Contemporary bioethics education has been developed predominately within Euro-American contexts, and now, other global regions are increasingly joining the field, leading to a richer global understanding. Nevertheless, many standard bioethics curriculum materials retain a narrow geographic focus. The purpose of this article is to use local cases from the Asia-Pacific region as examples for exploring questions such as ‘what makes a case or example truly local, and why?’, ‘what topics have we found to be best explained through local cases or (...) examples?’, and ‘how does one identify a relevant local case?’ Furthermore, we consider the global application of local cases to help extend the possible scope of the discussion, opening new avenues for the development of practical bioethics educational materials. We begin with a background description and discussion of why local cases enhance bioethics education, move to an overview of what is currently available and what is not for the region, and then outline a discussion of what it means to be local using example cases drawn from Hong Kong, Australia, Pakistan, and Malaysia. We are not creating a casebook but rather constructing by example a toolbox for designing active and dynamic learning cases using regional diversity as contextualised cases with generalised principles. (shrink)

Honesty and integrity are key attributes of an ethically competent physician. However, academic misconduct, which includes but is not limited to plagiarism, cheating, and falsifying documentation, is common in medical colleges across the world. The purpose of this study is to describe differences in the self-reported attitudes and behaviours of medical students regarding academic misconduct depending on gender, year of study and type of medical institution in Pakistan.

This paper closely examines two statements proposed by Feijoo: 1. Machiavelli sets his doctrine in history, therefore his works do not constitute a really original position; 2. Feijoo writes on Machiavelli, but says he never read The Prince entirely. He only read some fundamental quotes, cited by other authors.It is clear that all his references also appear in the voice “Machiavelli” of Pierre Bayle’s Dictionnaire. Moreover, Feijoo’s interpretation is very different from Pierre Bayle’s: in the latter’s view, the work of (...) the Florentine is admirable because Machiavelli breaks with ignorance and hypocrisy revealing the truth of history. According to Feijoo, the Florentine master did not discover anything original and his works merely present the worst examples of governance practices. (shrink)

At the beginning of the 20th century Machiavelli is an author celebrated by Ortega y Gasset: the philosopher of Madrid despises the nineteenth century, epilogue of an era, as much as he admires the Renaissance. Twenty years later - in España invertebrada - Ortega reads the pages of Il Principe as the brilliant commentary “from an Italian to the deeds of two Spaniards”, Fernando el Católico and César Borja. D ‘Ors’s position is very different. Although in 1920, in favor of (...) Machiavelli, he opposed “vulgar beliefs”, certainly ends up among the most radical critics. According to d ‘Ors, Machiavelli reaffirms in modernity the paganism of the Emperor Julian and anticipates - against Dante and his theory of the empire - the fate of a fragmented Europe, in which ideas and nations fight, without any reference to a universal authority. (shrink)

Background and rationale Several factors that motivate individuals to participate in non-therapeutic studies have been identified. This study was conducted as limited data is available regarding these motivations from developing countries. Methods This was a single-centre study conducted over 4 months in which a questionnaire was administered to 102 healthy participants and 16 patient participants who had earlier taken part in non-therapeutic studies at our centre. Descriptive statistics and univariate analysis were used to analyse data. Results The most common motivation (...) among healthy participants was financial reward (65%) followed by altruism, free medical check up, curiosity and personal health benefit. Patient participants, however, most commonly said they consented to take part in the trial as they were ‘invited to participate by the treating physician’ (88%). In comparison with the patient participants, healthy participants were more likely to be satisfied with the financial reward (p=0.02), and recommend participation in studies to friends or relatives (p=0.0013). Conclusions The most common motivating factor to participate in non-therapeutic studies appears to be different for healthy participants (financial reward) and patient participants (invitation to participate by the physician). Participants also felt that adequate information and care was given to them during the trial, and that they would participate in future clinical studies, and would also recommend such studies to their friends. (shrink)

In 1998 Ghia Van Eeden was sexually assaulted by a serial rapist who had escaped from police custody due to the negligence of the South African police authorities. Claiming that the State owed a common law duty of care to potential victims to protect them from violent crimes, Van Eeden sought damages for the harm she had suffered. In a path-breaking decision, the Supreme Court of Appeal (S.C.A.) found that a duty of care did indeed exist and that its (...) execution had to be considered in line with the constitutional requirement to protect women's right to be free from violence and the constitutional obligation to develop the common law so as to promote the spirit, purport and objects of the South African Bill of Rights. Examining the Van Eeden decision in terms of its substantial development of the circumstances in which the State may be judged liable for a wrongful omission, this note positions the S.C.A.'s decision in the context of the evolving case law of the Constitutional Court on sexual violence and ultimately questions its practical significance for addressing the prevalent abuse of women in South Africa. (shrink)