A future like ours revisited.

It is claimed by the future like ours anti-abortion argument that since killing adult humans is wrong because it deprives them of a future of value and the fetus has a future of value, killing fetuses is wrong in the same way that killing adult human beings is wrong. In The morality of abortion and the deprivation of futures (this journal, April 2000) I argued that the persuasive power of this argument rests upon an equivocation on the term "future of value". If the expression means "a potential future of value" then the moral claim is implausible because people do not in general have rights to what they need to fulfill their potential; if the expression means "self-represented future of value" then the argument fails because the fetus does not represent its future. Under no interpretation is the argument sound. In Deprivations, futures and the wrongness of killing (this journal, December 2001) Donald Marquis, author of the future like ours argument, responds at length to this objection. In the present essay the focus of the debate shifts to the proper interpretation of the right not to be killed. Donald Marquis argues that this liberty right entails the welfare right to the means necessary to sustain life; I argue that the right not to be killed does not entail unlimited welfare rights. On Marquis's view, the right not to be killed confers upon the fetus the right to whatever it takes to sustain life; on the view I defend, the right not to be killed does not confer upon the fetus or anyone else the right to another person's body. On Marquis's view, abortion is almost never permissible; on my view abortion is almost always permissible.

"Living off the land": resource efficiency of wetland wastewater treatment.

Bioregenerative life support technologies for space application are advantageous if they can be constructed using locally available materials, and rely on renewable energy resources, lessening the need for launch and resupply of materials. These same characteristics are desirable in the global Earth environment because such technologies are more affordable by developing countries, and are more sustainable long-term since they utilize less non-renewable, imported resources. Subsurface flow wetlands (wastewater gardens(TM)) were developed and evaluated for wastewater recycling along the coast of Yucatan. Emergy evaluations, a measure of the environmental and human economic resource utilization, showed that compared to conventional sewage treatment, wetland wastewater treatment systems use far less imported and purchased materials. Wetland systems are also less energy-dependent, lessening dependence on electrical infrastructure, and require simpler maintenance since the system largely relies on the ecological action of microbes and plants for their efficacy. Detailed emergy evaluations showed that wetland systems use only about 15% the purchased emergy of conventional sewage systems, and that renewable resources contribute 60% of total emergy used (excluding the sewage itself) compared to less than 1% use of renewable resources in the high-tech systems. Applied on a larger scale for development in third world countries, wetland systems would require the electrical energy of conventional sewage treatment (package plants), and save of total capital and operating expenses over a 20-year timeframe. In addition, there are numerous secondary benefits from wetland systems including fiber/fodder/food from the wetland plants, creation of ecosystems of high biodiversity with animal habitat value, and aesthestic/landscape enhancement of the community. Wetland wastewater treatment is an exemplar of ecological engineering in that it creates an interface ecosystem to handle byproducts of the human economy, maximizing performance of the both the natural economy and natural ecosystems. Wetland systems accomplish this with far greater resource economy than other sewage treatment approaches, and thus offer benefits for both space and Earth applications.

The morality of abortion and the deprivation of futures.

In an influential essay entitled Why abortion is wrong, Donald Marquis argues that killing actual persons is wrong because it unjustly deprives victims of their future; that the fetus has a future similar in morally relevant respects to the future lost by competent adult homicide victims, and that, as consequence, abortion is justifiable only in the same circumstances in which killing competent adult human beings is justifiable. The metaphysical claim implicit in the first premise, that actual persons have a future of value, is ambiguous. The Future Like Ours argument (FLO) would be valid if "future of value" were used consistently to mean either "potential future of value" or "self-represented future of value", and FLO would be sound if one or the other interpretation supported both the moral claim and the metaphysical claim, but if, as I argue, any interpretation which makes the argument valid renders it unsound, then FLO must be rejected. Its apparent strength derives from equivocation on the concept of "a future of value".

Assessment of donor-site functional morbidity from radial forearm fasciocutaneous free flap harvest.

OBJECTIVE: To quantitate the functional morbidity to the hand and wrist following harvest of a radial forearm fasciocutaneous free flap. DESIGN: Prospective case-control study, with each patient providing his or her internal control, comparing preoperative and postoperative operated to nonoperated forearms. SETTING: Tertiary care hospital in large metropolitan area. PATIENTS: A consecutive sample of 11 patients who underwent a radial forearm free flap reconstruction of the head and neck from April 1997 to May 1998. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Range of motion of the wrist (flexion and extension, ulnar and radial deviation), grip and pinch strength, and sharp and dull sensation in the distribution of the radial, ulnar, and median nerves. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences (P<.05) were measured in wrist flexion, pinch strength, and sharp sensation in the anatomical snuffbox of the operated forearm. No subjective complaints of loss of function were reported by any patient. CONCLUSIONS: Donor-site functional morbidity associated with harvest of the radial forearm fasciocutaneous free flap is measurable. The statistical differences found do not translate into subjective patient complaints of everyday functional morbidity.

Assessment of functional morbidity in the radial forearm free flap donor site.

OBJECTIVE: To quantitate the functional morbidity to the hand and wrist due to the harvest of a radial forearm free fasciocutaneous flap. DESIGN: Case-control study with age-matched control groups. SETTING: Tertiary care hospital. PATIENTS: A consecutive sample of 21 patients who underwent a radial forearm free flap reconstruction of the head and neck from June 1993 to February 1995 constitute the experimental group. Thirteen of those eligible patients participated in the study. Two control groups were identified. One cohort included 13 patients with head and neck cancer who underwent free tissue transfer other than the radial forearm flap. The other cohort consisted of 16 subjects who were healthy volunteers, patients without cancer, or patients who were considered to be cured of cancer. OUTCOME-MEASURES: Wrist range of motion, grip strength, and sensation in the radial, ulnar, and median nerve distributions on the hands, bilaterally. RESULTS: No significant differences (P > .05) were detected between the groups for the modalities that were tested. CONCLUSION: There is minimal functional morbidity associated with the harvest of the radial forearm free fasciocutaneous flap.

Occupational sex stereotypes among college students.

PIP: Occupational stereotypes among college students are examined. College students rated the 106 occupations contained in the Strong Interest Inventory according to the degree persons in these occupations contained masculine or feminine traits or according to the proportion of men and women employed in them. Men and women made equivalent ratings of occupations. Ratings for trait and proportion did not differ. Based on comparisons with Shinar's earlier research in 1975, it would appear that stereotyping has moderated even though it remained present in responses. Further comparisons show consistent differences in stereotyping based on the Holland occupational types of occupations rated. Implications for the use of interest inventories and the continuation of sex typing are presented.^ieng