Establishing moral bearings: ethics and expatriate health care professionals in humanitarian work

Expatriate health care professionals frequently participate in international responses to natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies. This field of practice presents important clinical, logistical and ethical challenges for clinicians. This paper considers the ethics of health care practice in humanitarian contexts. It examines features that contribute to forming the moral landscape of humanitarian work, and discusses normative guidelines and approaches that are relevant for this work. These tools and frameworks provide important ethics resources for humanitarian settings. Finally, it elaborates a set of questions that can aid health care professionals as they analyse ethical issues that they experience in the field. The proposed process can assist clinicians as they seek to establish their moral bearings in situations of ethical complexity and uncertainty. Identifying and developing ethics resources and vocabulary for clinical practice in humanitarian work will help health care professionals provide ethically sound care to patients and communities.     

环境伦理·生态文明·环境政策取向

环境伦理是一个伴随人类文明发展历程的社会主题。由于人类缺乏对生态文明、环境伦理、环境道德的合理吸纳,造成愈演愈烈的生态恶果。人类文明正处于历史转折点,必须对传统人类文明加以辩证之否定,融物质文明、精神文明、生态文明于一体,通过提供理性制度安排、调整利益分配格局来规范人类的道德伦理观念。     

华北高产粮区桓台县农民地下水污染防治意愿的调查分析

桓台县是华北平原的具有代表性的高产粮区,长期集约化的农业耕作模式,导致地下水硝态氮含量的大幅上升,威胁当地居民的身体健康。为更好地保护地下水,降低农业生产对地下水的污染,在2007年春季对桓台县323位农民进行了地下水保护意愿调查,分别对农民农业生产环保意识、改善地下水污染的意愿和农民的环境保护责任意识进行了分析,结果显示多数农民担心地下水污染会对人体造成伤害,但是仅少数的农民了解不合理的农业耕作会导致地下水的污染;大多数农民乐意接受新型环保肥料,但是接近一半的农民表示当地缺乏农技人员的指导;多数农民表示愿意加入农业生产协会以改善农业生产方式,但是农民对于农业所造成的地下水污染责任意识不强;受教育程度和收入状况越高的农民地下水保护意识越强,越容易接受改善农业生产模式,责任心相对也较强。建议在桓台县加大对地下水污染防治的宣传和投入力度的同时,加强农业技术推广体系建设和健全地下水水质监控与监管体系等措施。     

环境及环境科学的哲学概观

从哲学层次上考察环境和环境科学有关问题，对环境问题的根本解决与环境科学的发展具有世界观与方法论上的指导意义。环境是一个哲学范畴，是主体活动赖于进行的自然、社会、人文条件的总和。环境哲学承认环境的价值因素，引入环境价值系统，实行自然资源的有偿使用。环境哲学将伦理观引入自然环境之中，倡导人类须规范其行为、尊重自然环境有其存在与发展的权利。环境哲学寻求从根本上解决人类自身发展的道路。     

Motivated to disengage: The ethical consequences of goal commitment and moral disengagement in goal setting

A growing literature has suggested that high performance goals can have unintended consequences within organizations as employees engage in unethical behavior to achieve outcomes associated with goal attainment. Extending research on the dark side of goal setting, we suggest that high performance goals not only create a desire to achieve a particular outcome but also alter moral reasoning processes related to goal attainment. Integrating goal-setting theory with motivated moral reasoning, we hypothesize an indirect effect of high performance goals on unethical behavior via state moral disengagement. We also examine goal commitment—which tends to amplify the relationship between high goals and performance—as a key boundary condition associated with this indirect effect. We build this conditional indirect effect model across three studies conducted in the field and the laboratory. Our results provide new insight into both when and why high goals can facilitate moral disengagement and unethical behavior within organizations.     

Supervisor expediency to employee expediency: The moderating role of leader–member exchange and the mediating role of employee unethical tolerance

We utilize social learning theory to test the role‐modeling effect of supervisor expediency (i.e., a supervisor's use of unethical practices to expedite work for self‐serving purposes). In particular, we examine the relationship between supervisor expediency and employee expediency, as moderated by leader–member exchange (LMX) and mediated by employee unethical tolerance. We predict that employees are more likely to model their supervisors' expedient behaviors when their relationship is characterized by high‐LMX (a high‐quality exchange relationship that is rich in socioemotional support). Furthermore, we argue that supervisor expediency, especially when LMX is high, influences employees' attitudes of unethical tolerance, which then affects employees' expedient behaviors. Across 2 multisource field studies and a third time‐lagged field study, we found general support for our theoretical predictions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Climate engineering and human rights

ABSTRACT

In this Forum, three scholars discuss how climate engineering will pose novel human rights challenges, and may well force reconsideration of how human rights are applied as a guide to action. Following a short introduction, the first section introduces three competing approaches to human rights, arguing views which emphasize fairness or attempt to maximize satisfaction are more promising than one viewing human rights as inviolable ‘side-constraints’. The second section draws lessons from climate migration that are relevant for climate engineering in terms of incorporating a human rights approach to duties, rights, and participation. The final section compares the ‘needs-based’ and ‘rights-based’ approaches to humanitarian work in the face of climate change and climate engineering, raising concerns for duty-bearers and right-holders. The Forum’s conclusion draws together points of overlap and suggests a path forward for policy and research on this topic.     

环境伦理学刍议

本文研究了环境伦理学产生的背景，环境伦理学所具有的特点，环境伦理学研究的内容以及对环境伦理学应用等问题。     

The Ethics of Constrained Choice: How the Industrialization of Agriculture Impacts Farming and Farmer Behavior

The industrialization of agriculture not only alters the ways in which agricultural production occurs, but it also impacts the decisions farmers make in important ways. First, constraints created by the economic environment of farming limit what options a farmer has available to him. Second, because of the industrialization of agriculture and the resulting economic pressures it creates for farmers, the fact that decisions are constrained creates new ethical challenges for farmers. Having fewer options when faced with severe economic pressures is a very different situation for farmers than having many options available. We discuss the implications of constrained choice and show that it increases the likelihood that farmers will consider unethical behavior.     

Research note on equity and ethics in state-promotion of agricultural products

Many state governments in the United States promote locally-produced farm products. This paper discusses issues related to the ethics and equity of such promotional programs. The paper argues that generic promotion is generally easier to justify in terms of ethics and equity than brand promotion. It also argues that informative and factual brand promotions are easier to justify than deceptive and persuasive brand promotions. Additional equity issues arising when taxpayers finance state-promotional programs are also discussed.