1996
1996.3. Portrayal of Violence
Submitted 10 June 1996 to the Department of Communications and the Arts (Australia?).
Published: Victorian Humanist, Sept. 1996: 4; & Nov-Dec. 1996: 6.
Responding to a call for submissions on the Portrayal of Violence and the linkage,
if any, with violent behaviour, we made the following main points:
* quoted findings of major inquiries on this subject in the past, e.g. from UNESCO: “Violence existed before the mass media. Although the media should not be absolved from their responsibilities, it would be misleading to regard them as the roots of violent behaviour. These are more likely to be found in the frustration engendered by such practice as inequality, social injustice, overcrowding, urbanisation and so on”.
* Other inquiries show positive association between viewing televised violence and subsequent aggressive behaviour in some children and adults, but fail to establish causal relations.
* Modern technology now offers easy access to unclassified material and recent material show graphic depictions of torture, mutilations, rape and degrading acts.
* We support measures to limit children’s access to such material e.g. the UK “watershed” system where all graphic violence (factional and fictional) is shown after 9 p.m., making the V-chip available and affordable and greater restrictions on importation and production of such material.
* Self-regulation and codes of practice within the mass media fail to meet community expectations.
* Our main concern is with the underlying causes of violence which we believe to be: inadequate socialisation of children, particularly boys, in non-violent ways of resolving conflict; the acceptance of violence in sport and in domestic conflicts as the norm; social deprivations such as inequality of access to services, inadequate care in childhood overcrowding; unemployment and lack of prospects for the future.
* Social structures should be set up for those deprived to provide meaningful involvement in and a sense of belonging to the society. Otherwise aggression and violence will continue.
* Family planning should be fostered to ensure that every child is a wanted child. There will be fewer stressed, impoverished families with maltreated children.
* Enculturing arbitration and conciliation in public life e.g. family or industrial conflict.
* We strongly support proposals for intensive public and school education campaign on non-violent conflict resolution methods, positive role models in the media and discerning approach to selection of viewing material.
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1996.4. Organ Retrieval and Donation
Submitted 16 July 1996 to the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council.
Published: Victorian Humanist, Aug. 1996: 6.
To the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council on Arrangements for Organ Retrieval and Donation
We made the following main points:
Australia has one of the lowest rates of organ donations, for transplants and hundreds each year because of this shortage.
General public is poorly informed about the existing programs and its many successes. The media should assist in this area.
Only a small minority of people carry organ donor cards: many are unaware of such provision. The family may reject request for organs and so ignore the wishes of the deceased.
We therefore support the proposal of an organ registry where competent adults may enlist to specify their wishes regarding the donation of their organs. These advance directives, stored in a central registry, would allow the exercise of autonomy and personal responsibility.
Incentives could enhance this program: organ donors would have priority to receive organs from this program should they require a transplant. Those who did not wish to be donors will join the normal waiting list should they become recipients. Exceptions, as at present, would be made on the basis of age and prognosis.
Such prior commitments would facilitate matching for compatibility between donors and recipients.
Opting-out system, i.e. only those who refuse to be donors carry a card to indicate this. With this “presumed consent” system, Austria and Belgium achieve a much higher kidney procurement than others.
Familial consent should be required only in cases of children and mentally handicapped adults. Otherwise relatives should not be able to disregard a stated wish of an autonomous adult.
Each of these measures would require a program of community education.
(List of references supplied).
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1996.5. Adult and Community Education
Submitted 24 July 1996 to the Senate Committee on Education and Training, Parliament of Australia.
Published: Victorian Humanist, Sept. 1996: 4.
In response to a Senate Committee’s call for submissions on adult and community education we made these main points:
* We supported the rationale that underpins the Come in Cinderella report on adult education and believe that it has gained importance and urgency since its publicity
* Retrenchments, early retirements, rapid workplace change, redundancy of skills and the disappearance of unskilled jobs, make the provision for a wide range of types of adult education imperative. We list reasons for its cost-effectiveness.
* The importance of imparting skills to prisoners to reduce recidivism.
* The growing need for community education on a range of complex social issues. Increasingly policies are formulated on the bases of public opinion surveys, thus informed and critical thinking is essential and should be fostered.
* The reskilling of employees should be organised on “manpower planning” principles and not ad hoc.
* Libraries are vital facilities in adult education and should be enabled to assist in the use of Internet material for those who lack the means or skill. We are concerned about the “user pays” practice in this area.
* Pseudo-knowledge, e.g. classes on tarrot cards, astrology etc., should not be funded or offered facilities as they promote unreason and gullibility and are of no benefit at large.
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1996.6. Assisted Reproductive Technology
Submitted 6 August 1996 to the Australian Health Ethics Committee (National Health and Medical Research Council).
Published: Victorian Humanist, Sept. 1996: 4.
Health Ethics
The Australian Health Ethics Committee, a principal section of the National Health and Medical Council issued draft guidelines on assisted reproductive technology for comment from interested bodies.
Main points in our submission were:
* Accreditation of practitioners and accountability of practice are imperative.
* Assessment of prospective parents should be based on their socio-affective skills as this is the most important parenting quality.
* Altruistic surrogacy should be assisted rather than drive this practice “backyard’ where neither counselling nor proper antenatal tests are provided.
* Most detailed, thorough information to be provided to applicants with checks on their final perceptions and expectations of outcomes.
* Counselling should be carried out by highly accredited professionals.
* Couples should be able to donate their no longer wanted frozen embryos for research.
* Generating embryos for research purposes should be permitted.
* Reliable sex selection should be available for medical but not social reasons.
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1996.9. Sentencing in Victoria
Submitted 15 October 1996 to the Victorian Community Council Against Violence
Published: (1) Victorian Humanist, Nov.-Dec. 1996: 6; (2) V.H., Jan-Feb. 1997: 8.
(1)
In response to questions posed in the information paper, Sentencing in Victoria, from the Victorian Community Council Against Violence, we submitted the following main points:
* We quoted a report of serious shortcoming [in] the program of rehabilitation and education of prisoners and of poor efforts to resocialise them upon their release. This and the placing of young first offenders together with hardened criminals, contributes to the high rates of recidivism.
* Community attitudes to particular crimes may be based on wrong perceptions regarding their frequency and severity.
* Additional sentencing options should include home detentions and curfews. We condemn attempts to reintroduce the death penalty.
* Some types of incest and of sexual exploitation of children should incur the penalty of rape.
* The aim of community protection should be paramount in cases of dangerous, intractable Offenders.
* “White-collar” crime should incur harsher penalties than at present.
* The public does not receive enough information to understand the complexities of sentencing. Specific education for schools and the community is needed to create insights into the system of sentencing.
(2) [Includes one more item, at end]
To questions posed . . . we submitted the following:
• We quoted a report of serious shortcomings in the program of rehabilitation and education of prisoners and of poor efforts to resocialise them upon their release. This and the placing of young, first offenders together with hardened criminals, contributes to the high rates of recidivism.
• Community attitudes to particular crimes may be based on wrong perceptions regarding their frequency and severity.
• Additional sentencing options should include home detentions and curfews. We condemn attempts to reintroduce the death penalty.
• Some types of incest and of sexual exploitation of children should incur the penalty of rape.
• The aim of community protection should be paramount in cases of dangerous, intractable offenders.
• “White-collar” crime should incur harsher penalties than at present.
• The public does not receive enough information to understand the complexities of sentencing. Specific educations for schools and the community is needed to create insights into the system of sentencing.
• We must not base laws on uninformed opinions.
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1996.10. Euthanasia Laws Bill 1996
Submitted 6 December 1996 to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee, Parliament of Australia.
Published: Victorian Humanist, Jan.-Feb.1997: 8.
Voluntary Euthanasia
To the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee in response to their call for submissions on the Euthanasia Laws Bill 1996 we submitted the following points:
• The Northern Territory’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act is a long overdue attempt to deal with a growing social problem.
• Modern medical technology prolongs the process of dying. Many choose this course and their rights are respected. The few who seek assistance to shorten this process should be granted rights to do so.
• Other reasons to decriminalise voluntary euthanasia are: Large majority of the public supports such move; it is a frequent practice and in its clandestine mode is open to abuse. It must be open to scrutiny, performed by accredited and accountable experts.
• Current legislation in other States puts the caring, compassionate physician in breach of the law and it maintains the potential for abuse.
• We are impressed by the careful provisions of the NT’s Act which ascertains that the request is voluntary, well considered and then reconsidered in face of terminal stages of an illness diagnosed by two independent experts.
• To deny such option for a death with dignity is inhumane.
• The frequent omission of the operative term voluntary in debates and publications leads to misinformation and fears of “mercy killing” of the old and infirm without their consent. It causes a spurious comparison with the Nazi killings which were certainly not done on request.
• Legalisation of voluntary euthanasia should be a Federal and not a State matter and the NT’s Act should be adopted nationally.
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1996.11. Research on Human Subjects
Submitted 28 December 1996 to the Australian Health Ethics Committee (National Health & Medical Research Council)
Published: Victorian Humanist, Jan-Feb. 1997: 8.
Bio-ethics Research
To the call for submissions from the Australian Health Ethics Committee on The Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Human Subjects we made the following general remarks:
The National Health & Medical Research Council was congratulated on their set of guidelines relating to new biotechnology and medical research.
This technology grows in scope and complexity and affects many aspects of our lives. Many of our values and beliefs are challenged and thus the need for rational approach becomes urgent.
We find the statements made to date, attentive to detail, to human dignity, privacy and to the need for confidentiality.
In answer to specific points we urged that:
• Members of Institutional Ethics Committees declare their religious affiliation and that care be taken to avoid an anti-science bias.
• A high level of accreditation and accountability of practitioners is required to avoid abuse.
• Clinical trials of new drugs are not adequately controlled.
• The use of foetal tissue should be regarded as another form of organ donation and transplantation, a practice now generally accepted and encouraged.
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[End of 1996]
