarly databases. After extracting descriptive data from each article, we used 9 key domains to identify characteristics of the interventions followed by an analysis of ethical implications. Results We analyzed the characteristics of PB-CM interventions which were predominantly quantitative studies aimed at studying the efficacy of PB-CM interventions. All of the interventions used a prize-draw format with a classic magnitude of 50%. Most of the interventions combined both negative and positive direction to reward processes, behaviors, and/or outcomes. One ethical implication was identified in the literature: the risk of gambling relapse. We also found three emerging ethical implications by further analyzing participant characteristics, intervention designs, and potential impact on the patient–provider relationship. These implications include the potential deceptive nature of PB-CM, the emphasis placed on the individual behaviors to the detriment of social and structural determinants of health, and failures to address vulnerability and power dynamics. Conclusions This scoping review offers important insights into the ethics on PB-CM and its implications for research ethics, clinical ethics, and public health ethics. Additionally, it raises important questions that can inform future research and dialogues to further tease out the ethical issues associated with PB-CM.

Refleksi Pandemi Covid-19: Dampak Dan Peluang Membangun Peradaban Berbasis Solidaritas Global

Even though the theme discussed in this paper is the Covid-19 pandemic, the real background is the world that behind the Covid-19 pandemic, namely, civilization which today has filled with fear, conspiracy, group interests, indifference and injustice. They are actually caused by the humans themselves. Based on this context, the author tries to show that the Covid-19 pandemic is not only a disaster but also an opportunity to lead for a new civilization of global solidarity in the world. Using the literature method (library research), this research was conducted by, first, reading the phenomenon about Covid-19 from the literature. Second, comparing it with central areas in life, and third, draws normative ethical implication which is global solidarity and theological implications in faith inspires a global solidarity movement, especially for Christians, rests on the cross and the resurrection. Keywords: Covid-19; Civilization; Normative-Ethical Implication; Theological Implication; Global Solidarity.

Quarantine in COVID-19 Pandemic: A Narrative Review

Coronavirus is a rapidly emerging infectious disease of respiratory tract which has been declared a pandemic by World health Organization. The virus spread quickly between close contacts or thought coughing and sneezing of the infected person. A few months after the first case was reported in Wuhan, China, the disease quickly turned into a pandemic. World health experts are already actively searching for a cure or vaccine for this disease, but before that, many countries around the world are considering mass quarantine measures as a method to combat its spread. This necessitates application of strict measures to control this pandemic. As of now there is no treatment to cure this disease. Therefore prevention of spread of disease remains the mainstay of combating it. One of the emergency public health measures that have been used extensively to control this pandemic is quarantine. Even though on long term basis, quarantine may have its advantages and disadvantages which has to be considered when practicing the same. This review focuses on rational behind the quarantine, its indications, the set-up or infrastructure required and the ethical implication for quarantine. It also reviews the psychological impact of quarantine and its effectiveness as a public health measure.

Polypharmacy, the ethical implication in the elderly

Worldwide, the population has been aging, in 2015, life expectancy was 70.5 years old, with around 14% of the planet's inhabitants having an age of 60 years or more. While, for the same period (Organización de las Naciones Unidas, 2013). The average number of years was, in Mexico, 74.95, with 10.28% being part of this population group (Consejo Nacionacional de Población, 2019). In Mexico in 2016 it amounted to 12.4 million people over 60 years. For its part, in the State of Hidalgo, based on data taken from the Intercensal Survey conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, in 2015, 10.90% of the population exceeded 60 years, with a life expectancy of 74.46 years (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, 2019). However, greater life expectancy does not imply greater quality of life, that is, living longer is not associated with well-being, since currently the increase in longevity is accompanied by a higher incidence of morbidity and disabilities, directly related with geriatric medicine (Bagma, Griño, San José & Armandons, 2010).

Voluntades anticipadas: desafíos éticos en el cuidado del paciente

Las voluntades anticipadas en salud tienen como finalidad que la persona manifieste de manera anticipada su voluntad sobre los cuidados y el tratamiento de su salud, lo cual le permite expresar personalmente y de forma previa sus preferencias. Esta revisión de la literatura tiene por objetivo describir el concepto y la estructura de las voluntades anticipadas, así como los aspectos éticos involucrados durante el cuidado del paciente. Con las palabras clave “Advanced Health Care Directive” AND “Ethical Implication” y sus símiles en español (voluntades anticipadas, implicaciones éticas), se revisaron cinco bases de datos: ProQuest, Philosophy (JSTOR), PubMed, Web of Science y SciELO; las publicaciones se agruparon entre los años 2010 y 2018. Se obtuvieron 31 artículos de los cuales se realizó una lectura crítica. Los resultados de esta revisión fueron agrupados en las siguientes categorías: concepto, estructura, situaciones clínicas donde se aplican las voluntades anticipadas, fortalezas y limitaciones; así como los aspectos éticos involucrados. Actualmente, son más comunes las vivencias relacionadas con las situaciones al final de la vida, donde la persona pierde su capacidad de decidir y no puede manifestar sus deseos, por lo que es imposible conocer su voluntad. Gran parte de los profesionales de la salud no tienen capacitación adecuada sobre el desarrollo y la aplicación de las voluntades anticipadas, escenario que se convierte en una oportunidad para la investigación y profundización sobre el tema. Las voluntades anticipadas son una herramienta que proporciona al equipo de salud información fidedigna de los valores y deseos del paciente, por lo que es importante capacitar a estos profesionales para brindar una atención respetuosa y de calidad.

The Quest for Ecstatic Sovereignty: Georges Bataille’s Obsession with the Lingchi Photos

This essay considers the way Georges Bataille associates sovereignty with ecstasy through his peculiar emotive reactions to the photographic images of lingchi execution. Aside from the traditional views relating to political authority, I show how Bataille holds an idiosyncratic notion of sovereignty that is firmly connected with ecstasy, which is disclosed and best exemplified in his fascination with the lingchi photos with intolerable imagery of torture and cruelty. I argue that the reasons for Bataille to seek ecstatic experience is to overcome banality and servility derived from the instrumentalization of our culture, so as to allow sovereignty to come into being. Although cruelty is a persistent theme in Bataille’s writings, I point out that what makes the lingchi photos pivotal for him is that it is the mirror of somatic disintegration, extreme physical violence and cruelty that corresponds to the rupture of psychological integrity as the state of ecstatic loss of self in a metaphysical sense, reflecting thus the non-boundary of uncontained sovereign individual. Furthermore, in the experience of ecstatic self-loss, an empathic identity is built up between Bataille and the victim of the lingchi execution, which not only allows the conception of ecstatic sovereignty to be endowed with ethical implication but also makes it an alternative approach to the issue of intercultural communication.

Ethical Implication of Genetic Gender Manipulation for Economic Recession

A recession is a significant decline in economic activities. The effects of economic recession include general economic decline, drop in the stock market and increase in unemployment. While some have argued that bilateral relationship among nations is an ethical response to problem of economic recession but it does not solve the problem. The paper suggests genetic gender determination. Genetic gender determination is an agent-based ethics. It involves the scientific manipulation of the fetus of a woman to determine the gender of her offspring. Ethical issues linked to genetic gender determination, unbalance sex ratio, manipulation of genome, and possible spread of infectious or communicable diseases. The paper concludes that the genetic gender determination would help to cushion the effects of economic recession.

Presenting women as sexual objects in marketing communications

PurposeIn the current information age, when the attention spans of most people have become very short, marketers are facings serious challenges to grab the attention of their target audience effectively and fruitfully. From street corner to bedroom, virtually every perceivable location of human traces are littered with activity of marketers, whether they are small or large in scale or the recipients of their information understand the message properly. Studying consumers’ acceptance of the main ethical issues in communication, mainly in advertising, has recently been receiving much attention from scholars. Therefore, to grab the attention of people in the increasing competitive environment, advertisers have resorted to using what they feel can quickly attract the audience. For example, the attachment of attractive women with their physical natural endowments presented in explicit sexually appealing postures to products/services that have no linkage with women. These practices have raised some moral and ethical questions within the society. Therefore, this study aims to focus on discussing marketing communication through presenting women as a sexual object from the morality, ethics and religious perspectives.Design/methodology/approachThis is a descriptive study based on the systematic literature review. Initially, this paper discusses the ethical issues of using women and sexual appeals in the process of marketing communication, as well as the current level of practices in the industry. Then, it discusses the consequences and dimensions of the issues from different types of ethical grounds. Finally, it provides recommendations with the objective of finding a common ground from business and social perspectives. It also mentions the scopes of further research, which could lead the secular world to modify their moral values and come closer to the norms of other civilized societies.FindingsThe position of the paper takes is that considering the negative effects of the prevalent advertising in society, the practice falls short of human moral values; as a result, it is considered unethical.Originality/valueThis review paper examines the ethical implication of using women as marketing tools from the perspectives of morality, business and Islamic principles that will help business groups, as well as the whole religious community, especially Muslims.