This thesis is about potentiality theory and the right to life. It is an attempt to distil the potentiality position into its strongest incarnation in order to see what it has to offer. In Chapter I various attempts to discredit potentiality theory are examined. Particular emphasis is placed on Michael Tooley's defense of abortion and infanticide and his critique of potentiality theory. It is concluded that a well articulated potentiality position need not lead to any obvious absurdity, and can resist the charge of philosophical arbitrariness. Thus, the potentiality position is a legitimate contender in the right to life dispute. In Chapter II, we ask the question whether the potential to become a person is sufficient for the right to life, or is actual personhood necessary? Various attempted resolutions are considered and rejected. It is concluded that the issue is still quite debateable but that some support for the potentiality position can be found in a Rawls-type validation procedure. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

Little research has explored the dilemmas of practice experienced by practitioners working with rehabilitation clients who are assimilating disabilities, resulting from injury or chronic conditions, into their lives. Consequently, there is limited literature to support educational initiatives or clinicians' decision-making in these settings. Accordingly, this qualitative study was designed to explore 'expert' physical therapists' perceptions of dilemmas of practice in rehabilitation settings. Using an ethnographic design, multiple interviews were conducted over a period of six months with each of ten participants. The researcher's theoretical background and 'insider' role were thoroughly explicated. Interpretive analysis was grounded in three overarching themes that emerged from the participants' accounts and compared with relevant theoretical constructs and research in physical therapy and other health professions. In the first theme the 'authority' of the concept of evidence-based practice as it is currently promoted within physical therapy was questioned. A need was identified to develop rigorous alternative sources of 'evidence' to support current practice that are more congruent with the multifactorial and client-centred nature of rehabilitation service provision. A second theme explored situations interpreted as causing moral distress in which the participants found themselves prevented from acting effectively on behalf of the clients, as a result of admission and discharge decisions and perceived misuse of rehabilitation resources within the organization and health system. The third theme related to the advantages and disadvantages of being involved with the interdisciplinary team. A lack of understanding of different professional philosophies of practice was perceived as a contributing factor to conflict and miscommunication. These themes are related to issues of professional accountability and suggest that physical therapy needs to develop a clearly articulated philosophy and conceptual models, including the concept of client-centred practice, that would reflect practice, serve to guide research and promote interdisciplinary collaboration. Alternative sources of 'best' evidence need to be developed that more realistically reflect complex 'practice' knowledge. In addition, the profession needs to commit to developing a comprehensive ethics curriculum offered in education programs and through interdisciplinary learning opportunities, by which physical therapists will be better prepared for the moral deliberations inherent in their professional role. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

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I did not purposely set down to write this work but was compelled by a painful sense of what I should not do. What I should not write. To protect the privacy and autonomy of individuals, to avoid creating harm, and to resist, however unsuccessfully, essentializing either “mothers” or “addiction,” this work enacts a radical besideness, where one subject performs the verb of a second subject, where one subject enlist the aid of other subjects. In the aim of both producing and defying narrative structures that seem to fasten a person to their identity, this collaborative, intertextual project attempts to tell a story, both in what is re-told and in what is not-told. It invokes infelicitous performances as a way of talking back while walking forward. / Graduate

As ethical dilemmas arise in community colleges, administrators make decisions that require sensitivity to the organizational, political, and environmental factors surrounding their particular institutional climates and locales. The moral reasoning and ethical decision-making of community college administrators were examined in this study. In addition, the study evaluated these factors to provide an understanding, or lack thereof, of [potential] ethical challenges that may exist within a specific organization. Research questions for this study encompassed two perspectives: (a) moral reasoning and (b) ethical decision making. Moral reasoning was examined through participants’ perspectives of moral, professional, and organizational values. Ethical decision making was examined through participants’ assessments of ethical dilemmas using vignettes. Using descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, mean scores, and standard deviations), the results of this research study suggested that community college administrators in Mississippi have varying perceptions for moral, professional, and organizational values and ethical decision-making (behaviors). The findings of the study suggested that the most important moral values for community college administrators in Mississippi are truth, fairness, and responsibility and that members of their families would choose these same values compared to other groups within their communities. In addition, they suggested that communities will not provide the same solutions for ethical dilemmas in which they provided and community colleges should assist students by developing their (students) values and teaching them about ethics. In conjunction with leadership, the majority of community college leaders in Mississippi suggested that they are transformational leaders, which is indicative of their abilities to adapt their organization to fit its mission for their faculty, staff, community affiliates, and constituents.

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The Principle of Double Effect has served as a guide for both statesmen and soldiers since the middle ages in determining which acts in war are morally permissible and which are not. It is used, in particular, by those who make their moral decisions on the basis of certain moral rules that concern the moral consequences of action. This Principle of Double Effect (hereafter referred to as PDE) comes into play in situations where an agent has the option of performing an act with both good and bad consequences. Advocates of PDE believe that it is morally significant whether a bad consequence is intended by the agent or merely forseen as incidental to an act that is in all other respects morally acceptable.^ Of great interest to moral philosophers discussing acts of war is how this principle applies to the deaths of persons not directly involved in the prosecution of the war. Proponents of the PDE claim that while it is morally impermissible to intentionally bring about the deaths of innocent people during combat, either as a means to a military objective or as a goal in itself, it is permissible under certain circumstances for an agent to choose a course of action which may bring about the deaths of innocent people as a forseeable consequence.

Volume I not received and not available. Trying to get a contact email for a replacement copy. I've added Volume II and also put a note on the library catalogue. - sm 08/01/2018 / Volume I is not currently available online.

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