Over the past two decades, numerous suits for damages have been brought against physicians for the injury of wrongful life, or wrongful birth. Within the past 5 years, several precedents have been set that broaden the physician's legal obligation to recognize and act upon foreseeable or potentially recurrent genetic, teratogenic, or chromosomal disorders. These precedents may be expected to aff...

BACKGROUND In this paper we describe our experience of adding globally unique identifiers to the Species 2000 and ITIS Catalogue of Life, an on-line index of organisms which is intended, ultimately, to cover all the world's known species. The scientific species names held in the Catalogue are names that already play an extensive role as terms in the organisation of information about living orga...

It is proposed that individuals who find meaning in their lives experience a higher level of health and wellness. In this paper, research focused on life meaning is described. This program of research includes studies of life meaning from the individual person and/or patient perspective and studies of the meaningfulness of nurses' professional work life. Translations of the theoretical concepts...

Introduction: The search for habitable environments and life requires a working concept of life’s fundamental attributes. This concept helps to identify the “services” that an environment must provide to sustain life. We must consider the possibility that extraterrestrial life might differ fundamentally from our own, but it is still worthwhile to begin by hypothesizing attributes of life that m...

BACKGROUND The aims of this study were to clarify end-of-life cancer care preferences and associations with good-death concepts. METHODS The general population was sampled using a stratified random sampling method (N = 2548; response rate = 51%) and bereaved families from 12 certified palliative care units ('PCU-bereaved families') were surveyed (N = 513; response rate = 70%). The respondents...