tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/autonomy-1757/articlesAutonomy – The Conversation2024-03-11T12:25:16Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2237072024-03-11T12:25:16Z2024-03-11T12:25:16ZShould people suffering from mental illness be eligible for medically assisted death? Canada plans to legalize that in 2027 – a philosopher explains the core questions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580759/original/file-20240308-16-9f5ja6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C2101%2C1409&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In advocates' eyes, expanding access to a medically assisted death helps people protect their autonomy at a crucial time.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-of-a-young-womans-hand-holding-the-hand-of-royalty-free-image/1408213220?phrase=hands+death+love+bed&adppopup=true">Eva HM/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine that you have lived with an illness for years. The suffering this illness has caused is devastating – so much that you wish to die. You no longer feel like the person you were before. You have been to see specialists, have tried the best treatments, but nothing works.</p>
<p>This is many people’s reality, and not only because of physical disorders and disease. Chronic mental illness can be just as crushing. Starting in March 2024, Canada planned to make medical assistance in death, or MAID, available to people with mental illness – <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/ad-am/bk-di.html">expanding a program</a> already available to patients with terminal or chronic physical illness. In 2022, more than 13,000 people in Canada died with medical assistance, according to <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/hc-sc/documents/services/medical-assistance-dying/annual-report-2022/annual-report-2022.pdf">a government report</a>.</p>
<p>In February, however, the government announced <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/news/2024/02/the-government-of-canada-introduces-legislation-to-delay-medical-assistance-in-dying-expansion-by-3-years.html">a three-year delay</a> for the controversial program, saying the health care system needs more time to prepare.</p>
<p>When it is enacted in March 2027, this new provision will make Canada one of the few countries that allow MAID for mental illness. These include <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.895387">the Netherlands</a> <a href="https://pegasos-association.com/requirements/">and Switzerland</a>. Only a minority of U.S. states, such as Maine and Oregon, <a href="https://deathwithdignity.org/states/">allow any kind of MAID</a>, though many others have debated it – and none allow it for mental illness.</p>
<p>Critics say there are inadequate safeguards and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-assisted-dying-maid-legislation-mental-health-1.5452676">a dearth of health care coverage</a> for psychiatric and psychological issues, which could prompt people to view MAID as their only alternative. They also point to the difficulty of predicting whether or not someone’s mental illness will eventually get better.</p>
<p>MAID activists believe that access to this choice for patients with mental illness is morally required. But even people <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/medical-assistance-in-dying-mental-illness-delay-1.7098313">not opposed to Canada’s new provision</a> are concerned about whether the system is ready.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.gonzaga.edu/college-of-arts-sciences/faculty-listing/detail/kulp">a philosopher</a> who specializes in <a href="https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/1277/">end of life ethics</a> and physician-assisted death, I research a distinction that is at the heart of this debate. There is a subtle but crucial difference between being acutely suicidal – an experience that may pass – and, after long consideration, desiring death in the face of suffering. </p>
<h2>My body, my decision?</h2>
<p>Plenty of people oppose MAID – often called physician-assisted death – under any circumstances, including terminal physical illness. Some believe it <a href="https://www.cccb.ca/media-release/statement-by-the-canadian-conference-of-catholic-bishops-on-the-non-permissibility-of-euthanasia-and-assisted-suicide-within-canadian-health-organizations-with-a-catholic-identity/">violates the sanctity of human life</a>. </p>
<p>Others have qualms about asking doctors, who are normally concerned about the preservation of human life, <a href="https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2019/11/57243/">to participate in ending it</a>. In other words, they emphasize nonmaleficence, the obligation to do no harm – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1159/000509119">one of the core tenets of medical ethics</a>.</p>
<p>Many proponents, on the other hand, base their arguments on two other core tenets: beneficence – the obligation to benefit the patient – and autonomy. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195140279.003.0002">Autonomy arguments</a> usually assume that a government is only justified in restricting citizens’ liberty if exercising that liberty would cause harm to other people.</p>
<p>Advocates of physician-assisted death emphasize that ending one’s own life does not harm other people, suggesting that the government has no business curtailing the patient’s choices. Legalization ensures that citizens can make their own decisions about one of the most personal and value-laden times of life.</p>
<p>In medical ethicists’ view, in order for a person to be considered autonomous, they must be able to act intentionally and with an understanding of the potential consequences of their actions. Additionally, an autonomous person is reasonably free from undue influence – such as family members pressuring them or financial considerations that restrict their choices. </p>
<p>When it comes to physical illness, ethicists who <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/RIDMAI-2">argue that physician-assisted death is morally permissible</a> view patients as free actors exercising their autonomy if they meet several criteria: they are terminally and chronically ill, have worked with medical professionals over time and have established an unchanging desire to end their suffering.</p>
<h2>Thorny issues</h2>
<p>Experiences of mental illness, however, raise serious questions about patients’ autonomy.</p>
<p>Mental illnesses often limit a person’s ability to govern their own lives free from the effects of their illness. For instance, a patient with <a href="https://theconversation.com/mariah-carey-says-she-has-bipolar-disorder-a-psychiatrist-explains-what-that-is-94893">bipolar I disorder</a> is not fully autonomous during the middle of a manic episode. Were it not for their disease, they would be less likely to engage in the types of behaviors that characterize a manic episode, such as reckless spending or risky sexual encounters.</p>
<p>Yet this is not true for all mental illnesses, or at all times. A person with well-treated bipolar 1 disorder will have periods in which <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/mental-health/bipolar">their symptoms are under control</a>. In fact, it is in these periods of lucidity when <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/world/canada/medical-assisted-death-mental-illness.html">some bipolar patients</a> decide their own death would be preferable to the suffering they endure. </p>
<p>Moreover, proponents of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/opinion/medical-assistance-dying-mental-illness-maid.html">extending physician-assisted death to mental illness</a> believe that the approval process can protect people who request it when acutely suicidal or who have not yet received adequate treatment.</p>
<p>In Canada’s proposed system, a mentally ill person requesting MAID must have been informed of all reasonable treatment options. They must also demonstrate a sustained desire to receive MAID, including waiting for 90 days after their application. Finally, the patient must have two doctors certify that their suffering is “<a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/other-autre/ad-am/p1.html">grievous and irremediable</a>” in any way the patient finds acceptable.</p>
<p>One key issue in preparing Canada’s health care system is whether providers have received enough training <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/publications/health-system-services/advice-profession-medical-assistance-dying.html#a7">to differentiate someone who is acutely suicidal</a> from someone who is in a frame of mind to make this decision thoughtfully. If someone is experiencing an acute desire to die that may be a symptom of their illness, most ethicists would find MAID morally impermissible. If, however, a mentally ill person <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/shes-47-anorexic-wants-help-dying-canada-will-soon-allow-it-2023-07-15/">has spent years suffering</a>, has exhausted reasonable treatment and has maintained a desire to die for some time, some ethicists believe MAID is appropriate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223707/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maria Kulp does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Assessing a patient’s autonomy can be more difficult when mental illness is the main source of their suffering.Maria Kulp, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Gonzaga UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2107572023-09-08T12:24:18Z2023-09-08T12:24:18ZWhy managers’ attempts to empower their employees often fail – and even lead to unethical behavior<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546547/original/file-20230906-16-vbxixf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Employees need resources, information and support from colleagues to be truly empowered.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/mistakes-are-ways-of-learning-what-works-and-what-royalty-free-image/1307840971">Layla Bird/E+ Collection/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A majority of American workers right now are not feeling very motivated on the job, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-06/american-worker-motivation-is-falling-this-year-new-data-shows?srnd=premium">a new survey suggests</a>.</p>
<p>Management experts often encourage business leaders to motivate employees by <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4164863">empowering them</a>. The idea is that when workers are free to make decisions and manage their workday they become more motivated, perform better and work more creatively. </p>
<p>However, for decades, employee empowerment initiatives <a href="https://hbr.org/1998/05/empowerment-the-emperors-new-clothes">have often failed</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2000.4468067">fallen short of expectations</a>. Zappos, for example, <a href="https://www.inc.com/bill-carmody/holacracy-why-zappos-continues-to-disrupt-itself.html">was once hailed</a> for its <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/tony-hsieh-tells-how-zappos-runs-without-bosses-1445911325?mod=article_inline">no-bosses structure</a>, but that experiment has largely been <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-changes-at-zappos-slowly-dismantle-tony-hsiehs-legacy-5d393647">dismantled and abandoned</a> in recent years.</p>
<p>As a leadership scholar, I have studied the effects of leader behavior on <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=UPtyxVwAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">employee motivation</a> for over a decade. I’ve learned that when companies design and implement empowering leadership initiatives, they often overlook key factors that are necessary for empowerment to work.</p>
<p>As a result, their efforts to empower employees often result in little impact or <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2023-80196-001">are entirely ineffective</a>. In fact, they can even lead employees to <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-41857-001">engage in unethical behavior</a>. </p>
<p>Here are four ways, my research shows, a company can avoid common pitfalls to empowering leadership initiatives. </p>
<h2>1. Provide all needed resources</h2>
<p>Empowered employees need to know they can access whatever resources they need to succeed. For example, a marketing professional might need access to information databases, planning software and a sufficient budget for market research. Employees should also feel that additional resources to support new ideas are readily available if and when needed. </p>
<p>To do this, companies can plan and budget jobs in ways that guarantee that employees have additional, or excess, resources to draw upon. Moreover, companies can communicate frequently – verbally in team meetings and also via digital communications – not only that resources are available when needed but also that these additional resources can be obtained easily and quickly.</p>
<h2>2. Set clear goals and strategies</h2>
<p>“People can’t be self-managing without information,” business management expert <a href="https://hbr.org/2011/12/first-lets-fire-all-the-managers">Gary Hamel once noted</a>. “[T]he goal is to provide staffers with all the information they need to monitor their work and make wise decisions.”</p>
<p>In other words, companies can more effectively empower their employees if they divulge or communicate how their responsibilities fit into the bigger picture or strategic direction of the business. For example, the marketing professional mentioned above might benefit from an understanding of how a new product fits into the organization’s overall product portfolio. </p>
<p>Firms can also offer regular check-ins or town hall meetings at which everybody in the organization can ask questions about the strategic goals and vision of the company. </p>
<h2>3. Signal clear and unwavering support</h2>
<p>Employees who are truly empowered believe they have the emotional and physical support needed from colleagues – including supervisors, peers and subordinates – to do their jobs well. This entails verbal encouragement as well as offers to assist on tasks and projects. </p>
<p>Likewise, managers can emphasize that they believe in employees’ capabilities and are there to enable employee growth and autonomy. Organizations can create a company culture of support by rewarding supportive actions that promote employee self-direction.</p>
<p>My research along with management professor <a href="https://poole.ncsu.edu/people/blkirkma/">Brad Kirkman</a> shows clearly across several studies that when employees do not have access to resources, information and support, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001100">they are not in fact empowered</a>. As a result, the desired performance-boosting effects on their job performance, proactive behavior and creativity do not take place.</p>
<h2>4. Remove red tape and other ‘bad’ stressors</h2>
<p>Unnecessary red tape, office politics, ambiguity and interpersonal conflict create a lot of negative stress for employees, which <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2005.18803921">hinders work performance</a>. These “bad” stressors are different from “good” stressors that can encourage growth. </p>
<p>For example, the marketing professional from the previous examples might have to fill out multiple lengthy forms just to request access to an information database. Or perhaps they have to play political games to garner support for funding of a much-needed planning tool. Conflict, meanwhile, can take the form of unspoken rivalry with co-workers about perceived unjust promotions or resource allocations.</p>
<p>Another study that Kirkman and I conducted showed that an empowering leadership style paired with high amounts of “bad” stressors can actually backfire and be detrimental to a company. We found that employees in those situations are <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-41857-001">more likely to disengage morally</a> from their work and act unethically than employees who work with less empowering leaders. </p>
<p>For example, in one of our experiments, participants were asked to solve unsolvable anagrams as part of their fictitious job. Among participants who faced higher amounts of “bad” stressors before attempting to solve the anagrams, those exposed to an empowering leader were 75% more likely to lie about solving their puzzles for the sake of their organization than those who were exposed to a leader who was described as not empowering.</p>
<p>Empowering leadership instills in employees a mindset to get things done and a desire to pay back the organization for the empowerment received. But without the information, resources and support to succeed – or when there is a lot of negative stress in employees’ work environments – people seem to switch to an expediency mindset whereby anything goes.</p>
<p>If business executives truly want to empower their employees, they cannot merely encourage managers to empower their subordinates. They must go the extra mile and address the four factors identified above. Otherwise, employees can feel left dangling in the void, struggling to prove their ability and even tempted to take actions that could eventually harm the company.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210757/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tobias Dennerlein does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An expert on employee motivation explains four challenges companies should address if they truly want to empower their workers.Tobias Dennerlein, Assistant Professor of Management, Purdue UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2093522023-07-07T14:29:18Z2023-07-07T14:29:18ZThe history behind Orkney’s vote to ‘join Norway’<p>For the third time in half a century, Orkney, UK, has raised the issue of its Nordic origins and an apparent desire to embrace them once more. Earlier this week, Orkney Islands Council voted on a <a href="https://www.orkney.gov.uk/Files/Committees-and-Agendas/Council-Meetings/GM2023/GM04-07-2023/Item%2015%20Notice%20of%20Motion.pdf">motion</a> to begin exploring options of “greater subsidiarity and autonomy”, potentially looking beyond the UK and Scottish borders to build “Nordic connections”.</p>
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<img alt="A July front page of Orkney's newspaper, The Orcadian" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536299/original/file-20230707-23-fswcxe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536299/original/file-20230707-23-fswcxe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536299/original/file-20230707-23-fswcxe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536299/original/file-20230707-23-fswcxe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536299/original/file-20230707-23-fswcxe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536299/original/file-20230707-23-fswcxe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536299/original/file-20230707-23-fswcxe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The front page of The Orcadian newspaper this week.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.orcadian.co.uk/">The Orcadian</a></span>
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<p>This decision has made <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-66066448">national</a> and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/03/scotlands-orkney-islands-consider-quitting-the-uk-to-join-norway.html">international</a> headlines. These were centred on the possibility that the island group, located ten miles from the north coast of Scotland, may seek to become a Norwegian territory. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2020/09/09/sic-to-explore-ways-of-achieving-self-determination-after-elected-members-back-motion">similar motion</a> was passed in the neighbouring Shetland Islands in 2020. Could this be the latest constitutional crisis to rock the United Kingdom?</p>
<p>As these news reports typically highlight, Orkney and Shetland were <a href="https://www.shetlandmuseumandarchives.org.uk/blog/550-years-ago-how-shetland-became-part-of-scotland-part-2">part of the Norwegian and Danish kingdoms</a> until their annexation by Scotland in 1472. Orcadians and Shetlanders do not identify as Norwegians or Danes today, but they retain distinct identities which for some – though not all – include aspects of this Norse heritage. </p>
<p>Orkney’s motion joins a long history of attempts by activists and local politicians to use this distinct identity to draw attention to grievances with central government.</p>
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<h2>Back to Scandinavia</h2>
<p>In August 1967, Orkney’s largest settlements of Kirkwall and Stromness awoke to a poster campaign <a href="https://photos.orkneycommunities.co.uk/picture/number1586.asp">calling</a> for Orkney to return “Back to Denmark”. One poster declared: “Orkney is dying under British rule, reunite with Denmark now.” The campaign produced widespread news coverage, making headlines in Edinburgh, London, Denmark and even as far away as Singapore.</p>
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<img alt="A black and white image of five people drawing protest posters in Orkney." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536300/original/file-20230707-21-t5tnv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536300/original/file-20230707-21-t5tnv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536300/original/file-20230707-21-t5tnv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536300/original/file-20230707-21-t5tnv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536300/original/file-20230707-21-t5tnv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536300/original/file-20230707-21-t5tnv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536300/original/file-20230707-21-t5tnv2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Pro-breakaway campaigners in 1967.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mathew Nicolson</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>The immediate trigger was the government’s policy of centralising police forces and water boards into regional bodies, abolishing Orkney’s local institutions. It was feared that Orkney’s local government would soon follow. There were also grievances concerning the expensive cost of transport and the government’s inadequate response to a shipping strike the previous year.</p>
<p>In an interview with The Observer, one campaign organiser was described as “plainly delighted with the astonishing commotion he has caused”, clearly recognising the potential for this provocative use of Orkney’s distinct identity to draw attention to the islands’ grievances. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.orcadian.co.uk/">The Orcadian</a>, Orkney’s sole newspaper, declared “it was all a joke” that had taken the rest of Britain “for a ride” – before adding: “but it has its serious side”.</p>
<p>Orkney’s Nordic ties were invoked again in 1986. Amid a campaign against a proposed expansion to <a href="https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/shr.2021.0498">Dounreay nuclear power station</a> in Caithness, activists from Orkney and Shetland drew up the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/25/orkney-shetland-people-referendum-edinburgh-london">Declaration of Wyre</a>.</p>
<p>Addressed to the kings of Norway and Denmark, the declaration called on them to “consult on our constitutional status” and to “inquire into the legality in international law of siting a nuclear processing plant … in an area of unresolved constitutional status.” Once again, historical ties to Scandinavia were used to highlight a contemporary and thoroughly modern political concern.</p>
<h2>Political failures</h2>
<p>As in 1967 and 1986, Orkney Islands Council’s motion to explore greater autonomy and Nordic connections is centred on current political issues. The council is frustrated at failures to reach an agreement with the Scottish government to fund the replacement of its ageing inter-island ferries or secure adequate ferry fare subsidies. </p>
<p>There is also anger at the broader trend of centralisation that followed the re-establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.</p>
<p>Invoking the possibility of constitutional change, especially when this draws on the islands’ Norse heritage, is a proven strategy for gaining media and political attention. External actors are often willing to make use of eye-grabbing headlines or gain additional ammunition for national constitutional quarrels. </p>
<p>This is well understood by activists and local politicians. Orkney council leader James Stockan acknowledged that the media response to his motion has been “a remarkable result”.</p>
<p>So is this simply a PR stunt hatched by a council seeking additional funds at a time of increasing crisis within the UK’s public services? Not entirely. </p>
<p>There is a <a href="http://www.scottishgovernmentyearbooks.ed.ac.uk/record/22892">real history</a> of pro-autonomy sentiment to draw on, articulated to its greatest extent in the 1980s by the now defunct <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qps14mSlghcC&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false">Orkney Movement</a>. Most Orcadians (and Shetlanders) would endorse the principle of decentralisation. But more radical visions for autonomy have never gained demonstrable majority support.</p>
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<p>Orkney’s councillors are likely entirely sincere in their desire for decentralisation, if perhaps not to the extent of rejoining Norway or becoming a fully autonomous territory. However, neither Orkney nor Shetland’s autonomy motions passed unanimously. Like any other community, there are political differences which can sometimes be overlooked from outside perspectives.</p>
<p>It is unclear how most Orcadians and Shetlanders feel about their councils’ policies. These developments have not seen any meaningful engagement with or interest from the wider population – or, indeed, any electoral mandate from the islands’ voters.</p>
<p>The Orcadian conducted an online survey <a href="https://www.orcadian.co.uk/in-this-weeks-the-orcadian-170/">this week</a> which found a narrow majority of 51.4% support for the council’s policy, with 37.9% opposed. However, as this survey did not follow scientific polling methods and was also open to non-Orcadians to fill out, it can only provide a rough estimate of people’s views.</p>
<p>In contrast to the 1980s, when mobilised campaign movements pressured the councils into taking further action on autonomy, there is no grassroots momentum for constitutional change in the islands today. But it is possible that continued dissatisfaction with central government could lead to growing interest in the subject.</p>
<p>Orkney is not going to become a Norwegian territory and significant constitutional change is unlikely to appear in the near future. That said, the idea of autonomy will continue to be attractive for some. As long as this remains the case, local activists and politicians will continue to use their islands’ distinct heritages in creative ways to make their voices heard.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209352/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Nicolson received funding from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.</span></em></p>Bringing up the subjects of autonomy and Norway has always been an effective way for Orcadians to draw attention to their grievances with central government.Mathew Nicolson, PhD Candidate in History, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1987072023-02-03T13:30:53Z2023-02-03T13:30:53ZThe ethical dilemmas behind plans for involuntary treatment to target homelessness, mental illness and addiction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507705/original/file-20230201-17231-xvmqx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C6%2C1017%2C722&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Involuntary treatment for homeless people aims to help – but also raises ethical debates.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/homeless-man-sleeps-on-a-subway-bench-september-7-2022-in-news-photo/1421695998?phrase=new%20york%20homeless&adppopup=true">Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past year, cities across the United States have unveiled new policy plans to address homelessness amid <a href="https://www.kpbs.org/news/local/2022/06/13/mayor-glorias-push-for-homeless-progressive-enforcement-leads-to-eightfold-spike-in-arrests">rising concerns</a> about health <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2022/11/30/portland-mayor-promises-action-central-eastside-safety-concerns/">and crime</a> – for homeless people themselves, as well as for surrounding communities. Notably, several proposals include civil commitment, also referred to as involuntary treatment, for people with severe mental illness or substance use disorders.</p>
<p>In November 2022, for example, New York City Mayor Eric Adams <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/870-22/mayor-adams-plan-provide-care-individuals-suffering-untreated-severe-mental#/%5B0">announced a plan</a> to <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/press-releases/2022/Mental-Health-Involuntary-Removals.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery">use mental health laws</a> to facilitate involuntary treatment when people are unable to care for themselves, or when their actions endanger others. </p>
<p>Court-mandated treatment could include therapy, social workers, housing referrals, medication or other interventions, either in hospitals or on an outpatient basis. New York’s plan builds on other recent initiatives to connect <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/087-22/mayor-adams-releases-subway-safety-plan-says-safe-subway-prerequisite-new-york-city-s#/0">more homeless</a> and mentally ill people with shelters or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/nyregion/nearly-2600-apartments-for-mentally-ill-and-homeless-people-sit-vacant.html">supportive housing</a>.</p>
<p>Political leaders in <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/01/13/los-angeles-county-accelerates-care-court-implementation-to-support-californians-with-untreated-severe-mental-illness/">California</a> and <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2022/12/12/portland-mayor-ted-wheeler-suggests-easing-process-involuntarily-commit-mentally-ill/">Portland, Oregon,</a> have approved similar plans to use civil commitment laws.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://health.usf.edu/publichealth/overviewcoph/faculty/katherine-drabiak">health law and medical ethics professor</a>, I believe it’s worth explaining how these laws work and the <a href="https://www.thehastingscenter.org/new-york-citys-involuntary-commitment-plan-fulfilling-a-moral-obligation/">ethical issues</a> they raise.</p>
<h2>How civil commitment works</h2>
<p>Civil commitment laws have been <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20784735?seq=3">around for decades</a>. However, they only recently appear to have regained traction as a strategy for addressing the intersection of homelessness, <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/civil-commitment-continuum-of-care.pdf">mental illness</a> and <a href="https://pdaps.org/datasets/civil-commitment-for-substance-users-1562936854">substance use disorder</a>.</p>
<p>States have enacted these laws based on two theories. First, under the doctrine of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/parens_patriae">parens patriae</a>, a Latin phrase that means “parent of the nation,” states have a legal and ethical obligation to step in and help vulnerable people who cannot act for themselves. Second, in public health law, the concept of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.283.22.2979">police power</a> means that states have a duty to pass and enforce laws to preserve public health and safety, which can be impacted by homelessness.</p>
<p>Every state has <a href="https://pdaps.org/datasets/civil-commitment-for-substance-users-1562936854">different laws</a> outlining civil commitment. Importantly, these laws are a civil mechanism for courts to oversee a treatment plan for people with severe mental illness or substance use disorders that meet specific criteria. For example, a court could assess testimony and evidence from clinicians that a person has such a severe substance use disorder that he repeatedly loses consciousness, will not accept assistance and risks freezing to death outside. These laws do not “<a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2022/12/12/portland-mayor-ted-wheeler-suggests-easing-process-involuntarily-commit-mentally-ill/">criminalize</a>” or punish homelessness.</p>
<p>During the initial assessment process, the person receives care in a hospital, where clinicians determine their medical needs. Afterward, the court may order a treatment plan that would outline requirements for the person to accept shelter and maintain weekly appointments such as attending therapy or drug treatment. Treatment in inpatient hospitals are generally only used in cases of severe illness, and <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/civil-commitment-continuum-of-care.pdf">laws require</a> using the least restrictive plan possible.</p>
<p>Civil commitment laws also require due process, or a <a href="https://www.disabilityrightssc.org/involuntary-mental-health-commitments/">fair procedure</a> for people to participate in the process, object and have assistance from <a href="https://www.nycourts.gov/ad3/mhls/Ch-08_12-09-16.pdf">legal counsel</a>.</p>
<h2>Understanding chronic homelessness</h2>
<p>What is often called “the homeless” population is actually <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/programs_campaigns/homelessness_programs_resources/hrc-factsheet-current-statistics-prevalence-characteristics-homelessness.pdf">multiple groups with different needs</a>, including youth, families, veterans, people with short episodes of homelessness spurred by job loss or unexpected bills, and the chronically homeless.</p>
<p>However, the most visible population – those who are chronically homeless without shelter – suffer from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/JCP.0000000000001528">high rates</a> of untreated severe substance use disorders and mental illness, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-07/homeless-population-mental-illness-disability">though estimates vary</a>. The University of California’s California Policy Lab <a href="https://www.capolicylab.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Health-Conditions-Among-Unsheltered-Adults-in-the-U.S.pdf">analyzed surveys of 64,000 people</a> who were homeless across 15 different states and found that 78% of the unsheltered homeless suffered from mental illness and 75% from a substance abuse disorder. Fifty percent experienced both.</p>
<p>Clinicians note that mental illness and <a href="https://www.capolicylab.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Health-Conditions-Among-Unsheltered-Adults-in-the-U.S.pdf">substance use disorders can contribute</a> to homelessness, and <a href="https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/four-ways-limit-use-force-care-persons-experiencing-homelessness/2021-11">worsen it</a>, too.</p>
<h2>Ethical issues</h2>
<p>Civil commitment aims to improve the well-being of individuals and communities. But it raises difficult questions about core ethical issues such as autonomy – people’s right to make medical decisions for themselves – and beneficence, or ensuring that interventions provide more benefit than harm.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People at a protest hold signs, including one that says 'Healing not Hospitalization'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507719/original/file-20230201-10184-z8uwxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507719/original/file-20230201-10184-z8uwxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507719/original/file-20230201-10184-z8uwxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507719/original/file-20230201-10184-z8uwxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507719/original/file-20230201-10184-z8uwxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507719/original/file-20230201-10184-z8uwxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507719/original/file-20230201-10184-z8uwxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Opponents of New York Mayor Eric Adams’ plans for involuntary treatment participate in a rally at City Hall.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/opponents-of-new-york-mayor-eric-adams-plan-to-news-photo/1447764898?phrase=homeless%20new%20york&adppopup=true">Spencer Platt/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/forefront.20180329.955541">Some experts oppose</a> using civil commitment laws and assert that states should rely on voluntary services. Voluntary treatment, some of them contend, is just as effective but preserves autonomy and the freedom to choose or decline treatment.</p>
<p>Critics also assert that involuntary commitment violates the principle of beneficence, <a href="https://www.thehastingscenter.org/new-york-citys-involuntary-commitment-plan-fulfilling-a-moral-obligation/">because it can stigmatize</a> homeless people with severe mental health and substance use disorders by implying that they do not belong in public. Others contend it is cruel and coercive.</p>
<p>Advocates for plans like New York City’s, on the other hand, assert that civil commitment laws are not only effective at <a href="https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/homelessness/story/2021-04-22/fatal-shooting-raises-questions-of-police-response-to-homeless">connecting people with help</a>, but fulfill a moral obligation to prevent people from suffering on city streets. </p>
<p>In most instances, health care workers and ethicists presume that adults can make their own medical choices in line with their values and needs. But people with severe mental illness or substance use disorder may experience impairment in their ability to deliberate, assess their needs and make decisions, which <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7129619/">compromises their autonomy</a>. Though <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMms1610124">involuntary treatment</a> violates autonomy, it can also help people regain it through stabilization and recovery.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp1811623">Many clinicians</a> and outreach workers argue that glossing over the impact of untreated mental illness and substance use disorder violates the principle of beneficence, because avoiding treatment may result in more health harms.</p>
<h2>Wider effects</h2>
<p>Ethics debates must also grapple with how treatment affects the surrounding community, <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2022/11/30/portland-mayor-promises-action-central-eastside-safety-concerns/">such as safety</a> – including for other people experiencing homelessness. As one data point, the San Diego District Attorney’s Office has compiled data showing people who are homeless are far more likely to be the victims of crime. Its data found that this population commits <a href="https://www.sdcda.org/content/MediaRelease/Homeless%20Data%20and%20Plan%20News%20Release%20FINAL%203-21-22.pdf">dramatically higher rates</a> of vandalism, arson, assault and burglary as well, although there are few nationwide studies. And while most people who are homeless, have a mental health illness or have a substance use disorder are not violent, some studies suggest people with a severe mental health illness are <a href="https://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/ps.2008.59.2.153?utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Psychiatric_Services_TrendMD_0">three to four times more likely</a> to display violent behavior.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.52.3.337">Some evidence</a> suggests that civil commitment can increase follow-through with treatment plans, reduce acute hospitalization and decrease violent behavior. <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2019/09/11/gravely-disabled-homeless-forced-into-mental-health-care-in-more-states">Proponents assert</a> that despite the coercive nature of civil commitment, it provides benefit as a step toward restoring the health of each person, and of society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198707/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Drabiak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New York City’s plan has garnered the most attention – and criticism – but several cities are expanding their own intervention programs.Katherine Drabiak, Associate Professor of Health Law, Public Health Law and Medical Ethics, University of South FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1868562022-08-16T14:45:25Z2022-08-16T14:45:25ZPeople with intellectual disability have a right to sexuality – but their families have concerns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478750/original/file-20220811-6992-vr0mgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People with intellectual disability are entitled to their human rights like everyone else.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many South Africans living with intellectual disability don’t have opportunities to be part of community life. They may lack the opportunity to learn, work or enjoy leisure activities and social connections like anyone else.</p>
<p>There are various reasons for this. Inadequate health and social services, stigma and poor understanding of intellectual disability in society are some of them. One reason that researchers haven’t explored much relates to family members’ legitimate fears of the risk that their relatives will be sexually abused. </p>
<p>There are common <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-014-9344-x">misconceptions about and negative attitudes</a> towards the sexuality of people with intellectual disability. They are also <a href="https://doi.org/10.2989/17280583.2012.735498">easy targets for sexual crime perpetrators</a> who take advantage of their diminished ability to understand or judge other people’s intentions. They are often eager to please others and face communication challenges which make it difficult to report if anything happened to them. </p>
<p>Data on sexual violence against people with intellectual disabilities in South Africa is scanty. But the available literature suggests that <a href="https://doi.org/10.2989/17280583.2012.735498">this group is at high risk</a>. </p>
<p>Intellectual disability <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK332877/#:%7E:text=DSM%2D5%20defines%20intellectual%20disabilities,and%20practical%20areas%20of%20living.">affects</a> a person’s mental abilities including reasoning, problem solving, abstract thinking, judgement and academic learning. These challenges affect a person’s ability to be independent. The <a href="http://cs2016.statssa.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/CS-2016-Disability-Report_-03-01-232016.pdf">2016 Community Survey</a> in South Africa placed intellectual disability in a category relating to difficulties with remembering or concentration. It reported an estimate of 3.3% of the population as having mild difficulty and 1% as having severe difficulty. </p>
<p>Despite their limitations, people with intellectual disability are entitled to their human <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/SAConstitution-web-eng-02.pdf#page=2">rights</a> like everyone else. These include the right to sexual autonomy and sexuality education. But sexuality education and support are not usually available to this population group.</p>
<p>With this lack of support, many family caregivers – especially parents – live with a fear that their child or relative lacks competency. There’s concern that they may be at risk of sexual abuse, or might display inappropriate sexual behaviour. A common response is for caregivers to become overprotective. As a result, the person with intellectual disability is kept under surveillance. </p>
<p>In my <a href="https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/24508">research</a> in the Western Cape province of South Africa I found that some people with intellectual disability were being “detained” at home. They were denied opportunities for education and training, employment, leisure, and other forms of social life. The main reasons related to sexuality.</p>
<h2>Study findings</h2>
<p>I interviewed 25 family caregivers about sexuality issues concerning their relative with intellectual disability. I also interviewed nine service providers about their views of families’ responses.</p>
<p>Family caregivers expressed a range of actions, attitudes and behaviours – from suppression of their relative’s sexuality to support. Responses shifted between the two extremes, depending on availability of professional support and the specific sexuality issue. </p>
<p>In the responses that tended towards suppression of sexuality, one of the main reasons was fear. </p>
<p>When a child reaches puberty and then adulthood, families face the reality of that person’s sexual maturation. Some families would prefer not to think about this at all. Physical body changes, menstruation, masturbation, interest in sexual intimacy, evidence of sexual activity, desire to become a parent and need for independence can be difficult for families to handle. The person with intellectual disability needs support, for example, in the form of sexuality education and empowerment. Family caregivers need emotional and practical support. These are not always available.</p>
<p>Even when the person with intellectual disability has access to some services such as sheltered workshops, it’s common for there to be a lack of collaboration between service providers and families. This leaves all the responsibility with the families. </p>
<p>Due to the lack of support and their fear, caregivers become <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-3156.2012.00758.x">reluctant “jailers”</a> of family members with intellectual disability. But lack of stimulation and exposure to the outside world for the person with intellectual disability has negative implications. It can make a person lonely, unable to learn how to do things, and prone to mental and physical health challenges. </p>
<p>There are some organisations working with people with intellectual disability in South Africa that take the right to sexual autonomy seriously. They offer appropriate support in promoting this right. These organisations have to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17446295211048743#:%7E:text=https%3A//doi.org/10.1177/17446295211048743">manage family caregivers’ anxieties</a>. Families sometimes threaten to withdraw their relative from the services to thwart sexual behaviour.</p>
<h2>Implications</h2>
<p>Detaining and protectively watching over people with intellectual disability has implications for the whole family. </p>
<p>The role of “watcher” can affect caregivers’ own independence, flexibility, productivity and well-being. This reinforces the <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC189294">connection between poverty and disability</a>. </p>
<p>Service providers and policy makers should promote family centred support services for people with intellectual disability and caregivers. A big part of these efforts should be sexuality education to help people make autonomous, safe choices. </p>
<p>Security is a concern among families, especially those living in high-risk areas. The safety of people with intellectual disability must be prioritised. Where they have been victims of crime, justice must be done. </p>
<p>It takes collaboration to promote social inclusion. A comprehensive <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jppi.12318">approach</a> is useful. It should consider the need for support at the levels of the individual, family, work, school and community. And it goes further, to cultural institutions, social structures, policies and the broader cultural context.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186856/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Callista Kahonde receives funding from the National Research Foundation Innovation Postdoctoral Fellowship. She is a postdoctoral fellow at Stellenbosch University, Centre for Disability and Rehabilitation Studies and a member of the Western Cape Forum for Intellectual Disability. The article is based on her PhD study at the University of Cape Town which was funded by the Vera Grover Scholarship and Sponsorship Trust.</span></em></p>The lack of sexuality education, and common myths and misconceptions about the sexuality of people with intellectual disability can lead to caregivers being reluctant ‘jailers’.Callista Kahonde, Postdoctoral fellow, Disability & Rehabilitation Studies, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1848952022-06-23T14:50:35Z2022-06-23T14:50:35ZWhy Uber drivers aren’t unionizing in Québec<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468243/original/file-20220610-28309-qtm2nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Uber model hinders any possibility of drivers acting collectively and generates significant cognitive dissonance among them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As of mid-June, the Uber platform will extend its services to the entire province of Québec. On a global scale, Uber is in nearly <a href="https://s23.q4cdn.com/407969754/files/doc_downloads/2021/07/Uber-2021-ESG-Report.pdf">10,000 cities and 71 countries and has more than 3.5 million workers</a>.</p>
<p>This model, based on on-demand work and the algorithmic distribution of tasks, fundamentally transforms ways of thinking about, organizing and carrying out work, both on an individual and collective basis.</p>
<p>The expansion of Uber’s service across Québec provides an opportunity to examine the reality of the work being carried out by thousands of drivers and delivery personnel in the province. What is their work day like? How do they make social connections?</p>
<p>To try to answer these questions, I observed Facebook groups of drivers and interviewed about 50 Uber workers in Québec.</p>
<p>As a doctoral student in communications at Université du Québec à Montréal and a research student at the Université du Québec’s Institut national de la recherche scientifique, my research examines the profile and motivations of Uber drivers, their ideas about collective action and, more generally, the psychosocial issues involved in work that is mediated by algorithms.</p>
<h2>Many encounters, but solitary work</h2>
<p>Although Uber workers encounter many people on a daily basis (customers, restaurant owners, passengers), their activity is essentially solitary. Their work takes place without ever meeting another human from Uber. Their registration on the platform is done online and their daily tasks are distributed to them by an algorithm through the Uber app.</p>
<p>If a problem prompts a driver to contact the company’s technical service, the people they interact with are located in <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1525/9780520970632/html">out-of-country call centres</a>. What’s more, the answers they get are most often formatted by scripts, reinforcing the robotic nature of their relationship to work.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467558/original/file-20220607-18-79q23t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="man wearing a mask driving a car with an Uber badge" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467558/original/file-20220607-18-79q23t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467558/original/file-20220607-18-79q23t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467558/original/file-20220607-18-79q23t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467558/original/file-20220607-18-79q23t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467558/original/file-20220607-18-79q23t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467558/original/file-20220607-18-79q23t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467558/original/file-20220607-18-79q23t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The organization of their work limits Uber drivers’ possibilities to socialize and hinders the possibility of forming a union.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As for the few moments when workers might meet — in restaurants waiting for orders or in drop-off areas at airports — drivers’ interactions are limited to brief exchanges about the number of orders they got that day, as expressed by Katia, an Uber Eats delivery driver in Montréal:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I pass another delivery driver, I say “Hey Uber! Lots of business tonight,” or “Not much business tonight,” and that’s about it. After that, I probably won’t ever see them again, but if I do, I just say hello. I don’t even know their name.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A competitive atmosphere</h2>
<p>Uber drivers’ Facebook groups do provide a place to share information and vent about frustrating situations. However, these spaces play a very limited role in building a collective since they don’t make it possible for drivers to have extended conversations about work.</p>
<p>The architecture of the groups favours short-term interactions, with posts quickly fading into the thread. Constructive exchanges would require conversations over a long period of time in an atmosphere of listening and trust. However, the competition felt by drivers, combined with the brief and anonymous interaction mode of social networks, contributes to a hostile climate. As Diane, an Uber Eats delivery driver in Laval, says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think that the negative comments are made to discourage others because it’s not a group where we encourage each other. It’s a group where we try to discourage others, because it’s competition. If I want to earn a living, I have to run more races than you.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Collective action is a threat</h2>
<p>Surprisingly, this absence of a collective identity is not perceived as a problem by most of the workers I interviewed. Despite difficult working conditions over which they have no control, workers do not tend toward gathering and mobilizing in an effort to establish a power relationship with Uber.</p>
<p>While Uber drivers in other jurisdictions <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8816204/uber-union-reach-settlement-ontario-unionization-case/">have tried to unionize</a>, the idea of collective action is perceived as a threat by most of the Québec workers. The competitive climate pushes drivers to develop a repertoire of tactics and tinkering to stand out, as Bertrand, an Uber driver in Québec City, said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We all go to the Facebook group for the same thing, to find others like us and see if they can give us tips and tricks to better understand how it works, to get information. But we quickly understand that, no, we are all in the same boat, we are all there for our own pocketbook.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Among the tactics used to optimize their income, some drivers will, for example, call customers to find out their destination before picking them up. If drivers feel the trip is unprofitable, given the distance to the customer, they will cancel the trip. Others use two phones to maintain access to the map and show the location of the surcharge zones.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467536/original/file-20220607-13238-andol3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Uber app on a Samsung phone showing several available cars" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467536/original/file-20220607-13238-andol3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467536/original/file-20220607-13238-andol3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467536/original/file-20220607-13238-andol3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467536/original/file-20220607-13238-andol3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467536/original/file-20220607-13238-andol3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467536/original/file-20220607-13238-andol3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467536/original/file-20220607-13238-andol3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Québec, many Uber users appreciate the app’s ease of use and the convenience of the service.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>No sense of belonging</h2>
<p>To many workers, a work collective that strives to harmonize practices and replace individual tactics with collective strategies, looks like a loss of competitive advantage.</p>
<p>Now that Uber drivers’ struggles against cab drivers is over — thanks to <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/5096891/taxi-drivers-protest-montreal-quebec-city/">the adoption of Bill 17 in 2020</a> which deregulated Québec’s taxi industry — they no longer share a common enemy.</p>
<h2>Fraught consequences</h2>
<p>Each driver has to learn how the business works and cope with its challenges on their own, cobbling together their own tactics, conscious that not all drivers benefit from the same resources. Moreover, drivers are deprived of the opportunity to develop a collective reaction about their working conditions. </p>
<p>The absence of meaningful exchanges, opportunities to listen and the presence of other drivers hinders the development of any meaningful relationships and solidarity between drivers. Their activity is reduced to their relationship with technology.</p>
<p>In fact, without the power to act collectively in the face of rigid working conditions, the dysfunctions and health problems of workers are always treated <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278777956_Collective_work_and_rules_re-writing_process_a_way_of_workers%27_health">as isolated realities rather than as a consequence of the way their work is organized</a>. As Kader, an Uber driver in Montréal, puts it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve never opened my heart on the Facebook group. All I have to do is make one comment and I feel attacked by the others. Often, drivers who speak honestly are verbally attacked. Drivers are suffering. We could discuss it. But the climate we need to do this does not exist in the group.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The profiles of Uber drivers in Québec vary greatly. For example, the fact that it’s impossible to negotiate higher incomes does not have the same consequences for a Tesla engineer, who drives three hours a week to take their mind off things, as it does for an immigrant who works 60 hours a week to support their family.</p>
<h2>Low revenues and lack of transparency</h2>
<p>For some individuals being an Uber driver brings in extra income, but the model also takes advantage of the precariousness of a part of the population. Those who carry out the activity as their only source of income, often do so because they lack a better option. </p>
<p>Although the majority of the drivers I interviewed do not aspire to become employees and are reluctant to join a union, many deplore the low income and the platform’s lack of transparency over how the algorithm and the remuneration system work.</p>
<p>Faced with this situation, they see the government as the only stakeholder that could establish a power relationship with Uber and force the platform to offer better working conditions to its drivers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184895/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucie Enel has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie, and the J.A. DeSève Foundation.</span></em></p>When it comes to dealing with Uber’s difficult working conditions, Uber drivers are on their own.Lucie Enel, Doctorante en communication, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1849162022-06-23T11:47:38Z2022-06-23T11:47:38ZAbortion and bioethics: Principles to guide U.S. abortion debates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469597/original/file-20220619-2246-jl5q1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C3%2C2112%2C1404&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Four basic principles guide the field of medical ethics.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-of-a-female-nurse-holding-hands-for-royalty-free-image/1315654897?adppopup=true">goc/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf">overruled Roe v. Wade</a>, <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/410/113/">the landmark 1973 decision</a> that established the nationwide right to choose an abortion. </p>
<p>For decades, rancorous debate about the ruling has often been dominated by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/06/abortion-midterms-elections-roe">politics</a>. Ethics garners less attention, although it lies at the heart of the legal controversy. <a href="https://depts.washington.edu/bhdept/nancy-s-jecker-phd-sheher">As a philosopher and bioethicist</a>, I study moral problems in medicine and health policy, including abortion.</p>
<p>Bioethical approaches to abortion often appeal to <a href="https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/principles-of-biomedical-ethics-9780190640873?cc=us&lang=en&">four principles</a>: respect patients’ autonomy; nonmaleficence, or “do no harm”; beneficence, or provide beneficial care; and justice. These principles were first developed during the 1970s <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/belmont-report/index.html">to guide research</a> involving human subjects. Today, they are essential guides for many doctors and ethicists <a href="https://depts.washington.edu/bhdept/ethics-medicine/bioethics-topics/articles/principles-bioethics">in challenging medical cases</a>.</p>
<h2>Patient autonomy</h2>
<p>The ethical principle of autonomy states that patients are entitled to make decisions about their own medical care when able. The American Medical Association’s Code of Medical Ethics recognizes a patient’s right to “<a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/ethics/informed-consent">receive information and ask questions about recommended treatments</a>” in order to “make well-considered decisions about care.” Respect for autonomy is enshrined in <a href="https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/what-informed-consent-really-means">laws governing informed consent</a>, which protect patients’ right to know the medical options available and make an informed voluntary decision. </p>
<p>Some bioethicists regard respect for autonomy as <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jme.27.suppl_2.ii10">lending firm support</a> to the right to choose abortion, arguing that if a pregnant person wishes to end their pregnancy, the state should not interfere. According to one interpretation of this view, the principle of autonomy means that a person owns their body <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2265091">and should be free to decide what happens in and to it</a>. </p>
<p>Abortion opponents do not necessarily challenge the soundness of respecting people’s autonomy, but may disagree about how to interpret this principle. Some regard a pregnant person as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12874">two patients</a>” – the pregnant person and the fetus. </p>
<p>One way to reconcile these views is to say that as an immature human being becomes “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/504621">increasingly self-conscious, rational and autonomous it is harmed to an increasing degree</a>,” as <a href="https://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/people/jeff-mcmahan">philosopher Jeff McMahan</a> writes. In this view, a late-stage fetus has more interest in its future than a fertilized egg, and therefore the later in pregnancy an abortion takes place, the more it may hinder the fetus’s developing interests. In the U.S., where <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss7009a1">92.7% of abortions occur at or before 13 weeks’ gestation</a>, a pregnant person’s rights may often outweigh those attributed to the fetus. Later in pregnancy, however, rights attributed to the fetus may assume greater weight. Balancing these competing claims remains contentious. </p>
<h2>Nonmaleficence and beneficence</h2>
<p>The ethical principle of “do no harm” forbids intentionally harming or injuring a patient. It demands medically competent care that minimizes risks. Nonmaleficence is often paired with a principle of beneficence, a duty to benefit patients. Together, these principles <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.291.6488.130">emphasize doing more good than harm</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black blood pressure gauge sits on a table next to a small white tablet with writing on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469598/original/file-20220619-17-z59xpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469598/original/file-20220619-17-z59xpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469598/original/file-20220619-17-z59xpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469598/original/file-20220619-17-z59xpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469598/original/file-20220619-17-z59xpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469598/original/file-20220619-17-z59xpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469598/original/file-20220619-17-z59xpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Hippocratic Oath, a traditional code of ethics for doctors, stresses doing no harm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/blood-pressure-gauge-and-the-hippocratic-oath-in-royalty-free-image/1376323799?adppopup=true">Janko Maslovaric/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Minimizing the risk of harm figures prominently in <a href="https://www.who.int/health-topics/abortion#tab=tab_1">the World Health Organization’s opposition to bans on abortion</a> because pregnant people facing barriers to abortion often resort to unsafe methods, which represent a <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/abortion">leading cause of avoidable maternal deaths and morbidities worldwide</a>. </p>
<p>Although <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/abortion">97% of unsafe abortions occur in developing countries</a>, developed countries that have narrowed abortion access have produced unintended harms. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/12/world/europe/poland-abortion-ban.html">In Poland</a>, for example, doctors fearing prosecution have hesitated to administer cancer treatments during pregnancy or remove a fetus after a pregnant person’s water breaks early in the pregnancy, before the fetus is viable. In the U.S., restrictive abortion laws in some states, like Texas, have <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/05/10/1097734167/in-texas-abortion-laws-inhibit-care-for-miscarriages">complicated care for miscarriages</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/26/health/texas-abortion-law-risky-pregnancy.html">high-risk pregnancies</a>, putting pregnant people’s lives at risk.</p>
<p>However, Americans who favor overturning Roe are primarily concerned about fetal harm. <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-personhood-the-ethics-question-that-needs-a-closer-look-in-abortion-debates-182745">Regardless of whether or not the fetus is considered a person</a>, the fetus might have an interest in avoiding pain. Late in pregnancy, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2019-105701">some ethicists think that humane care for pregnant people should include minimizing fetal pain</a> irrespective of whether a pregnancy continues. Neuroscience teaches that the human <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-does-consciousness-arise/">capacity to experience feeling or sensation</a> develops between 24 and 28 weeks’ gestation. </p>
<h2>Justice</h2>
<p>Justice, a final principle of bioethics, requires treating similar cases similarly. If the pregnant person and fetus are moral equals, many argue that it would be unjust to kill the fetus except in self-defense, if the fetus threatens the pregnant person’s life. Others hold that even in self-defense, terminating the fetus’s life is wrong because a fetus is <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2265226">not morally responsible for any threat it poses</a>. </p>
<p>Yet defenders of abortion point out that even if abortion results in the death of an innocent person, that is not its goal. If the ethics of an action is judged by its goals, then abortion might be justified in cases where it realizes an ethical aim, such as saving a woman’s life or protecting a family’s ability to care for their current children. Defenders of abortion also argue that even if the fetus has a right to life, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2265091">a person does not have a right to everything they need to stay alive</a>. For example, having a right to life does not entail a right to threaten another’s health or life, or ride roughshod over another’s life plans and goals.</p>
<p>Justice also deals with the fair distribution of benefits and burdens. Among wealthy countries, the U.S. has <a href="https://www.propublica.org/series/lost-mothers">the highest rate of deaths</a> linked to pregnancy and childbirth. Without legal protection for abortion, pregnancy and childbirth for Americans could become even more risky. Studies show that women are more likely to die while pregnant or shortly thereafter <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306396">in states with the most restrictive abortion policies</a>.</p>
<p>Minority groups may have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion--supreme-court-racial-disparities-ec9495bbb071fabe7e9e7437305df5e2">the most to lose if the right to choose abortion is not upheld</a> because they <a href="https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/seeking-causes-race-related-disparities-contraceptive-use/2014-10">utilize a disproportionate share of abortion services</a>. In Mississippi, for example, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion--supreme-court-racial-disparities-ec9495bbb071fabe7e9e7437305df5e2">people of color represent 44% of the population, but 81% of those receiving abortions</a>. <a href="https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/state-indicator/abortions-by-race/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D">Other states follow a similar pattern,</a> leading some health activists to conclude that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion--supreme-court-racial-disparities-ec9495bbb071fabe7e9e7437305df5e2">“abortion restrictions are racist.”</a> </p>
<p>Other marginalized groups, including low-income families, could also be hard hit by abortion restrictions because <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/05/03/abortions-costs-rise-more-expensive-roe-v-wade-overturned/">abortions are expected to get pricier</a>.</p>
<p>Politics aside, abortion raises profound ethical questions that remain unsettled, which courts are left to settle using the blunt instrument of law. In this sense, abortion “<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)30581-1/fulltext">begins as a moral argument and ends as a legal argument</a>,” in the words of law and ethics scholar <a href="https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/faculty-profiles/az/profile.html?xid=16112">Katherine Watson</a>.</p>
<p>Putting to rest legal controversies surrounding abortion would require reaching moral consensus. Short of that, articulating our own moral views and understanding others’ can bring all sides closer to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1088-4963.2005.00035.x">principled compromise</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184916/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nancy S. Jecker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A bioethicist explains the four ethical principles that guide medical practitioners’ thinking about abortion, such as autonomy and justice.Nancy S. Jecker, Professor of Bioethics and Humanities, School of Medicine, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1816372022-05-04T14:32:39Z2022-05-04T14:32:39ZWhat cattle conflicts say about identity in South Sudan<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459430/original/file-20220425-66366-1i3rnm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An armed man guards cattle in a village in South Sudan.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In March 2022, <a href="https://www.eyeradio.org/makuei-appeals-for-calm-as-govt-promises-to-remove-cattle-from-magwi/">violent clashes</a> between farming communities and cattle herders broke out in Eastern Equatoria State, South Sudan. It was the latest incident in months of cattle-related violence in the area, which is in the country’s southern region. </p>
<p>Dinka Bor herders from the neighbouring Jonglei State were pushed south into Eastern Equatoria’s Magwi County after floods submerged grazing lands. In just days, however, farmer-herder conflict <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/following-conflict-between-farmers-and-herders-magwi-unmiss-steps-patrols">displaced</a> more than 14,000 people. </p>
<p>The Equatoria region hosts South Sudan’s capital, Juba. It is inhabited by more than 30 different ethnic groups, most of them farmers. It was the birthplace of the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14019208">southern rebellion</a> against Sudan’s Khartoum. Economically, it is the strongest region of South Sudan, with immense agricultural potential. </p>
<p>However, the <a href="https://jhumanitarianaction.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41018-018-0030-y">militarisation</a> of cattle raiding since the 1990s has led to frequent eruptions of violence. These raids were originally regulated by cultural authorities. But political <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/south-sudan/popular-struggles-and-elite-co-optation-nuer-white-army-south-sudan-s-civil-war">elites</a> have armed ethnic groups to advance their interests, leading to a proliferation of guns in the region.</p>
<p>Today, the presence of Dinka herders in Equatoria is used to project historical and ideological disagreements about state structure and identities in South Sudan. </p>
<p>As a result, what looked like local, inter-communal violence between farming host communities and displaced herders in March led to heated national debate. The Equatoria caucus in South Sudan’s Transitional National Legislative Assembly held a joint press conference to condemn the Magwi attacks. </p>
<p>The importance given to the Magwi conflict can be seen as the result of irreconcilable visions of the state by Equatorian and Dinka elites in South Sudan. My PhD <a href="https://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/person/francois-sennesael">research</a> into Equatorian political identity traces how these visions emerged. </p>
<h2>Equatoria as a resistance identity</h2>
<p>More than an administrative territory, Equatoria is a context-dependent idea. It is, first, a fragile, unfinished <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-africa/south-sudan/b169-south-sudans-other-war-resolving-insurgency-equatoria">political identity</a>. It is used as an umbrella term to attempt to unify heterogeneous political elites coming from the colonial-era Equatoria province. </p>
<p>Equatorian leaders have been asking for more <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-africa/south-sudan/b169-south-sudans-other-war-resolving-insurgency-equatoria">autonomy</a> to run their own affairs. Its leaders feel marginalised at the national level, which is heavily tilted towards the predominant <a href="https://africanarguments.org/2013/12/what-is-tribalism-and-why-does-is-matter-in-south-sudan-by-andreas-hirblinger-and-sara-de-simone/">Dinka and Nuer</a> ethnic groups.</p>
<p>Unlike the creation of a <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo11913256.html">Kalenjin political identity</a> in Kenya, the Equatorian political identity has struggled to become a reality. It has a weak popular base and no political party. Its more prominent leaders have been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-23816191">co-opted</a> into government.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-south-sudans-attempts-at-peace-continue-to-fail-126846">Why South Sudan's attempts at peace continue to fail</a>
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<p>Second, for many regional elites in Juba, the term Equatoria represents a political project: federalism. These elites want to create political space for their region in the power-sharing agreement between Dinka and Nuer elites. </p>
<p>This was not always a priority for them. </p>
<p>Equatoria as a political identity emerged in the 1970s as a consequence of the perceived <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328639494_Why_Equatoria_Region_in_South_Sudan_may_opt_to_secede">political marginalisation</a> of its elites. Members of this group had previously defined themselves first as South Sudanese. They defended unity as long as they were in power. </p>
<p>However, they began to warn of a growing Dinka nationalism when Abel Aleir was appointed head of the autonomous region of Southern Sudan <a href="https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/South+Sudan">in 1972</a>. </p>
<p>Equatoria as an identity of resistance gained momentum alongside the <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/huria/article/view/198498">ethnicisation of politics</a> in the 1970s. The presence of Dinka cattle herders in the predominantly farming region became the proxy through which political grievances were expressed. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://paxforpeace.nl/what-we-do/publications/the-legacy-of-kokora-in-south-sudan">Kokora system</a> – the redivision of Southern Sudan into three provinces at the request of Equatorian elites in 1983 – was primarily a way to expel the Dinka and their cattle from Equatoria. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sudans-deep-state-still-poses-a-threat-to-the-democratic-process-130243">Sudan's deep state still poses a threat to the democratic process</a>
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<p>My interviews in Juba found that the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14019208">war against Khartoum</a> – which was started by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in 1983 – is still perceived primarily as an anti-Equatoria movement led by Dinkas, rather than as a liberation movement. As a result, for Equatorian elites, the history of liberation and the roots of South Sudanese identity are contested. </p>
<h2>Challenging central rule</h2>
<p>Following power-sharing agreements in 2015 and 2018 <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-africa/south-sudan/270-salvaging-south-sudans-fragile-peace-deal">after years of war</a>, Dinka and Nuer politicians divided major political positions largely among themselves. </p>
<p>The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement has emphasised the importance of ‘South Sudan-ness’ to foster a sense of national unity. Claims for institutional and political autonomy from the central state are viewed as <a href="https://sudantribune.com/article50197/">threats</a> to the young state. </p>
<p>While Equatorians have been speaking of regionalism, the liberation movement has labelled it “localism” to emphasise how contrary to the idea of nation it is. </p>
<p>Yet Equatorians have <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-africa/south-sudan/b169-south-sudans-other-war-resolving-insurgency-equatoria">long felt marginalised</a> within the South Sudanese political system. They have also been blamed for trying to <a href="https://sudantribune.com/article50197/">divide the country</a>. </p>
<p>Additionally, an unsuccessful attempt to <a href="https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/2021-04/sr_493-conflict_and_crisis_in_south_sudans_equatoria.pdf">form an alliance</a> with the Nuer in 2016 and implement a federal system gave birth to radical Equatorian factions calling for secession. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/peace-in-south-sudan-hinges-on-forging-a-unified-military-force-but-its-proving-hard-181547">Peace in South Sudan hinges on forging a unified military force: but it's proving hard</a>
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<p>This discussion is somewhat performative in the sense that Equatorians’ ultimate ambition is not to create their own state, but rather to be included within existing structures. Yet, demands for federalism are high. Equatorian elites portray it as the only system that could liberate them from what they see as Dinka domination. </p>
<p>As a result, Equatorian elites have used cross-border cattle-related violence to call for a hardening of internal boundaries. It has also been used to challenge centralised power. </p>
<p>The defence of Equatorian farmers represents a much-needed unifying cause for a grouping divided by internal disagreements on whether to cooperate with the government or not. </p>
<p>The government has also been accused of <a href="https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2022/1/5/why-return-displaced-people-thorny-issue-South-Sudan">arming herders</a> to target populations that are not inclined to support its actions. This is becoming more prevalent as politicians get ready for <a href="https://sudantribune.com/article256604/">potential elections</a> in 2023. </p>
<p>The Equatorian political identity draws on existing fault lines of culture and historical memory. If the feeling of marginalisation persists, however, a strong movement could establish a community with separatist aspirations. This could endanger efforts to stabilise the world’s youngest nation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181637/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francois Sennesael receives funding from the Richard Stapley Educational Trust and a Santander Academic Travel Award (University of Oxford) for this research. </span></em></p>The idea of what it means to be South Sudanese is not universally accepted in the young nation.Francois Sennesael, DPhil Candidate, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1743682022-01-09T13:14:45Z2022-01-09T13:14:45ZFeeling powerless in the COVID-19 pandemic? 4 principles of self-determination can help you take back some control<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439450/original/file-20220105-25-pguqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=414%2C31%2C3049%2C1980&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man wearing a protective mask rides his bicycle past a face mask mural during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Omicron wave seemed to come like a rising tide — slowly, then suddenly, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8488493/omicron-covid-hospitalizations-jan-4-2022/">in all directions and all at once</a>. Inside the health-care system, <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/head-of-william-osler-health-system-says-situation-slowly-getting-better-following-code-orange-1.5727178">skeleton crews</a> face impossible workloads and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1984667">moral distress</a>. </p>
<p>Outside of it, people are feeling the weight of things like <a href="https://www.cihi.ca/en/covid-19-resources/impact-of-covid-19-on-canadas-health-care-systems/the-big-picture">deferred care</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2021.07.010">deprioritized essential workers</a>, <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/1/e042871.abstract">online learning</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257728">doomscrolling</a>. People are sick not just with COVID-19, but with isolation, inequity and polarization. </p>
<p>So it shouldn’t be a surprise if the recent announcements of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-19-ontario-jan-3-2022-ford-public-health-measures-1.6302531">shuttered schools</a> and <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/covid-19-here-are-the-new-restrictions-in-quebec">renewed restrictions</a> have some people feeling it’s all just too much to sustain.</p>
<p>But there is a way through difficult stages of the pandemic. It’s possible to counter helplessness and build power by creating a sense of purpose and community amidst the confusion of COVID-19. </p>
<h2>Self-determination</h2>
<p>As a researcher of <a href="https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGPO.2020.0153">social prescribing</a> — the act of using health-care visits as a starting point to reconnect people with health-promoting community services — I want to share some steps we can all take today to get back to the basics of health promotion, using self-determination to help exert more control over our own individual and shared experiences.</p>
<p>Self-determination is a widely used approach in <a href="https://www.who.int/teams/health-promotion/enhanced-wellbeing/first-global-conference">health promotion</a> that derives from <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442623873-014">two distinct bodies of research</a>: in psychology, about how we build well-being in our own lives, and in political science, about how together we govern the things that are most important to us. </p>
<p>The idea, in both traditions, is that by applying just four principles at <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612447309">individual</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75201-9_10">collective</a> levels, people can increase control over and improve the conditions for their health and well-being.</p>
<h2>Autonomy</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439452/original/file-20220105-25-srpbwu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person walks past a street mural of a health-care worker in PPE flexing a bicep" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439452/original/file-20220105-25-srpbwu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439452/original/file-20220105-25-srpbwu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439452/original/file-20220105-25-srpbwu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439452/original/file-20220105-25-srpbwu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439452/original/file-20220105-25-srpbwu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439452/original/file-20220105-25-srpbwu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439452/original/file-20220105-25-srpbwu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When it feels like so much control has been taken away, making a small decision of their own can help someone rediscover their autonomy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, there is a need to rediscover autonomy: the ability to make decisions for yourself. When it feels like so much control has been taken away, making a small decision of your own can help you shift from worrying about “what’s the matter with me” to taking action on “what matters to me.” </p>
<p>In social prescribing, participants don’t wait for someone else to make a treatment plan. They voice their own well-being priorities and are supported to take more control over their own health goals. </p>
<p>This can start with something as small, but healthful, as <a href="https://www.euro.who.int/en/publications/abstracts/what-is-the-evidence-on-the-role-of-the-arts-in-improving-health-and-well-being-a-scoping-review-2019">picking up a drawing pencil</a> or going for <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/04/nurtured-nature">a walk in nature</a>, or something more intensive like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/pop.2020.0154">accessing support for housing</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13516">volunteering with others</a> in your community. </p>
<p>Politically and at the community level, fostering autonomy can look like ensuring people have support to make <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd2107">local economic decisions</a>, supporting <a href="http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2021/hl/bgrd/backgroundfile-173574.pdf">local public health and community organizations</a>, or ensuring <a href="https://www.torontoblackcovid.com/">vaccine outreach</a> is both scientifically accurate and culturally meaningful.</p>
<h2>Competence</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439454/original/file-20220105-15-1f4cn8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A couple walk past a colourful inspirational mural reading 'Keep on keeping on'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439454/original/file-20220105-15-1f4cn8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439454/original/file-20220105-15-1f4cn8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439454/original/file-20220105-15-1f4cn8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439454/original/file-20220105-15-1f4cn8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439454/original/file-20220105-15-1f4cn8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439454/original/file-20220105-15-1f4cn8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439454/original/file-20220105-15-1f4cn8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">During times of collective crisis, people can feel powerless in the face of forces larger than themselves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Next, we need to value competence: our ability to influence outcomes and to show ourselves and others what we are capable of. </p>
<p>During times of collective crisis, people can feel powerless in the face of forces larger than themselves. In social prescribing, participants are supported to get back in touch with their own power, focusing less on what they can’t do and more on what they can, by <a href="https://www.cfp.ca/content/67/2/88">doing something they’re good at</a>. </p>
<p>For communities, valuing competence can mean taking a strengths-based or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-821573-9.00005-9">asset-based approach</a> that recognizes the unique capacity and expertise within a community — such as <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/health-wellness-care/covid-19-wellness-during-the-pandemic/covid-19-seniors-vulnerable-people/">trusted relationships</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003141280">local ecological knowledge</a> and <a href="https://www.redcross.ca/blog/2021/2/doctor-from-ecuador-helps-lead-red-cross-response-to-covid-19">under-recognized training</a> — rather than focusing on community deficits.</p>
<h2>Beneficence</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439453/original/file-20220105-15-v3ejr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person seen from behind takes a picture of a mural depicting a white dove parachuting COVID-19 vaccine vials" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439453/original/file-20220105-15-v3ejr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439453/original/file-20220105-15-v3ejr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439453/original/file-20220105-15-v3ejr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439453/original/file-20220105-15-v3ejr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439453/original/file-20220105-15-v3ejr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439453/original/file-20220105-15-v3ejr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439453/original/file-20220105-15-v3ejr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Regardless of our own constellations of ability, health and privilege, we all have something to give that can have a positive impact on others.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Closely related to a sense of competence is finding beneficence: the sense of having a positive impact on others. There is a demonstrable <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=CgDhJ-_sqFcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=%22giver%27s+glow%22&ots=NRQF8Rwliu&sig=E94mNgNdFkcEKSSi9eYlF2Pe-zc&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22giver's%20glow%22&f=false">giver’s glow that comes from helping</a>; regardless of individual constellations of ability, health and privilege, everyone has something to give. </p>
<p>In social prescribing, participants who express a desire to give back are supported to take the lead in volunteering to help others or designing and implementing new programs and services. At a broader level, fostering collective beneficence might look like <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.579164">prosocial communications</a> approaches that remind us of how COVID-19 precautions help others, or opportunities to help others <a href="https://vaccinehunters.ca/">access vaccines</a> and supports.</p>
<h2>Relatedness</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439455/original/file-20220105-13-14phmse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A cyclist passes a painted mural depicting cartoon panels of people in face masks talking on the phone, checking in on neighbours during the pandemic." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439455/original/file-20220105-13-14phmse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439455/original/file-20220105-13-14phmse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439455/original/file-20220105-13-14phmse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439455/original/file-20220105-13-14phmse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439455/original/file-20220105-13-14phmse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439455/original/file-20220105-13-14phmse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439455/original/file-20220105-13-14phmse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Feelings of loneliness and social isolation have grown during the COVID-19 pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eric Gay)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, we need to value relatedness: the sense of connection and belonging with others and the world around us. Feelings of <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/211124/dq211124e-eng.htm">loneliness and social isolation</a> have grown during the COVID-19 pandemic, with significant <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113648">impacts on health</a> and well-being. </p>
<p>In social prescribing, participants are afforded the time and space to develop relationships: with a community connector who listens, with friends and family, or with other participants who may have something in common. </p>
<p>Collectively and politically, recognizing relatedness can look like supporting policies that accommodate people as both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13876988.2020.1846123">workers and carers</a>, ensuring the shared protection of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2103614">global vaccine equity</a> or taking action on the ecological and climate pressures that increase the risk of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s42398-021-00165-x">zoonotic diseases</a>.</p>
<p>Self-determination means deciding for ourselves, feeling proud of a job well done, giving to others and feeling we belong. Social prescribing can’t be everything to everyone, but what it has shown is individual and collective well-being, psychological and political self-determination are deeply intertwined. </p>
<p>Starting with one phone call, walk in the park, poem or gift does make a difference, and can help kick-start the ability to get through these challenging times — together.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174368/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Mulligan consults for the Canadian Red Cross, National Collaborating Centre for the Determinants of Health and Pan American Health Organization. Her prior work on social prescribing received funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health. She is a member of the Toronto Board of Health.</span></em></p>People can counter the helplessness felt during the pandemic and build power by creating a sense of purpose and community amid the confusion of COVID-19.Kate Mulligan, Assistant Professor, Social & Behavioural Health Sciences, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1697772021-10-13T14:24:26Z2021-10-13T14:24:26ZWestern Sahara conflict risks spilling over into the Sahel: how it can be resolved<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426142/original/file-20211013-19-wb0lir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A demonstration in support of the Sahrawi people's rights.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fermin Rodriguez/NurPhoto via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United Nations recently <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2021/sga2068.doc.htm">appointed</a> a new envoy for Western Sahara – Staffan de Mistura. This is a welcome step towards resolving the long-running conflict between the pro-independence <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Polisario-Front">Polisario</a> movement, which represents the people of Western Sahara, and Morocco, which has <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/icla/20/3/article-p492_492.xml">occupied</a> the territory since 1975.</p>
<p>The appointment comes as the UN Security Council prepares to renew the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara. But the UN must do more than simply facilitate talks between Morocco and Polisario on the basis of an ambiguous call for a “political solution”. This approach has failed to deliver an agreement, and it will fail again.</p>
<p>It is time for a new diplomatic initiative to develop a realistic means of fulfilling Sahrawi self-determination in line with international legal norms. The aim should be to develop a UN plan for <a href="https://ecfr.eu/publication/free-to-choose-a-new-plan-for-peace-in-western-sahara/">free association</a> between Western Sahara and Morocco. The arrangement would provide for true power-sharing, taking as its starting point the Sahrawi people’s inherent sovereignty over their own land, while providing greater protections for their rights. </p>
<p>The current peace process is facing an existential crisis. This year marks <a href="https://minurso.unmissions.org/background">the 30th anniversary of the creation of the UN mission</a>. In 1991, the UN brokered a ceasefire between Morocco and Polisario, but effectively abandoned the idea of holding an outright vote on independence a decade later. </p>
<p>Since then, the UN Security Council has overseen an <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/north-africa/western-sahara/b82-time-international-re-engagement-western-sahara">unravelling peace process</a>. It finally collapsed last year with the resumption of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-morocco-westernsahara/polisario-leader-says-western-sahara-ceasefire-with-morocco-is-over-idUSKBN27U0GE">armed clashes</a>.</p>
<p>In a worst-case scenario, unchecked violence between Morocco and Polisario could spill over into neighbouring countries and further destabilise the Sahara-Sahel region. Former US president Donald Trump’s <a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-recognizing-sovereignty-kingdom-morocco-western-sahara/">recognition</a> of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara – a policy <a href="https://www.axios.com/biden-keep-trump-western-sahara-recogntion-morocco-349f187f-bfe7-444b-a4e2-437045ae5dcf.html">maintained</a> by the Biden administration – has complicated the search for peace.</p>
<p>There are plenty of reasons to be pessimistic about the prospects for a negotiated agreement that finally fulfils Sahrawi self-determination. Still, there are reasons to be optimistic. A timely, durable and just resolution to the Western Sahara conflict is possible. </p>
<p>This means rectifying past mistakes.</p>
<h2>Big ask</h2>
<p>The new UN envoy is a tough and principled diplomat with deep experience of complex diplomacy after serving as the UN’s envoy to Syria. Past envoys have shared similar qualities. But this will count for little without strong support from the Security Council, particularly the US and France, when tough decisions must be made.</p>
<p>De Mistura must also change diplomatic tack. He can’t simply facilitate dialogue between the parties. He must be given the political strength to drive forward a realistic UN-developed plan to achieve Sahrawi self-determination in the face of strong opposition from Morocco, which claims the territory as its own. </p>
<p>This will certainly be no small feat. But it is the most realistic path forward.</p>
<p>For over two decades, the UN Security Council has called on Morocco and Polisario to reach a negotiated political solution that respects UN norms of decolonising <a href="https://www.un.org/dppa/decolonization/en/nsgt">non-self-governing territories</a>. Implicitly, this mandate assumes that a solution will be found between the options of independent statehood or integration into Morocco.</p>
<p>Over the past decades, this search for an alternative – a “third way” – has been dominated by the idea of autonomy. This has been an additional source of failure.</p>
<p>It isn’t surprising, for a number of reasons. </p>
<p>Firstly, autonomy is merely a form of integration – it’s not an alternative to it. </p>
<p>Secondly, autonomy arrangements have a poor track record of permanently resolving ethnic conflicts in postcolonial and developing regions. The collapse of Yugoslavia and the bloody wars between Ethiopia and Eritrea both have their roots in failed autonomy arrangements.</p>
<p>Thirdly, the <a href="http://www.moroccoembassy.org.au/?q=full-text-moroccan-initiative-autonomy-plan">autonomy plan</a> put forward by Morocco in 2007 lacks any safeguards to ensure continuing respect for Sahrawi rights and self-governance by the Moroccan regime. This is a critical issue since the plan would formally integrate Sahrawis into an <a href="https://www.v-dem.net/media/filer_public/74/8c/748c68ad-f224-4cd7-87f9-8794add5c60f/dr_2021_updated.pdf">autocratic system</a> that has a <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/country/western-sahara">history</a> of suppressing their nationalism, human rights and political agency. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, Polisario has rejected Morocco’s plan as a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4415284.stm">non-starter</a>.</p>
<p>Fourthly, autonomy runs contrary to Western Sahara’s international legal status as a non-self-governing territory that is separate from Morocco. This was recently affirmed in a <a href="https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=246701&pageIndex=0&doclang=FR&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=3011736">ruling</a> of the EU Court of Justice.</p>
<p>But this doesn’t mean that the UN Security Council should stop searching for middle ground. </p>
<h2>Free association as an alternative?</h2>
<p>The UN should explore the lesser-known concept of free association. </p>
<p>Under this arrangement, the Sahrawis (through Polisario) would delegate aspects of their sovereignty to Morocco and to a newly created state of Western Sahara. Robust international guarantees and supervisory mechanisms would help to ensure both sides respect the agreement.</p>
<p>The concept has been put forward in UN General Assembly <a href="https://www.un.org/dppa/decolonization/en/about">resolutions</a> as well as International Court of Justice <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/public/files/case-related/61/061-19751016-ADV-01-00-EN.pdf">deliberations</a> as one means of de-colonising Western Sahara.</p>
<p>Any future arrangement with Morocco must above all reflect the consent of the Sahrawi people through an informed and democratic process. A free association agreement would therefore still need to be accepted by the Sahrawis in a referendum. A limited number of Moroccan settlers could also be given the right to vote in a referendum.</p>
<p>Critics point out that neither side has much reason to back such a solution. This is true. But if a negotiated agreement is ever to be found, it is most likely to fall within the realm of free association rather than outright independence or integration in Morocco.</p>
<p>A diplomatic solution is possible. But it will require both sides to make concessions to get what they want. This can only happen through increased international diplomatic activism. The UN Security Council, the EU, and their respective members all have the capacity to shape this future by deploying the right combination of incentives and disincentives.</p>
<p>Polisario will need to be convinced that delegating some authority to Morocco is a suitable price to pay for an end to the Moroccan occupation and internationally recognised Sahrawi statehood. This will have to include guarantees that any future deal will be enforced by the international community.</p>
<p>To make progress, the UN Security Council and the EU will also need to apply real leverage on Morocco – something they have proven reluctant to do. By virtue of its status as the <a href="https://www.rulac.org/browse/conflicts/military-occupation-of-western-sahara-by-morocco">occupying power</a>, the overwhelming control it exerts on the ground, and its obligations under previous UN resolutions and international law, it is Rabat that will have to move the most.</p>
<p>France and the US also need to apply pressure. As a start, France and the US should remove their automatic protection for Morocco at the UN Security Council. And Washington should suspend Trump’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty should Rabat block UN-led peace efforts. </p>
<p>Few in the international community consider Western Sahara to be a pressing foreign policy issue. Yet, given the slow deterioration of security in Western Sahara and potential wider implications for north-west Africa and Europe, the appointment of a new UN envoy offers a rare moment to reboot international diplomacy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169777/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacob Mundy is a visiting fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hugh Lovatt is a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). </span></em></p>If a negotiated agreement is ever found, it is most likely to fall within the realm of free association rather than outright independence or integration in Morocco.Jacob Mundy, Associate Professor, Colgate UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1574052021-03-25T00:43:02Z2021-03-25T00:43:02ZThere’s no need to pause vaccine rollouts when there’s a safety scare. Give the public the facts and let them decide<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391340/original/file-20210324-21-v5pniy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1000%2C664&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/nurse-holds-syringe-glass-jar-labeled-1927585205">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When someone gets sick after receiving a vaccine, this might be a complication or coincidence. As the recent rollout out of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe shows, it can be very <a href="https://theconversation.com/data-suggest-no-increased-risk-of-blood-clots-from-the-astrazeneca-vaccine-australia-shouldnt-pause-its-rollout-157137">difficult to know</a> how to respond. </p>
<p>For instance, reports of blood clots associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine led to several European countries <a href="https://theconversation.com/blood-clot-fears-how-misapplication-of-the-precautionary-principle-may-undermine-public-trust-in-vaccines-157168">suspending their vaccination programs</a> recently, only <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/eu-s-drug-regulator-backs-astrazeneca-vaccine-after-safety-investigation-20210319-p57c43.html">to resume them</a> once these clots were judged to be a coincidence. However, authorities <a href="https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-benefits-still-outweigh-risks-despite-possible-link-rare-blood-clots">couldn’t rule out</a> increased rates of a rare brain blood clot associated with low levels of blood platelets. </p>
<p>There are also problems with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. By early February 2021, among the over 20 million people vaccinated in the United States, there have been 20 reported cases of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajh.26132?af=R">immune thrombocytopenia</a>, a blood disorder featuring a reduced number of platelets in the blood. Experts suspect this is probably a rare vaccine side-effect but <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/health/immune-thrombocytopenia-covid-vaccine-blood.html">argue vaccination should continue</a>.</p>
<p>So what happens with the next safety scare, for these or other vaccines? We argue it’s best to give people the facts so they have the autonomy to make their own decisions. When governments pause vaccine rollouts while investigating apparent safety issues, this is paternalism, and can do more harm than good.</p>
<h2>The ‘precautionary principle’ can backfire</h2>
<p>Like any medicine, vaccines have risks associated with their benefits. And no one wants to recommend or use a vaccine with serious side-effects.</p>
<p>So when faced with recent unconfirmed serious side-effects following vaccination, European countries were tempted by the “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446778/">precautionary principle</a>”, or “better safe than sorry”. They opted to pause and gather more evidence.</p>
<p>Some might argue a precautionary approach could help protect the public’s confidence in vaccination in the long term. However, suspending or withdrawing a vaccine <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/confidence-plunges-amid-pause-on-astrazeneca-vaccine-pmwz5w6qv">could also undermine confidence</a>. Once a vaccine program is stopped due to safety concerns, it may not recover. This happened with the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(20)30010-4/fulltext">in Japan</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/people-with-severe-allergies-warned-off-pfizer-covid-vaccine-for-now-but-that-may-change-as-more-details-emerge-151837">People with severe allergies warned off Pfizer COVID vaccine for now. But that may change as more details emerge</a>
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<p>The precautionary approach can also be lethal. In a pandemic, suspending or withdrawing an effective vaccine leads to preventable deaths. The number of preventable deaths depends on three factors.</p>
<p><strong>1. Delay</strong></p>
<p>The first is how many people will be delayed in receiving a vaccine. Fortunately, the AstraZeneca vaccine is not the only approved vaccine in Europe, so its suspension or withdrawal would not wholly prevent vaccination; however, some people’s vaccinations could be delayed. </p>
<p><strong>2. Deaths</strong></p>
<p>The second factor is the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-18/astrazeneca-vaccine-ban-costs-lives-as-europe-faces-another-wave/13255292">risk of people dying</a> if vaccines are delayed. For example, in England (a country that did not suspend the AstraZeneca vaccine), <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/2021/03/56-59/">people aged 56-59</a> are currently being invited to book appointments for vaccination. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2918-0">A study in 2020</a> <a href="https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41586-020-2918-0/MediaObjects/41586_2020_2918_MOESM1_ESM.pdf">suggests</a> roughly 0.3% of unvaccinated 55-59 year-olds infected with coronavirus die. But in countries that have not yet vaccinated older people, the risks of a suspension will be higher. The same study suggests the risk of dying for (unvaccinated) 70-74 year-olds infected with the coronavirus is roughly 1.7%. For those infected over 80, the risk is 8.3%.</p>
<p><strong>3. How widespread is the virus?</strong></p>
<p>A third factor is how common infections are at the time of suspension. When rates of infection are higher, we expect more deaths. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://covid19-surveillance-report.ecdc.europa.eu/">European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control</a>, as low as 8 or as many as 1,518 out of 100,000 people are infected with the virus. The rate varies between countries. Australia could afford to be precautionary because testing figures currently suggest a low incidence of COVID-19 (<a href="https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-current-situation-and-case-numbers#at-a-glance">only 0.2%</a> of COVID-19 tests conducted in the past week have returned positive results). Indeed, <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-covid-vaccine-rollout-is-well-behind-schedule-but-dont-panic-157048">its slow vaccine rollout</a> is consistent with a precautionary approach, as evidence is gathered from other countries.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391341/original/file-20210324-23-7eh83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Vaccine news about vaccine pause on smartphone screen" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391341/original/file-20210324-23-7eh83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391341/original/file-20210324-23-7eh83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391341/original/file-20210324-23-7eh83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391341/original/file-20210324-23-7eh83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391341/original/file-20210324-23-7eh83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391341/original/file-20210324-23-7eh83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391341/original/file-20210324-23-7eh83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">European countries suspended their vaccine rollout, then resumed. But this isn’t the only way to handle safety scares.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/moscow-russia-16-march-2021-cnn-1936882855">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/data-suggest-no-increased-risk-of-blood-clots-from-the-astrazeneca-vaccine-australia-shouldnt-pause-its-rollout-157137">Data suggest no increased risk of blood clots from the AstraZeneca vaccine. Australia shouldn't pause its rollout</a>
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<h2>Paternalism or autonomy?</h2>
<p>Safety regulation involves value judgements around evidence and weighing risks and benefits. It also involves judgements about who we allow to make decisions about that balance.</p>
<p><a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paternalism/">Paternalism</a> is the practice of making judgements for other people about what is best for them. And the strongest form of paternalism (“<a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paternalism/#HardVsSoftPate">hard paternalism</a>”) fails to respect the autonomy of competent adults, and breaches their right to make decisions about their own lives. </p>
<p>Suspension or withdrawal of vaccines is hard paternalism. Preventing someone from accessing an effective life-saving vaccine to protect them from low risks of rare side-effects is a severe restriction of their autonomy.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/blood-clot-fears-how-misapplication-of-the-precautionary-principle-may-undermine-public-trust-in-vaccines-157168">Blood clot fears: how misapplication of the precautionary principle may undermine public trust in vaccines</a>
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<p>There are limits to autonomy. Where an intervention will clearly do more harm than good, it is the government’s responsibility to prevent it. And when there are limited public resources, it is necessary to distribute benefits and burdens fairly.</p>
<p>But what matters ethically is not only vaccine confidence and public health, but whether people can make their own autonomous decisions about the risks they want to take: the risks of COVID-19 or the risks of vaccination.</p>
<h2>So how would this work?</h2>
<p>Autonomous decision-making here requires:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>disclosure of even small risks if the outcomes are significant</p></li>
<li><p>admission of limits to confidence (for instance, how much we know about the risks and what we don’t know)</p></li>
<li><p>disclosing this information in ways appropriate and comprehensible to all sections of the community</p></li>
<li><p>helping people to think for themselves about the inevitable uncertainties of life.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Safeguarding autonomy here also requires putting safeguards in place to protect those who do not have the capacity to provide valid consent.</p>
<p>When looking at the background rates of blood clots, anaphylaxis or any other rare adverse events, it seems pretty clear vaccines are <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-vaccines-have-been-developed-in-record-time-but-how-will-we-know-theyre-safe-153888">safe and the associated risks are small</a>. </p>
<p>We must investigate all vaccine safety signals thoroughly. But the process also needs to maintain the public’s confidence in vaccines through effective and transparent communication of risk. Communicating risk in terms people understand is challenging but it is essential to ensure informed decision-making. </p>
<p>For most people, the benefits of being vaccinated will outweigh the risks. But we should treat people as adults and allow them to make up their own minds. </p>
<p>Governments should not be nannies, nor nervous ninnies. Suspending vaccination fails to respect people’s right to make their own choices. It also threatens to cause much more harm overall.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157405/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Savulescu receives funding from the Uehiro Foundation on Ethics and Education, NHMRC, Wellcome Trust, Australian Research Council, UK Research and Innovation (Arts and Humanities Research Council) as part of the Ethics Accelerator Award AH/V013947/1, WHO. He is a Partner Investigator on an Australian Research Council Linkage award (LP190100841, Oct 2020-2023) which involves industry partnership from Illumina. He does not personally receive any funds from Illumina.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic Wilkinson receives funding from the Wellcome trust and the UKRI/AHRC Pandemic Ethics Accelerator project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Pugh works for the University of Oxford. This work was supported by the UKRI/ AHRC funded UK Ethics Accelerator project, grant number AH/V013947/1.’ He has previously been funded by the Wellcome Trust.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margie Danchin receives funding from the NHMRC, Commonwealth and State governments, University of Melbourne and WHO and currently receives a clinician scientist fellowship from the Murdoch Chidlrens Research Institute.</span></em></p>Pausing COVID-19 vaccine rollouts can backfire. There are better ways to manage safety issues while they’re being investigated.Julian Savulescu, Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics, Murdoch Children's Research Institute; Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law, University of Melbourne; Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of OxfordDominic Wilkinson, Consultant Neonatologist and Professor of Ethics, University of OxfordJonathan Pugh, Research Fellow in Applied Moral Philosophy, University of OxfordMargie Danchin, Associate Professor, University of Melbourne, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1380882020-05-07T17:00:16Z2020-05-07T17:00:16ZDid Neil Ferguson really do wrong in breaking the coronavirus lockdown?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333408/original/file-20200507-49558-13jy7pe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:180515_ferguson_neil_sph_020.jpg">Thomas Angus, Imperial College London/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If anyone is an expert on when it might be OK to breach lockdown regulations, it’s one of the country’s leading epidemiologists. But after <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/05/uk-coronavirus-adviser-prof-neil-ferguson-resigns-after-breaking-lockdown-rules">breaking the rules</a>, Neil Ferguson felt the need to step down from his position as a government adviser.</p>
<p>Twice during lockdown, Ferguson allowed a woman he is said to be in a relationship with to visit him. This was despite the UK government, who he was advising on COVID-19, forbidding people from visiting friends and family they don’t live with.</p>
<p>Does his expertise mean we should judge his indiscretions lightly? No. The lockdown strategy requires us all to act as if we are stupid, as if we cannot make judgements about what is safe or unsafe on the basis of the evidence. That applies as much to Ferguson as to you or me.</p>
<p>Ferguson was hypocritical. But hypocrisy is rather a boring vice – all it means is that there was a gap between his words and his actions. So, which were wrong: his words about the importance of lockdown, or his actions of breaking those measures? </p>
<h2>The unfairness of free riding</h2>
<p>It might seem obvious that the problem was his actions. By now, we all know why we should stay at home: to protect the NHS and save lives. But if everyone is staying home except one or two of us, the NHS will probably be protected whatever we do. What’s wrong with a few small violations?</p>
<p>Philosophers, economists and social scientists have thought about <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/free-rider/">similar problems</a>. Here’s one standard example. Imagine you see everyone else buy a ticket as they board the bus. Enough tickets have been bought that the bus will run, even if you don’t buy one. So, you sneak on. Everyone else still gets to their destination, but something about your actions seems worrying. </p>
<p>Most analyses of these free-riding cases centre around ideas of fairness. In free riding, we receive a benefit from some socially coordinated activity but refuse to contribute ourselves. These refusals have an odd character. The activity can carry on generating benefits even if some people don’t cooperate, but not if everyone stopped cooperating. The bus will run even if you don’t buy a ticket, but not if no one did. If we free ride, we rely on everyone else to do their share while not doing our own. That’s <a href="https://politics.virginia.edu/georgeklosko/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2016/03/presumptive-benefit.pdf">unfair</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333416/original/file-20200507-49573-tkos56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333416/original/file-20200507-49573-tkos56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333416/original/file-20200507-49573-tkos56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333416/original/file-20200507-49573-tkos56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333416/original/file-20200507-49573-tkos56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333416/original/file-20200507-49573-tkos56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333416/original/file-20200507-49573-tkos56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Just because you can sneak on, doesn’t mean you should.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:People_Getting_on_MBTA_Bus_57.jpg">Miles, the MBTA Guy/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Notions of free riding are central to many real-world debates. They are certainly relevant to the question of vaccination: if I know that everyone else has received a vaccine to protect against a disease, then why bother getting vaccinated myself? <a href="https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/what-herd-immunity">Herd immunity</a> will protect me and everyone else. </p>
<p>The short answer is that while you don’t need to be vaccinated to be protected, you do have an ethical obligation to maintain this <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6267229/">public good</a>. </p>
<p>This notion also helps us understand small violations of lockdown rules. Given that everyone else is in lockdown, two people meeting up is extremely unlikely to cause harm. However, the meet-up is safe only because everyone else is in lockdown. If everyone did it, meeting up wouldn’t be safe. The problem isn’t that meeting up is risky, but that it’s unfair. </p>
<h2>Why it’s time to act stupid</h2>
<p>But there’s a twist. Free riding involves a “What if everyone did it?” question, and a lot depends on the “it”. </p>
<p>We know that Ferguson himself <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-politics-52553229">has already had COVID-19</a>, and so was <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-long-are-you-infectious-when-you-have-coronavirus-135295">unlikely to be infectious</a>. Perhaps lots of people in Ferguson’s position could have meet-ups while continuing to protect the NHS and save lives. What would be wrong with adopting a more nuanced attitude towards lockdown measures – allowing people to judge for themselves how risky their behaviour is?</p>
<p>Here’s an obvious answer: people are often bad at <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-our-brains-do-not-intuitively-grasp-probabilities/">estimating risks</a>. </p>
<p>These problems are even worse in our current situation. It is hard to judge whether you have had <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-disease-2019-vs-the-flu">COVID-19 or seasonal flu</a>, and judgements about safety depend on <a href="https://kingsphilosophy.com/2020/04/06/a-laypersons-guide-to-epidemiological-modelling-prof-alexander-bird/">complex medical and mathematical considerations</a>. Most of us are unqualified to decide that we are safe to stand closer than two metres apart.</p>
<p>Still, not everyone is equally bad at such calculations. For example, maybe prominent epidemiological modellers such as Ferguson are well situated to judge when it’s OK to break the rules. Why not give some people a pass? </p>
<p>The answer to this question takes us back to fairness. Normally, we enjoy what philosophers call <a href="http://www.investigacoesfilosoficas.com/wp-content/uploads/04-Zagzebski-2013-Intellectual-Autonomy.pdf">“intellectual autonomy”</a>; we are free to exercise our own judgement in forming our beliefs. One of the costs of lockdown is giving up some of this autonomy. We have to follow the rules, even if we feel certain they don’t apply to us. </p>
<p>Consider someone who, against this backdrop, makes their own judgements about what behaviours are risky. They are exercising their own intellectual autonomy on the basis that other people aren’t doing the same. That’s unfair in much the same way as taking the bus without buying a ticket. And just as not buying a ticket is unfair even when the bus will run anyway, this exercise of your intellectual autonomy can be unfair even when you’re likely to be <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/JOHETA-2">right</a>.</p>
<p>Beyond the tawdry tabloid headlines and cries of hypocrisy, Ferguson’s indiscretions reveal a deeper, stranger truth. Sometimes, fairness can demand that we act stupid, even when we’re not.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138088/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen John does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Lockdown requires that we all act as if we know nothing, even if we are world experts on disease transmission.Stephen John, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Public Health, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1314272020-03-04T11:57:44Z2020-03-04T11:57:44ZThe sharing economy helps women find new economic opportunities in Jordan<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316653/original/file-20200221-92541-1h6gezj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New technology has created new options for women in Jordan.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/jordanian?license=rf&agreements=pa:77130&family=creative&phrase=Jordanian&sort=best#license">Jasmin Merdan/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Across the world, women face <a href="https://wgac.colostate.edu/support/stalking/stalking-statistics/">online stalking</a>, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/14/men-women-experience-and-view-online-harassment-differently/">threats to their reputation</a> and <a href="https://www.accessnow.org/gender-surveillance-world-can-work-together-safer-internet/">surveillance or monitoring</a> of their online activities.</p>
<p>In many countries, threats to safety and privacy limit women’s access to information and communication technologies.</p>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://jsis.washington.edu/people/allison-anderson/">scholar of gender and development</a>, and my forthcoming Ph.D. research with women in Jordan reveals a more complicated relationship between surveillance and freedom, as surveillance activities there often allow greater autonomy for women to work. </p>
<h2>Sharing economy platforms grow</h2>
<p>In Jordan, only 15% of women are engaged in the formal economy.</p>
<p><a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2020.pdf">Jordan is near the bottom</a> of global rankings for economic participation and opportunity for women, ranking 145 out of 153 countries.</p>
<p>There are <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/859411541448063088/Hashemite-Kingdom-of-Jordan-Understanding-How-Gender-Norms-in-MNA-Impact-Female-Employment-Outcomes">many reasons women don’t work</a>, including cultural and societal norms, the time and expense of transportation to job sites, concerns about safety on public transit, the cost and availability of child care and the length of time away from home required for most jobs. </p>
<p>Because of these constraints, many women prefer working in a flexible manner through their own home-based businesses. </p>
<p>In the last few years, sharing economy platforms – also called <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gig-economy.asp">the gig</a> or <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/collaborative-economy.asp">collaborative economy</a> – have been built up around the activities that Jordanian women are involved in from home. </p>
<p>Sharing economy platforms include many of the companies that are described as the “Uber of” whatever their business is. They act as intermediaries between service providers and service seekers through a website or mobile application.</p>
<p>In Jordan, there are currently sharing economy platforms for finding <a href="http://carersapp.care/carers/en/">babysitters</a>, <a href="http://www.instatoot.me/">tutors</a>, <a href="https://www.mrayti.com/">at-home salon services</a>, <a href="https://aounservices.com/en/">home maintenance</a> and more.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316655/original/file-20200221-92551-1sbawvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316655/original/file-20200221-92551-1sbawvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316655/original/file-20200221-92551-1sbawvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316655/original/file-20200221-92551-1sbawvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316655/original/file-20200221-92551-1sbawvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316655/original/file-20200221-92551-1sbawvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316655/original/file-20200221-92551-1sbawvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Of the more than 10 million people in Jordan, only 15.1% of women there work at all.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/jordanian-workforce?license=rf&agreements=pa:77130&family=creative&page=2&phrase=Jordanian%20workforce&sort=best#license">Richmatts/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Safety and privacy</h2>
<p>New technologies can improve the lives of women by giving them new opportunities, but what does women’s involvement in the sharing economy mean for their privacy and safety?</p>
<p>In Jordan, women also face <a href="http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/90-cybercrime-victims-jordan-are-women%E2%80%99">threats to their reputation from online activities and policing and monitoring of digital activities</a>, though it is unclear how significant this problem is because it is difficult to find available gender-segregated data regarding the topic in Jordan. </p>
<p>I spent more than 10 months researching women’s work and technology in Jordan last year. The over 100 women I spoke with in Jordan suggest that sharing economy platforms address some family concerns about a woman’s safety with location settings. When a family member can track the woman’s movements and know where she is, they feel more comfortable allowing her to go to work. </p>
<p>Many of the sharing economy platform jobs are time-specific roles, such as a service seeker requesting a babysitter for a set three-hour block or providing tutoring services for a set one-hour session. In focus groups, many women expressed that their families supported their work because they knew where they were going and for how long. </p>
<p>A co-founder and CEO of a sharing economy platform explained to me that they face “some challenges because we don’t employ women from home and not all families allow daughters to work outside the home,” but that because families know where their daughters are going and there are high salaries for low amounts of time, they often let their daughters complete the requests.</p>
<h2>Brand reputation and supportive solutions</h2>
<p>Additionally, sophisticated user experience and user interface with advanced features help families feel that a brand is legitimate and help them to trust the company more.</p>
<p>This brand reputation helps support women working because there are fewer concerns about reputational risk. A different founder and CEO of a sharing economy platform told me that “technology on its own can’t solve social issues that prevent women from working, but a sophisticated UX can change behaviors and allow women to work because families are more comfortable with female family members working for legitimate and trusted brands.”</p>
<p>Finally, sharing economy platforms in Jordan often create nontechnological solutions to support women to work on their platforms. For example, the founder and CEO of the salon services platform Mrayti visits women’s families at home to build trust in the company before the woman might decide to join.</p>
<p>Other examples include a home maintenance platform that provides transportation for women to the job site and a platform for caregivers that makes visits to approve the families requesting babysitting or nursing care before they send people to work in their homes.</p>
<p>These solutions are effective because they are built on an understanding of the local culture and the importance of relationships and reputation in Jordan.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131427/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allison J. Anderson received funding from the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board to conduct fieldwork on women's economic participation in Jordan in 2018-2019.</span></em></p>Research reveals a complicated relationship between surveillance and freedom, as surveillance activities allow for greater autonomy for women hoping to work in Jordan.Allison Jacobs Anderson, Ph.D. Candidate, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1264832019-12-04T13:27:09Z2019-12-04T13:27:09ZRobotics researchers have a duty to prevent autonomous weapons<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304560/original/file-20191201-156120-1g0lx17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Both the hardware and software of commercial drones can be changed easily.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Drones-Regulations/a4f3ca06278c49f58504551dadaf0faf/6/0">AP Photo/Seth Wenig</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Robotics is rapidly being transformed by advances in artificial intelligence. And the benefits are widespread: We are seeing safer vehicles with the <a href="https://www.subaru.com/engineering/eyesight.html">ability to automatically brake in an emergency</a>, robotic arms <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/5/26/15656120/manufacturing-jobs-automation-ai-us-increase-robot-sales-reshoring-offshoring">transforming factory lines that were once offshored</a> and <a href="https://www.starship.xyz/">new robots</a> that can do everything from shop for groceries to <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/postmates-delivery-robot-serve/">deliver prescription drugs</a> to people who have trouble doing it themselves.</p>
<p>But our ever-growing appetite for intelligent, autonomous machines poses a host of ethical challenges.</p>
<h2>Rapid advances have led ethical dilemmas</h2>
<p>These ideas and more were swirling as my colleagues and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-YOtPcIAAAAJ&hl=en">I</a> met in early November at one of the world’s largest autonomous robotics-focused research conferences – <a href="https://www.ieee-ras.org/about-ras/ras-calendar/event/1141-iros-2019-international-conference-on-intelligent-robots-and-systems">the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems</a>. There, academics, corporate researchers, and government scientists presented developments in algorithms that allow robots to make their own decisions.</p>
<p>As with all technology, the range of future uses for our research is difficult to imagine. It’s even more challenging to forecast given how quickly this field is changing. Take, for example, the ability for a computer to identify objects in an image: in 2010, the state of the art was successful <a href="https://papers.nips.cc/paper/4824-imagenet-classification-with-deep-convolutional-neural-networks.pdf">only about half of the time</a>, and it was stuck there for years. Today, though, the best algorithms as shown in published papers <a href="https://paperswithcode.com/sota/image-classification-on-imagenet">are now at 86% accuracy</a>. That advance alone allows autonomous robots to understand what they are seeing through the camera lenses. It also shows the rapid pace of progress over the past decade due to developments in AI.</p>
<p>This kind of improvement is a true milestone from a technical perspective. Whereas in the past manually reviewing troves of video footage would require an incredible number of hours, now such data can be rapidly and accurately parsed by a computer program.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304561/original/file-20191201-156095-1ictzjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304561/original/file-20191201-156095-1ictzjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304561/original/file-20191201-156095-1ictzjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304561/original/file-20191201-156095-1ictzjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304561/original/file-20191201-156095-1ictzjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304561/original/file-20191201-156095-1ictzjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304561/original/file-20191201-156095-1ictzjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304561/original/file-20191201-156095-1ictzjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban the use of facial recognition technology by police and other city agencies. This same technology can be coupled with drones, which are becoming more autonomous.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Facial-Recognition-Backlash/5d8a15313554488986c7eb5c2401c9d7/9/0">AP Photo/Eric Risberg</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But it also gives rise to an ethical dilemma. In removing humans from the process, the assumptions that underpin the decisions <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/ai_and_privacy.pdf">related to privacy and security have been fundamentally altered</a>. For example, the use of cameras in public streets may have raised privacy concerns 15 or 20 years ago, but adding accurate facial recognition technology dramatically alters those privacy implications.</p>
<h2>Easy to modify systems</h2>
<p>When developing machines that can make own decisions – typically called autonomous systems – the ethical questions that arise are arguably more concerning than those in object recognition. AI-enhanced autonomy is developing so rapidly that capabilities which were once limited to highly engineered systems are now available to anyone with a household toolbox and some computer experience. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304562/original/file-20191201-156112-1ydr1i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304562/original/file-20191201-156112-1ydr1i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304562/original/file-20191201-156112-1ydr1i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304562/original/file-20191201-156112-1ydr1i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304562/original/file-20191201-156112-1ydr1i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304562/original/file-20191201-156112-1ydr1i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304562/original/file-20191201-156112-1ydr1i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304562/original/file-20191201-156112-1ydr1i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Commercial drones allow for many beneficial uses, such as delivering medicine or spraying for mosquitoes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Zanzibar-Drones-Fight-Malaria/84a8645acf2a4b78bfd017e683e048a2/5/0">AP Photo/Haroub Hussein</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People with no background in computer science can <a href="https://www.kaggle.com/learn/overview">learn some of the most state-of-the-art artificial intelligence tools</a>, and robots are more than willing to let you <a href="https://developer.dji.com/onboard-sdk/documentation/sample-doc/advanced-sensing-object-detection.html">run your newly acquired machine learning techniques</a> on them. There are online forums filled with people <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-way-to-understand-the-basics-of-robotics">eager to help anyone learn how to do this</a>.</p>
<p>With earlier tools, it was already easy enough to program your minimally modified drone <a href="https://www.instructables.com/id/Vision-Based-Object-Tracking-and-Following-Using-3/">to identify a red bag and follow it</a>. <a href="http://openaccess.thecvf.com/content_cvpr_2017/html/Redmon_YOLO9000_Better_Faster_CVPR_2017_paper.html">More recent object detection technology</a> unlocks the ability to track a range of things that resemble more than 9,000 different object types. Combined with <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/drones/skydios-new-drone-is-smaller-even-smarter-and-almost-affordable">newer, more maneuverable drones</a>, it’s not hard to imagine how easily they could be equipped with weapons. What’s to stop someone from strapping an explosive or another weapon to a drone equipped with this technology? </p>
<p>Using a variety of techniques, autonomous drones are already a threat. They have been caught <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/06/14/isis-drones-are-attacking-u-s-troops-and-disrupting-airstrikes-in-raqqa-officials-say/">dropping explosives on U.S. troops</a>, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/29/climate-activists-plan-to-use-drones-to-shut-down-heathrow-airport-next-month/">shutting down airports</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/world/americas/venezuela-video-analysis.html">being used in an assassination attempt on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro</a>. The autonomous systems that are being developed right now could make staging such attacks easier and more devastating.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gEnG2tv5LJM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Reports indicate that the Islamic State is using off-the-shelf drones, some of which are being used for bombings.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Regulation or review boards?</h2>
<p>About a year ago, a group of researchers in artificial intelligence and autonomous robotics <a href="https://futureoflife.org/lethal-autonomous-weapons-pledge/">put forward a pledge</a> to refrain from developing lethal autonomous weapons. They defined lethal autonomous weapons as platforms that are capable of “selecting and engaging targets without human intervention.” As a robotics researcher who isn’t interested in developing autonomous targeting techniques, <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/irt/autonomous-systems/2018/08/08/cu-engineering-faculty-respond-lethal-autonomous-weapons-pledge">I felt that the pledge missed the crux of the danger</a>. It glossed over important ethical questions that need to be addressed, especially those at the broad intersection of drone applications that could be either benign or violent.</p>
<p>For one, the researchers, companies and developers who wrote the papers and built the software and devices generally aren’t doing it to create weapons. However, they might inadvertently enable others, with minimal expertise, to create such weapons. </p>
<p>What can we do to address this risk?</p>
<p>Regulation is one option, and one already used by banning aerial drones near airports or around national parks. Those are helpful, but they don’t prevent the creation of weaponized drones. Traditional weapons regulations are not a sufficient template, either. They generally tighten controls on the source material or the manufacturing process. That would be nearly impossible with autonomous systems, where the source materials are widely shared computer code and the manufacturing process can take place at home using off-the-shelf components. </p>
<p>Another option would be to follow in the footsteps of biologists. In 1975, they held <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC432675/">a conference on the potential hazards of recombinant DNA</a> at Asilomar in California. There, experts agreed to voluntary guidelines that would direct the course of future work. For autonomous systems, such an outcome seems unlikely at this point. Many research projects that could be used in the development of weapons also have peaceful and incredibly useful outcomes.</p>
<p>A third choice would be to establish self-governance bodies at the organization level, such as the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/institutional-review-boards-frequently-asked-questions">institutional review boards</a> that currently oversee studies on human subjects at companies, universities and government labs. These boards consider the benefits to the populations involved in the research and craft ways to mitigate potential harms. But they can regulate only research done within their institutions, which limits their scope. </p>
<p>Still, a large number of researchers would fall under these boards’ purview – within the autonomous robotics research community, nearly every presenter at technical conferences are members of an institution. Research review boards would be a first step toward self-regulation and could flag projects that could be weaponized.</p>
<h2>Living with the peril and promise</h2>
<p>Many of my colleagues and I are excited to develop the next generation of autonomous systems. I feel that the potential for good is too promising to ignore. But I am also concerned about the risks that new technologies pose, especially if they are exploited by malicious people. Yet with some careful organization and informed conversations today, I believe we can work toward achieving those benefits while limiting the potential for harm.</p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.</em>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126483/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christoffer Heckman receives funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p>Modified commercial drones are getting more powerful and can easily be turned into weapons. A researcher argues for ways to prevent their development.Christoffer Heckman, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1220842019-09-19T13:26:33Z2019-09-19T13:26:33ZMorocco and Western Sahara: a decades-long war of attrition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292768/original/file-20190917-19059-ltrfbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The flag of Western Sahara is displayed during a march outside the Moroccan embassy in Madrid, Spain.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/LUCA PIERGIOVANNI</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been more than 40 years since Morocco claimed sovereignty over Western Sahara, setting off a conflict that seems no closer to resolution.</p>
<p>In 1975 Spain abandoned its colonies in North Africa, with the exception of the territories of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14114627">Ceuta and Melilla</a>. Morocco stepped in to claim sovereignty over Western Sahara, a territory nearly its size on its southern border. In doing so, it invoked <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13629380801996471">ancestral cultural and political ties</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Polisario-Front">Polisario</a>, a politico-military organisation first created to fight off Spain, opposed Morocco’s claim. The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was proclaimed in 1976 by the Polisario to embody its independence project. While the SADR is not an internationally recognised state, it continues to symbolically represent the Sahrawis’ self-determination endeavour. </p>
<p>Years of military affront between Morocco and the Polisario followed, leading to Morocco controlling 80% of the territory until the United Nations (UN) intervened. The conflict pushed most Sahrawis to seek refuge in Algeria, near the town of Tindouf, where <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2014/10/18/radar/human-rights-tindouf-refugee-camps">they settled in camps</a> organised by the Polisario and partly funded by the UN. <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/12/19/human-rights-western-sahara-and-tindouf-refugee-camps">125,000 people</a> still live there to this day. In the parts of the territory controlled by Rabat, Sahrawis face systematic repression by the authorities. Demonstrations supporting Western Sahara’s self-determination are <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/morocco/western-sahara">not permitted</a>. </p>
<p>The UN set up the <a href="https://minurso.unmissions.org/background">Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO)</a> in 1991 to halt the conflict by imposing a ceasefire. It also committed to organise a referendum of self-determination for the Sahrawis. The ceasefire has held, but there still has not been a referendum.</p>
<p>At first glance, it would seem like nothing has changed since 1991. Yet, things have been slowly and discreetly evolving in recent years at Morocco’s behest. Western Sahara is thus not a case of frozen conflict – but rather, of a war of attrition. I have <a href="https://www.raisondetat.com/single-post/2019/09/18/Bolton-WesternSahara">explored elements</a> of Morocco’s push to dominate the narrative about Western Sahara as part of <a href="https://cerium.umontreal.ca/recherche/publications/cahiers-du-cerium/une-nouvelle/news/sahara-occidental-les-raisons-du-blocage-49291/">my research</a>.</p>
<h2>An indirect war of attrition</h2>
<p>While no one has died because of military clashes since 1991, the infighting has continued by other means. As diplomacy scholar R. Joseph Huddleston <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/05/09/can-john-bolton-thaw-western-saharas-long-frozen-conflict-morocco-western-sahara-polisario-minurso-sahrawi-republic/">has written</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The front lines have moved from the arid desert to the realm of media and diplomacy.</p>
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<p>Morocco’s tactics have centred on diplomacy. It has worked hard in recent years to gather international support for its <a href="http://moroccoembassy.vn/FileUpload/Documents/S_2007_206-EN.pdf">Autonomy Plan</a>, submitted to the UN Secretary-General in 2007. This would prevent the creation of an independent Western Sahara by turning it into an autonomous region within the Kingdom of Morocco. The plan received the immediate support of the international community, starting with the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-morocco-westernsahara-usa-idUSKCN0WL0OX">UN Security Council</a>. </p>
<p>Morocco is also trying to diminish international support for the Sahrawis. Western Sahara and the Polisario enjoy the backing of numerous human rights groups around the globe. Rabat hopes it can push those who oppose to reconsider their options in favour of Western Sahara becoming an autonomous region, and weakening the possibility of changes being made to its Autonomy Plan. </p>
<h2>Gathering regional and international support</h2>
<p>One of Morocco’s biggest diplomatic steps was reintegration into the African Union (AU) in 2017. <a href="https://africanarguments.org/2017/02/02/how-did-morocco-manage-to-rejoin-the-african-union-after-33-years-in-the-cold/">It left</a> the body’s predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity, in 1984 after the SADR was admitted as a member. Since its return, Rabat has managed to garner support from 28 member states to push (unsuccessfully, so far) for the SADR’s expulsion. </p>
<p>This reintegration has happened despite the fact that Morocco’s sovereignty claim over Western Sahara is contrary to the <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/197624/summary">AU’s protocols</a>, which support the principle of territorial integrity. The AU struggles to implement its own directives, and Morocco is taking advantage of this.</p>
<p>Since 2016, King Mohammed VI of Morocco has been personally active in enhancing his country’s economic presence throughout Africa. He’s visited more than a dozen states, mostly located in sub-Saharan African, and secured trade deals and foreign direct investment. Banks, telephone and insurance companies have expanded their services beyond the national borders.</p>
<p>Through this strategy, the kingdom has been gathering continental support, primarily from Francophone African states. Once investment or enhanced trade deals were signed, states <a href="http://www.sahara.gov.ma/en/zambia-confirms-withdrawal-recognition-called-rasd/">withdrew their recognition</a> of the SADR.</p>
<p>This strategy also expands beyond the continent. El Salvador, Barbados and several more countries have <a href="https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/06/276917/moroccan-government-sadr-recognition-western-sahara/">withdrawn their support</a> for the SADR in recent years. </p>
<p>At the UN, Morocco has used its institutional involvement, particularly by threatening to withdraw its peacekeepers deployed around the world, to dominate and direct discussions about Western Sahara. </p>
<p>In 2016, following a visit to the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/world/africa/morocco-orders-un-to-cut-staff-in-disputed-western-sahara-territory.html">Ban Ki-Moon declared</a> that Morocco occupied Western Sahara. This sparked one of the most important diplomatic crises involving a UN Secretary-General in the organisation’s history. He was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-morocco-westernsahara-un-idUSKCN0WU1N9">forced to apologise</a>. </p>
<h2>An uncertain future</h2>
<p>In parallel, the Polisario’s position has been growing uncertain. It has relied on Algerian support for decades and, while it is likely that Algiers will continue to support the Sahrawis’ self-determination case, it is unclear how far it is willing to go. Algeria is, after all, facing its own <a href="https://www.cfr.org/report/political-instability-algeria">political crisis</a>.</p>
<p>And impatience is growing within the Polisario, whose confidence in the UN peace process seems to be at its lowest. The future of the movement is unsure. The old guard is likely to soon give way to younger leaders, who might prefer to take up arms for their cause. It is unlikely they would win against the Moroccan army.</p>
<p>All things considered, Morocco’s Autonomy Plan – with some modifications, including of its name – appears to be the most viable solution to the conflict. It has the potential to combine both parties’ demands. Morocco could get sovereignty over the region and the Sahrawis could exert their self-determination. </p>
<p>But it cannot be implemented as presented. The plan does not yet offer sufficient guarantees in terms of political rights and representation to the Polisario for it to agree. As much as the international community hopes for the termination of the conflict, it must refrain from opting for an easy fix.</p>
<p>As the war of attrition seems to be playing to Morocco’s advantage, the window of opportunity for the conflict to be resolved through a negotiated agreement is closing. But an imposed solution would not guarantee lasting stability in the region.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122084/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Flora Pidoux receives funding from Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Société et Culture (FRQSC). </span></em></p>At first glance, it would seem like nothing has changed since 1991. Yet, things have been slowly and discreetly evolving in recent years at Morocco’s behest.Flora Pidoux, PhD candidate, Université de MontréalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1176852019-05-29T12:35:35Z2019-05-29T12:35:35ZOpt-out organ donation: presume kindness, not consent, to save more lives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276977/original/file-20190529-192339-1r7hdvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5574%2C3496&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A gift worth giving.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/closed-human-organ-refrigerator-box-red-622980821?src=6--sYtqr-ZTk2G1owNMqzw-1-20">NosorogUA/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around <a href="https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/helping-you-to-decide/about-organ-donation/statistics-about-organ-donation/transplant-activity-report/">one in six people awaiting an organ transplant in the UK</a> will die or become ineligible due to deteriorating health before an organ is available. Many blame this situation on <a href="https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/uk-laws/organ-donation-law-in-england/">England’s current “opt-in” donor scheme</a> – if you want to donate your organs after you die, you have to give express permission.</p>
<p>But that is about to change. From April 2020, everyone resident in England over the age of 18 will be deemed, in law, to have consented to the donation of their organs after death. If they don’t want to be a donor, people will have to “opt-out”.</p>
<p>This idea of “deemed consent” – assuming consent in the absence of a recorded refusal – will form the basis for the NHS having the power to remove and use organs. But it remains understandably controversial. Much of this debate could be avoided if we stopped talking about consent and started talking about altruism.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/organ-donation-campaigns-could-be-more-effective-if-they-focused-on-feelings-rather-than-facts-106555">Organ donation campaigns could be more effective if they focused on feelings rather than facts</a>
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<h2>Presuming consent is flawed</h2>
<p>In law, consent is the main justification for interfering with a person’s body. It is about as close as the law comes to recognising that we can control what happens to our bodies without recognising the body as some form of property. Giving or withholding our consent is a way of controlling what happens to our bodies – in life and after death. But consent captures something much bigger than just “control”. Consent is one way of expressing our personal autonomy.</p>
<p>Autonomy can mean self-governance or self-determination – choosing the way that we want to live our lives and making decisions which reflect those choices. We can exercise our autonomy in all kinds of daily decisions – in the clothes we wear, the foods we eat, the political parties we vote for, and the intimate relationships we form.</p>
<p>Often, we would like to think that we make these choices because they reflect our own beliefs, opinions and values. Sometimes, our beliefs clearly motivate our actions and choices. I might choose to limit my sugar consumption because I believe that this will keep my body healthy. Or because it shows that I have some degree of self-restraint, which might be an important value for my own sense of self. In this simple example, we can see that autonomy represents a clear line flowing from my beliefs and values to my actions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277000/original/file-20190529-192361-1lavyj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277000/original/file-20190529-192361-1lavyj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277000/original/file-20190529-192361-1lavyj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277000/original/file-20190529-192361-1lavyj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277000/original/file-20190529-192361-1lavyj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277000/original/file-20190529-192361-1lavyj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277000/original/file-20190529-192361-1lavyj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some of our most unshakeable convictions change as we experience new things and meet new people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/indoor-shot-group-multiracial-students-having-670358926">WAYHOME studio/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>But it’s not always so easy to identify our beliefs and values. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180622-the-surprising-reason-people-change-their-minds">It’s quite normal for these to change</a> – perhaps over the course of a few years, but maybe day to day. Some of our core preferences may remain clear and stable, unwavering in the face of challenging information or arguments. Intuitive convictions about the morality of, say, the death penalty, may prove to be unshakeable.</p>
<p>Others will vary depending on our moods, on the opinions of people around us, or following new experiences. We’re more likely to reflect on our attitudes towards controversial types of medical treatments, such as care at the end of life or abortion, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/05/18/724656365/2-women-discuss-their-shifting-views-on-abortion-rights?t=1559129374503">in light of personal experience</a>.</p>
<p>Some of our attitudes and beliefs may even be quite uncomfortable for us to hold. We may be ashamed about our desires and the choices we make in response to them. Sometimes we may not even fully understand why we do, or think, certain things – our beliefs can be incredibly contradictory and complex.</p>
<p>Consent – at least in the eyes of the law – appears to be about making simple decisions that are informed by our beliefs, which we can fully understand and identify with. But the reality is that our decision-making process, our identities and sense of selves are far more complicated than that.</p>
<h2>For a kinder society</h2>
<p>Controlling our bodies, and stopping others from interfering with them, is central to our autonomy. Our bodies are perhaps the most intimate part of our selves. Granting another person access to our bodies – even taking parts away from that body – has the potential to bring about the most serious conflicts in our beliefs and values.</p>
<p>If we may struggle to understand our own “autonomy”, and what it means to make autonomous decisions, then it seems to be an impossible task to presume to know what others believe and to decide with certainty how they would like their bodies to be dealt with.</p>
<p>Rather than speculating about how people may feel about donation, we should be more open about the aspirations of the organ donation project – to foster a society where people want to donate because this could help others to continue living their lives. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277003/original/file-20190529-192428-1utigk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277003/original/file-20190529-192428-1utigk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277003/original/file-20190529-192428-1utigk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277003/original/file-20190529-192428-1utigk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277003/original/file-20190529-192428-1utigk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277003/original/file-20190529-192428-1utigk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277003/original/file-20190529-192428-1utigk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rather than presuming the consent of organ donors, why not presume their kindness?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-up-hand-man-hold-hands-1025677720?src=RN1qW1_PFsjWf7oXc-TzNg-1-10">Kriang kan/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This nudge towards altruism is already implicit in the law. Even the new legislation’s name – <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47359682">Max and Keira’s Law</a> – evokes the story of a nine-year old girl whose tragic death allowed 11-year old Max a life-saving heart transplant. Emotive stories of good deeds might shift attitudes in the short term, but a more systemic, deeply engrained approach towards altruism is needed to secure a lasting shift.</p>
<p>For many, the decision to donate is already motivated by altruism – the desire to help others without reward. The law reflects this – it’s a criminal offence to offer or receive a reward for an organ donation. If the law can be so blatant in its presumption of altruism here, why not be as explicit in the legal basis of donation? Instead of trying to presume consent, why not presume that altruism is a shared social value worth protecting and promoting?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117685/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Morgan Shimwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>England is moving to an opt-out organ donation scheme. Here’s how it could be a success.Morgan Shimwell, Lecturer in Medical Law, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1086252019-02-25T11:03:50Z2019-02-25T11:03:50ZIf assisted dying is legalised, who gets to decide whose life is worth living?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255576/original/file-20190125-108367-gttu31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pryzmat/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the British parliament <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34208624">rejected a bill</a> that would have legalised assisted dying back in 2015, campaigners have continued to push for a change in the law. Now, the Royal College of Physicians is <a href="https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/assisted-dying-survey-2019">polling its members</a> on whether the UK should permit assisted dying. A similar poll of doctors by the college in 2014 found that <a href="https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/news/rcp-reaffirms-position-against-assisted-dying">a majority did not support</a> a change to the law. </p>
<p>In recent years, other countries have extended the laws governing euthanasia to gradually encompass cases of mental illness and non life-limiting conditions. But these pose serious threats to people with disabilities – and should be carefully considered in debates about changing the law in the UK. </p>
<p>In 2017, Canada legalised medical assistance in dying, which allows consenting adults suffering from grievous conditions which are deemed irremediable, to end their own life. The Canadian law <a href="https://www.camh.ca/-/media/files/pdfs---public-policy-submissions/camh-position-on-mi-maid-oct2017-pdf.pdf">does not explicitly exclude mental illness</a> as the sole underlying medical condition to access euthanasia. This has generated a controversial debate, with analysis suggesting that the criteria of “irremediable” is vague <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304326531_Should_assisted_dying_for_psychiatric_disorders_be_legalized_in_Canada">when applied to psychiatric conditions</a> and can vary between doctors. </p>
<p>In the Netherlands, where, since 2001, the law has allowed doctors to perform euthanasia at a patient’s request in cases of unbearable suffering without any prospect of improvement, it emerged that <a href="https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12910-018-0257-6">euthanasia has been administrated to people</a> with an intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder. For these patients, the inability to cope with social circumstances, and the increasing dependency, solitude, depression and feeling of being a burden to others, were deemed enough to met the legal requirements of intolerable suffering, which make euthanasia permissible by law. </p>
<h2>The ‘slippery slope’</h2>
<p>The Canadian and Dutch cases are significant. Despite their strict guidelines, codes of practice regulating the assisted-dying protocols could gradually extend to all disabled and mentally ill patients who meet the criteria, even in the absence of a well-informed request. This could result in the termination of those lives that are considered undignified and purposeless by society. Such a scenario would effectively equate disability, mental disorders, even old age, to terminal illnesses, and deem them “intolerable” conditions to live in. </p>
<p>Today, media campaigns and celebrities are increasingly encouraging people <a href="https://www.headstogether.org.uk/">to talk about mental health issues</a> and not feel ashamed to ask for help, in an effort to reduce the negative stigma around it. Disability rights activists also feel required to openly explain why their life is worth living and they <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/01/disabled-people-assisted-dying-safeguards-pressure">do not want to die</a>. </p>
<p>Despite this, negative stereotypes and moral assumptions about people with disabilities or mental illnesses permeate public debates. In the UK, some ethicists have already called for <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7625816.stm">the lives of people with dementia to be ended</a> in the name of an unspecified concept of personal identity. </p>
<p>If we accept that a disabling condition that is lifelong but not life-limiting could be a criteria for euthanasia, the safeguards of assisted dying stand on unsteady ground. </p>
<p>As part of a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23312521.2018.1499454">research project</a> on the ethical issues arising from the debate on disability and end of life, I <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23312521.2018.1481804">argued</a> that the right to end one’s life stands on the basis of philosophical concepts of agency, dignity, and autonomy. And that these concepts are in desperate need of reshaping if we look at the life of those living with a severe disability who depend on others for their care.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255581/original/file-20190125-108351-1pmdczc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255581/original/file-20190125-108351-1pmdczc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255581/original/file-20190125-108351-1pmdczc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255581/original/file-20190125-108351-1pmdczc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255581/original/file-20190125-108351-1pmdczc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255581/original/file-20190125-108351-1pmdczc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255581/original/file-20190125-108351-1pmdczc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In control?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/486700894?src=XeNOKLLrqIf3J0zggHEgLA-1-2&size=medium_jpg">Zsolt Biczo/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>In a control-obsessed society, dependency is considered a fate worse than death. Some argue that to seek medical assistance in dying is preferable than a natural death <a href="https://www.mydeath-mydecision.org.uk/info/docs/#lifecomplete">because it restores a person’s power to make a decision</a>, and it offers a way to avoid pain, shame and the feeling of having nothing to live for. But this is not really a “free” choice: disability charities report that disabled people fear feeling <a href="https://www.scope.org.uk/media/press-releases/july-2014/assisted-suicide-law">under pressure to end their lives</a> when they are made to feel ashamed of their condition or to feel that they are a burden to society. </p>
<p>In debates about assisted dying, a person’s power to bring about their own death has come to symbolise the expression of free will, autonomy and self-determination, whereas disability, mental disorders, and most of all a lack of autonomy are seen as something intrinsically bad. </p>
<h2>Relying on others</h2>
<p>For disabled people who already live their lives in a state of dependency, choosing to die so that they don’t have to rely on others will rarely be a determining factor.</p>
<p>And going one step further, such debates should recognise that we all live in a state of dependency. Nobody could really claim to be completely autonomous in their life without the aid of technology, healthcare, and – perhaps less obviously – the emotional support of friends, family, and loved ones. Vulnerability and interdependency are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20502877.2016.1151255">an essential part of human nature and well-being</a>, and necessary for human flourishing. We experience dependency as children, and we grow to became part of a world of social structures and relations which are shaped by collaborations, mutual care, and reciprocal assistance. </p>
<p>If society forgets this and refuses to accept disability, illness and decline as a constitutive part of human existence, it will inevitably come to accept that death is preferable to dependency, and consequently that the termination of disabled lives is easier than working toward improving their existence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108625/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lidia Ripamonti does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Disability, autonomy and euthanasia – an uncomfortable debate.Lidia Ripamonti, Research Associate, Von Hügel Institute for Critical Catholic Inquiry, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/994372018-07-11T20:08:13Z2018-07-11T20:08:13ZCurious Kids: Why do you blink when there is a sudden loud noise close by?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226205/original/file-20180705-73326-1u5k1ku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Both humans and animals experience these reflex responses.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/en/person-human-girl-face-eyes-1270953/">Pixabay</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is an article from <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/curious-kids-36782">Curious Kids</a>, a series for children. The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome – serious, weird or wacky! You might also like the podcast <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/kidslisten/imagine-this/">Imagine This</a>, a co-production between ABC KIDS listen and The Conversation, based on Curious Kids.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Why do you blink when there is a sudden loud noise close by? – Angus, age 8, Hobart.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>When a noise surprises us, our eyes blink without us even realising. It happens unconsciously, without us telling our brain to do it.</p>
<p>This is called a blink reflex. It has an even longer name, actually. We call it “the acoustic startle-reflex eye blink”. The blink happens especially fast - in about a hundredth of a second – so you don’t have time to think about it.</p>
<p>Humans have developed this reflex over many years because it has helped us keep our eyes safe and that has helped us survive.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226220/original/file-20180705-122277-1syn9j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226220/original/file-20180705-122277-1syn9j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226220/original/file-20180705-122277-1syn9j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226220/original/file-20180705-122277-1syn9j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226220/original/file-20180705-122277-1syn9j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226220/original/file-20180705-122277-1syn9j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226220/original/file-20180705-122277-1syn9j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The blink happens especially fast - in about a hundredth of a second.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/en/refreshment-splash-water-woman-438399/">Pixabay</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Eyes are very sensitive, easily damaged and obviously very useful, so they deserve protecting. The loud noise might be a warning that there is something falling nearby, or flying towards you. Our brain tells our eyes to quickly shut, to help protect them from any damage. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226217/original/file-20180705-73309-udsqu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226217/original/file-20180705-73309-udsqu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226217/original/file-20180705-73309-udsqu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226217/original/file-20180705-73309-udsqu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226217/original/file-20180705-73309-udsqu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226217/original/file-20180705-73309-udsqu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226217/original/file-20180705-73309-udsqu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The outer part of our eye is called the cornea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosenfeldmedia/10910331343">Flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The blink reflex also happens when a strange or unfamiliar object touches the outer part of our eye, called the cornea. That one is called the corneal blink reflex.</p>
<p>Our eyes and ears pass messages to special nerves, called the sensory nerves, to cells in the bottom part of our brain, in the brain stem. The part of our brain that receives the message is called the pons. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-do-our-ears-pop-97259">Curious Kids: Why do our ears pop?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A message is then sent back to a nerve in our face which controls our eyelid, telling it to close. Because the message only passes through the bottom part of our brain, in the brain stem, we don’t realise the message has been sent. It happens automatically, or unconsciously. </p>
<p>Try closing your eyes for a second now, and then open them again. To do that, a message passed a different part of our brain called the cerebral cortex. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226218/original/file-20180705-122259-ifligo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226218/original/file-20180705-122259-ifligo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226218/original/file-20180705-122259-ifligo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226218/original/file-20180705-122259-ifligo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226218/original/file-20180705-122259-ifligo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226218/original/file-20180705-122259-ifligo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226218/original/file-20180705-122259-ifligo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bright lights can damage special cells in the back of the eye.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://libreshot.com/the-sun-shines-in-the-eyes-of-the-child/">Libreshot</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sudden bright light also causes our eyes to close. This reflex is a little bit different, because it sends a message to the cerebral cortex, so we know when it happens. It also makes it a little bit slower. Bright lights can damage special cells in the back of the eye, which are important to see. We need to avoid very bright light, so you shouldn’t look at the sun.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-do-sharks-sneeze-77399">Curious Kids: Do sharks sneeze?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Startle responses also happen in other parts of the body, like when there is a loud noise, when we suddenly see something, or when we feel a touch or a push we didn’t expect. The responses make some muscles in our jaw, neck, and legs tighten, and releases a hormone, called adrenaline. The startle response makes us more alert, sharpens our senses and gets us ready to run from a threat, or protect ourselves from it. The adrenaline makes the heart beat faster, which we can sometimes feel.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226221/original/file-20180705-122268-1yybfln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226221/original/file-20180705-122268-1yybfln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226221/original/file-20180705-122268-1yybfln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226221/original/file-20180705-122268-1yybfln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226221/original/file-20180705-122268-1yybfln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226221/original/file-20180705-122268-1yybfln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226221/original/file-20180705-122268-1yybfln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Our eyes shut when something suddenly comes towards them, like a ball flying through the air.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/en/tennis-tennis-ball-spinning-ball-1381230/">Pixabay</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, this can happen when something suddenly comes toward your eyes, like a ball flying through the air. You will automatically turn away and cover your eyes, to protect them. </p>
<p>Both humans and animals experience these reflex responses. They happen automatically to help protect us.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to us. You can:</em></p>
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<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Please tell us your name, age and which city you live in. You can send an audio recording of your question too, if you want. Send as many questions as you like! We won’t be able to answer every question but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99437/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Furness does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The loud noise might be a warning that there is something falling nearby, or flying towards you. Our brain tells our eyes to quickly shut, to help protect them from any damage.John Furness, Academic, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/847302017-10-04T10:20:44Z2017-10-04T10:20:44ZWhat Archbishop Tutu’s ubuntu credo teaches the world about justice and harmony<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187773/original/file-20170927-24177-1a93mvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Archbishop Tutu teaches that punishing wrongdoers, with an eye for an eye, is unjustified.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Filckr/UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferre</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Archbishop Emeritus Bishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu’s <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/archbishop-emeritus-mpilo-desmond-tutu">90th birthday on October 7</a> is a good occasion to reflect on the man’s contributions to South African society and global thought. I do so as a philosopher and in the light of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HED4h00xPPA">ubuntu</a>, the southern African (specifically, Nguni) word for humanness that is often used to encapsulate sub-Saharan moral ideals.</p>
<p>An ubuntu ethic is often expressed with the maxim, </p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.puk.ac.za/opencms/export/PUK/html/fakulteite/regte/per/issues/98v1mokg.pdf">A person is a person through other persons</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In plain English, this does not say much. But one idea that indigenous Africans often associate with this maxim is that your basic aim in life should be to become a real or genuine person. You should strive to realise your higher, human nature, in a word to exhibit ubuntu.</p>
<p>How is one to do that? “Through other persons”, which is shorthand for prizing communal or harmonious relationships with them. For many southern African intellectuals, <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=1OIzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA224&lpg=PA224&dq=metz+mokgoro+mkhize+nkondo&source=bl&ots=Wi9hffH3Xm&sig=t7lysfiENMux22Wf9bMZz2Z2mPM&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=metz%20mokgoro%20mkhize%20nkondo&f=false">communion or harmony</a> consists of identifying with and exhibiting solidarity towards others, in other words, enjoying a sense of togetherness, cooperating and helping people – out of sympathy and for their own sake.</p>
<p>Tutu sums up his understanding of how to exhibit ubuntu as: </p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=1mHVXIva80AC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=i%20participate%2C%20i%20share&f=false%22">I participate, I share</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Apartheid as inhuman</h2>
<p>Tutu is well known for having invoked an ubuntu ethic to evaluate South African society, and he can take substantial credit for having made the term familiar to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-nelson-mandela-memorial-service-speech-full-text-2013-12">politicians</a>, activists and scholars around the world.</p>
<p>Tutu criticised the<a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/national-party-np"> National Party</a>, which formalised apartheid, and its supporters for having prized discord, the opposite of harmony. </p>
<p>Apartheid not only prevented “races” from identifying with each other or exhibiting solidarity with one another. It went further by having one “race” subordinate and harm others. In Tutu’s words, apartheid made people <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=1mHVXIva80AC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=apartheid%20less%20human&f=false">“less human”</a> for their failure to participate on an evenhanded basis and to share power, wealth, land, opportunities and even themselves.</p>
<p>One of Tutu’s more striking, contested claims is that apartheid damaged not only black people, but <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=1mHVXIva80AC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=i%20participate%2C%20i%20share&f=false">also white people</a>. Although most white people became well off as a result of apartheid, they did not become as morally good, or human, as they could have.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187776/original/file-20170927-24225-1e4703k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187776/original/file-20170927-24225-1e4703k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187776/original/file-20170927-24225-1e4703k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187776/original/file-20170927-24225-1e4703k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=835&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187776/original/file-20170927-24225-1e4703k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1049&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187776/original/file-20170927-24225-1e4703k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1049&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187776/original/file-20170927-24225-1e4703k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1049&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nobel peace prize winner Desmond Tutu with winners of the emerging leadership awards at his Peace Centre awards ceremony in Cape Town, 2003.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As is well known, Tutu maintained that, by ubuntu, democratic South Africa was right to deal with apartheid-era political crimes by seeking reconciliation or restorative justice. If <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=aD6_DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA228&lpg=PA228&dq=If+harmony+is+for+us+the+greatest+good,+Tutu&source=bl&ots=9-QH5a3vQa&sig=0p6-sDC-hUCnLO3HmLOsSpBL-lU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwici4Oj7MTWAhXJvBoKHVkDC1sQ6AEILjAC#v=onepage&q=If%20harmony%20is%20for%20us%20the%20greatest%20good%2C%20Tutu&f=false">“social harmony is for us the <em>summum bonum</em>– the greatest good”</a>, then the primary aim when dealing with wrongdoing - as ones who hold African values - should be to establish harmonious relationships between wrongdoers and victims. From this perspective, punishment merely for the purpose of paying back wrongdoers, in the manner of an eye for an eye, is unjustified.</p>
<h2>Controversies regarding Tutu’s ubuntu</h2>
<p>Tutu is often criticised these days for having advocated a kind of reconciliation that lets white beneficiaries of apartheid injustice off the hook. But this criticism isn’t fair. Reconciliation for Tutu has not meant merely shaking hands after one party has exploited and denigrated another. Instead, it has meant that the wrongdoer, and those who benefited, should acknowledge the wrongdoing, and seek to repair the damage that he did at some real cost.</p>
<p>Tutu has <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=1mHVXIva80AC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=kiss%20reconciliation&f=false">remarked</a> since the 1990s that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>unless there is real material transformation in the lives of those who have been apartheid’s victims, we might just as well kiss reconciliation goodbye. It just won’t happen without some reparation. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/">Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a> that he chaired was aimed at helping South Africans come to terms with their past and laid the foundation for reconciliation. In the <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume5.pdf">fifth volume of its Report</a> it was also adamant about the need for redistribution that would improve the lives of black South Africans. And Tutu has continued to lament the failure of white communities to undertake sacrifices on their own, and to demand compensation from them, for instance, by calling for a <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/tutu-calls-for-wealth-tax-on-whites-1116744">“wealth” or “white” tax</a> that would be used to uplift black communities.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187778/original/file-20170927-24193-13n8i6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187778/original/file-20170927-24193-13n8i6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187778/original/file-20170927-24193-13n8i6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187778/original/file-20170927-24193-13n8i6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187778/original/file-20170927-24193-13n8i6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187778/original/file-20170927-24193-13n8i6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187778/original/file-20170927-24193-13n8i6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tutu weeps as he appeals for an end to killings during a funeral service 1986.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Juda Ngwenya</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another criticism of Tutu is that his interpretation of ubuntu has been distorted through the lens of Christianity. Although Tutu’s Christian beliefs have influenced his understanding of ubuntu, it’s also the case that his understanding of ubuntu has <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=XsLM5Yc54wIC&dq=battle%20reconciliation%20tutu&source=gbs_book_other_versions">influenced his Christian beliefs</a>. Tutu’s background as an Archbishop of the Anglican Church does not necessarily render his construal of ubuntu utterly unAfrican or implausible.</p>
<p>In particular, Tutu has controversially <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=4AdQuLD4jh8C&printsec=frontcover#v=snippet&q=forgive%20one%20another%20in%20order&f=false">continued to believe</a> that forgiveness is essential for reconciliation, and it is reasonable to suspect that his Christian beliefs have influenced his understanding of what ubuntu requires, here.</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=pqAQBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA127&dq=eisikovits+transitional+justice+afro-communitarian+helmick+tutu&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj0p9C1_sLWAhVDCsAKHTe0BlAQ6AEIJDAA#v=onepage&q=eisikovits%20transitional%20justice%20afro-communitarian%20helmick%20tutu&f=false">I agree with critics</a> who contend that reconciliation does not require forgiveness. But, might not Tutu have a point in thinking that forgiveness would be part of the <em>best</em> form of reconciliation, an ideal for which to strive?</p>
<h2>A neglected view of human dignity</h2>
<p>Tutu’s ideas about humanness, harmony and reconciliation have been enormously influential, not merely in South Africa, but throughout the world. There is one more idea of his that I mention in closing that has not been as influential, but that also merits attention. It is Tutu’s rejection of the notion that what is valuable about us as human beings is our autonomy, which is a characteristically Western idea.</p>
<p>Instead, <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=1mHVXIva80AC&printsec=frontcover#v=snippet&q=We%20are%20different%20so%20that%20we%20can%20know%20our%20need%20of%20one%20another%2C%20for%20no%20one%20is%20ultimately%20self-sufficient.%20&f=false">according to Tutu</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are different so that we can know our need of one another, for no one is ultimately self-sufficient. The completely self-sufficient person would be sub-human. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In short, what gives us a dignity is not our independence, but rather our interdependence, our ability to participate and share with one another, indeed our vulnerability. This African and relational conception of human dignity has yet to influence many outside sub-Saharan Africa. I hope that this tribute might help in some way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84730/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thaddeus Metz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Archbishop Bishop Desmond Tutu is well known for having invoked an ubuntu ethic to evaluate South African society, and he can take substantial credit for having made the term familiar.Thaddeus Metz, Professor of Philosophy, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/739542017-03-16T19:17:15Z2017-03-16T19:17:15ZThere’s no need to lock older people into nursing homes ‘for their own safety’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159866/original/image-20170307-14966-q795ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Allowing nursing home residents to come and go as they wish may not be so dangerous after all.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/300626660?src=5Rw0qZ805RKmcM8l33Ybxg-4-19&size=huge_jpg">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Older people in nursing homes or aged care facilities are often locked up “for their own safety”. But our review shows there’s <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1525861017300385">little justification</a> in most cases for this unfair and unreasonable practice.</p>
<p>In most cases, the chance of older people harming themselves is minimal, so there is no justification for denying them the right to move freely. What can families, facility managers and governments do to give older people back that right?</p>
<h2>Wanderers, absconders and elopers</h2>
<p>We rationalise locking nursing home doors by arguing that residents are old and frail, don’t know what they are doing, and will otherwise get lost and harm themselves. So, walking out of a nursing home unaccompanied and without telling caregivers is seen as a high-risk activity to be prevented at all costs. </p>
<p>Restraining methods include installing <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2009.01221.x/full">alarmed doors</a>, using <a href="https://www.alz.org/national/documents/Fallsrestraints_litereview_II.pdf">physical restraints</a>, as well as <a href="https://www.fightdementia.org.au/files/NATIONAL/documents/Alzheimers-Australia-Numbered-Publication-38.pdf">pharmaceutical</a> and <a href="http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/15597998">non-pharmaceutical</a> interventions.</p>
<p>Residents who try to leave unaccompanied and without telling anyone are called “wanderers”, “absconders” or “elopers”. And if people wander, abscond or elope, this counts as an “unexplained absence”.</p>
<p>Unexplained absences happen more often than we realise, with <a href="http://www.assistedlivingconsult.com/issues/02-05/ALC02-05_Elopement.pdf">11%</a> to <a href="http://www.gnjournal.com/article/S0197-4572(13)00125-0/fulltext">31%</a> of US residents living in assisted living or nursing homes reported missing at some time. There is no published data on the proportion of unexplained absences in Australia.</p>
<p>While these absences might be common, our review suggests they might at best <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1525861017300385">not be as dangerous</a> as people think, or at worst, we just don’t have the evidence to tell us how dangerous they are.</p>
<p>Our analysis of nine studies showed most people left by foot, and were found in green vegetation and waterways within 1.6km of the place where they were last seen.</p>
<p>A total of 61 people were injured for every 1000 people with an unexplained absence. And 82 people died for every 1000 people leaving, with extreme temperatures the most common cause of death.</p>
<p>While these figures might sound high, they are likely an overestimate, as unexplained absences from nursing homes were lumped in with those from people living at home in the community.</p>
<p>Also, all of the studies looked at people with dementia, a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10918338">risk factor</a> for unexplained absence, which may have further overestimated the proportion of people who die after an unexplained absence. This means the high number of deaths doesn’t represent all nursing home residents, who have different and varying levels of cognitive and physical impairment.</p>
<h2>Aren’t there really good reasons for protecting vulnerable people?</h2>
<p>There are some <a href="http://www.assistedlivingconsult.com/issues/02-05/ALC02-05_Elopement.pdf">legitimate reasons</a> to confine a very small number of older people in nursing homes, such as those with severe behavioural issues due to mental health problems, who maybe disorientated and delusional. Some residents also feel more secure if doors are locked. </p>
<p>Once outside, some residents, especially those with cognitive and physical impairments, could enter unsafe areas and be harmed.</p>
<p>So, it’s no wonder the issue of “to lock or not” poses challenges for the care provider when trying to balance safety with independence. Another factor is that support staff might need to help residents get out and about, placing time pressures on their already tight schedules.</p>
<p>Nursing homes might not also want to, or be unable to, carry the cost of providing care that supports residents leaving when they want to.</p>
<h2>Balancing risks with benefits</h2>
<p>Which is worse, the psychological impact of being locked in versus the physical risk of leaving? Given we know very little about how many residents die or are injured from an “unexplained absence”, how can we be sure the risk is greater outside the facility?</p>
<p>How much of our concern for safety is for the resident, how much is for the family members and caregivers, and how much of it is for the staff and owners of nursing homes?</p>
<p>People who have family members in a nursing home should be asking whether locking up a person in the final stage of their life is really what is best for them. Family members should be encouraging the nursing home to support their family member to have independence, autonomy and control over their life.</p>
<p>The aged care sector also needs to challenge the ingrained belief its role is to keep residents safe and free from harm. </p>
<p>Nursing homes’ fear of losing their reputation, accreditation and receiving sanctions is real, and so it’s not surprising physical safety takes precedent over freedom of movement. </p>
<p>While nursing home providers are rewarded for running a safe facility, a way forward should be to reward them for how they support residents to be independent.</p>
<h2>A growing concern</h2>
<p>The issue of locking up nursing home residents will become <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/153331750401900602">more acute</a> as the population ages. And living in an aged care facility may become inevitable for many elderly people, especially for those with progressive <a href="http://www.beingblocked.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Characteristics-and-outcomes-of-dementia-residents-in-an-assisted-living-facility.pdf">functional and cognitive diseases</a> such as dementia.</p>
<p>But a nursing home is not a place of incarceration, and for most, it’s people’s final home. We should be less fearful of autonomy and independence. After all, people living in their own home in the community happily practice autonomy every day, even if it brings with it risk.</p>
<p>We worry so much about what can go wrong, we rarely stop to consider how often it turns out OK.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73954/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph Ibrahim receives funding from the Commonwealth and State of Victoria for research investigating premature deaths in Residential Aged Care Services.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marta Woolford does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Older people in nursing homes or aged care facilities are often locked up “for their own safety”, which new research says isn’t usually needed.Marta Woolford, PhD Candidate and Research Officer at the Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash UniversityJoseph Ibrahim, Professor, Health Law and Ageing Research Unit, Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/719362017-01-30T03:51:39Z2017-01-30T03:51:39ZIt’s pedal to the metal for driverless cars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154451/original/image-20170126-30413-1x3mtq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An NVIDIA-powered Audi needs no driver.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Gadget-Show-Nvidia/7681a54ff1a04bf88569a74fea1eafd2/35/0">AP Photo/John Locher</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When a May 2016 crash <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/30/tesla-autopilot-death-self-driving-car-elon-musk">killed the person operating</a> a Tesla Model S driving in <a href="https://www.tesla.com/autopilot">Autopilot mode</a>, advocates of autonomous vehicles feared a slowdown in development of self-driving cars.</p>
<p>Instead <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-fatality-autonomous-car-development-may-speed-up-63488">the opposite has occurred</a>. In August, <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/17/490406911/ford-looks-to-a-fleet-of-driverless-cars">Ford publicly committed to field self-driving cars</a> by 2021. In September, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/14/1386711/">Uber began picking up passengers with self-driving cars</a> in Pittsburgh, albeit with safety drivers ready to take over.</p>
<p>October saw Tesla itself undeterred by the fatality. The company began producing cars it said had all the <a href="http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/future-cars/news/a31237/tesla-autopilot-hardware-standard/">hardware needed for autonomous operation</a>; the software will be written and added later. In December, days after Michigan established regulations for testing autonomous vehicles in December, General Motors started doing just that with <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/12/15/gm-self-driving-cars-michigan/">self-driving Chevy Bolts</a>. And just one day before the end of his term, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx designated 10 research centers as <a href="http://www.govtech.com/fs/transportation/U-S-DOT-Names-10-Proving-Ground-Sites-Testing-Autonomous-Vehicles.html/">official test sites for automated vehicle systems</a>.</p>
<p>Three of the most significant developments in the industry happened earlier this month. The <a href="http://www.ces.tech/Show-Floor/Marketplaces/Self-Driving-Technology.aspx">2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES)</a> in Las Vegas and the <a href="http://naias.com/">North American International Auto Show</a> in Detroit saw automakers new and old (and their suppliers) show off their <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/01/11/509265974/auto-show-lesson-the-difference-between-driverless-and-self-driving-cars">plans and innovations</a> in this arena. And the <a href="https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/inv/2016/INCLA-PE16007-7876.PDF">National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued its report</a> on the Tesla fatality. Together, they suggest a future filled with driverless cars that are both safer than today’s vehicles and radically different in appearance and comfort.</p>
<h2>Confirmation of safety</h2>
<p>The NHTSA report contained a key finding that will no doubt further fuel the autonomous vehicle movement. Beyond finding no safety defect in the Tesla vehicle, and even aside from its decision not to order a recall of the car, the official government report declared that <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-tesla-autopilot-20170119-story.html">autonomous cars are safer than human-driven ones</a>.</p>
<p>To make its finding, the agency analyzed data <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-20/the-tesla-advantage-1-3-billion-miles-of-data">Tesla collects remotely</a> from all its cars. It compared the number of times airbags deployed in Tesla cars that have Autopilot and earlier models without it. That’s one way of determining how many serious accidents the cars were involved in. </p>
<p>The data revealed that the accident rate was much lower in Tesla cars equipped with Autopilot. Cars with Autopilot had airbags deploy once in every 1.3 million miles of driving; those without Autopilot deployed their airbags once every 800,000 miles. (The <a href="https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/inv/2016/INCLA-PE16007-7876.PDF">NHTSA cautioned</a> that Tesla’s Autopilot requires the full attention of the driver, and noted that driver inattention contributed to the fatal crash.) Paradoxically, the Tesla accident, tragic though it was, may ultimately increase confidence in autonomous vehicle technologies, thanks to the NHTSA investigation.</p>
<h2>Manufacturers join the fray</h2>
<p>Those safer cars of the future will not all be Teslas, though. While Google’s seven-year-long effort to develop an autonomous car <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-12/google-car-project-loses-leaders-and-advantage-as-rivals-gain">has hit a few bumps</a>, CES exhibits from major existing car companies showed strong progress. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/riding-in-cars-with-computers-how-tech-at-ces-changes-driving-ces-2017/">Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan and Toyota</a> all highlighted their efforts to catch up with upstart Tesla. Some of these traditional car companies displayed radical ideas, such as <a href="https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/chrysler-focuses-on-a-future-generation-with-a-minivan-at-ces-2017/">retractable steering wheels</a>, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/video/toyota-debuts-its-concept-i-at-ces/586d5d71509549648405fe7c/">scissor doors</a> and on-board AI assistants like <a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2017/ford-turning-cars-amazon-alexa-devices-starting-month/">Amazon’s Alexa</a>.</p>
<p>Industry suppliers are also joining the game. Auto parts giant Delphi demonstrated a <a href="https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/delphis-self-driving-car-deals-with-rude-drivers-in-vegas-ces-2017/">self-driving Audi SQ5 SUV</a> on the streets of Las Vegas, the result of a partnership with <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/1/13791848/delphi-mobileye-self-driving-car-pittsburgh-intel-maps">collision detection innovator Mobileye</a>. And French supplier Navya showed off an all-electric <a href="http://navya.tech/?lang=en">self-driving minibus</a>. </p>
<h2>New developments arise</h2>
<p>A new player on the scene is <a href="http://www.nvidia.com">microprocessor innovator NVIDIA</a>, whose <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpdc.2012.04.003">graphics processing units</a> are much better at handling large amounts of data quickly than conventional computer chips have been. The company has developed extremely power-efficient processors that are supporting <a href="https://techcrunch.com/video/nvidias-self-driving-test-cars-at-ces/58733bfa869ea92c996de75e/">deep learning for autonomous driving on an Audi Q7</a>. Deep learning allows the vehicle to learn from examples and from experience, improving its performance in varying conditions over time. These systems can <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/04/nvidia-builds-a-co-pilot-into-its-autonomous-drive-computer/">support drivers</a> who are personally operating their vehicles: for instance, noticing the driver is looking to the left and might not see a cyclist approaching on the right. <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/09/take-a-ride-with-us-in-a-self-driving-audi-q7-using-nvidia-autonomous-tech/">Tesla is already using NVIDIA supercomputers</a> in its vehicles, and Mercedes is working on <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/06/nvidia-and-mercedes-benz-to-bring-an-ai-car-to-market-within-a-year/">integrating NVIDIA artificial intelligence</a> into its products.</p>
<p>In addition, sensor technologies are both <a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/autonomous-driving/autonomous-vehicles-ces-2017/">getting better and far more economical</a>. This is true most notably of <a href="http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/lidar.html">LIDAR</a>, a laser-based sensing method widely used in driverless cars. </p>
<p>With confidence in their safety boosts, and the enormous advances in technology, the future for driverless cars is as bright as the Las Vegas strip.</p>
<p><em>Updated February 10, 2017, to correct the name of the federal agency that issued a report on the Tesla crash.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71936/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Messner is affiliated with the Democratic Party. </span></em></p>Together, three recent events mark a crucial turning point in the development of autonomous cars: They are both safer and more advanced than ever before.William C. Messner, John R. Beaver Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/702452016-12-30T21:11:36Z2016-12-30T21:11:36ZFinding trust and understanding in autonomous technologies<p>In 2016, self-driving cars went mainstream. Uber’s autonomous vehicles <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/09/14/uber-self-driving-cars-pittsburgh/">became ubiquitous</a> in neighborhoods where I live in Pittsburgh, and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/california-stops-uber-self-driving-cars_us_585bda66e4b0d9a594573319">briefly in San Francisco</a>. The U.S. Department of Transportation issued <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/AV%20policy%20guidance%20PDF.pdf">new regulatory guidance</a> for them. Countless <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf2654">papers</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/24/technology/should-your-driverless-car-hit-a-pedestrian-to-save-your-life.html">columns</a> discussed how self-driving cars <a href="http://blog.caranddriver.com/self-driving-mercedes-will-prioritize-occupant-safety-over-pedestrians/">should</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/22/self-driving-cars-moral-dilemmas">solve</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/helping-autonomous-vehicles-and-humans-share-the-road-68044">ethical quandaries</a> when things go wrong. And, unfortunately, 2016 also saw the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/business/self-driving-tesla-fatal-crash-investigation.html">first fatality involving an autonomous vehicle</a>.</p>
<p>Autonomous technologies are rapidly spreading beyond the transportation sector, into <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aad9398">health care</a>, <a href="https://www.cybergrandchallenge.com/">advanced cyberdefense</a> and even <a href="http://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/products/phalanx/">autonomous weapons</a>. In 2017, we’ll have to decide whether we can trust these technologies. That’s going to be much harder than we might expect.</p>
<p>Trust is complex and varied, but also a key part of our lives. We often trust technology <a href="http://jcr.sagepub.com/content/2/4/265">based on predictability</a>: I trust something if I know what it will do in a particular situation, even if I don’t know why. For example, I trust my computer because I know how it will function, including when it will break down. I stop trusting if it starts to behave differently or surprisingly. </p>
<p>In contrast, my trust in my wife is based on <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/259288">understanding her beliefs, values and personality</a>. More generally, interpersonal trust does not involve knowing exactly what the other person will do – my wife certainly surprises me sometimes! – but rather why they act as they do. And of course, we can trust someone (or something) in both ways, if we know both what they will do and why.</p>
<p>I have been exploring possible bases for our trust in self-driving cars and other autonomous technology from both ethical and psychological perspectives. These are devices, so predictability might seem like the key. Because of their autonomy, however, we need to consider the importance and value – and the challenge – of learning to trust them in the way we trust other human beings.</p>
<h2>Autonomy and predictability</h2>
<p>We want our technologies, including self-driving cars, to behave in ways we can predict and expect. Of course, these systems can be quite sensitive to the context, including other vehicles, pedestrians, weather conditions and so forth. In general, though, we might expect that a self-driving car that is repeatedly placed in the same environment should presumably behave similarly each time. But in what sense would these highly predictable cars be autonomous, rather than merely automatic?</p>
<p><a href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19790007441">There have</a> <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/001401399185595">been</a> <a href="http://ws680.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=823618">many</a> different <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5898/JHRI.3.2.Beer">attempts</a> to <a href="http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a601656.pdf">define</a> <a href="http://standards.sae.org/j3016_201609/">autonomy</a>, but they all have this in common: Autonomous systems can make their own (substantive) decisions and plans, and thereby can act differently than expected. </p>
<p>In fact, one reason to employ autonomy (as distinct from automation) is precisely that those systems can pursue unexpected and surprising, though justifiable, courses of action. For example, <a href="https://deepmind.com/research/alphago/">DeepMind’s AlphaGo</a> won the second game of its recent Go series against Lee Sedol in part because of <a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/03/googles-ai-viewed-move-no-human-understand/">a move that no human player would ever make, but was nonetheless the right move</a>. But those same surprises make it difficult to establish predictability-based trust. Strong trust based solely on predictability is arguably possible only for automated or automatic systems, precisely because they are predictable (assuming the system functions normally).</p>
<h2>Embracing surprises</h2>
<p>Of course, other people frequently surprise us, and yet we can trust them to a remarkable degree, even giving them life-and-death power over ourselves. Soldiers trust their comrades in complex, hostile environments; a patient trusts her surgeon to excise a tumor; and in a more mundane vein, my wife trusts me to drive safely. This interpersonal trust enables us to embrace the surprises, so perhaps we could develop something like interpersonal trust in self-driving cars?</p>
<p>In general, interpersonal trust requires an understanding of why someone acted in a particular way, even if you can’t predict the exact decision. My wife might not know exactly how I will drive, but she knows the kinds of reasoning I use when I’m driving. And it is actually relatively easy to understand why someone else does something, precisely because we all think and reason roughly similarly, though with different “raw ingredients” – our beliefs, desires and experiences. </p>
<p>In fact, we continually and unconsciously make inferences about other people’s beliefs and desires based on their actions, in large part by assuming that they think, reason and decide roughly as we do. All of these inferences and reasoning based on our shared (human) cognition enable us to understand someone else’s reasons, and thereby build interpersonal trust over time.</p>
<h2>Thinking like people?</h2>
<p>Autonomous technologies – self-driving cars, in particular – do not think and decide like people. There have been efforts, both <a href="http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=33607">past</a> and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aab3050">recent</a>, to develop computer systems that think and reason like humans. However, one consistent theme of machine learning over the past two decades has been the enormous gains made precisely by not requiring our artificial intelligence systems to operate in human-like ways. Instead, machine learning algorithms and systems such as AlphaGo have often been able to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature16961">outperform human experts</a> by focusing on specific, localized problems, and then solving them quite differently than humans do.</p>
<p>As a result, attempts to interpret an autonomous technology in terms of human-like beliefs and desires can go spectacularly awry. When a human driver sees a ball in the road, most of us automatically slow down significantly, to avoid hitting a child who might be chasing after it. If we are riding in an autonomous car and see a ball roll into the street, we expect the car to recognize it, and to be prepared to stop for running children. The car might, however, see only an obstacle to be avoided. If it swerves without slowing, the humans on board might be alarmed – and a kid might be in danger.</p>
<p>Our inferences about the “beliefs” and “desires” of a self-driving car will almost surely be erroneous in important ways, precisely because the car doesn’t have any human-like beliefs or desires. We cannot develop interpersonal trust in a self-driving car simply by watching it drive, as we will not correctly infer the whys behind its actions. </p>
<p>Of course, society or marketplace customers could insist en masse that self-driving cars have human-like (psychological) features, precisely so we could understand and develop interpersonal trust in them. This strategy would give a whole new meaning to “<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118984390.ch1">human-centered design</a>,” since the systems would be designed specifically so their actions are interpretable by humans. But it would also require including novel <a href="http://stanford.edu/%7Enikmart/papers/hri16paper_CameraReady_small.pdf">algorithms</a> and <a href="http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1147&context=dissertations">techniques</a> in the self-driving car, all of which would represent a massive change from current research and development strategies for self-driving cars and other autonomous technologies.</p>
<p>Self-driving cars have the potential to radically reshape our transportation infrastructure in many beneficial ways, but only if we can trust them enough to actually use them. And ironically, the very feature that makes self-driving cars valuable – their flexible, autonomous decision-making across diverse situations – is exactly what makes it hard to trust them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70245/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Danks does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ethics and psychology of trust suggest ways we might learn to understand self-driving cars, but also show why doing so might be more challenging than we expect.David Danks, Professor of Philosophy and Psychology, Carnegie Mellon UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/702412016-12-21T00:28:25Z2016-12-21T00:28:25ZObstacle avoidance: The challenge for drone package delivery<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150527/original/image-20161216-18030-1ld27eo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Look out!</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/pic-451886950/">Delivery drone illustration via shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/technology/amazon-drone-england-delivery.html">world’s first drone deliveries</a> have begun trial runs in the United Kingdom <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/20/7-eleven-delivers-77-packages-via-drone-in-first-month-of-routine-service/">and the U.S.</a> Once primarily used by militaries, small quadcopter and octocopter drones are now so commonplace they are for sale at <a href="https://www.lowes.com/pl/Drones-drone-accessories-Electrical/1236481888">home improvement stores</a> and <a href="http://www.toysrus.com/category/index.jsp?categoryId=114577256&ab=TRU_Header:Utility3:Vehicles-Trains-RC:Drones:Home-Page">toy stores</a>. People are flying drones for fun, for entertainment and for commercial purposes as diverse as <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/submissions-are-open-for-the-2017-new-york-city-drone-film-festival">filmmaking</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/farmers-of-the-future-will-utilize-drones-robots-and-gps-37739">farming</a>.</p>
<p>All these uses have one thing in common: The drone’s human operator is required by law to be able to see the drone at all times. Why? The answer is simple: to make sure the drone doesn’t hit anything.</p>
<p>Beyond just wanting not to crash and damage their drones or themselves, <a href="https://www.faa.gov/uas/media/Part_107_Summary.pdf">drone operators must avoid collisions with people, property and other vehicles</a>. Specifically, <a href="https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/faa_regulations/">federal aviation regulations</a> forbid aircraft – including drones – from flying “<a href="http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgFAR.nsf/0/962A5F17CD0CBBB8852566CF00614B41?OpenDocument">so close to another aircraft as to create a collision hazard</a>.” The rules also require that “<a href="http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgFAR.nsf/0/934f0a02e17e7de086256eeb005192fc!OpenDocument">vigilance shall be maintained by each person operating an aircraft so as to see and avoid other aircraft</a>.” These requirements are commonly referred to simply as “see-and-avoid”: Pilots must see and avoid other traffic.</p>
<p>But that places a significant limitation on drone operations. The whole point of drones is that they are unmanned. Without a human operator on board, though, how can a drone steer clear of collisions? This is a crucial problem for Amazon, Google and any other company that wants to <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/amazons-delivery-drones-may-face-new-regulatory-roadblocks">deliver packages with drones</a>.</p>
<p>To be practical, delivery drones would have to be able to fly long distances, well out of sight of a human operator. How, then, can the operator prevent the drone from hitting a tree, building, airplane or even another drone? Although cameras could be mounted on the drone for this purpose, current civil drone video transmission technology is <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/drone-reviews/dji-mavic-pro-review/">limited to a range of a few miles</a>. As a result, in order to perform long-distance deliveries, the drone must autonomously detect nearby objects and avoid hitting them. </p>
<p>As a drone operations researcher, I keep a close eye on ways to achieve this. New research into sensors – at least some of which come from development of autonomous cars – is making increased autonomy possible for drones, potentially opening the skies to even more innovation.</p>
<h2>Radar and lidar</h2>
<p>There are two main technologies available for drones to detect nearby objects. The first is radar, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/radar/History-of-radar">developed just before World War II</a>, that sends out radio waves and measures their reflections from obstacles. Radar is still used as the primary system for air traffic controllers <a href="http://web.mit.edu/6.933/www/Fall2000/mode-s/atcrbs.html">to track planes in the sky</a>. <a href="http://www.boats.com/how-to/marine-electronics-101-how-to-use-radar/">Ships also use radar</a> to avoid collisions at night or in foggy conditions.</p>
<p><a href="http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/lidar.html">Lidar</a>, developed more recently, uses laser beams instead of radio waves, and can provide extremely detailed images of nearby features. The catch is that both radar and lidar systems have been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/12/04/the-75000-problem-for-self-driving-cars-is-going-away/?utm_term=.6463cadd4ba3">bulky, heavy and expensive</a>. That makes them hard to fit on relatively small drones; also, heavier drones require more battery power to stay aloft, which requires bigger (and heavier) batteries.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150384/original/image-20161215-26027-1wmuv12.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150384/original/image-20161215-26027-1wmuv12.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150384/original/image-20161215-26027-1wmuv12.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150384/original/image-20161215-26027-1wmuv12.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150384/original/image-20161215-26027-1wmuv12.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150384/original/image-20161215-26027-1wmuv12.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150384/original/image-20161215-26027-1wmuv12.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A small lidar sensor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Velodyne</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is hope, though. Research in obstacle sensors and collision avoidance technology for autonomous automobiles has spurred the development of small, lower-cost <a href="http://www.drone360mag.com/news-notes/2016/05/echodyne-releases-small-radar-that-could-be-big-for-drones">radar</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/12/04/the-75000-problem-for-self-driving-cars-is-going-away/?utm_term=.6463cadd4ba3">lidar</a> devices. Once they are sufficiently small, and energy-efficient enough not to quickly drain drone batteries, both types of sensors could help solve the drone “see-and-avoid,” or really, because drones don’t have eyes, the “detect-and-avoid” problem.</p>
<h2>An in-flight view</h2>
<p>A recent test flight here at Ohio University involved a lidar sensor mounted on a drone. When the drone was approximately five feet above the ground, the lidar was able to create an image of its surroundings.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150382/original/image-20161215-26027-1k8hs9w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150382/original/image-20161215-26027-1k8hs9w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150382/original/image-20161215-26027-1k8hs9w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150382/original/image-20161215-26027-1k8hs9w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150382/original/image-20161215-26027-1k8hs9w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150382/original/image-20161215-26027-1k8hs9w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150382/original/image-20161215-26027-1k8hs9w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150382/original/image-20161215-26027-1k8hs9w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A lidar image from a drone in flight.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Braasch</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On one side, the image had bushy-looking areas representing trees and foliage. One the other there were parallel lines indicating the location of a building wall. And in the middle were some circular shapes representing the ground. This sort of obstacle detection capability and discernment will be essential for routine drone operation, particularly during takeoff and landing.</p>
<p>We are currently in what might be called the “Wright Brothers era” of drone development. Removing the human from the cockpit has challenged innovators and designers in a number of ways – including solving the task of obstacle detection. But as our technology advances, eventually – just like elevators that used to be operated by humans – people will grow used to the idea of these machines operating autonomously.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70241/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Braasch has received funding from the FAA and NASA for drone research. </span></em></p>Without a human operator on board, how can a drone steer clear of collisions? Technology from autonomous cars can help.Michael Braasch, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Ohio UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/665572016-11-07T19:05:14Z2016-11-07T19:05:14ZShould family members of those with mental illness have access to their health information?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144306/original/image-20161102-27224-5e3pln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Medical law in Australia is based on the principle of patient autonomy. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-03/crows-coach-phil-walsh-allegedly-murdered-son-charged/6591832">tragic death of former Adelaide Crows’</a> coach Phil Walsh, killed by his son Cy suffering from a mental illness, has highlighted the difficulties faced by families of those with mental health issues. </p>
<p>Phil Walsh’s wife Meredith emphasised her family’s struggle under current laws in accessing information to support their son. She <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-28/cy-walsh-found-not-guilty-due-to-mental-incompetence/7884062">called for the law to be changed</a> to allow families better access to treatment information.</p>
<p>Her call echoes pleas made by families of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-15/alma-street-clinic-deaths-inquest-finds-poor-communication/7091416">five patients</a> who took their own lives following treatment at the Alma Street Centre in Western Australia. </p>
<p>The 2015 <a href="http://www.coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/Nicholls-Diver%20finding.pdf">coronial inquest into their deaths</a> revealed family members caring for them had insufficient information about their condition, medication regime, factors that may indicate a risk of relapse, and when they should reengage with the mental health system. </p>
<p>The coroner recommended policies be developed for Carer’s Plans, that contain this information, to be provided to family members or carers. </p>
<p>Such cases support the argument the law should allow better communication between health professionals, families and <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/cra2012197/s3.html">carers</a>, even if this impacts on patients’ confidentiality.</p>
<h2>Duty of confidentiality</h2>
<p>Australia’s medical law is based on the principle of autonomy. A person becomes the sole decision maker about their medical treatment when he or she acquires capacity. This is achieved at about the age of 16, although a person may – temporarily or permanently – lose capacity due to mental illness or impairment.</p>
<p>The law considers all medical records confidential; and mental health records are particularly sensitive. Under the autonomy principle, only the patient can decide who has access to their medical information. </p>
<p>Health professionals <a href="http://www.medicalboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Policies/Code-of-conduct.aspx">have a duty to respect</a> this. Depending on the circumstances, breaching confidentiality can be a <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/mha2014128/s346.html">criminal offence</a>; or can result in disciplinary action, a privacy complaint or <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/lawreform/ALRCDP/2007/72.html#56">civil (non-criminal) court proceedings</a>.</p>
<p>The intention behind the duty is ethically sound. But it can create obstacles where care is provided to a loved one with mental illness. As the 2015 inquiry found, family members providing care <a href="http://www.mentalhealth.wa.gov.au/mentalhealth_changes/Stokes_Review.aspx">must be given</a> information about their loved one’s condition, the signs of relapse and what might trigger relapse. </p>
<p>Such information is necessary to minimise the risk of harm to the patient, or in rare cases, to a family member or carer. A <a href="https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2007/186/6/homicide-during-psychotic-illness-new-south-wales-between-1993-and-2002">New South Wales review</a> found out of 93 homicides committed by those suffering an episode of psychotic illness between 1992 and 2002, only nine victims were strangers. The rest were family members or close associates.</p>
<p>There are <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/lawreform/ALRCDP/2007/72.html#57">exceptions to the duty of confidentiality</a>, such as where the patient has consented to disclosure or where there is a serious and imminent risk to the safety of a person. </p>
<p>However, in some cases, the health professional may not have identified an imminent risk; which could happen if the patient has disengaged with treatment, unknown to the family or carers.</p>
<h2>Mental health policy</h2>
<p>Over the past 30 years, mental health policy has moved from institutional to community care. Consequently, greater demands have been placed on families and carers to support those with mental illness. The support may include providing accommodation, monitoring medication or taking the patient to receive treatment.</p>
<p>In recognition of the growing role of families and carers, the <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-pubs-n-servst10">National Standards for Mental Health Services</a> now <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/CFA833CB8C1AA178CA257BF0001E7520/%24File/serv3.pdf">specify carers should be</a> actively involved in the development, planning and delivery of services. This standard is reflected in the principles that guide the mental health legislation of each state and territory.</p>
<p>Within recent mental health reforms, health professionals <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/mha2007128/s78.html">must now notify nominated people</a> of significant events in patients’ treatment, such as discharge from a mental health facility. In most states and territories, families or carers must be involved in <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/mha2007128/s79.html">discharge planning</a> and given treatment information.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2015/1168.html">recent case in New South Wales</a>, the court accepted a public hospital had a duty when granting leave to an involuntary patient, at risk of attempting suicide, to provide clear advice and instructions to his parents. This duty is consistent with current mental health legislation. </p>
<p>The limitation of mental health legislation is that, in most states and territories, it only applies to public patients and those admitted to some private, psychiatric hospitals. </p>
<p>Most general practitioners and private health professionals remain under a duty not to engage with families and carers unless an exception applies. There is no clear exception allowing all health professionals to give families and carers information to assist with a loved one’s care.</p>
<h2>Getting the balance right</h2>
<p>The law must achieve the correct balance between autonomy and protecting the patient’s and carer’s interests. Not all family and carer relationships are positive, so there is definitely a need to protect confidentiality in these cases.</p>
<p>However, the current <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/lawreform/ALRCDP/2007/72.html#56">laws are too complex</a>, and may <a href="http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/13.%20Overview%3A%20Interaction%2C%20Inconsistency%20and%20Fragmentation/costs-inconsistency-and-frag">impede health professionals</a> from using existing exceptions to their confidentiality duty. </p>
<p>In Victoria, the law applying to public and some private mental health professionals gets the balance right. It should be extended to all Australian health professionals. Under this law, health professionals <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/mha2014128/s346.html">have the authority to disclose confidential information</a> (including overriding the patient’s wishes) if:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>they deem the disclosure reasonably required by a carer of a patient to provide care, or to prepare to provide care, to the patient and </p></li>
<li><p>regard has been had to the patient’s views and preferences.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Such a broad exception is necessary to allow health professionals to exercise their discretion within clear parameters, dependent on their knowledge of the patient’s social circumstances, care requirements and views. This could <a href="http://hansard.parliament.vic.gov.au/isysquery/8a6f3c32-0111-41aa-9f83-479790470c30/11/doc/">prevent failures in information</a> sharing that could cause detriment to the patient or others. </p>
<p>Having a clear authorisation would also alleviate the risk to health professionals of proceedings being taken against them for breaching confidentiality. </p>
<p>Some may argue such a change will diminish patients’ rights. However, it must be questioned if the current law has achieved the correct balance for patients such as Cy Walsh, whose once-confidential medical information has become public as his case proceeds through the courts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66557/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Yates is a member of the Mental Health Tribunal, Western Australia. This article was prepared by the author in her personal capacity. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not represent those of the Tribunal. The author has no personal involvement in the individual circumstances referred to in the article. </span></em></p>The law should allow greater communication between health professionals, families and carers even if this impacts on patients’ rights of confidentiality.Rachel Yates, Associate Lecturer, Curtin Law School, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/673132016-10-25T16:01:17Z2016-10-25T16:01:17ZWhen politics and academia collide, quality suffers. Just ask Nigeria<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142750/original/image-20161022-1751-7vjem6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When governments and students collide, university systems wobble.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South African universities’ academic year lies in limbo as student protests rage on. The debate about free education won’t end any time soon and students are <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-must-fall-fees-or-the-south-african-state-67389">demanding</a> that “fees must fall”. What many don’t seem to realise is that something else is on the verge of toppling: academic standards.</p>
<p>It’s just a matter of time before universities reach the tipping point into decline. All of the hard work that’s been done to set high standards and establish a good research <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/best-universities-in-africa-2016">reputation</a> on the African continent and further afield could be undone.</p>
<p>This is not hyperbole. It’s backed up by universities’ experiences elsewhere in Africa. Once student protests and the politicisation of academia become the norm, quality suffers. Nigeria offers particularly chilling evidence of this, as I’ll explain in this article.</p>
<p>South Africa must urgently come up with sustainable, reasonable solutions for dealing with student protests before it is too late to save the country’s universities from a quality crisis.</p>
<h2>Students are political animals</h2>
<p>No matter what happens in the coming weeks and months, I can say with certainty that student protests are here to stay. </p>
<p>Students constitute a vibrant part of civil society, a natural element of a democratic society such as South Africa’s. Today, the students’ concern is access to decolonised, free and quality education. Later students may turn their attention to something that doesn’t directly relate to their own welfare but that of society at large.</p>
<p>History tells us that students can topple governments. They can drive regime change. In Indonesia, for example, the student movement played <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=RWrm7tPzs1AC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">an instrumental role</a> in Suharto’s political manoeuvres and <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/suharto-takes-full-power-in-indonesia">eventual takeover of power</a> from President Sukarno in the late 1960s. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20080117160839331">The students</a> led protests against Sukarno’s government, even fighting his loyalists on the country’s streets. This eroded public trust in the government, paved the way for impeachment and ushered Suharto into power. Later, students turned on the man they’d supported. Throughout the three decades of his rule, they took Suharto on about corruption and the state of the economy. Eventually students occupied the Indonesian parliament grounds in May 1998 demanding Suharto’s resignation. <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20080117160839331">He resigned a few days later</a>.</p>
<p>This makes sense. Universities are training grounds for future leaders – and that includes political leaders. It’s rather duplicitous to praise students when they demonstrate excellence in science, technology or business that promises a great future, but simultaneously condemn them for political engagement. </p>
<p>It is better to nurture them in the discipline and art of political engagement. They should be groomed for this sort of leadership. Formal classes – at all levels of education, actually – provide an opportunity through which democratic principles and values can be taught. </p>
<p>Other groupings like civil society organisations and political parties could get involved too. They could work with students both in and outside classrooms to impart lessons in political engagement and strategy. These engagements would benefit individuals and society as a whole, grooming a new, disciplined body of leaders.</p>
<h2>The contagious effect of student protests</h2>
<p>This work is urgent.</p>
<p>The longer that student protests remain unresolved, the more intractable their unintended consequences will become. </p>
<p>One looming crisis point is the future of South Africa’s academics. Some, especially those who are internationally competitive, may decide to take their services to countries with less volatile academic environments. </p>
<p>This could have negative consequences for the country in the long term. In fact, <a href="https://www.idrc.ca/en/article/brain-drain-and-capacity-building-africa">statistics and studies</a> show that Africa is experiencing an <a href="https://www.enca.com/africa/extent-africa%E2%80%99s-brain-drain-frightening-mbeki">alarming exodus</a> of critical human capital that it needs for technological, scientific, and socioeconomic progress. The current protests and consequent suspension of classes or closures of universities will only exacerbate the situation in already-strained sectors such as health. </p>
<p>The flip side is that some academics see a genuine cause in students’ protests. This group is likely to stick it out and even to echo students’ demands. They risk being accused of fomenting trouble against the state; branded as elements that seek to disturb the peace and even dislodge the governing party from power. </p>
<p>Such a view of academics is not new to Africa. Take Nigeria, for instance. </p>
<h2>Nigeria’s struggles</h2>
<p>In the years following its <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/places/nigeria">independence from Britain</a>, Nigeria enacted pieces of legislation that systematically suppressed free and independent thinking. In his first reign over Nigeria between 1983 and 1985 General Muhammadu Buhari <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=V0FYXwY2sc8C&pg=PA117&lpg=PA117&dq=National+Association+of+Nigerian+Students+banned+buhari&source=bl&ots=X7gSWg7023&sig=2BTiFnFJWS6m0txz4gHYazSFtlE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJu4nNtu7PAhWhKsAKHY5tB84Q6AEINjAF#v=onepage&q=National%20Association%20of%20Nigerian%20Students%20banned%20buhari&f=false">banned</a> the National Association of Nigerian Students. He oversaw the arrests and detention of university students and sympathetic lecturers after students protested about the removal of subsidies on food and accommodation for students. </p>
<p>Buhari’s government also <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=SsCaOl0eXa4C&pg=PA173&dq=Nigerian+Medical+Association+buhari+dismisses&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjI3vP7tu7PAhUFKsAKHfNyBFEQ6AEIJTAA#v=onepage&q=Nigerian%20Medical%20Association%20buhari%20dismisses&f=false">dismissed</a> many academics in Health Sciences faculties across the country for participating in a strike called by the Nigerian Medical Association. </p>
<p>Institutions of higher learning, often because of anti-government protests, were <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=TbCRKwiUPtAC&pg=PA157&lpg=PA157&dq=Oyebade+nigeria+universities+closures&source=bl&ots=OHiCYnL2wz&sig=1bjFOrOQJTsF5cIN1qFKMykgQQw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjU4-Cht-7PAhXpAMAKHcgIBEgQ6AEIMzAE#v=onepage&q=Oyebade%20nigeria%20universities%20closures&f=false">often closed</a> during the 1990s.</p>
<p>The government created the National Universities Commission and tasked it with ensuring Nigerian universities were adequately funded as well as allocating grants from the Federal Government to federally controlled universities. Through a set of decrees passed from 1974 to 1988, the NUC <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ773123">ate away</a> at university senates’ autonomy.</p>
<p>Government also appointed “sole administrators” in the place of vice chancellors to oversee public universities. A 1975 decree gave the Federal Government and head of state total power to appoint and remove vice chancellors.</p>
<p>These measures were at least partly based on government suspicions that universities were breeding grounds for secessionist ideas. The government’s interventions robbed Nigerian universities of financial, academic and administrative autonomy. They also contributed to <a href="http://search.proquest.com/openview/21841be9e1e07d88c7fa98f7fcf499b6/1.pdf?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=48673">an exodus</a> of academics from the country’s universities – and from Nigeria itself.</p>
<h2>Politics is dangerous</h2>
<p>The politicisation of academia, then, definitely contributes to a decline in academic standards. This is a situation South Africa must work hard and fast to avoid. Yet, South Africa seems utterly reluctant to look elsewhere on the continent for lessons or learn from others’ experiences.</p>
<p>Two things are needed now: serious engagement and real leadership. Meetings, no matter how heated they get, offer an important space to improve relationships, gain understanding and develop a common approach towards decisively tackling the issue. </p>
<p>The department responsible for higher education must take the lead. Universities, students, the business community, industry and civil society all have a role to play too if South Africa is to find sustainable solutions. After all, this crisis has implications for the whole of society, now and for the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67313/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Changwe Nshimbi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The politicisation of academia definitely contributes to a decline in academic standards. This is a situation South Africa must work hard to avoid. It can learn from others on the continent.Chris Changwe Nshimbi, Research Fellow & Deputy Director, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.