Inquiring into ethics: the Australian Senate and human embryo experimentation

The main and dissenting reports of the Senate Select Committee on Human Embryo Experimentation differ in significant respects regarding the ethical issues at stake in experimental research on human embryos and about the appropriate approach to those issues. There are two related issues raised by the reports: who decides and what is decided? What is needed is a form of definition and conflict resolution that recognises that the biology of human reproduction and development is mediated by social and cultural organisation. Broadly based national and state advisory bodies are therefore central to a process that recognises at least three levels of decision making — social, institutional and personal.     

Hurricane Katrina: African American Children's Perceptions of Race, Class, and Government Involvement Amid a National Crisis

The devastation associated with Hurricane Katrina raised several issues related to race, class, and the government in the United States. We examined African American children's (a) knowledge of demographic characteristics of the victims, (b) beliefs about the role of race and class biases in the delayed relief efforts, and (c) views of the role and effectiveness of the government in response to the disaster. Overall, results indicated that older African American children were less likely to attribute the delayed relief to individual culpability, and slightly more likely to attribute it to racial discrimination, than were younger African American children. All youth believed in a strong, but nuanced, role of the government, but younger children were more likely to rate it as effective. Among those children who had discussed the disaster with a parent, children's attributions for the delayed relief were associated with their political views.     

The Accord,Wages Policy and Social Security

The Accord remains the key policy commitment of the Government. Whilst the operation of the Accord encompasses many policy areas, in practice the Accord has been fundamentally a wages policy. As such, other policy commitments of the Accord, such as those in the area of social security, have become secondary to the maintenance of a sustainable wages policy which produces the ‘correct’ macroeconomic outcomes. In this context two ‘objective’ social security objectives of the Accord are assessed — the indexation of benefits, and the targetting of single benefits to 25 per cent of average weekly male earnings. Both objectives have been compromised by the trade-offs and deals carried out to sustain the wages regulation component of the Accord. Alternative criteria for indexing benefits and for adjusting benefits relative to other income claims are outlined.     

The Identification of Behaviour Disorder within the Community

In the absence of a clinical definition of Behaviour Disorder, those termed ‘Behaviourally Disordered’ are often considered unsuitable for psychiatric servicing and many end up inappropriately contained by the correctional system. The working definitions of 213 South Australian health and welfare professionals from six client areas (child/adolescent, psychiatric, intellectually disabled, brain-damaged, correctional and general) were surveyed. Respondents generally saw Behaviour Disorder as a recognisable disorder, involving both aggressive, disruptive behaviour and deficits in social adaptation. Perceptions of its presentation varied across client groups and across professional roles. The results highlighted a need for specialised community servicing for this group.     

A Family Therapist's Look Into Interpersonal Neurobiology and the Adolescent Brain: An Interview With Dr Daniel Siegel

Advances in brain research are increasingly having an impact on clinical interventions in all fields of psychotherapy. For adolescent family therapists it is important not only to understand the developing adolescent brain, but also how brain research can influence interventions aimed at interrupting problematic familial interactions. Interpersonal neurobiology and the ideas of Dr Daniel Siegel synthesise the interpersonal with the scientific, offering practical clinical methods of incorporating the research into everyday practice. This article incorporates a verbatim interview with Dr Siegel about the adolescent brain, interpersonal neurobiology and attachment with an outline of key concepts from interpersonal neurobiology including the hand model of the brain, nine functions of the prefrontal cortex, the triangle of wellbeing and eight domains of integration. Clinical applications are suggested using a common presenting problem of escalating conflict between teenagers and their parents.     

Black-White Differentials in Adult Homicide Mortality in the United States

Objective . This article examines individual level black-white differences in adult homicide mortality. Homicide is a major social problem and a central cause of preventable death in the United States. A homicide not only claims one life prematurely but can also devastate a family, friends, and a neighboring community. Methods . We link eight consecutive years of the National Health Interview Survey (1987–94) to the Multiple Cause of Death file through the National Death Index (1987–97), and use Cox proportional hazard models to examine the role of social factors in black-white homicide mortality in the United States. Results . We find that individual level sociodemographic characteristics—age, sex, marital status, education, employment status, and geographic factors—explain almost 35 percent of the racial differences in homicide mortality. Conclusions . These results demonstrate the contributions that National Center for Health Statistics data can make to criminological literature and reveal the mechanisms through which blacks experience higher homicide mortality than whites. Such illumination may lead to a reduction in the fourth leading preventable cause of death in the United States.     

Emotional Labor and Health Care

We examine the literature on emotional labor and health care to demonstrate the potential for emotional labor research to inform how social and medical scientists think about health care and how examining healthcare contexts has contributed to the scientific understanding of emotional labor processes. In doing so, we first review the key terms and definitions that are used within the emotion management perspective and evaluate the ways in which power differences have remained largely implicit features of research on emotional labor in healthcare settings. Finally, we explore how the increasing economic rationalization of health care may be influencing the emotional experiences of today's healthcare professionals and the implications of this trend for future research on emotional labor and the health and well-being of care providers and their patients.