Amid complex issues like those of the Anthropocene, choice of methodology in inquiry is critical ... more Amid complex issues like those of the Anthropocene, choice of methodology in inquiry is critical to assure the validity of an inquiry’s conclusions. Confidence in its success can be gained initially through the exercise of introspection. More importantly, the complexity of inquiry needs to be commensurate with that of the subject. Since ανθρωπός (anthropos) is the cause of environmental deterioration, inquiry must be thematically anthropological and future-orientated towards the evolution of mankind amid technological advance. These themes promulgate modes of observation from which an inquirer can observe empirically. Eventually, with the need for increasing complexity of inquiry, the abilities of such a method of study become exhausted, with epistemology and empiricism consequent casualties. In a leap of theory and inspired by Haraway’s conjecture of the cyborg in posthumanism, the approach then privileges the ontological so that observers instead become beings and exploration of t...
An intransigent problem for English law inheres in the desire of some to assist another who wishe... more An intransigent problem for English law inheres in the desire of some to assist another who wishes to die as an act of benevolence. This is prohibited by law, so creating an impasse. Conceptual correspondence between this and the strictures of Luhmannian systems theory is apparent, making it possible to examine the stalemate by this means. The foundational paradox that mandates to law the unique prerogative of distinguishing lawfulness from unlawfulness is reproduced in the seeming immutability of present ruling on assisted dying. Yet elements of society esteem altruistic assistance to voluntary dying and their objections to current legal prohibition often are based on extra-legal contemplations. The paradox, though, is posited here as essential and indissoluble. So the ways in which law functions in the presence of the paradox in relation to protagonism for assisted dying becomes a central concern. However, attempts to unfold the paradox by understanding the relation of law to fact...
Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine, Nov 1, 1982
... 130 Gilson and Collins Page 2. ... We purchased the Europlus version of the computer with a S... more ... 130 Gilson and Collins Page 2. ... We purchased the Europlus version of the computer with a Sanyo 12in monochrome monitor, three Siemens disc drive units (and later added a fourth), and anEpson 80 dot matrix printer (Figure 1). Capital outlay was in the region of E2500. ...
ABSTRACT The world of computers is full of jargon. A fair proportion is easy to understand but th... more ABSTRACT The world of computers is full of jargon. A fair proportion is easy to understand but there is a vast array of vocabulary which can be baffling to the uninitiated. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to write about computers without using this jargon at some point, so a glossary of terms is a necessity. The following list is not complete by any stretch of the imagination, but it should help to clarify some of the more commonly used phrases and words and has been compiled with the articles in this issue of the Journal in mind.
ABSTRACT This is a tribute to one of the Institute of Medical Illustrators' most distingu... more ABSTRACT This is a tribute to one of the Institute of Medical Illustrators' most distinguished Honorary Fellows. It contains many personal impressions, recollections and anecdotes. No apologies are tendered for this. Nor will the account necessarily be in chronological order, because there are so many strands to Peter Cull's eventful career. It is also partly a biography of the medical artist, intellectual, educationalist, mentor, colleague, humourist, devoted family man and friend. It represents a life of opportunities made, and grasped to advance the profession of visual communication in medicine via all its modes and means, by example, industry, ingenuity and integrity. Along an eventful road, a generosity of spirit and great personal kindness helped countless others making their own particular way. From this, many firm life-long friendships have been formed. The article reflects on the special qualities of a person able to excel in so many spheres of influence, of whom we can be but pale imitations. Not just my opinion but the praises of others to be included will confirm absolutely the enormous regard in which Peter was held and the debt of gratitude owed him by so many. And so: Peter Cull-'Remembered with Affection'.
ABSTRACT This is a pre-publication text of an article intended for publication in an academic jou... more ABSTRACT This is a pre-publication text of an article intended for publication in an academic journal. It represents a theoretical and socio-legal study of an intransigent social problem. Comments and suggestions for amendments are welcomed. The text will be withdrawn on Friday 17 th May so that alterations can be made prior to submission. Summary In English law, s. 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961 prohibits rendering assistance in dying to a person, even at their behest. Societal debate and petitions to law reveal agitation for legal change that often is championed in the field of medical or bioethics. Challenges also are mounted via human rights assertions and arguments from personal autonomy. Legal challenges frequently are withstood, though, because the implied changes or reinterpretations of law most often are matters for Parliament, not courts, although some procedural clarifications lately have been produced. 1,2 So the current impasse remains and analysis of the head-on conflict of principles and opinion might be neither apposite nor offer promising routes to reconciling the difficulty. They might not even increase understanding of the problem. Other methods of exploration then become desirable, especially if they are more dispassionate, can offer novel perspectives and help clarify the ways in which contemplations can be regarded. The central problem then can be reconsidered by means of a new framework for thought. Viewed through an orthodox Luhmannian systems-theoretical approach, decrimi-nalizing assistance in dying would involve transposing a social action from one side of the lawful/unlawful divide to the other, which is to expect a great deal. The problem amplifies the very conditions of legal autopoiesis. Morals and ethics promulgate ideas both pervasively and persuasively over assisted dying but what would be their conceptual home if systems theory is adopted as the mode of considering the central problem? While seemingly ethereal entities at present, can morals and ethics be characterized convincingly? Should they be relocated and re-contextualized within systems theory and what form could that take? Depending on the answer, what rôle would they then have in the discourse and what prescriptive authority, if any, over action? Medicalization of assisted dying accords clinical medicine a rôle in end-of-life decision-making but on what basis can it exercise this responsibility, viewed via
THE LAW-SCIENCE CHASM is a socio-legal study that takes seriously the varying approaches to scien... more THE LAW-SCIENCE CHASM is a socio-legal study that takes seriously the varying approaches to science that physicians and scientists use, as compared to legal actors such as judges and lawyers. Offering a way to mediate and translate their different perspectives and assumptions, Gilson uses sociological and philosophical methodologies to explain each discipline to the other.
The rights of patients participating in illustrations for teaching and medical publications must ... more The rights of patients participating in illustrations for teaching and medical publications must always be respected. A contract between patient and clinician subsists in written, informed consent procedures, which in turn are enshrined in a Confidentiality Code of Practice.
The Journal of audiovisual media in medicine, 1982
... 130 Gilson and Collins Page 2. ... We purchased the Europlus version of the computer with a S... more ... 130 Gilson and Collins Page 2. ... We purchased the Europlus version of the computer with a Sanyo 12in monochrome monitor, three Siemens disc drive units (and later added a fourth), and anEpson 80 dot matrix printer (Figure 1). Capital outlay was in the region of E2500. ...
Amid complex issues like those of the Anthropocene, choice of methodology in inquiry is critical ... more Amid complex issues like those of the Anthropocene, choice of methodology in inquiry is critical to assure the validity of an inquiry’s conclusions. Confidence in its success can be gained initially through the exercise of introspection. More importantly, the complexity of inquiry needs to be commensurate with that of the subject. Since ανθρωπός (anthropos) is the cause of environmental deterioration, inquiry must be thematically anthropological and future-orientated towards the evolution of mankind amid technological advance. These themes promulgate modes of observation from which an inquirer can observe empirically. Eventually, with the need for increasing complexity of inquiry, the abilities of such a method of study become exhausted, with epistemology and empiricism consequent casualties. In a leap of theory and inspired by Haraway’s conjecture of the cyborg in posthumanism, the approach then privileges the ontological so that observers instead become beings and exploration of t...
An intransigent problem for English law inheres in the desire of some to assist another who wishe... more An intransigent problem for English law inheres in the desire of some to assist another who wishes to die as an act of benevolence. This is prohibited by law, so creating an impasse. Conceptual correspondence between this and the strictures of Luhmannian systems theory is apparent, making it possible to examine the stalemate by this means. The foundational paradox that mandates to law the unique prerogative of distinguishing lawfulness from unlawfulness is reproduced in the seeming immutability of present ruling on assisted dying. Yet elements of society esteem altruistic assistance to voluntary dying and their objections to current legal prohibition often are based on extra-legal contemplations. The paradox, though, is posited here as essential and indissoluble. So the ways in which law functions in the presence of the paradox in relation to protagonism for assisted dying becomes a central concern. However, attempts to unfold the paradox by understanding the relation of law to fact...
Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine, Nov 1, 1982
... 130 Gilson and Collins Page 2. ... We purchased the Europlus version of the computer with a S... more ... 130 Gilson and Collins Page 2. ... We purchased the Europlus version of the computer with a Sanyo 12in monochrome monitor, three Siemens disc drive units (and later added a fourth), and anEpson 80 dot matrix printer (Figure 1). Capital outlay was in the region of E2500. ...
ABSTRACT The world of computers is full of jargon. A fair proportion is easy to understand but th... more ABSTRACT The world of computers is full of jargon. A fair proportion is easy to understand but there is a vast array of vocabulary which can be baffling to the uninitiated. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to write about computers without using this jargon at some point, so a glossary of terms is a necessity. The following list is not complete by any stretch of the imagination, but it should help to clarify some of the more commonly used phrases and words and has been compiled with the articles in this issue of the Journal in mind.
ABSTRACT This is a tribute to one of the Institute of Medical Illustrators' most distingu... more ABSTRACT This is a tribute to one of the Institute of Medical Illustrators' most distinguished Honorary Fellows. It contains many personal impressions, recollections and anecdotes. No apologies are tendered for this. Nor will the account necessarily be in chronological order, because there are so many strands to Peter Cull's eventful career. It is also partly a biography of the medical artist, intellectual, educationalist, mentor, colleague, humourist, devoted family man and friend. It represents a life of opportunities made, and grasped to advance the profession of visual communication in medicine via all its modes and means, by example, industry, ingenuity and integrity. Along an eventful road, a generosity of spirit and great personal kindness helped countless others making their own particular way. From this, many firm life-long friendships have been formed. The article reflects on the special qualities of a person able to excel in so many spheres of influence, of whom we can be but pale imitations. Not just my opinion but the praises of others to be included will confirm absolutely the enormous regard in which Peter was held and the debt of gratitude owed him by so many. And so: Peter Cull-'Remembered with Affection'.
ABSTRACT This is a pre-publication text of an article intended for publication in an academic jou... more ABSTRACT This is a pre-publication text of an article intended for publication in an academic journal. It represents a theoretical and socio-legal study of an intransigent social problem. Comments and suggestions for amendments are welcomed. The text will be withdrawn on Friday 17 th May so that alterations can be made prior to submission. Summary In English law, s. 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961 prohibits rendering assistance in dying to a person, even at their behest. Societal debate and petitions to law reveal agitation for legal change that often is championed in the field of medical or bioethics. Challenges also are mounted via human rights assertions and arguments from personal autonomy. Legal challenges frequently are withstood, though, because the implied changes or reinterpretations of law most often are matters for Parliament, not courts, although some procedural clarifications lately have been produced. 1,2 So the current impasse remains and analysis of the head-on conflict of principles and opinion might be neither apposite nor offer promising routes to reconciling the difficulty. They might not even increase understanding of the problem. Other methods of exploration then become desirable, especially if they are more dispassionate, can offer novel perspectives and help clarify the ways in which contemplations can be regarded. The central problem then can be reconsidered by means of a new framework for thought. Viewed through an orthodox Luhmannian systems-theoretical approach, decrimi-nalizing assistance in dying would involve transposing a social action from one side of the lawful/unlawful divide to the other, which is to expect a great deal. The problem amplifies the very conditions of legal autopoiesis. Morals and ethics promulgate ideas both pervasively and persuasively over assisted dying but what would be their conceptual home if systems theory is adopted as the mode of considering the central problem? While seemingly ethereal entities at present, can morals and ethics be characterized convincingly? Should they be relocated and re-contextualized within systems theory and what form could that take? Depending on the answer, what rôle would they then have in the discourse and what prescriptive authority, if any, over action? Medicalization of assisted dying accords clinical medicine a rôle in end-of-life decision-making but on what basis can it exercise this responsibility, viewed via
THE LAW-SCIENCE CHASM is a socio-legal study that takes seriously the varying approaches to scien... more THE LAW-SCIENCE CHASM is a socio-legal study that takes seriously the varying approaches to science that physicians and scientists use, as compared to legal actors such as judges and lawyers. Offering a way to mediate and translate their different perspectives and assumptions, Gilson uses sociological and philosophical methodologies to explain each discipline to the other.
The rights of patients participating in illustrations for teaching and medical publications must ... more The rights of patients participating in illustrations for teaching and medical publications must always be respected. A contract between patient and clinician subsists in written, informed consent procedures, which in turn are enshrined in a Confidentiality Code of Practice.
The Journal of audiovisual media in medicine, 1982
... 130 Gilson and Collins Page 2. ... We purchased the Europlus version of the computer with a S... more ... 130 Gilson and Collins Page 2. ... We purchased the Europlus version of the computer with a Sanyo 12in monochrome monitor, three Siemens disc drive units (and later added a fourth), and anEpson 80 dot matrix printer (Figure 1). Capital outlay was in the region of E2500. ...
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