<p> In this historical moment, the United States is amidst an opioid crisis killing the young and the old; at least seventy-eight people die every day from an opioid-related overdose (Enomoto in Murthy III). Changing mindsets of the doctors who prescribe opioids is just as important as asking the patients who are prescribed them to demand an alternative medication. The different parties involved in the crisis all have a different agenda and their rhetorical bias is explored throughout this project. The pharmaceutical companies have launched aggressive marketing campaigns expressing the benefits of opioids and encouraged physicians to prescribe, the CDC has encouraged physicians to stop the overprescribing of opioids, and local police departments and hospitals are overwhelmed with overdoses. Future generations are now being affected by their parents&rsquo; opioid usage; one must stop and realize opioids are not the solution. Perhaps one of the most important implications from this project is to suggest all women, regardless of socioeconomic status and level of health literacy, be warned of the dangers opioids pose to her and any future children. When taking opioids during pregnancy, NAS is not the only concern; but also the larger concern is the complete dysfunction that opioid addiction brings and the personal chaos it creates for addicts and their families</p><p>

abstract: The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the official guidebook to psychiatric diagnosis in America, currently exempts the recently bereaved from being diagnosed with depression unless their experiences are marked by feelings of extreme worthlessness, significant functional impairment, psychotic symptoms, psychomotor retardation, or suicidal ideation. Ordinary symptoms of depression, such as sleeplessness or loss of appetite, are considered healthy, functional emotional responses to the loss of a loved one. The bereavement exemption is slated for removal in the upcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, functionally redefining the emotional distress of bereavement as a psychiatric disorder. This study employs genealogical analysis to expose the multiplicity of forces that shape modern psychiatry and the ways that the redefinition of depression functions strategically in the social negotiation of truth and power. Under the guise of etiological and prescriptive neutrality, the redefinition of depression promotes a deeply biological model of psychiatric disorder, a medicalized understanding of human emotion, and a pharmacological approach to the treatment of emotional distress. Through genealogical analysis, this project seeks to enable informed, meaningful ethico-political responses to these developments. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Communication 2011

abstract: Today in the U.S. the narrative of the “bad drug” has become quite a familiar account. There is an ever-growing collection of pharmaceutical products whose safety and efficacy has been debunked through the scandalous exposure of violations of integrity on the part of researchers, lapses in procedure and judgment on the part of the FDA, and reckless profiteering on the part of big pharma. However, a closer look reveals that the oversights and loopholes depicted in the bad drug narrative are not incidental failures of an otherwise intact, effective system. Rather, bad drugs, like good drugs, are a product of normal operations of the system; the same processes, actors, and influences manifest in both. The aim of this project is to shed light on these processes, actors, and influences at work in drug normalization by interrogating the peculiar case of the drug Lupron. Lupron exhibits all of the controversial features of the “bad drug” narrative but has remained an endorsed and embraced staple of the infertility industry. This contradiction situates Lupron to expose a number of the contingencies on which drug normalization rests more generally. In order to put forth an explanatory model for drug normalization, three such contingencies are described in detail for the case at hand: the nature of drug regulation, the structures and value that underpin the medical categorization of diseases, and the inextricability of post-medicine from the forces of industry. These contingencies provide some explanatory power for understanding not only the retention of Lupron but the ways in which all drugs are produced, validated, and perpetuated in a society. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Biology 2015

Children in low-income, urban communities face significant barriers to leading a healthy lifestyle. Public health issues, such as adverse childhood experiences, food insecurity, and a lack of mental health resources consistently place toxic stress on a growing child’s mental and physical health. Making matters worse, these children and adolescents are less likely to make their pediatric primary care appointments through no fault of their own. A literature review revealed that school-based health centers provide an economically efficient model to delivering pediatric primary care. By eliminating common barriers to healthcare, like transportation issues and family work requirements, school-based health centers successfully combat public health issues and improve health outcomes, successfully establishing equity in delivering pediatric primary care. / Urban Bioethics

<p>We now live in an era of experts on virtually everything, among which we have professional medical ethicists, who gained prominence in the late 60s due to dramatic advances in medical technology. Before then, medical ethics issues were not thought as separable from the warp and woof of the everyday life. Medical technology’s advancement cascades legions of moral problems in medicine and biomedical research. Series of innovative interventions in medicine raise throngs of ethical questions. In most cases that have to do with issues of life and death, there are perceived moral conflicts. Due to this swath of problematic issues that need solutions, some apologists favour medical ethics experts as fit for the job, while critics argue that no one has the knowledge or skill for dealing with moral quandaries because objective truth is not feasible in ethics and moral judgment is relative to cultures, beliefs and values. The necessity for medical ethicists to take active role in Medical Ethics Debates, either in Committees at the institutional level, or at any other decision-making mechanisms is justified in this thesis. In addition to this, the thesis also justifies medical ethicists’ role as expert consultants to clinicians and individuals alike This justification is based on complex moral problems accentuated by medical technology, which are far from being easily solved through mere appeal to individual reason, but rather by involving medical ethicists based on their specialized knowledge and high level understanding of research and practice. Although critics question the authority with which experts speak on these issues, nevertheless, the thesis unravels the roles, functions, significance and components of expert’s expertise that separate him/her from the crowd. Arguments are critically analysed and medical ethicists’ limits and professional flaws are addressed, with a view to establishing a virile foundation for the profession of medical ethics.</p>

We now live in an era of experts on virtually everything, among which we have professional medical ethicists, who gained prominence in the late 60s due to dramatic advances in medical technology. Before then, medical ethics issues were not thought as separable from the warp and woof of the everyday life. Medical technology’s advancement cascades legions of moral problems in medicine and biomedical research. Series of innovative interventions in medicine raise throngs of ethical questions. In most cases that have to do with issues of life and death, there are perceived moral conflicts. Due to this swath of problematic issues that need solutions, some apologists favour medical ethics experts as fit for the job, while critics argue that no one has the knowledge or skill for dealing with moral quandaries because objective truth is not feasible in ethics and moral judgment is relative to cultures, beliefs and values. The necessity for medical ethicists to take active role in Medical Ethics Debates, either in Committees at the institutional level, or at any other decision-making mechanisms is justified in this thesis. In addition to this, the thesis also justifies medical ethicists’ role as expert consultants to clinicians and individuals alike This justification is based on complex moral problems accentuated by medical technology, which are far from being easily solved through mere appeal to individual reason, but rather by involving medical ethicists based on their specialized knowledge and high level understanding of research and practice. Although critics question the authority with which experts speak on these issues, nevertheless, the thesis unravels the roles, functions, significance and components of expert’s expertise that separate him/her from the crowd. Arguments are critically analysed and medical ethicists’ limits and professional flaws are addressed, with a view to establishing a virile foundation for the profession of medical ethics.

No description available.

This thesis sets out an argument against the present interpretation of the concept of autonomy under the European Court of Human Rights (the ECtHR) Article 8 jurisprudence and proposes a new reading of the concept that is rooted in an acknowledgment and appreciation of human interdependence. Following the prevailing political, legal and socio-cultural ideas and ideals about autonomy, the ECtHR has chosen to furnish its recent Article 8 case law according to the values characteristic of the notion of individual autonomy – independence, selfsufficiency, and the ability to conduct one’s life in a manner of one’s own choosing. Adopting this individualistic view on autonomy, the ECtHR sets normative standards for behaviour that the thesis challenges as being detrimental for the quality of interpersonal relationships. The work draws on sociological theory to argue that in modern individualised societies people are increasingly tied to each other – one has to be socially sensitive and to be able to relate to others and to obligate oneself, in order to manage and organise the complexities of everyday life. This also means that there are attendant obligations between individuals to be sensitive towards, and care for, each other. It is argued that an effective exercise of one’s autonomy becomes necessarily dependent on the existence of caring and trusting relationships. This in turn requires the ECtHR to adopt an appropriate conceptualisation of autonomy that embraces this knowledge and gives full effect to it. The concept of caring autonomy is proposed as a replacement for an individualistic concept of autonomy. It will be argued that this concept captures better the essentiality of human interdependence and the morality it calls for. The implications of this for the future direction of the ECtHR jurisprudence are also considered.

No description available.

No description available.