Whose future? Whose choosing?: Counselling in a context of (im)possible choice

Whose voice? Whose choice? Whose power?

Coercion in psychiatry stems from the historic inequality between the psychiatrist and the person who is designated as the "patient," even though he/she may not have chosen this role, and may not see him/herself as needing psychiatric attention. The psychiatrist has the power to define an individual as mentally ill, and then to confine and treat the person based on that definition. The user/sur...

The ethical implications of screening for HIV: whose choice reigns?

Whose future is it?

Good morning. It is a great honour to deliver this talk to a research community of which I have been a member when we were not sure that it was a domain of its own. It has since then developed in an impressive manner, and today it offers all the signs of a maturing scientific community in a technical field: a yearly conference with growing attendance, some structuring paradigms, progress in mod...

Inbreeding avoidance in rhesus macaques: whose choice?

Whether nonhuman primates avoid copulating with close kin living in their social group is controversial. If sexual aversion to relatives occurs, it should be stronger in females than in males because of females' greater investment in each offspring and hence greater costs resulting from less viable offspring. Data presented here show that adult male rhesus macaques breeding in their natal group...

Whose Copy? Whose Rights?

This is the third installment in a series of editorials on the implications of open-access publishing for established publishing practices and stakeholders in scientifi c and medical research. T he questions, tensions, and social concerns surrounding copyright and the Internet are very different for scientifi c and medical literature than for other kinds of easily reproducible digital works. Pe...