The neoliberal globalization project of expanding and maintaining capitalism globally requires the shaping of neoliberal nation-states that will entrench its ideology, political structures, and practices. In that sense, the neoliberal nation-state provides an appropriate conceptual site for investigating the local-global nexus in the dynamics of global capitalism. Using the Philippines as an example, this paper investigates the various factors or dimensions in the making of the Philippines as a neoliberal nation-state from the colonial era to the supranational structures that exert (...) external control on the Philippine political economy: the global power of transnational corporations, the IMF, American and Chinese imperialism, including the American military aid that supports militarization and counter-insurgency against movements that challenge the neoliberal agenda of the past and current regimes. In addition, this paper offers implications for policy changes and strategies for global resistance that anti-globalization movements can consider. (shrink)

Le projet de mondialisation néolibérale, qui consiste à étendre et à maintenir le capitalisme à l’échelle mondiale, nécessite la création d’États-nations néolibéraux qui intégreront son idéologie, ses pratiques et ses structures politiques. En ce sens, l’État-nation néolibéral constitue un site conceptuel approprié pour examiner le lien entre le local et le global dans la dynamique du capitalisme mondial. En prenant les Philippines comme exemple, l’article examine les différents facteurs ou dimensions qui ont fait des Philippines un État-nation néolibéral, depuis l’époque (...) coloniale jusqu’aux structures supranationales qui exercent un contrôle externe sur l’économie politique philippine : le pouvoir mondial des sociétés transnationales, le FMI, l’impérialisme américain et chinois, y compris l’aide militaire américaine qui soutient la militarisation et la contre-insurrection contre les mouvements remettant en question le programme néolibéral des régimes passés et actuels. Enfin, l’article considère les répercussions que les mouvements antimondialisation peuvent avoir sur le changement d’orientation politique et sur les stratégies de résistance mondiale. (shrink)

BackgroundThe coronavirus 2019 pandemic placed unprecedented pressures on healthcare services and magnified ethical dilemmas related to how resources should be allocated. These resources include, among others, personal protective equipment, personnel, life-saving equipment, and vaccines. Decision-makers have therefore sought ethical decision-making tools so that resources are distributed both swiftly and equitably. To support the development of such a decision-making tool, a systematic review of the literature on relevant ethical values and principles was undertaken. The aim of this review was to identify (...) ethical values and principles in the literature which relate to the equitable allocation of resources in response to an acute public health threat, such as a pandemic.MethodsA rapid systematic review was conducted using MEDLINE, EMBASE, Google Scholar, LitCOVID and relevant reference lists. The time period of the search was January 2000 to 6th April 2020, and the search was restricted to human studies. January 2000 was selected as a start date as the aim was to capture ethical values and principles within acute public health threat situations. No restrictions were made with regard to language. Ethical values and principles were extracted and examined thematically.ResultsA total of 1,618 articles were identified. After screening and application of eligibility criteria, 169 papers were included in the thematic synthesis. The most commonly mentioned ethical values and principles were: Equity, reciprocity, transparency, justice, duty to care, liberty, utility, stewardship, trust and proportionality. In some cases, ethical principles were conflicting, for example, Protection of the Public from Harm and Liberty.ConclusionsAllocation of resources in response to acute public health threats is challenging and must be simultaneously guided by many ethical principles and values. Ethical decision-making strategies and the prioritisation of different principles and values needs to be discussed with the public in order to prepare for future public health threats. An evidence-based tool to guide decision-makers in making difficult decisions is required. The equitable allocation of resources in response to an acute public health threat is challenging, and many ethical principles may be applied simultaneously. An evidence-based tool to support difficult decisions would be helpful to guide decision-makers. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin When an unborn child is diagnosed with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition, many people now believe that the best solution is to immediately terminate the pregnancy. This article explores the option of continuing the pregnancy with the support of perinatal palliative care. Many parents have found this alternative fits better with their values, and better honours both their unborn child and their situation as the loving parents of this child. The article also explores the information and support (...) which parents need in order to make a truly informed choice between termination and continuing the pregnancy. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin When a girl or woman has an unplanned pregnancy, her choices are to keep the child, to give the child for adoption, or to have an abortion. The best outcome is any situation which allows her to keep and successfully raise the child. When this is not possible, this article argues that modern open adoption is a better outcome for both the woman and her child than abortion. In making this argument, this article reviews the complex social (...) history of adoption in Australia. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin This article explores a Report titled 'Dementia: Ethical Issues,' which was produced by the UK Nuffield Council on Bioethics. The Report calls us to examine our attitudes towards both dementia and people with dementia, and to act in solidarity with people with dementia by seeking to include them in mainstream society, and to provide them with sufficient help and services so that they are able to enjoy a good quality of life throughout the course of their illness. (...) It also calls us to act in solidarity with the carers of people with dementia, providing them with help and services both in their caring capacity and also in meeting their personal needs. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin In December 2008, the US President's Council on Bioethics issued a White Paper titled 'Controversies in the Determination of Death.'1 Responding to contemporary critiques of the concept of brain death, the Council upholds the validity of this neurological standard for determining death. Significantly, it also proposes replacing the existing explanation of this standard with a new, very different rationale. As well, it argues that 'total brain failure' is a better name for this condition than 'brain death.' This (...) article summarises and then comments on this important statement. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin The Catholic bishops of England and Wales have issued a guide to the spiritual care of the dying person. It reminds us that spiritual care is an essential part of holistic palliative care, and that every health professional has a role to play in the provision of spiritual care.

McGovern, Kevin This article explores statements from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) about health research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

McGovern, Kevin; Brussen, Kerri Anne Some vaccines are produced using cell lines which were originally developed from tissue from an aborted foetus. Vaccines are ethically compromised by this connection to abortion. within the Catholic Church, the Pontifical Academy for Life has called for research and development of alternative vaccines which are ethically acceptable. Until alternative vaccines are developed, it has also accepted the use even of these ethically compromised vaccines in order to protect children, pregnant women and the population (...) as a whole from the risk of contracting serious disease. This article explores all these issues from an Australian perspective. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin The Catholic vision of evangelisation combines concerns about faith and spirituality with a call to provide practical service particularly to the most disadvantaged. This article explores how this vision is articulated in Pope Francis's Evangelii Gaudium. It also explores how in presenting this vision Evangelii Gaudium drew upon both Paul VI's Evangelii Nuntiandi and the Latin American bishops' Aparecida Document. A concise synopsis of Evangelii Gaudium is included, along with brief reflections on the implications of all this (...) for Catholic health, aged and community care services in Australia. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin This exploration of business ethics is based on the fifth edition of Business Ethics by Damian Grace and Stephen Cohen. Against the view that business is an ethics-free zone, it argues that for almost all of us, there is an important place for ethics in business. Against the view of neoliberalism or economic rationalism that free and unfettered markets necessarily bring about fairness, it argues that there is a place for government regulation of business. This article also (...) includes material on a number of other topics including ethics in advertising, ethics in the professions, environmental responsibility, and supporting an ethical culture in organisations through codes of ethics and codes of conduct. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin Pope Francis's Evangelii Gaudium calls us to both service and silence. This article explores the theological underpinning of this call, and considers its implications for Catholic health, aged and community care services in Australia.

McGovern, Kevin This article explores what is said in the fourth chapter of Pope Francis's Evangelii Gaudium about social engagement particularly with the poor. Francis sees practical engagement with the poor as an essential component of the Christian faith. This engagement begins with loving attentiveness to them. It seeks their integral development, and their full inclusion in the life of society. Such social engagement also calls us to care for the environment, to participate in the quest for peace, and (...) to engage in dialogue with all people to seek consensus on ways of building a better world. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin This article explores Reflections of a Setting Sun: Healing Experiences around Death, written by palliative care physician Michael Barbato. It considers caring for someone who is dying, and preparing for death. A major focus of this article is deathbed visions after which a dying person reports being visited by relatives or friends who have already died.

McGovern, Kevin Over the next three decades, the number of people living with dementia both in Australia and around the world will almost triple. This calls for significant changes within our society. It calls for international cooperation, with particular assistance being given to low income countries. It calls for increased research into many aspects of dementia, ranging from the search for a cure to the identification of best practice in the care of persons with dementia. It calls for upskilling (...) in Australia's health, community and aged care sectors. Because many people with dementia will continue to live in the community, above all it calls for the creation of dementia-friendly communities. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin This is an edited record of the presentation given by Revd Kevin McGovern, Director of the Caroline Chisholm Centre for Health Ethics, at the Centre's conference on palliative care on 3 October 2013. It explores the processes, challenges and benefits of Advance Care Planning. It also argues that Advance Care Planning will change the provision of health care significantly.

McGovern, Kevin Physician and ethicist Professor Paul Komesaroff and former judge Stephen Charles QC have proposed legislation to protect health professionals from the risk of criminal prosecution when in appropriate circumstances they provide pain relief which may shorten a patient's life. For this protection, they recommend that four conditions must all be satisfied: the patient has a terminal illness; the intention is to relieve pain and suffering; the treatment is reasonable in terms of current medical practice; and the treatment (...) is necessary to relieve pain and suffering. This article examines their proposal, supports it, and joins in the call for Victorian legislation which achieves this purpose. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin How might we prepare well for death? And how might we help other people also to prepare well for death? Spiritual guide Henri Nouwen suggests that we should strive to recognise that we are children of God, brothers and sisters of one another, and parents of the generations to come. This article explores what he means.

McGovern, Kevin Over the next three decades, the number of people living with dementia both in Australia and around the world will almost triple. This calls for significant changes within our society. It calls for international cooperation, with particular assistance being given to low income countries. It calls for increased research into many aspects of dementia, ranging from the search for a cure to the identification of best practice in the care of persons with dementia. It calls for upskilling (...) in Australia's health, community and aged care sectors. Because many people with dementia will continue to live in the community, above all it calls for the creation of dementia-friendly communities. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin British political strategist Philip Gould was diagnosed with cancer early in 2008. He died towards the end of 2011. Challenging community attitudes about dying with cancer, he insisted in a book-length memoir that this was "the most important ... the most fulfilling and the most inspirational time of my life." This article reflects on Philip's testimony.

McGovern, Kevin After exploring the sources of Catholic teaching about tube feeding, this article summarises that teaching in four points. Because tube feeding usually offers little if any benefit in advanced dementia, as a general rule a feeding tube is not inserted into these patients.

McGovern, Kevin When we experience serious illness, one of our deepest challenges is to make sense of what is happening to us. This article considers how we might do this. It particularly explores John Paul II's Salvifici Doloris, which suggests that Christians might discover meaning by uniting their sufferings with the sufferings of Christ.

McGovern, Kevin After a brief account of the Victorian Law Reform Act 2008, this article reports on three responses to this law in the last year. Because Section 8 of this law restricts the healthcare practitioner's usual right of conscientious objection, this article also discusses conscience and conscientious objection.

McGovern, Kevin Well-known ABC presenter Caroline Jones has written a memoir about her father's death, and her own long and painful experience of grief afterwards. Titled 'Through a Glass Darkly', her memoir has much to teach us about medical decision-making, chaplaincy and pastoral care, grief, and the search for meaning in life.

McGovern, Kevin Benedict XVI released his third encyclical on 29 June 2009. Its Latin title is 'Caritas in Veritate;' its English title is 'On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth.' This article explores the significant teachings of this encyclical.

McGovern, Kevin After a brief account of the process, this article considers three significant ethical issues about Donation after Cardiac Death.

McGovern, Kevin The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) released a new Instruction on bioethics on 12 December 2008, and titled it as Dignitas Personae. A brief summary of the new Vatican Instruction on bioethics is presented, which is aimed at contributing to the formation of conscience, and to promote biomedical research which is ethically sound and which truly serves human beings.

McGovern, Kevin On 12 November 2008, the Caroline Chisholm Centre for Health Ethics ran a conference on Advance Care Planning. This is the Director's talk from that conference.

McGovern, Kevin In recent years, some speakers at Catholic conferences and a few articles on Catholic websites and in Catholic newspapers have claimed that brain death is not really death. Some Catholics may be confused by this - particularly if they are asked to agree to the removal of mechanical ventilation or the procurement of organs from a relative or friend who has been declared brain dead. At the same time, these claims might damage the reputation of the Church (...) within the scientific and health care communities. This article reviews what brain death is, and then details Catholic investigations and statements about this concept. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin This article explores what may ethically be done to prevent pregnancy after rape. The issue of pregnancy approach is dealt with in this article.

McGovern, Kevin; Khalafzai, Rida Usman This article explores the new Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research. The Code is addressed to research institutions and researchers. It charges research institutions with the responsibility to develop and maintain a framework of research governance "through which research is assessed for quality, safety, privacy, risk management, financial management and ethical acceptability.

McGovern, Kevin This article reviews three statements from the National Health and Medical Research Council on post-coma unresponsiveness (PCU). One of the functions of the NHMRC is to propose standards and guidelines for health care in Australia. The paper explores the causes and neuropathology of PCU, imaging and other tests and prognosis from unresponsiveness.

McGovern, Kevin This article explores the new National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research.

McGovern, Kevin A recent move in Victoria to decriminalise abortion invites reflection on this issue. In this article, I review the history which has led to the present situation, and then offer four comments.

McGovern, Kevin The Victorian Law Reform Commission's Report on Guardianship contains many findings and recommendations about Advance Care Planning. This article considers the most significant of these from the perspective of the teaching of the Catholic Church.

McGovern, Kevin This is a slightly edited version of a talk given on 23 August 2010 at the Catholic Health Australia National Conference at the Adelaide Convention Centre. Three bioethicists were asked to reflect on Ethical Challenges Ten Years from Now. This talk focussed not on new issues but on current concerns which will continue to challenge us.

McGovern, Kevin This is a slightly edited version of a talk given on 1 September 2011 at the Catholic Health Australia National Conference at the National Convention Centre in Canberra. The theme of the conference was Remaining True.

McGovern, Kevin This article explores the report of the 2010 independent review committee into Australia's cloning and embryo research laws. Its author, the Director of the Centre, was one of the five members of this committee.

McGovern, Kevin This article explores how some of the ethical issues raised by Donation after Cardiac Death are addressed in Australia's new National Protocol. It endorses much of what has been established for the management of professional conflicts of interest, the management of conflicts between the wishes of donor and family, the use of ante mortem interventions, and the determination of death. However, it calls for a 5 minute observation time before the declaration of death, and a stronger statement (...) about conscientious objection. (shrink)

In what sense might the authoritarian practices and suspension of legal norms as means to combat the supposed threat of “terrorism,” within and by contemporary western democratic states, be understood as a problem of and not for democracy? That question lies at the heart of this article. It will be explored through the theoretical frame offered in the work of Giorgio Agamben on the state of exception and the example of British state collusion in non-state violence in the North of (...) Ireland. The North of Ireland provides a particularly illuminating case study to explore how the state of exception—the suspension of law and of legal norms and the exercise of arbitrary decision—has increasingly become a paradigm of contemporary governance. In so doing it brings into question not only the traditional conceptualization of the “democratic dilemma” of liberal democratic states “confronting terrorism” but also challenge dominant paradigms of transitional justice that generally fail to problematize the liberal democratic order. After outlining Agamben’s understanding of the state of exception the article will chart the development of “exceptional measures” and the creation of a permanent state of emergency in the North, before critically exploring the role of collusion as an aspect of counter-insurgency during the recent conflict. The paper will argue that the normalization of exceptional measures, combined with the need to delimit the explicitness of constitutional provision for the same, provided a context for the emergence of collusion as a paradigm case for the increasing replication of colonial practices into the core activity of the contemporary democratic state. (shrink)

The historiography of pandemics and inequality can be characterized by two distinct but often overlapping traditions. One centers structural and political analysis, the other a race-critical approach to the production of human difference. This bibliographic essay reviews historical scholarship in these traditions spanning the past hundred years, with a focus on Anglophone literature in the history of medicine in the United States over the past half century. Early writing on the history of epidemics celebrated the conquest of disease through the (...) application of laboratory research. Insights from social history and environmental history came to inform new analyses of epidemic inequalities, drawing questions of race, class, and empire into the frame during the 1960s and 1970s. The AIDS pandemic of the 1980s further oriented scholarship toward reckoning with stigma, identity, and human experiences of inequality while also troubling the relationship between medicine and the state. In more recent decades, the scholarship on race, social inequality, and pandemics has become deep and broad, remedying longstanding biases toward elite scientific actors and the metropolitan centers of Europe and the East Coast of the United States. In expanding their vision, historians also have engaged in more nuanced analyses of racialization as a social, environmental, and ideological process of embodying difference. Further, where earlier scholarship often relied on mortality data, there has been growing awareness of how numbers shape narratives and are shaped by them in turn. In its conclusion, the essay highlights emerging themes in race and inequality with particular attention to themes that have become prominent amid the global devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. (shrink)

Generalized anxiety disorder is among the world’s most prevalent psychiatric disorders and often manifests as persistent and difficult to control apprehension. Despite its prevalence, there is no integrative, formal model of how anxiety and anxiety disorders arise. Here, we offer a perspective derived from the free energy principle; one that shares similarities with established constructs such as learned helplessness. Our account is simple: anxiety can be formalized as learned uncertainty. A biological system, having had persistent uncertainty in its past, will (...) expect uncertainty in its future, irrespective of whether uncertainty truly persists. Despite our account’s intuitive simplicity—which can be illustrated with the mere flip of a coin—it is grounded within the free energy principle and hence situates the formation of anxiety within a broader explanatory framework of biological self-organization and self-evidencing. We conclude that, through conceptualizing anxiety within a framework of working generative models, our perspective might afford novel approaches in the clinical treatment of anxiety and its key symptoms. (shrink)