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Archives of Sexual Behavior May 2015This article is a critical review of the most common arguments in the specialized literature about the moral status of sexual relationships between adults and... (Review)
Review
This article is a critical review of the most common arguments in the specialized literature about the moral status of sexual relationships between adults and prepubescent children. The intent is to reveal how the usual ethical analysis of these experiences, done from a general sexual morality, with a Kantian and utilitarian basis, very clearly shows us the limits and contradictions of contemporary liberal morality regarding sexual matters. It leaves open the possibility that, under certain circumstances, these relationships may be morally admissible. Some shortcomings and contradictions in these liberal arguments suggest that it would be of interest to refer to other authors and ideas to value adult-child sex, approaches that are based on a specific sexual morality concerning the issue of sexual virtues and a more complex conception of human sexual desire. Some of the scientific implications of these moral issues are also discussed.
Topics: Adult; Child; Child Abuse, Sexual; Ethical Theory; Humans; Morals; Sexual Behavior; Sexual Partners; Social Perception; Social Stigma
PubMed: 25677335
DOI: 10.1007/s10508-014-0442-8 -
The Behavioral and Brain Sciences Sep 2022Why do many societies moralize apparently harmless pleasures, such as lust, gluttony, alcohol, drugs, and even music and dance? Why do they erect temperance, asceticism,... (Review)
Review
Why do many societies moralize apparently harmless pleasures, such as lust, gluttony, alcohol, drugs, and even music and dance? Why do they erect temperance, asceticism, sobriety, modesty, and piety as cardinal moral virtues? According to existing theories, this puritanical morality cannot be reduced to concerns for harm and fairness: It must emerge from cognitive systems that did not evolve for cooperation (e.g., disgust-based "purity" concerns). Here, we argue that, despite appearances, puritanical morality is no exception to the cooperative function of moral cognition. It emerges in response to a key feature of cooperation, namely that cooperation is (ultimately) a long-term strategy, requiring (proximately) the self-control of appetites for immediate gratification. Puritanical moralizations condemn behaviors which, although inherently harmless, are perceived as indirectly facilitating uncooperative behaviors, by impairing the self-control required to refrain from cheating. Drinking, drugs, immodest clothing, and unruly music and dance are condemned as stimulating short-term impulses, thus facilitating uncooperative behaviors (e.g., violence, adultery, free-riding). Overindulgence in harmless bodily pleasures (e.g., masturbation, gluttony) is perceived as making people slave to their urges, thus altering abilities to resist future antisocial temptations. Daily self-discipline, ascetic temperance, and pious ritual observance are perceived as cultivating the self-control required to honor prosocial obligations. We review psychological, historical, and ethnographic evidence supporting this account. We use this theory to explain the fall of puritanism in western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies, and discuss the cultural evolution of puritanical norms. Explaining puritanical norms does not require adding mechanisms unrelated to cooperation in our models of the moral mind.
Topics: Humans; Morals; Cognition; Self-Control; Motivation
PubMed: 36111617
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X22002047 -
The Behavioral and Brain Sciences Oct 2023The suggestion that there is a need to moralize bodily pleasures for uncooperative self-control failures doesn't fit with the historical record. I counter that the...
The suggestion that there is a need to moralize bodily pleasures for uncooperative self-control failures doesn't fit with the historical record. I counter that the development of puritanical values was an instrument of coercion and control, rather than an adaptation for cooperation. Confusing cooperation with coercion and moral principles with conventional norms leads to misconceptions about societal arrangements.
Topics: Humans; Coercion; Morals
PubMed: 37789527
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X23000547 -
AJOB Neuroscience 2023
Topics: Humans; Moral Status; Consciousness; Morals; Antisocial Personality Disorder
PubMed: 37097854
DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2023.2188290 -
Journal of Medical Ethics Aug 2022In this paper, we argue that providers who conscientiously refuse to provide legal and professionally accepted medical care are not always morally required to refer...
In this paper, we argue that providers who conscientiously refuse to provide legal and professionally accepted medical care are not always morally required to refer their patients to willing providers. Indeed, we will argue that refusing to refer is morally admirable in certain instances. In making the case, we show that belief in a sweeping moral duty to refer depends on an implicit assumption that the procedures sanctioned by legal and professional norms are ethically permissible. Focusing on examples of female genital cutting, clitoridectomy and 'normalizing' surgery for children with intersex traits, we argue that this assumption is untenable and that providers are not morally required to refer when refusing to perform genuinely unethical procedures. The fact that acceptance of our thesis would force us to face the challenge of distinguishing between ethical and unethical medical practices is a virtue. This is the central task of medical ethics, and we must confront it rather than evade it.
Topics: Child; Conscience; Ethics, Medical; Female; Humans; Male; Moral Obligations; Morals; Refusal to Treat
PubMed: 34233957
DOI: 10.1136/medethics-2020-107025 -
BMJ Military Health Dec 2021Morally injurious incidents may present ethical or legal quandaries, yet how military or civilian clinicians should manage such disclosures is poorly understood....
Morally injurious incidents may present ethical or legal quandaries, yet how military or civilian clinicians should manage such disclosures is poorly understood. Individuals who experience moral injury may be reluctant to seek help due to concerns about the legal ramifications of disclosure. Guidance on breaching patient confidentiality differs by regulatory body but also by profession, geography and context. As moral injury continues to become recognised in clinical practice, in the military and elsewhere, clarity is needed regarding best practice in managing moral injury cases and the dilemmas they present.
Topics: Confidentiality; Disclosure; Ethics, Medical; Humans; Morals; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
PubMed: 32665422
DOI: 10.1136/bmjmilitary-2020-001534 -
Journal of Oral Pathology & Medicine :... Apr 2023Human error is inevitable, and therefore can be considered as a 'normal' part of everyday life. Unfortunately, error can never be eliminated completely. However,... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Human error is inevitable, and therefore can be considered as a 'normal' part of everyday life. Unfortunately, error can never be eliminated completely. However, learning from our mistakes can help reduce problems in future. Fifty years ago, most clinicians paid little or no attention to the human factors (HF) that can affect individual and team performance. It has only been in the last 20-25 years that colleagues in healthcare have truly begun recognizing the importance of HF and non-technical skills in medicine and dentistry and how their application can significantly improve patient safety and aid better team working and staff morale in the clinical setting and laboratory.
DISCUSSION
Personal factors such as stress, tiredness, hunger and dehydration all reduce human performance and can raise the risk of mistakes. In addition, how we work and interact with the wider team is important since many errors can occur because of ineffective communication, steep hierarchal (authority) gradients and loss of situational awareness. This short HF overview in the 50th commemorative special of JOPM issue is timely. It provides a contemporary overview of human factors and performance that the authors consider important for oral medicine and pathology colleagues and which can affect individuals and teams This article also discuss ways to reduce the chances of medical and dental error and improve patient safety.
Topics: Humans; Patient Safety; Pathology, Oral; Morale; Awareness
PubMed: 36629843
DOI: 10.1111/jop.13404 -
Best Practice & Research. Clinical... Jan 2020Reproductive health (abortion, contraception, sex education, and assisted reproductive technologies) is being eroded by regressive laws and policies shaped by political... (Review)
Review
Reproductive health (abortion, contraception, sex education, and assisted reproductive technologies) is being eroded by regressive laws and policies shaped by political conservatism, both domestically and internationally. Framing this aspect of women's health care as immoral, abortion opponents claim a moral high ground that results in a deference by reproductive health advocates who fail to raise moral arguments in rebuttal to these assertions, unnecessarily. This paper argues that reproductive rights, health, and justice are human rights-based and, hence, are moral frameworks that can and should be used to effectively counter pernicious reproductive health policies.
Topics: Abortion, Induced; Contraception; Female; Humans; Morals; Pregnancy; Reproductive Health; Reproductive Rights; Social Justice; Women's Rights
PubMed: 31540808
DOI: 10.1016/j.bpobgyn.2019.07.006 -
Bioethics Jul 2023Skepticism about ethical expertise has grown common, raising concerns that bioethicists' roles are inappropriate or depend on something other than expertise in ethics....
Skepticism about ethical expertise has grown common, raising concerns that bioethicists' roles are inappropriate or depend on something other than expertise in ethics. While these roles may depend on skills other than those of expertise, overlooking the role of expertise in ethics distorts our conception of moral advising. This paper argues that motivations to reject ethical expertise often stem from concerns about elitism: either an intellectualist elitism, where some privileged elite have supposedly special access in virtue of expertise in moral theory; or an authoritarian elitism, where our reliance on experts in ethics risks violation of autonomy and democracy. The paper sketches an anti-elitist conception of ethics expertise in bioethics as continuous with an anti-elitist conception of ethics expertise in common moral practice, undercutting the intellectualism, and then uses this anti-elitist conception to reject arguments that ethical expertise violates autonomy or democracy. An anti-elitist picture of ethical expertise both renders it consistent with our general moral practice and allows us to resist skeptical concerns.
Topics: Humans; Morals; Bioethics; Ethicists; Ethical Theory; Dissent and Disputes
PubMed: 35403726
DOI: 10.1111/bioe.13034 -
Trends in Cognitive Sciences May 2019As robots become more autonomous, people will see them as more responsible for wrongdoing. Moral psychology suggests that judgments of robot responsibility will hinge on... (Review)
Review
As robots become more autonomous, people will see them as more responsible for wrongdoing. Moral psychology suggests that judgments of robot responsibility will hinge on perceived situational awareness, intentionality, and free will, plus human likeness and the robot's capacity for harm. We also consider questions of robot rights and moral decision-making.
Topics: Humans; Morals; Personal Autonomy; Robotics; Social Responsibility
PubMed: 30962074
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.02.008