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Undermining Asylum Protection Through Administrative Shortcuts:Germany’s Proposal to Designate Safe Countries of Origin by Executive Decree
No full textGenital Modifications in Prepubescent Minors:When May Clinicians Ethically Proceed?
No full textWhen is it ethically permissible for clinicians to surgically intervene into the genitals of a legal minor? We distinguish between voluntary and nonvoluntary procedures and focus on nonvoluntary procedures, specifically in prepubescent minors (“children”). We do not address procedures in adolescence or adulthood. With respect to children categorized as female at birth who have no apparent differences of sex development (i.e., non-intersex or “endosex” females) there is a near-universal ethical consensus in the Global North. This consensus holds that clinicians may not perform any nonvoluntary genital cutting or surgery, from “cosmetic” labiaplasty to medicalized ritual “pricking” of the vulva, insofar as the procedure is not strictly necessary to protect the child’s physical health. All other motivations, including possible psychosocial, cultural, subjective-aesthetic, or prophylactic benefits as judged by doctors or parents, are seen as categorically inappropriate grounds for a clinician to proceed with a nonvoluntary genital procedure in this population. We argue that the main ethical reasons capable of supporting this consensus turn not on empirically contestable benefit–risk calculations, but on a fundamental concern to respect the child’s privacy, bodily integrity, developing sexual boundaries, and (future) genital autonomy. We show that these ethical reasons are sound. However, as we argue, they do not only apply to endosex female children, but rather to all children regardless of sex characteristics, including those with intersex traits and endosex males. We conclude, therefore, that as a matter of justice, inclusivity, and gender equality in medical-ethical policy (we do not take a position as to criminal law), clinicians should not be permitted to perform any nonvoluntary genital cutting or surgery in prepubescent minors, irrespective of the latter’s sex traits or gender assignment, unless urgently necessary to protect their physical health. By contrast, we suggest that voluntary surgeries in older individuals might, under certain conditions, permissibly be performed for a wider range of reasons, including reasons of self-identity or psychosocial well-being, in keeping with the circumstances, values, and explicit needs and preferences of the persons so concerned. Note: Because our position is tied to clinicians’ widely accepted role-specific duties as medical practitioners within regulated healthcare systems, we do not consider genital procedures performed outside of a healthcare context (e.g., for religious reasons) or by persons other than licensed healthcare providers working in their professional capacity
Motivated information search:Context-dependent efficiency in children and adults
No full textWhile the motivation to gather accurate information emerges early in childhood, social motivations can modulate the drive for accuracy. Across two studies we investigate how social narratives can impact the efficiency of information search in children (6–14 years old), adolescents (14–17 years old), and adults. Work investigating the developmental trajectory of information-search strategies has found that efficiency begins to improve dramatically at age 3, and that children as young as 2 are able to tailor their search strategies to their environments to maximize information gain. In the presented studies (n = 174; n = 175), participants are told they are competing in a sporting event and that their team is either winning or losing. Participants are then tasked with playing a 20-Questions game to try to find a culprit guilty of foul play, and told that if they are not found the competition will be canceled. Whether the participant's team is winning or losing determines whether their team would benefit from finding the culprit. As hypothesized, we found that participants from all age groups searched more efficiently when finding the culprit was in their best interest. Our findings suggest that social contexts play a crucial role in modulating the efficiency of information search across age groups, particularly in comparison to their performance on a standard 20-Questions game, highlighting the importance of taking social contexts into account when designing new paradigms and tracing the developmental trajectory of children's information search strategies in lab settings and the real world. Public significance statement: This work highlights how our environments shape our motivations as we engage with information. Specifically, it examines how our beliefs and our social contexts influence what information we search for and how much of it we gather. In today's media landscape, where content reflects every conceivable viewpoint, it is essential to recognize how our interactions with information are influenced by our contexts. Making sense of these relationships is key to grasping how sources and content platforms shape our behavior with regard to what and how we search
