Diana Rodriguez

In Italy, judicial and extrajudicial requests for paternity testing have increased in recent years. A retrospective analysis of such private extrajudicial requests received by the legal medicine unit of the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health of Padua University was conducted to identify problem areas most helpful in determining whether to accept private parties’ requests for paternity testing. Such testing is most delicate when a presumptive father may be seeking to disown paternity and when testing is wanted without the consent of a member of the mother–child–father triangle. Tests that could establish paternity where none has been recognised are less problematic, as the child will not lose out. Legal and ethical–deontological aspects of consent, of the protection of minors and of children’s and parents’ need for follow-up interviews to deal with the outcome of such testing are carefully considered by the Padua University team when deciding whether to accept a request for testing. It is argued that because such issues are not dealt with by mail-order laboratories, the use of such services is inappropriate

Background Nursing professional values form the basis of nursing interventions and serve as a guide for professional practice, reflecting in all interactions with patients and other healthcare professionals. As nursing professional values constitute powerful influencers in nursing practice, a strong commitment to these values is essential for nursing students to provide high-quality care. Aim To evaluate the impact of high-fidelity simulation training on first-year nursing students’ nursing professional values acquisition. Research design Quasi-experimental study using a longitudinal design with a single group pre- and post-intervention evaluation. Participants and research context 202 first-year nursing students at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) participated in the study between September 2023 and May 2024. Their nursing professional values were compared at baseline and after the simulation experience using the “Nurses Professional Values Scale-Revised” (NVPS-R). The acquisition of these values was also evaluated using a verification list during simulation sessions. Five simulated scenarios recreated ethics dilemmas, where students should manage conflictive situations with a standardized patient. Ethical considerations The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee from the Complutense University of Madrid (reference code: CE_20231116_18_SAL). Results Most of the students (84.87%) acquired the nursing professional values needed to manage adequately simulated ethical dilemmas. Nursing students significantly improved their nursing professional values after the simulation sessions. The effect size was medium for the “professional expertise” and “professional mastery” dimensions, and the total score of NVPS-R, whereas the obtained effect size was small for the “ethics” dimension. Conclusion High-fidelity simulation training using standardized patients allows first-year nursing students to acquire and improve nursing professional values. The inclusion of simulation training programs in nursing study plans to foster nursing professional values is needed to train undergraduate nursing students, providing them with the necessary ethical concepts and principles for their future clinical practice and ensuring high-quality care.

Several studies have explored differences between North American and European doctor patient relationships. They have focused primarily on differences in philosophical traditions and historic and socioeconomic factors between these two regions that might lead to differences in behaviour, as well as divergent concepts in and justifications of medical practice. However, few empirical intercultural studies have been carried out to identify in practice these cultural differences. This lack of standard comparative empirical studies led us to compare differences between France and the USA regarding end-of-life decision-making. We tested certain assertions put forward by bioethicists concerning the impact of culture on the acceptance of advance directives in such decisions. In particular, we compared North American and French intensive care professional's attitudes toward: (1) advance directives, and (2) the role of the family in decisions to withhold or withdraw life-support.

This study examined health professionals’ (HPs) experience, beliefs and attitudes towards brain death (BD) and two types of donation after circulatory death (DCD)—controlled and uncontrolled DCD. Five hundred and eighty-seven HPs likely to be involved in the process of organ procurement were interviewed in 14 hospitals with transplant programs in France, Spain and the US. Three potential donation scenarios—BD, uncontrolled DCD and controlled DCD—were presented to study subjects during individual face-to-face interviews. Our study has two main findings: (1) In the context of organ procurement, HPs believe that BD is a more reliable standard for determining death than circulatory death, and (2) While the vast majority of HPs consider it morally acceptable to retrieve organs from brain-dead donors, retrieving organs from DCD patients is much more controversial. We offer the following possible explanations. DCD introduces new conditions that deviate from standard medical practice, allow procurement of organs when donors’ loss of circulatory function could be reversed, and raises questions about “death” as a unified concept. Our results suggest that, for many HPs, these concerns seem related in part to the fact that a rigorous brain examination is neither clinically performed nor legally required in DCD. Their discomfort could also come from a belief that irreversible loss of circulatory function has not been adequately demonstrated. If DCD protocols are to achieve their full potential for increasing organ supply, the sources of HPs’ discomfort must be further identified and addressed

Este artículo explora desde una perspectiva filosófica la forma como la rostricidad está asociada al deseo y producción de subjetividad. De ahí que el campo de interés se centre en cómo dichas categorías tensionan la constitución subjetiva de los sujetos, a tal punto que inciden en la proyección de su propio trayecto biográfico. Esto a partir de algunos planteamientos teóricos acuñados por filósofos como Foucault, Deleuze y Guattari, con respecto al papel del rostro como productor de significado cultural en la gestión de la economía del deseo. Con miras a ambientar el texto, se tomará como recurso a Catarino, personaje de la novela Cien años de soledad, de Gabriel García Márquez.

This paper is about the experience of Mexican women deported to Tijuana, especially those who are mothers, and how they live the forced separation from their family. First, the phenomenon of family separation in migration is explained and then contrasted with the separation due to deportation and the moral harm produced in mothers in both cases; then there is a closer look to the meanings deported women give to the separation and finally I will posit that motherhood as they know it, suffers a fracture, a dislocation that leaves them with barely no resources to resignify it. A third discussion goes deeper in their options of family reunification; and finally a characterization of Transnational Motherhood in Deportation is given, in order to highlight an understanding of this non-normative mothering perspective. Along the way, testimonies of some of the women I encountered in my visits will support the arguments.