Compassion through Asceticism: Contemplating the Caveats and Socio-Environmental Values Related to a Backcountry Fast

Given the socio-environmental crises we face, educators might advisably look for means to address them. Within US outdoor adventure education (OAE), the moral educational potential of the “backcountry fast” is one such curricular area. However, little is written on this field-based tradition. This absence is concerning since fasts raise questions of risk and social-ethical appropriateness (e.g. food-scarcity). After acknowledging these social-ethical caveats, this paper, which draws from philosophical and monastic sources, provides a moral rationale for the backcountry fast. An act of asceticism, fasting practices can cultivate discipline, promote self-revelation, and awaken empathetic compassion (a-suffering-with) through identification with the involuntary suffering of others (human, more-than-human, and the planet itself). Although fasting’s full value is realized in a justice-seeking practice, highlighting the limits of one-off OAE programming, the article affirms its continued use within OAE, and counsels that fasts be educationally framed regarding their purpose(s) and potential as a post-program discipline.

The Pursuit and Advancement of Knowledge as a Justification for the Use of Animals in Research

It is commonly said that animal research is sometimes ethically appropriate because it can lead to knowledge, irrespective of benefits this knowledge might bring to humans or animals. Proponents of this view, which I call the “knowledge justification,” have been unclear about what they mean by the term “knowledge.” They also omit from the justification other features of animal research that are intimately connected with the pursuit and advancement of knowledge. This article identifies and includes in a modified knowledge justification 5 general elements of the pursuit and advancement of knowledge in animal research: “knowledge” in the sense of facts, information, or explanations; “knowledge” in the sense of the experience of having knowledge; contemplation; the exercise of intellectual faculties and skills; and pleasures, frustrations, and challenges in the pursuit and advancement of knowledge. The article explains why these elements are valuable and must be given weight in assessing the ethical appropriateness of curiosity-driven animal research. The discussion critiques defenses and applications of current expressions of the knowledge justification. The article offers a preliminary defense of curiosity-driven animal research by arguing that using animals to obtain scientific knowledge and the pleasures of scientific inquiry can be far more valuable for humans and no more harmful to some animals than the use of these animals to produce meat for human consumption. The article presents 2 examples of curiosity-driven animal research to further establish the plausibility of the knowledge justification and suggests questions and guidelines for developing the justification.

Evaluation of Ethical Analyses in Seven Reports from the European Network for Health Technology Assessment

ObjectivesEthics has been considered among the core domains of health technology assessment (HTA), but there are still disputes regarding ethical analysis. This study aimed to examine full final reports of the European Network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) in terms of their compliance with the ethical methodology and ethical perspective of the HTA Core Model®.MethodsThe study examines seven full final HTA reports of EUnetHTA written based on the methodology proposed in the HTA Core Model®. The reports were analyzed using the following parameters: competency of the person/group who conducted ethical analysis, assessment elements, and the methodology of ethical analysis.ResultsThe results show that, although the HTA Core Model® helped to standardize the final reports of the assessment, there are still concerns regarding the competency of the ethical analysis team, the perspectives on the purpose of ethical analysis, data sources and viewpoints of various stakeholders, use of ethical analysis methodology, and the evaluation of the ethical appropriateness of the entire HTA process.ConclusionsThe HTA Core Model® helped to standardize the final reports on the HTA; however, not all issues with the content and outcomes were solved. The lack of expertise in ethics and insufficiency of the teams regarding ethical analysis are other existing problems. This study also demonstrated that stakeholder viewpoints in general and patient perspectives, in particular, have been overlooked in the HTA process.

The Effects of Managers’ Business Ethics Applications on Employees’ Job Satisfaction: A Study on Hotels in Turkey

<p>Thus far, much research on ethical aspects of different areas (business, marketing, medicine, managing and etc.) is made and various models are introduced in accordance with these researches. Each of these introduced models studies matters carrying ethical importance related to various areas. These researches in the aspect of establishments focus on whether the establishment applications are generally suitable to ethical standards or testing ethical appropriateness of manager behaviours. However, this research aims to introduce at which level the job satisfaction of employees, which are effected by factors such as physical conditions, payment types, social and safety opportunities and management types, are affected by the applications of managers in the extent of job ethics. In this context in the analysis related to data obtained from questionnaire studies on 813 employees working in city and resort hotel establishments, it is concluded that both job satisfaction and appropriateness of manager behaviours to ethical principles of employees working in city hotel establishments are more positive than resort hotel establishments. Besides, it is introduced by correlation and regression analysis that compliance of manager behaviours with ethical principles affects the job satisfaction level of employees drastically.</p>