tag: Copyright (c) http://lietz.allisfun.com 2009-12-27 16:05:13 tag:Experience in Specific Disorders An extensive literature has evolved over the past several years addressing the long term use of artificial enteral feeding in patients with advanced dementia, including advanced Alzheimer’s dementia, a terminal disorder. Survival is the variable most often measured. Thom lietz.allisfun.com http://lietz.allisfun.com/profile/ 2009-12-26 05:26:25 tag:What Is Genetic Trait? What does it mean to call something a genetic trait or disease? Clearly, at least part of that judgment rests on some kind of causal assessment. If a disease is genetic, then it is caused by one or more of an organism’s genes. lietz.allisfun.com http://lietz.allisfun.com/profile/ 2009-12-26 05:24:31 tag:What Counts as a Genetic Trait This seems to exactly capture at least something important about society’s concept of genetic disease. It can be put perhaps more precisely in terms of covariance. When some trait is identified as genetic, it can be argued that (in that population) the covariance of the trait with some genetic factor(s) is greater lietz.allisfun.com http://lietz.allisfun.com/profile/ 2009-12-19 13:57:40 tag:Health Professional Codes While beneficence is important to many philosophical and religious systems of ethics, it is central to the health professions. The Hippocratic Oath clearly states that the physician’s actions are “for the benefit of the sick” (see Appendix for this and other codes an lietz.allisfun.com http://lietz.allisfun.com/profile/ 2009-12-18 18:00:00 tag:Beneficence and Autonomy How beneficence is put into practice depends on how it is modified by other principles. Especially important in this regard is respect for autonomy or self-determination. Another way to put this is to ask whose notion of good will be definitive. Respect for autonomy means that good will be defined by the rec lietz.allisfun.com http://lietz.allisfun.com/profile/