Autonomy and capacity: the ethical and legal considerations

This article discusses the important concept of autonomy and what this means for patients and their families. This concept is the first of the four ethical principles identified by Beauchamp and Childress (2019) and is an important legal issue. First, the ethical position of autonomy will be explored, before moving on to discuss the legal aspects. Next, definitions will be presented, and the relevant and pertinent parts of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2018) code introduced. Finally, closely linked to autonomy is capacity. This link will be discussed, highlighting the processes and considerations that need to be considered if a person’s capacity is reduced.

Yeats's Birds: Recognising the Animal

Yeats's use of avian imagery forms part of his turn toward a modernist poetics, particularly in volumes written in response to social and political upheavals, world war, and revolution in Ireland. Yeats's birds vacillate between symbolic presences and literal creatures, but in his most experimental work, he uses the avian to explore the limits of human consciousness and of empathy, epistemological queries central to modernism. Considering Yeats's post-1914 poetry through a less anthropocentric view, this article interprets his engagement with politics and revolutionary action from an ecologically-complex and inclusive standpoint, revealing his more nuanced ethical position at a moment of profound cultural, political, and class-based change. His recognition of an avian other-ness offers both an objective correlative for the opacity of other people, and simultaneously presents a world view that grants birds and animals their own consciousness.

Williams on the problem of moral integrity

In this paper, we have tried to point out the importance of the problem of moral integrity in ethical theory. The best way to make an introduction to ethical weighing when it comes to the problem of moral integrity is to analyze the dispute initiated by Bernard Williams. Namely, this is a critique of the act utilitarianism, whose essential weight is precisely on the topic of moral integrity. Williams conceived his objection as saying that there was no place for the value of moral integrity within the act utilitarianism. The treatment of moral integrity is the point of radical disagreement between utilitarianism and deontological ethics. In this way, deciding between utilitarianism and an alternative ethical position, we are actually deciding in favor or against the affirmation of the values of moral integrity. This is a very significant decision when it comes to ethical position. This paper is part of a broader topic on the place of moral integrity in ethical theory, where we have argued that utilitarianism is not the optimal ethical position, precisely because it does not affirm the value of the moral integrity of the individual. This paper is a preparation of such an attitude and has a more modest ambition - it deals with the re-examination of the perception of moral integrity within a utilitarian ethical position.

The ethical dilemmas of foodbanking: an analysis of the More Than Food programme

This article contributes to debates about the ethicality of foodbanks, a pervasive element of the UK welfare support infrastructure. Drawing on qualitative interview data, we use the concepts of ‘food poverty knowledge’ and ‘lay morality’ to analyse the narratives of those running a major Trussell Trust ‘foodbank-plus’ programme and explore inherent moral sentiments therein about how those who are in food poverty are understood. We identify a contradiction between foodbankers’ ‘structural’ understanding of poverty and the implicitly agential assumptions that underpin the programme. We suggest that this represents a precarious ethical position on which to base practice.

Criminology, Public Theology and Hope

This chapter draws on Christian public theology and criminology and considers hope as an alternative to the pains associated with contemporary criminal justice. The chapter draws on philosophical writings where pertinent, in particular Kantian conceptions of human dignity. Jesus’ sermon on the plain is considered that emphasised love for enemies. The implications for criminal justice are considered. The chapter then turns to the work of Paul Ricoeur who, when considering the sermon on the plain, wrote about an economy of gift. It is a logic of superabundance characterised by compassionate generosity that gives without expecting anything in return. The consequences of applying such a Christian ethical position - or as Ricoeur put it, a supra-ethical position - to secular criminal justice are discussed.

Revisiting the un/ethical: the complex ethics of elite studies research

Current ethical codes inadequately speak to the complexities of researching elite groups. These groups contribute to broader inequalities and yet are protected from scrutiny by their own resources and, in the research context, ethical guidelines. For this reason, Gaztambide-Fernández (2015) called for those researching elite groups to adopt an ‘un/ethical’ position. This position circumvents conventional ethical codes to disrupt the power of research participants. In this paper, we put forward a considered assessment of this position. We reflect on and theorise our own experiences in the field from this ethical perspective, paying particular attention to our multifaceted insider/outsider statuses. We find that an un/ethical position offers short-term benefits but also does long-term damage to the elite studies scholar community. Thus, we counter-propose a way forward that dismantles power relations while avoiding the drawbacks of the un/ethical approach. Our proposal continues a necessary discussion around the ethics of elite studies research.

The Ethical, Political and Economic Challenges of Effective Altruism

This paper presents a critical evaluation of ethical and philosophical concerns about the effective altruism as an ethical position. Effective altruists claim that one of our important ethical obligations is to do the most good possible, with the biggest possible positive impact. This impact should be measured with rational tools and by evaluating the effectiveness of our actions. At first glance, this might seem as a consensus building position, a good starting point for building a community of people wanting to change the world for the better. In our paper, we present some difficulties which are connected with such a way of thinking about charity and an ethical obligation to donate. We discuss the problem of the commercialization of ethical values, understanding effectiveness, agreeing about goals, as well as the political consequences of effective altruism understood as an ethical position.

Curatorial Ethics and Indeterminacy of Practice

This article defines “curatorial ethics” as a notion that has to be configured and constantly revisited by an independent curator throughout her practice. By inquiring into the personal motives, biases and drives, she would establish her own ethical position, convert it into a professional ethic and apply it to judge her own professional performance and her colleagues. Such perspective opposes the traditional understanding a professional ethic as a set of unitary guidelines to be passed to specialists (i.e., via education or early career). The notion of curatorial responsibility is redefined accordingly, and with conceptual inspiration from Gilles Deleuze and Karen Barad’s concepts of “becoming” (Deleuze) and “intra-action” (Barad). A curator is addressed as accountable for configuring her practice in response to agendas and actions of other parties involved in the art project. That is, for facilitating the co-constitution of individual subject positions and practices via opening up herself to the terrors and potentials of unprecedented self-transformation.

Anaxarchus on Indifference, Happiness, and Convention

Anaxarchus accompanied Pyrrho on Alexander the Great’s expedition to India and was known as “the Happy Man” because of his impassivity and contentment. Our sources on his philosophy are limited and largely consist of anecdotes about his interactions with Pyrrho and Alexander, but they allow us to reconstruct a distinctive ethical position. This position overlaps with several disparate ethical traditions, but is not merely a hodge-podge; it hangs together as a unified whole. Like Pyrrho, Anaxarchus asserts that things are indifferent in value and that realizing this indifference leads to contentment. But this doctrine of indifference is rooted in Democritean atomism. And in his pursuit of pleasure and dismissiveness of conventional standards of what is just, noble, and pious, Anaxarchus is closer to fifth-century thinkers such as Aristippus, Antiphon, and Critias.