Bioethics calls for papers / publications

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of the International Journal of Disability, Community & Rehabilitation: What Sorts of People Should There Be?

Guest Editor

Gregor Wolbring, Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies, Dept. of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary

Throughout history, people with non-normative abilities have been judged. Sometimes this judgment led to positive consequences, however for the most part these non-normative abilities were judged negatively and the carriers of such non-normative abilities experienced disabling treatment. This very judgment (ableism) and its disabling consequences is one of the main areas of scholarly work within the realm of disability studies. Eugenics, the practice of finding ways to better heritable abilities of humans, is one dynamic that influences the judgment of people’s abilities and the disabling consequences and vice versa.

What sorts of people should there be is a question that has been asked and answered in different ways throughout human history, is still a question asked and answered today and will be with us also for some time in the future.

Advances in science and technology will allow new judgments and actions linked to the sentiment around the question of what sorts of people there should be.

In partnership with the SSHRC-CURA-funded project “Living Archives on Eugenics in Western Canada” (eugenicsarchive.ca), the Editors of IJDCR would like to devote a special issue on this topic.

We invite potential contributors, regardless of fields of study (discipline), to submit 250-word abstracts that articulate the conceptual arguments and knowledge base to be covered in a critical analysis on various aspects from history to future of “What sorts of people should there be”.

Please submit abstracts to the Guest Editor via e-mail at gwolbrin[at]ucalgary.ca by 15 July, 2012

From selected abstracts, we will request full articles of 3000-5000 words (excluding figures and tables) of original research and scholarship on a range of topics to be submitted to the editor by 15 October 2012. Note that an invitation to submit an article does not guarantee its publication.

Every submitted article will be subject to blind peer review and recommendations arising.

As to possible areas linked to the theme the below is a sample list of possible topics

What sorts of people should be born
What sorts of people should live
What sorts of people should be citizens
What sorts of people should compete
What sorts of people….

We invite authors to investigate the history, contemporary use and potential future exhibition of the relationships between the core question “What sorts of people should there be” and such issues as:

disabled people and what it means to be ‘disabled’,
the community around them
practitioners, consumers and researchers linked to the disability discourse
community rehabilitation and the rehabilitation field in general
inclusive education and the education of disabled people in general
the future of education
employability of disabled people
citizenship of disabled people
global citizenship
body image of disabled people
medical and social health policies and their impact on disabled people
health care for disabled people
elderly people, youthism and ageism
disabled people in low income countries
laws and international conventions related to disabled people such as the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities
the concept of personhood
concept of health and health care
the measure of disability adjusted life years and other measurements used to guide health care dollar allocation
quality of life assessment
history
future
science and technology governance
science and technology assessment
ethics
enhancement

For more information about the International Journal of Disability, Community & Rehabilitation (IJDCR) please go to http://www.ijdcr.ca.

International Journal of Disability, Community & Rehabilitation

www.ijdcr.ca

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Developing World Bioethics: Ethics and Treatment Access Activism: Courts, Health Policy and Health Economics

Guest Editors: Maurice Cassier, Marilena Correa

Closing date for submissions: 15 September 2012

This Special Issue of Developing World Bioethics will focus on the emergence of ethical analyses pertaining to impoverished patients’ access to medical care and to medicines. The main focus of this issue will be on the fight against HIV/AIDS and the “neglected” diseases of the last two decades. New ethical understandings have been developed in different contexts and expressed in governmental health policies, and through tribunals, public discussion forums, patients association claims, humanitarian organizations and funds, research programs, governmental health departments, international health organizations, etc. In each case, what is at stake are norms such as equity, as well as equality and justice, which provide an important foundation for individual and collective forms of activism as well as governmental actions. The Special Issue of Developing World Bioethics aims at bringing about a critical discussion of the variegated ethical arguments for improving access to treatment and medicines, which have been put forward by different social actors.

The editors welcome early discussion of brief proposals and/or abstracts by email. Papers can be sent to Maurice Cassier and Marilena Correa.

Upon submission authors should include full contact details and a few lines of autobiographical information in a separate electronic file. We discourage papers of more than 5000 words.

For further submission requirements, format and referencing style, refer to the Author Guidelines http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291471-8847/homepage/ForAuthors.html

Manuscripts should be submitted to Developing World Bioethics online at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/dwb.
Please ensure that you select manuscript type ‘Special Issue’.

Maurice Cassier is a sociologist and economist
Senior researcher at CNRS ; directeur d´etudes EHESS.
CERMES
Site CNRS, 7, rue Guy Môquet.
VILLEJUIF Cedex 94801.
FRANCE

Marilena Corrêa MD, PhD in sociology of health
Full Professor at the Institute of Social Medecine of the State University of Rio de Janeiro (IMS-UERJ)
Instituto de Medicina Social
Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
Rua São Francisco Xavier 524, 7 andar, bloco D
Rio de Janeiro RJ zip code 20559.990
BRAZIL

Call for Reflections: Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life and Palliative Care

Journal Editor: Ellen L. Csikai, Ph.D
Section Editor: Mercedes Bern-Klug, PhD

We are pleased to be able to offer this opportunity to publish personal accounts of various aspects of social work in end-of-life and palliative care. We hope these entries in the journal will provide an insider’s look into everyday practice or give some inspiration as we assist individuals and families at this crucial time in life.

Description of Section:
Our work in providing end-of-life and palliative care affects us both personally and professionally. This new section of the journal is dedicated to using creative writing to give voice to the personal impact of end-of-life and palliative care social work in clinical practice, community organizing, policy practice, research, and education. Content, reflecting both the art and science of social work, is accepted in three forms: poetry, essays, and case studies.

Authors should submit only material that is original and that has not been previously published. In addition, please do not submit any material that is currently under consideration by another publication source. Do not disclose the identity of living persons without their written permission. If the content of your material can lead to the identification of a colleague, client, family member, or any person other than yourself, please follow your organization’s rules for the protection of human subjects, and indicate in your cover letter that your material conforms to your organization’s guidelines.

Poem
Poems from 7-15 lines in length are preferable, although longer poems will be considered.

Essay
Essays should be no longer than 1,400 words (about 5 pages double-spaced), although longer lengths may be considered. Essays can reflect the personal meaning-making experience of the author and tap into insights about, for example, ethical dilemmas, the importance of relationships, satisfaction or strain related to work in end-of-life and/or palliative care, gratitude, grief, humility, humor, and hope. The range of potential topics is deliberately broad. They may be written in the first person. Authors are encouraged to seek editorial feedback from a colleague or writing specialist before submitting material for consideration. No references or citations are expected.

Case Study
Case studies that do not exceed 1,400 words (about 5 pages double-spaced) are preferred although longer submissions will be considered. Case studies describe circumstances that are unusual or could be considered outside the experience of many readers by virtue of the characteristics of the client, his or her family system, the community, the social worker, local laws or regulations, or historical events (for example, a natural disaster like a flood, a hurricane, a traffic accident, or an organizational budget cut that affected care). Case studies present an issue that challenges the social worker, describes consideration and weighing of options, and presents the conclusion or clarifies that there was no conclusion. Authors are strongly encouraged to seek editorial feedback from a colleague or writing specialist before submitting material for consideration. References or citations should be included where appropriate, but are not required.

Submissions are online at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/wswe

With your submission please include a cover letter with full author(s) contact information and a statement that the author(s) has followed his/her organization’s IRB procedures as appropriate.

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of the International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics: Aging and Long-Term Care

The deadline for submission for this issue is September 15, 2012.

Guest Editors: Lisa A. Eckenwiler and Carol Levine

The past several decades have seen significant improvement in the health of older adults. In the United States and many other parts of the world, people are living longer and with less chronic disability than ever before. The aging population is burgeoning. While currently the proportion of older persons is 17 percent, by 2050 it is expected to be 26 percent. The oldest old, or those eighty and above, will increase from being just 1.4 percent of the population to 4.3 percent. The elderly, and especially the oldest old, are disproportionately women. Their caregivers are also disproportionately women, as family care is the predominant mode of care. Projections further suggest that elderly populations in many developing countries are growing more rapidly than those in affluent ones. Nearly 250 million of the approximately 420 million people over sixty-five live in developing countries, and expectations are that the majority will live there in coming decades. Compared to wealthier countries, these mostly low and middle-income countries will undergo this demographic shift quite quickly, even as they continue to contend with the burden of diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and with considerably less in the way of resources, including human resources.

These changing demographics generate a greater need for long-term care, whether that is provided in the home, in community settings, or in institutions. While there has been considerable debate concerning the nature and extent of future long-term care needs, especially given declining rates of disability in recent decades, the consensus is that they will grow. While governments, global health organizations like the WHO and PAHO, and other agents have acknowledged the importance of addressing current and coming demands related to aging and long-term care, the current state of the dependent elderly and of long-term care systems around the world are, on the whole, fragile and in urgent need of attention. Moreover, analyses and recommendations that are informed by feminist approaches are largely lacking.

This special issue of IJFAB aims to contribute to the ongoing conversations around ethics and policy in aging and long-term care. We invite essays written from a feminist perspective on any topic related to aging and long-term care. Possible topics include:

What characterizes a feminist approach to aging and/or long-term care and what contributions can it make to theory and policy?

How do feminist views about "family" affect long-term care approaches?

What is the structure of income provision for the aged in a particular country or region and what are its ethical implications?

What are the ethical implications of different kinds of support systems for the dependent elderly?

How is long-term care labor gendered and what ethical concerns does this raise?

How can a feminist vision of long-term care accommodate cultural and religious traditions that place special responsibilities for long-term care on women and girls?

What are the implications of the feminization of labor migration on the provision of long-term care needs around the world?

What is the structure of labor and or economic policy in a given country or region and what are its ethical implications for family caregivers?

How are representations of old age gendered and "performed" in the media and in the arts, and what are the ethical and health implications?

Submission instructions for authors are available at http://www.ijfab.org/style_guidelines.html

Papers should be submitted in Microsoft Word format as email attachments to IJFAB@sunysb.edu.

The submission deadline for this issue is September 15, 2012.

Call for Submissions for a Special Issue of Disability Studies Quarterly: Improving Feminist Philosophy and Theory by Taking Account of Disability

Guest editor: Shelley Tremain, PhD

Submissions should be no more than 8,000 words in length, inclusive of notes and bibliography, and should be prepared for anonymous peer review, with no identifying elements in the text or reference material, and accompanied by an abstract of 200 words. Submissions and all inquiries about the issue should be sent to Shelley Tremain at: s.tremain@yahoo.ca with the subject line “DSQ FEMDIS”.

Deadline for submissions: September 1, 2012.

Notification of acceptances on or before November 30, 2012.

Date of publication: Projected for late 2013.

A growing body of literature demonstrates that disabled people confront poverty, discrimination in employment and housing, sexual violence, limited educational opportunities, incarceration, and social isolation to a far greater extent than their non-disabled counterparts and furthermore that disabled women experience the impact of these disabling social and political phenomena even more severely than do disabled men. Although feminism is purported to be a social, political, and cultural movement that represents all women, disabled feminists have long argued that the concerns, political struggles, and socio-cultural issues that directly affect disabled women (and disabled people more generally) remain marginalized, and often ignored, within mainstream feminist movements.

Feminist theorists and researchers in the university produce and reproduce this marginalization and exclusion through a variety of mechanisms, one of which is their use of the apparently intransigent conceptual schema and theoretical frameworks of “gender, race, and sexuality” and “gender, race, and class.” In the terms of these conceptions and frameworks, disability is naturalized, rather than represented as a relation of social power in which everyone ─ disabled and non-disabled ─ is implicated: each disabled person is perceived to embody a particular disability, while non-disabled people are taken for granted as representatives of the universal human, the prototype from which disabled people depart. That disabled (and non-disabled) feminist philosophers and theorists of disability have few venues in which to present and publish their work, as well as fewer opportunities for employment in the university, are among the consequences of these marginalizing and exclusionary frameworks and schema.

Consider the following. Job postings in philosophy do not identify disability as a hegemonic category or form of identity and subjecting power intertwined and on a par with gender, race, sexuality, and class and hence similarly appropriate for philosophical specialization. In 2011-2012, none of the respective annual conference programs of the three divisions of the national philosophical association in the US (with a combined international membership of more than 10,000) included an invited symposium, refereed session, nor even a single invited or refereed paper on disability. Furthermore, the leading journal in feminist philosophy has not published an issue devoted to disability and disabled women in a decade, publishing only a handful of articles on disability in the interim. In addition, the flagship journal of the largest women’s studies association in the US has not published an issue on disability and disabled women in the last decade. Finally, the editorial boards of academic feminist journals seldom include specialists in disability studies, with the consequence that the work of feminist philosophers/theorists of disability is oftentimes reviewed and adjudicated by (non-disabled) feminists who have a limited, even conventional, medicalized, understanding of the epistemological, ontological, ethical, and political implications of, and phenomena surrounding, disability.

This special issue of Disability Studies Quarterly (DSQ) ─ the first and foremost journal in disability studies internationally ─ will bring attention to new work in feminist philosophy of disability and feminist disability theory. The central aim of the issue is to elevate and advance the current status of feminist philosophy of disability/feminist disability theory in feminist and non-feminist academic discourses and, in doing so, challenge the way in which heretofore feminist philosophy and theory have been conceptualized and (re)produced.

Submissions may take any philosophical or theoretical approach to disability that is grounded in feminist political values and goals (broadly construed). The guest editor especially encourages submissions from feminist philosophers and theorists of disability living outside of North America and the global North. Among the topics that might be addressed in submissions are these:

The conceptual and material costs of limiting feminist theory and analyses to the gender, race, and sexuality matrix and the gender, race, and class matrix
Gender, race, and sexuality/class matrices and schema as epistemologies of ignorance
Ableist language and philosophy of language/feminist philosophy of language
Disabled people (in general) and disabled women (in particular) as knowers and holders of epistemically privileged perspectives and standpoints
Disability and ableism in mainstream and feminist bioethics
Ageism and sizeism as forms of ableism and disability
Transnational disability and the globalization of philosophical ableism
Disabling classifications of intelligence, race, color, impairment, morphology, sex, sexuality, and gender in modern science and philosophy of science and postcolonial critiques of these
Race, disability, normality, and “racism against the abnormal”
Disability, representations of beauty, purity, wholeness, and conceptions of ugliness, pollution, incompleteness in (feminist) aesthetics and philosophy of art
Disability and/in the history of philosophy and the disabling narrative of western philosophy’s self-conception
Disabled feminists at the front of the classroom
Ableist privilege in/and feminist theory and philosophy
Philosophy of education, disability, and the ethics and politics of the (in)accessible feminist classroom/conference
The ethics and politics of “passing” as non-disabled within and beyond the university
Elaborations and critiques of the ethics of care as an ethic for disabled people
Feminist accounts and critiques of disability and distributive justice
Disabled people as cyborgs in/up against feminist science and technology studies

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Bioethics: Synthetic Biology for Human Health: Ethical and Policy Issues

Guest Editors: Nikola Biller-Andorno, Ruud ter Meulen, Ainsley J Newson

Closing date for submissions: 1st October, 2012

The Editors of Bioethics are pleased to announce a special issue in 2013 on the ethical and policy issues in synthetic biology for human health.

Synthetic biology is an emerging field with important potential applications for human health, such as innovative drugs, new vaccines, tissue regeneration, or even synthetic cells. Synthetic biology aims to be able to design, engineer and build biological systems that do not occur in nature as well as re-engineer systems that already exist. This raises fundamental ethical questions about the moral status of life, the conceptualization of risks and benefits as well as possible implications for future people. Questions also arise about how we should approach these ethical issues and the moral grounding which ought to guide policy and regulatory issues in this area.

We invite submissions on all aspects of this topic. Questions include but are not limited to:

Is there anything inherently morally objectionable in creating or (re-)designing life?

What are appropriate methodological paradigms for ethical debates over synthetic biology for human health?

What questions does synthetic biology for human health pose with regards to justice

When should we consider the risks that may arise in the development of synthetic biology applications for human health as morally justifiable to take

How should we interpret contested concepts important to normative thinking about synthetic biology and human health? (e.g. life, risk, public interest, health and dignity).

What should be the moral grounds for any specific regulation of synthetic biology research and applications to human health?

The editors welcome early discussion of brief proposals and/or abstracts by email to:

biller-andorno@ethik.uzh.ch.

Upon submission authors should include full contact details and a few lines of biographical information in a separate electronic file. We discourage papers of more than 5000 words.

For further submission requirements, format and referencing style, refer to the Author Guidelines on the Bioethics website:

http://www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=0269-9702

Manuscripts should be submitted to Bioethics online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/biot.

Please ensure that you select manuscript type ‘Special Issue’ and state that it is for the “Synbio”, Special Issue when prompted.

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Developing World Bioethics: Ethical Considerations in the Use of Anti-Retrovirals for HIV Prevention

Deadline for submissions: 31 July 2012

Guest Editors: Ronald Bayer, Quarraisha Abdool Karim

Evidence-based approaches to reducing sexual transmission of HIV has remained a major challenge in responding to the HIV pandemic. The past 18 months has witnessed a substantial shift in this landscape. Controlled trials have demonstrated that the treatment of individuals with HIV infection reduces the risk of viral transmission to uninfected sexual partners (treatment as prevention). Additional evidence suggests the possibility of providing anti-retroviral medications to uninfected individuals may reduce the risk of acquiring HIV infection from sexual partners (PrEP— Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis).

In view of scarce resources, there will inevitably be a need to prioritize who will get anti-retroviral drugs; those who are sick, those who can transmit HIV, those at risk for acquiring HIV. Research that focuses on the balance between efficiency and equity will be involved. Ethical frameworks for guiding decision-making at the clinical level as well as the macro social policy level will be essential.

Among the questions that will need to be discussed are:

i. What rights claims can uninfected persons make for access to ARVs for prophylactic purposes when millions across the globe are dying from AIDS because they cannot access ARV treatment?

ii. What moral claims can justify the provision of ARV therapy to those who do not yet clinically require treatment as a way of reducing the risks of HIV transmission?

iii. What normative issues are raised in making the determination that there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of either PrEP or Treatment for Prevention?

iv. How should the social and biological vulnerability of women to HIV infection inform discussion about the allocations of resources for either PrEP or treatment as prevention?

v. If there is a risk that PrEP will increase the risk of drug resistance and compromise treatment options for those already infected, what ethical questions must be confronted?

vi. What conceptions of procedural fairness and inclusiveness should shape decision making processes about these allocation decisions?

vii. How should current research findings inform the ethics of trial design?

viii. Given current evidence what moral issues involving the protection of research subjects should be considered in determining the extent of ancillary services and care that should be provided in prevention trials?

The editors welcome early discussion of brief proposals and/or abstracts by email to:

rb8@mail.cumc.columbia.edu or abdoolq2@ukzn.ac.za.

Upon submission authors should include full contact details and a few lines of autobiographical information in a separate electronic file. We discourage papers of more than 5000 words.

For further submission requirements, format and referencing style, refer to the Author Guidelines on the Developing World Bioethics website: http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/dewb

Manuscripts should be submitted to Developing World Bioethics online at:
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/dwb.

Please ensure that you select manuscript type ‘Special Issue’ and state that it is for the ARV Special Issue.

Call for Papers on Criminalizing Contagion

The BMJ Group journals Sexually Transmitted Infections (impact factor 3.029) and the Journal of Medical Ethics (impact factor 1.391), in conjunction with academics at the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy (University of Manchester) and the Health Ethics and Law Network (University of Southampton), would like to publish a collection of articles on the criminalization of disease and sexually transmitted infections. We invite article contributions to be published as part of this themed collection.[1]

Themes

The use of criminal law to respond to infectious disease transmission has far-reaching implications for law, policy and practice. It presupposes co-operation between clinicians and criminal justice professionals, and that people who infect others can be effectively and fairly identified and brought to justice. There is a potentially difficult relationship between criminal justice and public health bodies, whose priorities do not necessarily coincide. We are interested in receiving papers of broad interest to an international readership of medical ethics scholars and practicing clinicians on any of the following topics:

Legislative and policy reform on disease and sexually transmitted infections
Health services and the police: privacy, state interference and human rights
Evidence and ethics: prosecuting ‘infectious’ personal behaviours
Clinicians and the courts: the role of health professionals and criminal justice
The aims of criminalization and public health: a compatibility problem?
International comparative studies on disease and criminalization: policy, practice and legal issues

Publication

1. Up to eight articles will published in a special section in an issue of Sexually Transmitted Infections in 2013.

2. Two articles will be published in a special section in an issue of Journal of Medical Ethics in 2013.

All articles will be blind peer reviewed according to each individual journal’s editorial policies. Final publication decisions will rest with the Editors in Chief: Professor Jackie Cassell (STI) and Professor Julian Savulescu (JME).

Important Dates

Please submit your article to either journal no later than December 14th 2012.

Submission Instructions

For Sexually Transmitted Infections:

Articles for STI should be a maximum of 2,500 words and submitted via the journal’s website: http://sti.bmj.com/. Please choose the special issue ‘Criminalizing Contagion’ during the submission process.

For Journal of Medical Ethics:

Articles for JME should be a maximum of 3,500 words, and submitted via the journal’s website: http://jme.bmj.com/. Please choose the special issue ‘Criminalizing Contagion’ during the submission process.

Further submission instructions are on the journals’ respective websites. If you would like to discuss any aspect of your submission, including possible topics and the journals involved, please contact the guest editors in the first instance: Dr David Gurnham (David.Gurnham@manchester.ac.uk), Dr Catherine Stanton (Catherine.Stanton@manchester.ac.uk) or Dr Hannah Quirk (Hannah.Quirk@manchester.ac.uk).

[1] Some of the contributors may also be invited to present their papers at one of three sessions of a proposed ESRC seminar series on the same topic, to be organised by the guest editors. If funding for the seminar series is awarded by the ESRC (in April 2012), they will take place in winter 2012/13 and summer 2013 (Southampton), and winter 2013/14 and summer 2014 (Manchester).

Call for Papers for a Special Symosium of Reason Papers: The Epistemology, Ethics, and Politics of Emergencies

Fall 2014 Symposium: The Epistemology, Ethics, and Politics of Emergencies

The Editors of Reason Papers are soliciting submissions of manuscripts for a special symposium on emergencies (due by March 1, 2014). Send submissions to reasonpapers@gmail.com. Inquiries welcome.

Submissions may grapple with any of a wide variety of issues related to emergencies (not an exhaustive list): How is “emergency” to be defined? How do we know when we enter/exit an emergency? How should moral and legal norms be formulated so as to take stock of emergencies–if they should? Are moral norms defeasible in the face of emergencies, or specially contextualized so as to preserve their indefeasibility? Who has special authority for decision-making in an emergency? How best to guard against abuses of power or corruptions of norms in emergency situations?

We’re looking for submissions across the broadest spectrum of relevant disciplines–philosophy, political science, legal studies, history, sociology, anthropology, medicine, criminology/police studies, strategic/military studies, etc.

Reason Papers is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal appearing annually each fall. It features book reviews and review essays along with full-length articles, symposia, and discussion notes of previously published articles. All manuscripts submitted for consideration as Articles are subject to a blind peer-review process (see Submissions page for instructions), and all contributions are subject to internal editorial review. Not limited to philosophy, we publish work by economists, legal scholars, political scientists, historians, and others, provided the content is normative in the philosophical sense. In addition to articles on moral, social/political, and legal philosophy, we also run essays on epistemology, aesthetics, art history, and classics.