Conflicts and Challenges of Truth-Telling in Dentistry: A Case-Based Ethical Analysis

Objectives: The basis of truth-telling is respecting the autonomy of patients and developing an ability to make informed decisions with valid consent. The purpose of this study was to ethically analyze the conflicts about truth-telling in dentistry. Materials and Methods: This case analysis focused on the issues of truth-telling in medicine and dentistry. The challenges encountered by dentists with respect to ethical issues related to truth-telling were discussed and analyzed by the research team. Results: The literature review showed that the issue of truth-telling in dentistry has been addressed from three aspects: Truth-telling about other dentists’ medical errors, truth-telling about dangerous, refractory, or incurable diseases, and truth-telling to children or incompetent individuals for decision-making. Conclusion: When the duty of the dentist in truth-telling is conflicted with some other moral obligations, the conflict between the prima facie duties arises. The principle-based ethical theories provide a suitable conceptual framework for moral judgement in such conflicts. In cases of conflicts related to truth-telling, a balance should be maintained between principles and rules such as fidelity, respect for autonomy, maintaining trust in dentist-patient relation, and best interest of patients. The decision in truth-telling should be made individually for each patient based on the specific contextual conditions.

Re-purposing Universities: The Path to Purpose

As the extent of damage to environmental systems from our business-as-usual activity becomes ever more alarming, Universities as core social institutions are under pressure to help society lead the transition to a sustainable future. Their response to the issues, that they themselves have helped reveal, has, however, been widely criticised for being wholly inadequate. Universities can be observed to engage with sustainability issues in ad-hoc ways, with the scale of attention and commitment dependant mainly on the level of pressure exerted by stakeholders that works to overcome aspects of inherent inertia. Sustainability initiatives can therefore be regarded mainly as bolt-ons. This mirrors how other sectors, including businesses, have tended to respond. As the environmental and social crisis mounts and the window for adaptive change to ensure long-term wellbeing for all narrows, the pressure for deeper systemic change builds. It is in this context that transformation to a “purpose-driven organisation” has emerged as a systemic approach to change, enabling an organisation to align deeply and rapidly with society's long-term best interest and hence a sustainable future. Nowhere has this concept been taken forward more obviously than in the business sector. As business leadership towards purpose becomes more apparent, so the lack of action in this area by universities appears starker. In this paper we clarify what it means to be a purpose-driven organisation, why and how it represents a deep holistic response to unsustainability, and what core questions emerging from the business world university leaders can ask themselves to begin the practical journey to transform their institutions into purpose-driven universities.

THE RIGHT EDUCATION IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD

The article is devoted to ensuring the best interest of the child and his right to education. Attention is paid to the problems associated with the implementation of this right by various groups of children, depending on their social status and ethnic origin. The author draws attention to the implementation of the law under study in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exacerbated the problems of gender inequality, the quality of educational services, as well as access to them. The need for certain actions on the part of the state is indicated, in particular, making changes to the curricula to bring them in line with the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in order to realize the right to education of the child from the standpoint of ensuring the best interest.

Article 22: The Right to Protection for Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Children

Article 22 guarantees the substantive application of all Convention rights to the particular situation of asylum seeking and refugee children, and also guarantees them protection and assistance in advancing their immigration and residency status claims and in overcoming the hurdles posed by international migration channels, including guarantees of due process. The rights of refugee and asylum-seeking children can be analyzed in relation to four essential attributes. First of all, Article 22 insists upon appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance. Refugee children are not granted a special status under the Convention, but they are not given any lesser status. They are to be treated as children first and foremost and not as migrants per se, in the sense that national immigration policy cannot trump child rights. The basic rights to education, health, and child welfare of these children needs to be protected to the same extent, and as much as possible, as children who are nationals of the host country. The second attribute preserves the rights of refugee children not only under the Convention but under all other international human right treaties and humanitarian instruments binding on the relevant States Party. These may include, for many governments, the 1951 Refugee Convention, the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Convention for the Protection of Minors, 1961, among others. A third attribute of Article 22 insists upon the duty to protect and assist refugee children. This entails a clear duty to provide children with appropriate due process rights throughout their asylum and refugee claims procedures, including the child’s right to be heard and participate in all the processes determining the child’s residence or immigration status, border admission, deportation, repatriation, detention, alternative measures, or placement, including best interest determination processes. The fourth and final attribute of Article 22 asserts that two basic principles should guide each activity with the refugee child: the best interests of the child and the principle of family unity.

When Should There Be Vertical Choice in Health Insurance Markets?

We study the welfare effects of offering choice over coverage levels—“vertical choice”—in regulated health insurance markets. We emphasize that heterogeneity in efficient coverage level is not sufficient to motivate choice. When premiums cannot reflect individuals’ costs, it may not be in consumers’ best interest to select their efficient coverage level. We show that vertical choice is efficient only if consumers with higher willingness to pay have a higher efficient level of coverage. We investigate this condition empirically and find that as long as a minimum coverage level can be enforced, the welfare gains from vertical choice are either zero or economically small. (JEL D82, G22, H75, I13, I21)

Physical Skills in Male Volleyball Players 14-18 Years Old

During the monitoring of volleyball teams in Albania during training, it was noticed that coaches pay more attention to technical elements and not to physical abilities to ages 14-18 years. The aim of this study was to find out the trend of improvement and differences with the age on physical abilities of male’s volleyball players in Albania. Methods: Participants in this study were N=43 volleyball players from two age categories; N=21, cadet (14-16 yrs.), N= 22 and junior (16-18 yrs.) Measurement for anthropometrics (body weight, body height) and physical abilities (push up test, curl-up test, standing long jump and vertical jump test) were assessed. Results: Analysis between two age categories shows significant differences. Showed results for anthropometrics and also for physical abilities showed differences between groups of volleyball players. Data of this study for jumping performance using vertical jump CMJ test between groups for cadet vs. junior data show (mean difference= 21.3 cm; Sig= 0.004) while for vertical jump Run up test between groups for cadet vs. junior data show (mean difference= 22.3 cm; Sig= 0.003). Conclusion: In the best interest of the study, it would be good if other teams were involved from different cities of Albania. Suggestions for other studies we recommend in comparing data by positions in the field. Trainers should plan training with these age groups different coordination programs not only technical. This study has limitations with regards to the sampling number of male volleyball players, which is justified for not having sufficient funds.

Article 3: The Best Interest of the Child

Abstract‘When parents make decisions or something related to their children, they should discuss with their children and make decisions based on best interests of their children.’ (Eastern Europe)

CHILD CUSTODY: A RIGHT OR A DUTY (A STUDY OF AN APPROACH TO AMEND ARTICLE 57 OF THE IRAQI PERSONAL STATUS LAW)

The current century has witnessed a revolution in different fields which required some legal rules to be reformulated to adapt with the volume of challenges imposed by the contemporary life on marriage life in general, on the children, which are the most important thing that may result from marriage, and on the importance of caring for their needs. As God has divided the parents’ duties in caring for their children throughout the stages of their liv.es. He laid upon the mother the responsibility of caring for children starting from pregnancy, delivery, breastfeeding until infancy. While He, especially, assigned the father the responsibility of what comes after. But sometimes a child may lose one or both parents; and here the question arises about who shall take custody and what is the period required to satisfy that right. Article (57) of Personal Status Law No. (188) for the year 1959 has answered this question with its nine clauses and confirmed the necessity of caring for the child’s best interest and prioritizing it over the parents’ rights. However, the Iraqi Parliament has adopted an amendment of this Article in its latest proposals under the pretext of being in line with changes of everyday life with the assurance of applying the spirit of Islamic Law. It discussed the transmission of the child’s custody from the mother to the father after the age of seven in opposition to the current law that grants the mother this right until the child turns fifteen years of age; it also stipulated that the mother shall not get married in order to attain custody over the child which is regarded as a Statutory Offence represented in forcing the mother not to get married during which she holds custody over the child. Meanwhile, it did not stipulate over the father abstinence from marriage in order to attain custody over his children. The amendments have also showcased the entitlement of the grandfather’s right in custody rather than the mother in case the father died or didn’t fulfill the conditions of custody. By doing so, the rule would deprive the mother from her child upon turning seven years of age without attention being paid to the subsequential feeling of instability such decision causes to the child. The parliament should have tried to balance between the child’s right of maternal tenderness or paternal security. This is the aim of our research which will shed light on this subject in two scopes, the first of which focuses on educating the people of the right of custody and its period, and the second of which is dedicated to discussion of amendments and making proper recommendation.

Implications of irregular transnational adoptions within international standards: A review of intercountry adoption systems and Guatemalan birthmother perspectives

With growing global emergencies, child abduction became a concern in countries of origin and reception of transnationally adopted children. Improved regulations and standards to prevent child trafficking exhibit failures to ensure the best interest of children and the principle of subsidiarity. The article reviews relevant literature documents the Guatemalan birthmothers’ experiences and documented child theft, deception by trafficking networks, fraudulent adoptions, and familial coercion. Human rights and child welfare system implications drawn may be relevant to irregular transnational adoptions elsewhere.

Child Protection Vocabulary in the Children Act 1989: Power, Ambiguity and Heterogeneity

Regardless the few decades that an established legislative framework in Child Protection has been in effect, the responsibility of the Law and the Child Protection System is to continuously explore social needs, as they change, transform or new ones are introduced to adapt to the circumstances in the attempts to safeguard and protect children. This paper is not focusing on those adaptations; it draws on this responsibility to argue that in an ever-changing world, wherein needs and demands are shifting, Child Protection Vocabulary needs to be more explicit and adaptive to those changes. Vocabulary like ‘best interest’, ‘resilience’, ‘power’, and ‘vulnerability’ are commonplace in child protection legislation, regulation, policy and practice. That said, the question of interpretation is always of concern; how are the varied agencies, stakeholders, authorities, groups, and individuals approaching safeguarding and child protection when the heterogeneity of the language used is ever-increasing? This paper provides a conceptual content analysis of Child Protection Vocabulary found in the Children Act 1989. The analysis will be drawing on the amendments in Children Act 2004, as well as the Children and Social Work Act 2017, but will preserve its focus on the Children Act 1989 as the foundation for the contemporary Child Protection System. Implications of the findings are provided at the end.