Children under 18 are legal minors who, in South African law, are not fully capable of acting independently without assistance from parents/legal guardians. However, in recognition of the evolving capacity of children, there are exceptional circumstances where the law has granted minors the capacity to act independently. We describe legal norms for child consent to health-related interventions ...

We analyze the time series associated with web traffic for a representative set of online businesses that have suffered widely reported cyber security incidents. Our working hypothesis is that cyber security incidents may prompt (security conscious) online customers to opt out and conduct their business elsewhere or, at the very least, to refrain from accessing online services. For companies re...

Trust is a fundamentally important aspect of medical treatment relationships. Studies have established that patient trust predicts instrumental variables such as use of preventive services, adherence, and continued enrollment at least as well as satisfaction does, and is more salient for measuring the quality of ongoing relationships. Measuring trust would help to inform public policy deliberat...

The principal-agent models may be employed to elucidate central problems in interaction between principals and agents in both policy implementation and public policy-making concerning performance and remuneration. One then hits upon the double principal-agent relationships that are typical of the policy cycle, from policy-making to policy implementation and back: 1) government as principal for ...

The ethical implications of human clones have been much alluded to, but have seldom been examined with any rigour. This paper examines the possible uses and abuses of human cloning and draws out the principal ethical dimensions, both of what might be done and its meaning. The paper examines some of the major public and official responses to cloning by authorities such as President Clinton, the ...

I would like to state, briefly and bluntly, why I think the various "Doomsday Models" are worthless as science and as guides to public policy. I hope it will not be deduced that I believe the problems of population control, environmental degradation, and resource exhaustion to be unimportant, or that I think an adequate response to them is a vague confidence that something will turn up. They ar...

Scientists increasingly find themselves at the center of contentious public policy debates over issues such as chemical regulation and climate change. The general public and politicians often expect scientific advisors to be purely objective. However, a new commentary in this issue of EHP asserts that scientific research is intrinsically inf luenced by value judgments and that researchers shoul...

Engaging communities of color in the genetics public policy conversation is important for the translation of genetics research into strategies aimed at improving the health of all. Implementing model public participation and consultation processes can be informed by the Communities of Color Genetics Policy Project, which engaged individuals from African American and Latino communities of divers...

Latin America is probably the region with greater social inequality, contrary to the amount of rights enshrined in their constitutions. In the last decade of the twentieth century, the area resulted in significant changes to democratization and constitutional changes. Through low-key public policy, political leaders activated participation in the culture of human rights. The struggle for social...

 A rapidly growing public policy concern facing the United States is whether future generations of retired Americans, particularly those in the Baby Boomer and Gen X cohorts, will have adequate retirement incomes. There have been several policy studies in recent years that suggest that the decreasing relevance of defined benefit (DB) plans relative to defined contribution plans (such as 401(k)...