ethics news & views

After the protests: is capitalism the new bad guy?

The last two years have seen a string of mass protests, the most publicized of which has been the anti-WTO protest in Seattle. Amidst the picket signs and shattered McDonald’s storefronts, many are asking if global capitalism has its dark side.

Servant Leadership completes internships, works with Employee Council, convenes Forum

The Ethics and Servant Leadership program completed its second year of programming this summer.

With Melissa Snarr and Mary Sue Brookshire celebrating one year as the leadership team, EASL brought together ten more students to serve as summer interns. Interns spent thirty hours a week at their community placements and invested another three reflecting with their peers on Friday mornings. Once again, we were pleased with the great work and reflection of these students. Please take some time to read their articles on the web—you will be renewed.

Reconciliation trip finds servant leadership in Bolivia

Each day, the principles of servant leadership greet me as I enter my office. A simple piece of white paper hangs on my bulletin board, reminding me of them: Listening. Empathy. Commitment to the growth of people. Building Community. Awareness. And the list goes on. In my work with the Ethics and Servant Leadership program, I am often in conversation with students about these principles—their meanings, their applications, their limitations. While we try to ground these principles in concrete examples from all sectors of professional life, we rarely have the opportunity to observe first-hand situations in which servant leadership is practiced.

Community in California: What about the rest of us?

When Carolyn Shaffer and Kristin Anundsen were writing Creating Community Anywhere, they forgot one minor point: northern California isn’t the only place to find community.

Given the plethora of innovative collaborative efforts in the San Francisco Bay area, of course, their oversight is understandable. Shaffer and Anundsen live in a region of numerous self-help groups, ecological groups, alternative retirement communities, meditative retreat centers, cooperative housing groups, internet communities, and various organizational and corporate “families.” With so many examples at their doorstep, no wonder the authors assume their book sufficiently delineates the communal territory. They even throw in a few references to the Shakers and Thomas More’s Utopia to cover their historical bases.

What makes community work? A hands-on, grassroots approach

At the beginning of their short book on community-building characteristics, Wilder Research Center associates Paul Mattesich and Barbara Monsey explain the limitations of their study. It only utilizes information already “written and available,” which means that communities without accompanying research studies are not included. Further, their study focuses not on all communities, but solely on those “based on residence and social or psychological attachment” (neighborhoods, urban blocks, etc.).

Disabled or crippled? A new ethic of ableness

I am unabashedly crippled. I am not “disabled”, not “physically challenged”, not “differently-abled”. I have tried all of the politically correct euphemisms for disability to describe myself as a person with cerebral palsy and none of them seem to fit. The truth is there is nothing politically correct about my limp. I am crippled.

Where's Ralph? The ethics of public participation

Ralph Nader speaks. October 31, 2001. Glenn Memorial Auditorium, 1652 N. Decatur Road. Doors will open at 7:30pm. Parking is available at the Fishburne Deck. No RSVPs or tickets necessary. Seating is limited.

For many years Ralph Nader has been a controversial figure, to say the least. Beginning with the 1965 publication of Unsafe at Any Speed, Nader has long stood out as America’s leading consumer advocate.

Who owns the music? Intellectual property after the Napster controversy

Napster forum: 8pm, September 5, 2001 Glenn Memorial Auditorium 1652 N. Decatur Road. Doors will open at 7:30pm. Parking is available at the Fishburne Deck. No RSVPs necessary.

Watch the video with RealPlayer

The late 1990s saw the advent of online digital music trading, and if any one medium symbolized that brave new world, it was Napster. Created and founded by college dropout Sean Fanning, Napster enabled its users to anonymously swap song files over the internet – free and easy music by any measure.

Lessons from My Sister's House: 2001 Ethics and Servant Leadership internship

Fifty-year-old woman reports alcohol abuse for nearly thirty-five years, yet has only recently sought treatment...

Thirty-year-old female with chemical dependency issues. Reports being sexually abused as a child and seeks counseling for these issues. Brutally raped several years ago and reports that this sparked her addiction. Her drug of choice is crack cocaine...

Nineteen-year-old attending this program as a stipulation of her parole. Arrested for drug trafficking...

[ Posted by Jeanelle Bryan on September 01, 2001 | Article Link | More Ethics and Servant Leadership articles | Comments (1) ]

Message from the Director: testing Emory's moral atmosphere

“Emory University’s mission lies in two essential, interwoven purposes: through teaching, to help men and women fully develop their intellectual, aesthetic, and moral capacities; and through the quest for new knowledge, and public service, improve human well-being.” (From the Mission Statement of Emory Univesity, emphasis added.)

HCECG highlights best medical practices across Georgia

On June 8 the third annual meeting of the Georgia Collaborative to Improve End-of-Life Care, Sustaining the Momentum: Best Practices in Georgia, featured innovative and successful programs that are addressing the needs of patients and their families facing end-of-life care. The keynote address was given by Bud Hammes, PhD, who discussed the remarkable work program focused on community based advance care planning in LaCrosse. (85% of patients who died in hospitals in LaCrosse had completed advance directives (AD), 96% of these patients had AD’s in their patient records, and 98% of the plans were followed. This compares with approximately 15% of patients having AD’s in most other reported studies.)

'Final Choices' wins three national awards, re-airs on public television in August

Final Choices, a documentary on end-of-life experiences by Georgians, produced by the Georgia Collaborative to Improve End of Life Care (of which the Center for Ethics is a lead partner) in conjunction with Georgia Public Television (GPTV), was honored with three awards.

Pediatric End-of-Life Task Force concludes first year, identifies barriers to care

Facing dying children and their families on a daily basis, staff members in an intensive care unit were informally asked if they agreed or disagreed with the statement that there is a reluctance to address end-of-life care issues. An overwhelming number, 88%, responded “yes.”

Initial end-of-life care survey completed, more to follow

In January 2001 End-of-Life Care Practices: A Survey of Organizational Members of the Health Care Ethics Consortium of Georgia was completed. This report summarizes the results of a 130-item questionnaire that was sent to member representatives of HCECG. As a pilot study, these data are extremely valuable in estimating the prevalence of knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about end-of-life care practices.

Science, Ethics, & Society Initiative to host national bioethics conference in October

Issues mixing ethics and biology paint our newspapers and television sets every day: How do we balance our need for energy with sustaining our environment? Should the federal government support stem cell research? How do we best test potential miracle drugs while ensuring that such drugs get to those who need them as quickly as possible?