he letters that Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his younger brother, Theo, document this painter’s thoughts over a period of 20 years with the same brilliance and clarity of his canvases. As a contribution to literature, these letters stand on the same level as Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks and far above Benvenuto Cellini’s autobiography. They reveal that Van Gogh was stifled by depression often thro...

Medical school curricula and postgraduate education programmes expend considerable resources teaching medical ethics. Simultaneously, whistleblowers’ agitation continues, at great personal cost, to prompt major intrainstitutional and public inquiries that reveal problems with the application of medical ethics at particular clinical ‘‘coalfaces’’. Virtue ethics, emphasising techniques promoting ...

Recent legislation in Wisconsin mandating provision of emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault may create a conflict of conscience for some health care professionals. Although disputes exist over the exact mechanism of action of emergency contraception, those professionals who espouse a particularly strict stance may be reluctant to dispense the medication for fear that it could pr...

We examined whether positive implications of mother-child mutually responsive orientation, demonstrated earlier at toddler and preschool age, extend longitudinally into early school age. The focus of the present study was on the long-term consequences of mutually responsive orientation for the development of conscience. Mutually responsive orientation encompassed shared cooperation and shared p...

I would like to thank the Northeastern University School of Pharmacy for the honor of being named the 2003 John W. Webb Visiting Professor. Before I prepared this lecture, never had I consecutively read the Harvey A. K. Whitney or John W. Webb speeches. Never before had I read Bill Zellmer’s essays organized by topic. Never before had I read three books in one weekend. Our busy worlds do not ge...

The aim of this article will be to examine the politics of Scottish Law reform and to explore the 'Scottish dimension' in certain areas oflegislation which have involved morality and conscience. Specifically, attention will be focused upon three Scottish 'issues of conscience' of the 1970s the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976, the Divorce (Scotland) Act 1976 and the 'non-reform' in Scotland throug...