3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/45
Browse
11 results
Search Results
Item The ethics of antibiotics use in animal farming(2017) Ncayiyana, Philisiwe PreciousThe unnecessary use of antimicrobials poses a global threat to human health by contributing to the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) development. This report evaluates the ethical and scientific implications of non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in animal farming. The report also critiques O'Neill's (2016) Final Report on AMR. The report provides a normative assessment and analysis of scientific evidence and ethical issues involved in farming with antibiotics making use of Mepham's Ethical Matrix. The report makes the case that non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in animal farming contributes to AMR development and that it is not ethically justifiable for farmers to carry on farming with antibiotics non-therapeutically. The study also argues that intensive factory farming poses the greatest risk in the preservation of all classes of antibiotics because it is customary to use antibiotics where a large number of animals are kept in close proximity for example, in poultry farming. An immediate ban of antibiotics deemed medically important for humans in animal farming is necessary in order to prevent the spread of antibiotic resistance. This however, must go hand in hand with preparation for abandonment of intensive farming systems in order for a ban to be successful. The study also recommends the adoption of O'Neill's (2016) recommendations on tackling AMR. In addition, a national public awareness campaign is justified by the threat posed by AMR. Governments and other relevant stakeholders involved should formulate policies or frameworks to deal with the problem with the urgency it requiresItem From commands to natural facts: the arbitrary nature of moral ontology(2017) Kiliba, Edgar MwemeziAny comprehensive theory of the realist position in metaethics must be equipped with a version of moral ontology. Metaethical theological voluntarism, which purports that supernatural facts, i.e. commands issued by a divine being, determine moral states of affairs, has been accused for a long time of rendering morality ‘arbitrary’. Implicit in this widely-accepted objection is the idea that a moral theory cannot have an arbitrary ontological foundation because then anything could have been right or wrong. This paper gives a detailed analysis of this objection that theological voluntarism is arbitrary and makes the case that a commitment to avoiding arbitrariness imposes constraints on the formulation of a moral theory. In particular, this paper argues that accounting for such a commitment decreases the significance that natural facts play for moral theories that maintain a naturalist account of moral ontology.Item Play me! S A style! Utilising Gadamer to investigate the state of play in South Africa and the potential of play within the CAPS curriculum: two school-based case studies(2015) Cammay, Stafford RaisleyThis research report examines the state of play in contemporary South Africa utilising Gadamer's concepts of the 'seriousness of play' and the 'relation between play, art and truth'. My investigation argues a more robust approach to Gadamer's thinking; that the investigation of play as it occurs within a particular historical moment in a specific social setting requires a more politicized understanding of the phenomena. [Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version]Item Maternal HIV-disclosure to uninfected primary school-aged children: motivations, fears and considerations in sub-Saharan Africa(2017) Mkwanazi, Ntombizodumo BrilliantIntroduction: As Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission and HIV treatment programmes have scaled-up, more women are being kept alive and fewer children are infected with HIV. One of the challenges that HIV-infected women face is how to disclose their own HIV status to their children. The disclosure literature suggests that the main reason for women’s HIV-disclosure is to obtain social support, including financial, practical and emotional assistance, to help women to manage their HIV infection. HIV-related stigma, lack of knowledge of how to disclose, uncertainty about a child’s reaction to disclosure, and a perception that a child lacks the developmental capacity to handle HIV-disclosure are factors that affect disclosure decisions. HIV-disclosure is considered a critical element in strengthening the capacity of families in the continuum of HIV care. In 2011, the World Health Organization published guidelines for parental HIV-disclosure to children. These guidelines recommended full disclosure to primary school-aged children (from 6 years up to 12 years) and partial disclosure to younger children. Globally, but particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, HIV-disclosure interventions are lacking. The Amagugu maternal HIV-disclosure intervention was developed, piloted and evaluated between 2010 and 2012 to assist mothers to disclose their HIV status to their HIV-uninfected children. The intervention enrolled 281 mothers and their primary school-aged HIV-uninfected children, and aimed to increase maternal capacity to disclose their HIV status. This was implemented through six lay counsellor- led, home-based, sessions, including a health intervention at a primary health care clinic. The Amagugu intervention was acceptable and feasible in a high HIV prevalence, resource-poor, rural setting, and increased maternal HIV-disclosure to primary school-aged HIV-uninfected children. Methods: This PhD study was nested within the Amagugu study and was conducted at the Africa Centre for Population Health, now the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), in the Hlabisa sub-district of Umkhanyakude, northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The aim of this PhD was to explore, in more depth, the experiences of women enrolled in the Amagugu intervention, including their experiences of the health intervention. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. The sample for the PhD study comprised three groups: 1) all mothers from the Amagugu study (N=281); 2) a sub-sample of mothers from the Amagugu study (N=20) and 3) health care staff employed in the clinics where the Amagugu study took place (N=87). The quantitative data used in the PhD study xvi were collected at different time points from the 281 women, using questionnaires specifically designed for the Amagugu study, including baseline and post-disclosure questionnaires. Data on the clinic experiences were collected from the 281 mothers using semi-structured questionnaires administered after the health intervention. Semi-structured questionnaires, specifically designed for this PhD study, were administered to the clinic staff during the health intervention. Qualitative data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires with the clinic staff (N=87), nine focus groups with clinic staff after the health intervention, and in-depth and semi-structured interviews with the sub-sample of women (N=20) who were enrolled after the Amagugu intervention had been completed. The University of KwaZulu-Natal Biomedical Research Ethics Committee (BREC Ref: BF 144/010) and the University of Witwatersrand Human Research Ethics Committee (Ref: R14/49) granted ethical approval for the PhD study. Results: The results reported in this PhD are drawn from four papers written during the course of this PhD, (three published papers and one paper accepted for publication). The results have been integrated from the data collected from the women and health care staff that were used for the PhD, and a literature review that resulted in a publication. The three main themes that emerged from the PhD are: 1. HIV-related stigma and HIV-disclosure: The literature review revealed that fear of HIV-related stigma was the most common reason for non-HIV-disclosure of HIV to both adults and children. In the sub-sample of 20 women, only two women had not disclosed to other adults due to fear of HIV-related stigma prior to the intervention. Those who had disclosed to only some, but not all other adults in their close social networks, reported HIV-related stigma at household (6/18), community (2/18) and clinic levels (1/18). Although HIV-related stigma was reported, there was also a normalisation of HIV and antiretroviral therapy (ART) in some communities due to the high social exposure to HIV in the study area. Qualitative data from the focus groups with clinic staff, and interviews with the sub-sample of 20 women, recognised that children’s exposure to HIV education has played a role in the normalisation of HIV. 2. HIV-disclosure and family strengthening: The majority of women in the sub-sample had disclosed their HIV status to other adults including their partners, friends and xvii other relatives, prior to the Amagugu intervention. Most women reported living positively with HIV and receiving necessary support from those to whom they had disclosed. Of those women who had disclosed to partners, about half had disclosed to their partners first before disclosing to any other adults. Their partners had mixed reactions to disclosure but were overall supportive. Whilst women’s original fear of disclosing their HIV status to their children had been that they would be stigmatised by their children, on the contrary, most children were supportive. The majority of women in the sub-sample expressed that they would advise other women in similar circumstances to disclose their HIV status to their children for social support, because disclosure increased family cohesion and improved antiretroviral therapy adherence. The health staff echoed the same sentiments regarding social support and family cohesion in the focus groups. 3. HIV-disclosure and access and adherence to HIV treatment: The interviews with the sub-sample of 20 women, and the semi-structured questionnaires and focus groups with 87 clinic staff, all revealed that participants agreed that whilst maternal HIVdisclosure was challenging, it was necessary for women to obtain social support from their children. Health care staff also agreed that maternal HIV-disclosure to their children was instrumental in supporting HIV-infected women to access and adhere to their HIV treatment. The clinic staff recognised the role they could play in health promotion and increasing opportunities for children to participate in activities at health facilities, but acknowledged that they needed support to address logistical constraints that hinder child-friendliness in health facilities, including heavy workloads, poor clinic infrastructure and staff shortages. The health intervention provided clinic staff with child-friendliness training and materials that were found to be acceptable and feasible, and yielded encouraging results. Discussion: This study contributes to the literature about the experiences of African, HIVinfected, rural women with HIV-uninfected children living in an ART-era. In particular the experiences of women who have participated in a maternal HIV disclosure intervention in Africa have not been explored previously. The findings of this work indicate that a decade after being diagnosed with HIV, women in this resource-poor setting are generally living positively with HIV. However, HIV-disclosure to other adults does not necessarily translate xviii to disclosure to children, and parents require specific interventions to assist them with this, and to understand the development and level of understanding of their children. Conclusion: Despite concerns raised by women prior to the intervention, including fear of HIV-related stigma and a perception that children lacked the developmental capacity to grasp knowledge about maternal HIV status, the women in this study reported no regrets in disclosing their status to children. They also reported receiving support from their children, which in turn, assisted them with adherence to their own HIV treatment. Future studies could test the same Amagugu intervention materials in a group of HIV-infected women with uninfected children not previously involved in research to explore whether similar results are found.Item Fagunwa in translation: aesthetic and ethics in the translation of African language literature(2016) Adebawo, Modupe OluwayomiThis study focuses on the aesthetics and ethics of translating African literature, using a case of two of D.O. Fagunwa’s Yoruba novels, namely; Igbo Olodumare (1949) translated by Wole Soyinka as In the Forest of Olodumare (2010) and Adiitu Olodumare (1961) translated by Olu Obafemi as The Mysteries of God (2012). More specifically, the overall aim of this study is to determine the positions of these target texts on the domestication and foreignization continuum. The study of these texts is carried out using a descriptive and systemic theoretical framework, based on Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), Polysystem theory and the notion of norms of translational behaviour. The descriptive approach is extended by drawing on ideological and ethical approaches to translating postcolonial and marginalized literature. Lambert and Van Gorp’s model for the description of translation products is used in exploring the position of Fagunwa’s translated novels in the target literary system. A close comparative analysis of a number of extracts from the two target texts and their corresponding source texts is conducted in order to determine the approaches taken by both translators in their translation of the distinctive stylistic features of Fagunwa’s prose. Building on the work of Christopher Fotheringham (2015) in the field of stylistic analysis of translated African prose, this study describes and analyses the occurrence of shifts of formal literary features between these target texts and their corresponding source texts. This is done by employing Antoine Berman’s scheme of deforming tendencies and Anton Popovič’s scheme of stylistic shifts as the basis for the translational shift analysis.Item Stakeholder models, sustainability and the ethics of planned obsolescence(2016) Matisonn, Joanne RonaIn this research report I will be investigating whether companies have an obligation to shareholders or a wider group of stakeholders. If they have an obligation to a wider group of stakeholders, then the question is whether planned obsolescence is an ethical practice that should inform their business and what the role is of ethical leaders in addressing problems such as job losses, environmental damage and conspicuous consumption that result from planned obsolescence. As part of my attempt to answer the research question I will discuss the evolution of views regarding business and the profit motive in relation to shareholders, the multi-fiduciary model, the enlightened shareholder approach and the inclusive stakeholder approach. I will then focus on planned obsolescence as a pervasive business practice and what circumstances morally justify negative consequences which are weighed against the positive effects. Finally, I will propose ethical solutions to the issues raised around planned obsolescence, aimed at achieving specific benefits whilst also limiting the negativity introduced by planned obsolescence.Item A reflection on the polis for pigs - Socrates' true and healthy polis(2015) Christianson, Arnold LewisPlato in his dialogue the Republic designs an ideal polis, the Kallipolis, seeking ‗justice, our good and the knowledge of the good required for understanding and bringing justice, happiness and good government into our lives and society‘ (Santas 2010, p.7). The first step in the Kallipolis‘ development is a polis without formal government whose citizens live a modest, stable, sustainable lifestyle. Disparaged by Glaucon as a polis for pigs, Socrates‘ incongruous rejoinder is ‗the true polis… is the one we‘ve described, the healthy one, as it were‘ (Rep. 372e). Contemporary commentators are critical of this polis, questioning its role in the Republic. In trying to understand the polis for pigs, and Socrates‘ praise thereof, I posit it is a village, and consider it has virtue, is good and its citizens are happy. However, despite being true and healthy, it is not the best or an ideal polis, but it is crucial to the development of the Kallipolis.Item Genomic sovereignty in South Africa: ethico-legal issues(2014-08-27) Mahesh, Kishen.P.With the completion of the Human Genome project, advances in bioinformatics, computational biology and scientific techniques, human genetic research has established itself as a leading focus of study for many involved in the biological research world. However with all forms of research comes the relevant ethical procedure to guide these studies. Human genetic studies are especially intricate in their ethics evaluations as not only do they require biological material to be obtained from an individual or group of individuals but it in turns gives a researcher access to one’s own personal genetic code, i.e. DNA sequence. Such information has become extremely useful in identifying predispositions and causative factors for certain diseases, identifying possible phenotypic traits, clues into one’s ancestry as well as the overall potential for commercial gain by pharmaceutical companies in drug and gene therapy research and development through acts of gene patenting. Thus with the biological world completely open to exploitation, the need for various control regulations and guidelines to be further developed to address these issues persists. The main questions addressed in studies such as these are those of ownership - who does the sample belong to - access and benefit sharing should any product be developed from information gathered from these samples, consent for use of these samples outside its intended purpose as well as protection of vulnerable groups for unique genetics studies. There are four main sections in this report. First the concepts of Genomic Sovereignty and Common heritage are discussed. Following this, some philosophical theories of ownership are investigated to provide justification toward the concept of ownership with regard to the human body and international bioethical guidelines are then discussed with regard to research involving samples of human genetic material from population groups. The third section is an analysis of the law with regard to ownership, patenting and benefit sharing from research using human genetic material. The fourth section synthesizes the information of the previous 3 sections to produce an alternate approach in dealing with research involving human genetic material from population groups.Item Do undergraduate heathcare students have to disclose their academic status to patients when involved in their care?(2014-03-25) Van Niekerk, Martha SusannaUsing patients in the training of healthcare students is required by the World Federation of Medical Educators. South African legal instruments such as the Constitution and the National Health Act recognise patients’ right to autonomy. This descriptive, analytical study investigated whether patients should be informed that the person involved in their care is a student. International studies and the ethical guidelines of regulating bodies support informing patients of the academic status of persons participating in their care. While patients are willing to participate in the training of healthcare students, they do not waive their right to informed consent. South African health care practitioners are increasingly required to disclose non-medical information to patients, such as treatment costs. Patients should be informed about the academic status of persons involved in their care and have the right to refuse to participate in medical education. The HPCSA should draw up guidelines to support this.Item The protection of genetic privacy in South Africa : towards a legislative response based on a cross-jurisdictional review of legal developments(2013-02-20) Govender, SandraThe deciphering of the human genetic code in 2003 has been widely acknowledged as a major achievement in genetic science but it has given rise to a number of legal and ethical concerns, most notably that of the protection of genetic information. Universally, there are ongoing attempts to address this concern. This research proposes a suitable approach for South African law. It proceeds from the premise that the privacy paradigm, rather than the anti-discrimination paradigm, is better suited to the protection of genetic information, hence the discourse on genetic privacy. The unique challenges posed by genetic information are identified, with a focus on forensic DNA databases, genetic research databases, life insurance, employment, and genetic research involving human participants. An in-depth analysis of the South African privacy protection framework is undertaken in order to determine its adequacy for the purpose of meeting the legal and ethical demands of genetic information. Aspects of the law of privacy, insurance, labour, evidence; medical law; philosophy and bioethics are accordingly traversed. A cross-jurisdictional review is undertaken with the aim of identifying lessons to be learnt from the experiences of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United States of America. Legislation, common law, codes of practice, court decisions, international conventions, legal literature, ethical guidelines, and industry developments pertaining to the selected jurisdictions, are studied with the aim of identifying strengths and weaknesses in the various approaches. It is found that the current South African position is fragmented, complex, and in urgent need of reform. Another finding is that existing national and international ethical guidelines are not entirely adequate for the protection of genetic privacy. These findings, together with the lessons gleaned from the cross-jurisdictional review, lead to the conclusion that South Africa needs a specific genetic information protection statute for the protection of genetic privacy. This research culminates with recommendations regarding the content of the proposed statute.