Passage of the “Charitable Choice” provisions of welfare reform in 1996, and the more recent publicity surrounding President Bush’s “Faith Based Initiative” have focused renewed public attention on the delicate relationship between church and state, and between politics and religion.
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Category Archives: Academic Papers
On Intellectual Freedom
Not too long ago, I had a conversation with a librarian involved professionally with issues of intellectual freedom. “Sometimes,” she said, “I get so tired of it. I wonder why I continue to fight.” I’ve thought about that conversation several times; if I could do an instant replay, I think I would tell her that I know why she keeps at it. It’s because it is so important.
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Writing as Thinking
Until you can express a thought clearly and cogently, that thought does not yet exist.
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The Muffled Voice of The Child: American Health Care & Children’s Rights
The American legal system accords a high value to personal and bodily autonomy; in the context of medical care, physicians who violate patient autonomy may even be subject to criminal sanctions. It is axiomatic that competent individuals have the right to refuse medical treatment. But children are not recognized as competent as a matter of law. Their privacy rights may be infringed upon a showing of a significant state interest, although the state must show a compelling interest to justify similar infringements on the rights of an adult. Moreover, children are naturally dependent on parents or guardians who are legally presumed to have their best interests at heart. Lost among these legal axioms and presumptions are the voices of the children.
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A Prolegomenon on Restraint of Children: Implicating Constitutional Rights
News media have brought to public attention a disturbing number of deaths proximal to the use of physical restraints in the past year. Use of these procedures has been shown to be dangerous and lethal to patients. In this discussion we explore restraints as an intervention and argue that their use may not only be unethical as a therapeutic intervention, but that their use may have constitutional implications…
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