Confucian Ethics on the Commercial Use of Human Bodies and Body Parts: Yi (Righteousness) or/and Li (Profit)?

In China as elsewhere in the world, human bodies and body parts have long been used for a wide range of medical and non-medical purposes. In recent decades, China has played a considerable role in some of the public exhibitions of plastinated bodies and body parts, and the commercial trade in organ donations. These contemporary developments have raised numerous challenging ethical and governance questions. In spite of the growing role of China in these, there have been few studies devoted to Chinese ethical thinking that might govern its policies on the use of human bodies and body parts, and in particular on the issue of commercialization. The present study is an attempt to bridge this gap, and concludes that Confucian thinking stresses the primacy of righteousness over profits and utilities. This conclusion is reached directly by drawing on Confucian ethical responses to the peculiar practice of using human body parts, such as placenta and flesh, as drugs in traditional Chinese medicine in imperial China and what has been called "yili zhibian," the major Confucian discourse on yi (righteousness or justice) and li (profit or interest) in its long history. The principle of prioritizing righteousness over profit leads to a general moral opposition to the commodification of human bodies and body parts. While Confucianism may not place an absolute prohibition on any such use, it does require that any commercial uses are made subject to the fundamental moral principles, such as righteousness, as well as adequate ethical governance procedures.

Viewing and engaging in an art therapy exhibit by people living with mental illness: implications for empathy and social change.

OBJECTIVE: To determine how healthcare professionals, family members and community members responded to an art exhibit created by people living with mental illness. STUDY DESIGN: Phenomenological study with qualitative analysis. METHODS: Forty-six participants with various relationships with people living with mental illness attended an art therapy exhibit and art making workshop. Surveys, response art, reflective writing and discussion groups were used in this qualitative research study. RESULTS: Responses were categorized into four cluster themes: empathic, self-oriented, other-oriented and world-oriented. CONCLUSIONS: Each response category has strengths and weaknesses, indicating implications for increasing awareness and understanding of the artists and mental illness. They also inform educational interventions that can be utilized when using art exhibits for the purpose of confronting bias and stigma towards people living with mental illness.

Peasants on display: the Czechoslavic Ethnographic Exhibition of 1895.

In the increasingly modernized Central Europe of the late nineteenth century, folk culture, with its alleged ancient character, was still understood by some scholars as the bearer of national identity. The Czechoslavic [sic] Ethnographic Exhibition, which took place in Prague in 1895, aimed to promote the idea of the ethnically unified, but at the same time regionally diverse, identity of the Czech-speaking people living in Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia. Having to negotiate their identity with the ethnic Germans of Bohemia, the Czechs consciously excluded them from the event both as organizers and as exhibitors. The exhibition could therefore be seen as a symptom of its time­in the late nineteenth century Central Europe, locating national heritage was crucial and folk culture played an important role in the national politics, and not only for the Czechs. This article focuses mainly on the ethnographic exhibit entitled 'the Exhibition Village', which consisted of an eclectic selection of village houses and their imitations from Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia. On this basis, it explores the political intentions behind the display of folk culture to both urban and rural audiences and brings attention to the question of integration of the diverse regional objects in a utopian national whole. The article thus also aims to demonstrate issues related to the use of folk artefacts for the purposes of cultural nationalism in Austria-Hungary in the late nineteenth century.

Florence Nightingale in absentia: nursing and the 1893 Columbian Exposition.

In 1893, Chicago hosted the Columbian Exposition. This event showcased America's social, cultural, and scientific advances and its growing cultural parity with Western Europe. This was the first major exposition in which women played a prominent role. Integral to the fair was a series of Congresses that provided an international platform for discussion of social issues. The Congress on Hospitals, Dispensaries, and Nursing, a section of the International Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy, particularly focused on health care issues. Nursing leaders from Europe and North America participated. Although Florence Nightingale provided a major paper that was read at the Congress, she was unable to attend the event. The intent of this article is to examine the issues and themes debated at the 1893 Congress and identify how the influence of Nightingale effected these discussions and the development of Western nursing for the next half-century.

The long and winding journey of Outsider Art. an historical perspective.

AIMS: The article describes the evolution of Outsider Art from the birth of its term in 1972 to the present and its emancipation from the margin to the markets, still in progress. RESULTS: Tracing the evolution of Outsider Art evidences a stark contradiction. On one hand the art world of collectors, historians, art dealers and admirateurs, accepts without reservation artwork that for many years was kept in a marginal position, compared to the "insider" art establishment. On the other hand art experts can not agree on a universal definition of this category of art. The particular status of the outsider artists is one of the reasons that causes difficulty in reaching a definition of Outsider Art. Significant atelier experiences with psychiatric patients delineate the difference between an Outsider Art work and a work produced by Art Therapy. CONCLUSIONS: The art market of art dealers and art collectors can be identified as the place where these contradictions dissolve, and where the Outsider Art category finds its ultimate legitimation and international recognition.

Stories of breast cancer through art.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To describe the use of an art exhibit, created in response to breast cancer survivor stories, and additional supplementary activities to increase cancer awareness and provide support to those with cancer. DATA SOURCES: Published articles and books, personal experiences. DATA SYNTHESIS: Art has been used to educate and promote the expression of emotions. Using an art exhibit as the central feature, a planning committee composed of staff members and volunteers developed a repertoire of activities to improve cancer awareness and provide support to cancer survivors. Visitor and staff reactions to the event were profound. CONCLUSIONS: Art can capture the most intimate and personal aspects of the cancer experience. This event was a novel and effective way to increase awareness about the cancer experience. The event brought together patients, family members, friends, staff members, and the community and facilitated new partnerships to help people with cancer. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: Nurses are well equipped to direct the therapeutic use of art and support the potential reactions of viewers. Nurses can promote the benefit of art exhibits for cancer education, support, and awareness and use their knowledge and skills in planning and implementing supplementary activities.

Gila Regional Medical Center doubles as art gallery. Open house marks southwestern New Mexico hospital's expansion.

Gila Regional Medical Center, Silver City, N.M., is home to a unique kind of art gallery. Though the small town boasts 30 art galleries, one more was added when the newly expanded and renovated hospital opened its doors to the public in February. More than 100 pieces of loaned art estimated to be worth more than $12,000 are on exhibit, in an effort to create a more healing atmosphere for the hospital.

Subclinical Legionella infection in workers near the source of a large outbreak of Legionnaires disease.

A survey was conducted of exhibitors at a 1999 floral trade show, where a whirlpool spa on display caused a large outbreak of legionnaires disease (LD). In total, 742 exhibitors without LD returned a questionnaire on their whereabouts during the fair and their health afterward and supplied blood samples for the detection of IgM and IgG antibodies against Legionella pneumophila. The exhibitors had higher average antibody levels than did the general population. The closer to the whirlpool that the exhibitors worked, the higher their antibody levels. Both high-normal and high titer levels were found more frequently among workers with more exposure, suggesting that serosurveys among potentially exposed subjects are a valuable tool for outbreak investigation. Some differences in health complaints were observed between the more and less exposed groups, as estimated by the workplace location, but few differences were found between groups with different antibody levels.

[Kinoshita's natural colored book of medicinal plants].

This book is well preserved in the Ashimori Kaikan (an exhibit of Okayama city). This paper describes the book of medicinal plants in detail.