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Upsala Journal of Medical Sciences May 2020This report is an ethical analysis based on both facts and values. In fertilization (IVF), there is an intricate interaction between rapid scientific development and... (Review)
Review
This report is an ethical analysis based on both facts and values. In fertilization (IVF), there is an intricate interaction between rapid scientific development and changing societal values. In most countries, the ethical discussion is no longer on whether or not IVF in itself is ethically justifiable. Therefore, in this review, I discuss other ethical aspects that have emerged since IVF was first introduced, such as upper age limits, 'ownership' of gametes and embryos, IVF in single women and same-sex couples, preimplantatory genetic testing, social egg freezing, commercialization, public funding, and prioritization of IVF. Despite secularization, since religion still plays an important role in regulation and practices of IVF in many countries, positions on IVF among the world religions are summarized. Decision-making concerning IVF cannot be based only on clinical and economic considerations; these cannot be disentangled from ethical principles. Many concerns regarding the costs, effects, and safety of IVF subtly transcend into more complex questions about what it means to society to bear and give birth to children.
Topics: Age Factors; Cost-Benefit Analysis; Fertilization in Vitro; Global Health; Humans; Ownership; Patient Safety; Religion and Medicine
PubMed: 31686575
DOI: 10.1080/03009734.2019.1684405 -
Trends in Cognitive Sciences Jun 2019The concepts of agency of one's actions and ownership of one's experience have proved useful in relating body representations to bodily consciousness. Here we apply... (Review)
Review
The concepts of agency of one's actions and ownership of one's experience have proved useful in relating body representations to bodily consciousness. Here we apply these concepts to cognitive maps. Agency is defined as 'the sense that I am the one who is generating the experience represented on a cognitive map', while ownership is defined as 'the sense that I am the one who is undergoing an experience, represented on a cognitive map'. The roles of agency and ownership are examined with respect to the transformation between egocentric and allocentric representations and the underlying neurocognitive and computational mechanisms; and within the neuropsychiatric domain, including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other memory-related disorders, in which the senses of agency and ownership may be disrupted.
Topics: Alzheimer Disease; Cognition; Ego; Humans; Models, Psychological; Ownership; Self Concept
PubMed: 31064702
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.04.003 -
South African Medical Journal =... Aug 2022To the Editor: The article by Bhorat et al. [1] in the SAMJ, entitled 'Cerebral palsy and criteria implicating intrapartum hypoxia in neonatal encephalopathy - an...
To the Editor: The article by Bhorat et al. [1] in the SAMJ, entitled 'Cerebral palsy and criteria implicating intrapartum hypoxia in neonatal encephalopathy - an obstetric perspective for the South African setting', starts off by raising concerns about 'steep rises in insurance premiums, placing service delivery under serious threat'. It does not acknowledge any service delivery issues that already exist in the public sector obstetric services in South Africa (SA). According to Whittaker,[2] in 2019, there were 303 obstetricians and gynaecologists employed in the SA public sector and 579 in the private sector, and of those employed in the public sector, 190 were performing private sector work. That a large number of the children with cerebral palsy (CP) were delivered in the public sector service was not noted by Bhorat et al.,[1] nor was the fact that the overwhelming majority of court cases are against the state (not against individual doctors) in provinces and hospitals with significant medical staffing and resource issues. For example, the liabilities for Eastern Cape Province in the 2019/20 period were ZAR36 751 207 v. only ZAR33 155 in Western Cape Province for the same period.[2].
Topics: Cerebral Palsy; Child; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Private Sector; Public Sector; South Africa
PubMed: 36214404
DOI: 10.7196/SAMJ.2022.v112i8.16702 -
Scientific Reports May 2021Body ownership concerns what it is like to feel a body part or a full body as mine, and has become a prominent area of study. We propose that there is a closely related...
Body ownership concerns what it is like to feel a body part or a full body as mine, and has become a prominent area of study. We propose that there is a closely related type of bodily self-consciousness largely neglected by researchers-experiential ownership. It refers to the sense that I am the one who is having a conscious experience. Are body ownership and experiential ownership actually the same phenomenon or are they genuinely different? In our experiments, the participant watched a rubber hand or someone else's body from the first-person perspective and was touched either synchronously or asynchronously. The main findings: (1) The sense of body ownership was hindered in the asynchronous conditions of both the body-part and the full-body experiments. However, a strong sense of experiential ownership was observed in those conditions. (2) We found the opposite when the participants' responses were measured after tactile stimulations had ceased for 5 s. In the synchronous conditions of another set of body-part and full-body experiments, only experiential ownership was blocked but not body ownership. These results demonstrate for the first time the double dissociation between body ownership and experiential ownership. Experiential ownership is indeed a distinct type of bodily self-consciousness.
Topics: Body Image; Female; Galvanic Skin Response; Humans; Male; Ownership; Touch; Young Adult
PubMed: 34012048
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-90014-y -
JAMA Network Open Oct 2023
Topics: Humans; Child; Young Adult; Adult; Ownership; Violence; Firearms
PubMed: 37851450
DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.40564 -
PloS One 2023This paper uses firm-level data worldwide to investigate productivity gaps between female and male-managed companies in developing and developed countries and compare...
This paper uses firm-level data worldwide to investigate productivity gaps between female and male-managed companies in developing and developed countries and compare the outcomes obtained for different regions in the world. The main aim is to shed some light on the debate around the existence of performance differences when females participate in managerial activities. The main results indicate that it is crucial to distinguish between female management and female ownership and the confluence between both. We find that when the firms have a top female manager and ownership is exclusively male, firms show higher average labor productivity. We argue that firms owned by males belong to male-dominated corporate culture and would only select a female manager if she is more competent than potential male candidates. These results are very heterogeneous among regions, of which South Saharan Africa, East Asia, and South Asia are driving the main results.
Topics: Male; Humans; Female; Asia, Eastern; Organizational Culture; Ownership; South Africa; Africa, Northern
PubMed: 36791054
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273976 -
Tidsskrift For Den Norske Laegeforening... Nov 2023
Topics: Humans; Ownership; Peer Review, Research; Publishing; Peer Group
PubMed: 37987061
DOI: 10.4045/tidsskr.23.0751 -
Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery Sep 2023Unowned 'stray' domestic cats threaten wildlife, as well as create a community nuisance and contribute to high rates of euthanasia in animal shelters. These cats can...
OBJECTIVES
Unowned 'stray' domestic cats threaten wildlife, as well as create a community nuisance and contribute to high rates of euthanasia in animal shelters. These cats can experience poor welfare, contribute to the pet cat population and compromise attempts to control feral cats. However, many unowned domestic cats are cared for by semi-owners who do not consider they own these cats; therefore, semi-owners are a potentially important target population for human behaviour change interventions. The present study aimed to describe the characteristics of cat semi-owners and compare these with the general population of cat owners and non-cat owners to inform future cat management interventions.
METHODS
An online questionnaire open to all residents of New South Wales, Australia was developed and advertised. Respondents were asked 'do you care for other free-roaming or stray cats (not including the cats you own)?', whether they owned cats, about characteristics of their home and their agreement with 15 capability, social opportunity and motivation (COM) items relating to cat containment.
RESULTS
Questionnaire responses were received from 8708 people, including 588 semi-owners (7%). Semi-owners were significantly more likely to be female, live in urban areas, live in lower socioeconomic areas and rent their home. Most semi-owners also owned their own cats and owned more cats than non-semi-owners.
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Semi-owners of unowned 'stray' cats are a valuable potential target audience for human behaviour change interventions. Understanding that these semi-owners often have their own cats, might already be overwhelmed with cat-caring responsibilities and are disproportionately from lower socioeconomic backgrounds should guide intervention design. A nuanced approach is needed that prioritises the wellbeing of cats and semi-owners for semi-owners to 'buy in'. Any intervention should also recognise that semi-owners often face multiple, complex barriers to neutering or claiming ownership of the cats they care for, especially cost, and trust in the authorities.
Topics: Cats; Animals; Humans; Female; Male; Australia; Ownership
PubMed: 37751179
DOI: 10.1177/1098612X231194225 -
Global Health, Science and Practice Sep 2020Although enduringly intangible, community ownership is foundational to primary health care. This intangibility is a reminder of what programs can and should do (create...
Although enduringly intangible, community ownership is foundational to primary health care. This intangibility is a reminder of what programs can and should do (create space for dialogue, question their own choices, expand diversity in stakeholder voices making sense of program-induced changes, including through evaluation) and what they cannot do (manage someone else’s ownership).
Topics: Female; Humans; Ownership; Pregnancy; Primary Health Care; Zambia
PubMed: 33008849
DOI: 10.9745/GHSP-D-20-00427 -
Current Psychiatry Reports Aug 2020The topic of sex doll ownership is becoming an increasingly discussed issue from both a social and legal perspective. This review aims to examine the veracity of the... (Review)
Review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW
The topic of sex doll ownership is becoming an increasingly discussed issue from both a social and legal perspective. This review aims to examine the veracity of the existing psychological, sexological, and legal literature in relation to doll ownership.
RECENT FINDINGS
Strong views exist across the spectrum of potential socio-legal positions on sex doll ownership. However, there is an almost total lack of empirical analyses of the psychological characteristics or behavioral implications of doll ownership. As such, existing arguments appear to represent the philosophical positions of those scholars expressing them, rather than being rooted in any objective evidence base. Despite an absence of empirical data on the characteristics and subsequent effects of doll ownership, discussions about the ethical and legal status of doll ownership continue. This highlights a real and urgent need for a coherent research agenda to be advanced in this area of work.
Topics: Humans; Ownership
PubMed: 32803480
DOI: 10.1007/s11920-020-01177-w