Teodora Manea | University of Liverpool (original) (raw)
Papers by Teodora Manea
Policy Press eBooks, Oct 28, 2015
Bristol University Press eBooks, Aug 14, 2017
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, Oct 1, 2021
Palgrave Macmillan eBooks, Aug 28, 2015
When we walk along the street our fellow humans appear to us as entities that we immediately dete... more When we walk along the street our fellow humans appear to us as entities that we immediately determine or define by their skin: old or young, male or female, healthily tanned or sickly pale, scarred or with tattoos, with no, moderate or exaggerated make-up. The skin is the first and often the only part of a person that we see, and more or less acknowledge as a presence. A first filter of our social interaction starts with this ‘skin deep’, but somehow still relevant, triage. We may not know what is inside the head of someone, but the skin shows us their state of mind, emotions, gender, tiredness, age and lots of other details that allow us to do a quick and superficial categorization. Before anything else we use people’s skin to determine and read who they are. Skin is the first text of the other (Derrida 1981, 71), and this superficial act of ‘knowing’ is very often the only impression we have of a person. Before language and dialogue, before sharing beliefs, principles, worldviews and secrets with our fellow humans, we have an epidermal encounter with them.
Revista Romana De Bioetica, 2005
This article wishes to be a review about problems that the biotechnological progress raises today... more This article wishes to be a review about problems that the biotechnological progress raises today. Genetically modified crops open up a new front in the debate about genetic modification. This issue is put high on the agenda of the bioethicists. Genetically Modified Crops (GM Crops) are foods that have had a gene extracted from a living thing, which has been placed into a different food by a scientist. This creates plants that Nature never could. Genetic modification is an issue which arises every day, although people are not always aware of it. Currently there is a lot of debate whether GM foods are good or bad. GM Crops are affecting society in many of the foods that we buy. The most common foods are maize, cotton, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, canola, soybean and sugar beet. These food items can be found in bread, pasta, chips etc. There are laws which enforce the clear labeling of GM food on the ingredients list which is helping the consumers of our society choose what they buy.
It is a dangerous illusion to believe that the ethical ground we act upon today is definitive. Et... more It is a dangerous illusion to believe that the ethical ground we act upon today is definitive. Ethical principles are a result of certain beliefs, philosophies, social practices and political interests, and they try to capture our sensitivity, culture and values. But the moment we apply them to our practice, either of the following may happen: first, the practice may be too complex to be regulated by the principle we want to apply. In many cases, those principles are imported from other cultures and they may not reflect sufficiently the specific norms that define a certain society. The second possibility is that the principles are already too old to frame new dimensions of socio and biomedical interactions. Third, other societies may have different values or moral sensitivities, which, however, are hidden in a marginal discourse ignored by the main political voice.
The experience of intercultural migration is one of the oldest forms of population movements. Thr... more The experience of intercultural migration is one of the oldest forms of population movements. Through this phenomenon, different cultures come in contact, interaction and transformation. The individuals involved experience new ways of learning from the new cultures. I studied medical migration from Romania to the UK. The fact that medical migration is part of an intra-European highly skilled migration adds two distinctive notes. First, physicians are highly qualified and more aware of the cultural processes involved and second, the European culture, although sharing a rather small territory, has different values and socio-political particularities. The learning processes are continuous and may be not specific for migration. But education is it somewhat more. I will understand education as a learning process where the individual is made aware of the cultural differences, and his or her behaviour, perceptions, or basic values are changed (implying the representations of freedom, socia...
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 2018
If moral enhancement is possible, the caring capacity of human beings should be considered one of... more If moral enhancement is possible, the caring capacity of human beings should be considered one of the first and most important traits for augmentation. To assess the plausibility of enhancing care, I will explore how the concept and its associated human dispositions are socially constructed, and identify some of the critical points and complexities. Scientific advances regarding neuro-enhancing substances that allegedly make humans more caring will be considered and assessed against the main principles that govern the ethics of care approach. I argue that given the relational and contextual nature of care, its enhancement, if targeted at the individual level, can be more disadvantageous than helpful, by overlooking the “webs of care” people are situated in, and the role of social institutions in shaping behaviours, duties, attitudes, and principles.
The phenomenon of international migration of healthcare professionals has increased in the last d... more The phenomenon of international migration of healthcare professionals has increased in the last decade, emphasizing the issue of medical staff crisis in some countries. In this context, international recruitment of healthcare professionals has turned into a usual practice for many states, as a solution to cover their lack of medical staff, causing at the same time a real problem to developing countries. Thus, after adopting regional codes and interstate memoranda, the World Health Organisation adopted in 2010 The Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel to use it as a landmark for establishing and improving the necessary legal framework of medical staff international recruitment. Our research aims to highlight the ethical and praxeological codes regarding the medical staff recruitment and to analyse the effectiveness of those codes, as well as the consequences that might ...
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement
My main interest here is to look at pain as a sign of the body that something is wrong. I will ar... more My main interest here is to look at pain as a sign of the body that something is wrong. I will argue that there is a meaning of pain before and after an illness is diagnosed. An illness contains its own semantic paradigm, but the pain before the diagnosis affects the pace of life, not only by limiting our interactions, but also as a struggle with its meaning and a reminder of mortality.My main approach is what I call bio-hermeneutics, an extension of medical hermeneutics branching out from the Continental hermeneutical tradition. As such, I will explore the connection between pain and language, temporality, dialectics, and ontology. Given the centrality of language in constructing the meaning of pain, my analysis is informed by the semantics (looking at pain metaphors), syntax (pain as incoherence), and pragmatics (pain as companion) of expressing pain.The last section explores the meaning of pain in connection with death, as memento mori. Revisiting an old definition of philosophy ...
Revista Romana De Bioetica, Apr 28, 2013
Revista românǎ de bioeticǎ
An analysis of the effects of migration of health professionals may often reveal the negative con... more An analysis of the effects of migration of health professionals may often reveal the negative consequences of this phenomenon on health systems in the source countries. At the same time, especially in the case of the temporary migration, there are positive effects from the foreign professional practice, one of which being the development of professional competencies. The aim of this presentation is to highlight the doctors’ perception of the "doctor-patient" relationship after practicing abroad. The methodology which was used in this study was qualitative. The data were therefore obtained after conducting 22 interviews. The study participants were 10 doctors who had at least one year of practicing abroad and returned to Romania and 12 doctors working in EU countries (France, Belgium, UK). To gather the information we used semi-directive interview guides and the analysis was thematic, using the QsrNvivo program. The results showed that one of the main benefits felt by Roman...
Revista Românǎ De Bioeticǎ, 2013
ABSTRACT An analysis of the effects of migration of health professionals may often reveal the neg... more ABSTRACT An analysis of the effects of migration of health professionals may often reveal the negative consequences of this phenomenon on health systems in the source countries. At the same time, especially in the case of the temporary migration, there are positive effects from the foreign professional practice, one of which being the development of professional competencies. The aim of this presentation is to highlight the doctors’ perception of the "doctor-patient" relationship after practicing abroad. The methodology which was used in this study was qualitative. The data were therefore obtained after conducting 22 interviews. The study participants were 10 doctors who had at least one year of practicing abroad and returned to Romania and 12 doctors working in EU countries (France, Belgium, UK). To gather the information we used semi-directive interview guides and the analysis was thematic, using the QsrNvivo program. The results showed that one of the main benefits felt by Romanian doctors regarding their experience abroad was the opportunity to develop interaction skills with patients. Practicing in other health systems meant changing attitude on the doctor-patient relationship by understanding the role of the doctor and sometimes the different needs of patients compared to their previous experience in Romania. Finally it is concluded that patients in source countries can benefit from better health services following the development of professional skills of healthcare human resources and therefore temporary migration may be regarded as a positive factor, stimulating the development of such ethical principles as equity, dignity and mutual respect for the doctor-patient relationship.
Moral Enhancement, Cambridge University Press, 2018
If moral enhancement is possible, the caring capacity of human beings should be considered one of... more If moral enhancement is possible, the caring capacity of human beings should be considered one of the first and most important traits for augmentation. To assess the plausibility of enhancing care, I will explore how the concept and its associated human dispositions are socially constructed, and identify some of the critical points and complexities. Scientific advances regarding neuro-enhancing substances that allegedly make humans more caring will be considered and assessed against the main principles that govern the ethics of care approach. I argue that given the rela-tional and contextual nature of care, its enhancement, if targeted at the individual level, can be more disadvantageous than helpful, by overlooking the "webs of care" people are situated in, and the role of social institutions in shaping behaviours, duties, attitudes, and principles.
Revista Romaneasca Pentru Educatie Multidimensionala Journal For Multidimensional Education, 2012
The experience of intercultural migration is one of the oldest forms of population movements.
Philobiblon
Abstract: Biotechnologies have introduced at least two new perspectives on body-perception. The f... more Abstract: Biotechnologies have introduced at least two new perspectives on body-perception. The first is determined by the new methods of analyzing, investigating and interpreting the body. We know more and more about our body and we can predict some of the diseases that we or our children are going to develop. We tend to believe we can find our destiny in our genes. The second perspective concerns the new “products” of biotechnology, which can justly be called biofacts. A biofact is a living artefact, a new kind of being that is no longer autonomous and which is designed and engineered in a laboratory. These new perspectives on body-perception urge a reconsideration of the ontology of body. In my opinion, this ontology is dualistic. My thesis is that the materialization of the body, its reduction to a material substratum, and its separation from rationality and emotions, has turned the body into an artefact. I will describe in the first sections of this paper some aspects and key s...
Policy Press eBooks, Oct 28, 2015
Bristol University Press eBooks, Aug 14, 2017
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, Oct 1, 2021
Palgrave Macmillan eBooks, Aug 28, 2015
When we walk along the street our fellow humans appear to us as entities that we immediately dete... more When we walk along the street our fellow humans appear to us as entities that we immediately determine or define by their skin: old or young, male or female, healthily tanned or sickly pale, scarred or with tattoos, with no, moderate or exaggerated make-up. The skin is the first and often the only part of a person that we see, and more or less acknowledge as a presence. A first filter of our social interaction starts with this ‘skin deep’, but somehow still relevant, triage. We may not know what is inside the head of someone, but the skin shows us their state of mind, emotions, gender, tiredness, age and lots of other details that allow us to do a quick and superficial categorization. Before anything else we use people’s skin to determine and read who they are. Skin is the first text of the other (Derrida 1981, 71), and this superficial act of ‘knowing’ is very often the only impression we have of a person. Before language and dialogue, before sharing beliefs, principles, worldviews and secrets with our fellow humans, we have an epidermal encounter with them.
Revista Romana De Bioetica, 2005
This article wishes to be a review about problems that the biotechnological progress raises today... more This article wishes to be a review about problems that the biotechnological progress raises today. Genetically modified crops open up a new front in the debate about genetic modification. This issue is put high on the agenda of the bioethicists. Genetically Modified Crops (GM Crops) are foods that have had a gene extracted from a living thing, which has been placed into a different food by a scientist. This creates plants that Nature never could. Genetic modification is an issue which arises every day, although people are not always aware of it. Currently there is a lot of debate whether GM foods are good or bad. GM Crops are affecting society in many of the foods that we buy. The most common foods are maize, cotton, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, canola, soybean and sugar beet. These food items can be found in bread, pasta, chips etc. There are laws which enforce the clear labeling of GM food on the ingredients list which is helping the consumers of our society choose what they buy.
It is a dangerous illusion to believe that the ethical ground we act upon today is definitive. Et... more It is a dangerous illusion to believe that the ethical ground we act upon today is definitive. Ethical principles are a result of certain beliefs, philosophies, social practices and political interests, and they try to capture our sensitivity, culture and values. But the moment we apply them to our practice, either of the following may happen: first, the practice may be too complex to be regulated by the principle we want to apply. In many cases, those principles are imported from other cultures and they may not reflect sufficiently the specific norms that define a certain society. The second possibility is that the principles are already too old to frame new dimensions of socio and biomedical interactions. Third, other societies may have different values or moral sensitivities, which, however, are hidden in a marginal discourse ignored by the main political voice.
The experience of intercultural migration is one of the oldest forms of population movements. Thr... more The experience of intercultural migration is one of the oldest forms of population movements. Through this phenomenon, different cultures come in contact, interaction and transformation. The individuals involved experience new ways of learning from the new cultures. I studied medical migration from Romania to the UK. The fact that medical migration is part of an intra-European highly skilled migration adds two distinctive notes. First, physicians are highly qualified and more aware of the cultural processes involved and second, the European culture, although sharing a rather small territory, has different values and socio-political particularities. The learning processes are continuous and may be not specific for migration. But education is it somewhat more. I will understand education as a learning process where the individual is made aware of the cultural differences, and his or her behaviour, perceptions, or basic values are changed (implying the representations of freedom, socia...
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 2018
If moral enhancement is possible, the caring capacity of human beings should be considered one of... more If moral enhancement is possible, the caring capacity of human beings should be considered one of the first and most important traits for augmentation. To assess the plausibility of enhancing care, I will explore how the concept and its associated human dispositions are socially constructed, and identify some of the critical points and complexities. Scientific advances regarding neuro-enhancing substances that allegedly make humans more caring will be considered and assessed against the main principles that govern the ethics of care approach. I argue that given the relational and contextual nature of care, its enhancement, if targeted at the individual level, can be more disadvantageous than helpful, by overlooking the “webs of care” people are situated in, and the role of social institutions in shaping behaviours, duties, attitudes, and principles.
The phenomenon of international migration of healthcare professionals has increased in the last d... more The phenomenon of international migration of healthcare professionals has increased in the last decade, emphasizing the issue of medical staff crisis in some countries. In this context, international recruitment of healthcare professionals has turned into a usual practice for many states, as a solution to cover their lack of medical staff, causing at the same time a real problem to developing countries. Thus, after adopting regional codes and interstate memoranda, the World Health Organisation adopted in 2010 The Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel to use it as a landmark for establishing and improving the necessary legal framework of medical staff international recruitment. Our research aims to highlight the ethical and praxeological codes regarding the medical staff recruitment and to analyse the effectiveness of those codes, as well as the consequences that might ...
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement
My main interest here is to look at pain as a sign of the body that something is wrong. I will ar... more My main interest here is to look at pain as a sign of the body that something is wrong. I will argue that there is a meaning of pain before and after an illness is diagnosed. An illness contains its own semantic paradigm, but the pain before the diagnosis affects the pace of life, not only by limiting our interactions, but also as a struggle with its meaning and a reminder of mortality.My main approach is what I call bio-hermeneutics, an extension of medical hermeneutics branching out from the Continental hermeneutical tradition. As such, I will explore the connection between pain and language, temporality, dialectics, and ontology. Given the centrality of language in constructing the meaning of pain, my analysis is informed by the semantics (looking at pain metaphors), syntax (pain as incoherence), and pragmatics (pain as companion) of expressing pain.The last section explores the meaning of pain in connection with death, as memento mori. Revisiting an old definition of philosophy ...
Revista Romana De Bioetica, Apr 28, 2013
Revista românǎ de bioeticǎ
An analysis of the effects of migration of health professionals may often reveal the negative con... more An analysis of the effects of migration of health professionals may often reveal the negative consequences of this phenomenon on health systems in the source countries. At the same time, especially in the case of the temporary migration, there are positive effects from the foreign professional practice, one of which being the development of professional competencies. The aim of this presentation is to highlight the doctors’ perception of the "doctor-patient" relationship after practicing abroad. The methodology which was used in this study was qualitative. The data were therefore obtained after conducting 22 interviews. The study participants were 10 doctors who had at least one year of practicing abroad and returned to Romania and 12 doctors working in EU countries (France, Belgium, UK). To gather the information we used semi-directive interview guides and the analysis was thematic, using the QsrNvivo program. The results showed that one of the main benefits felt by Roman...
Revista Românǎ De Bioeticǎ, 2013
ABSTRACT An analysis of the effects of migration of health professionals may often reveal the neg... more ABSTRACT An analysis of the effects of migration of health professionals may often reveal the negative consequences of this phenomenon on health systems in the source countries. At the same time, especially in the case of the temporary migration, there are positive effects from the foreign professional practice, one of which being the development of professional competencies. The aim of this presentation is to highlight the doctors’ perception of the "doctor-patient" relationship after practicing abroad. The methodology which was used in this study was qualitative. The data were therefore obtained after conducting 22 interviews. The study participants were 10 doctors who had at least one year of practicing abroad and returned to Romania and 12 doctors working in EU countries (France, Belgium, UK). To gather the information we used semi-directive interview guides and the analysis was thematic, using the QsrNvivo program. The results showed that one of the main benefits felt by Romanian doctors regarding their experience abroad was the opportunity to develop interaction skills with patients. Practicing in other health systems meant changing attitude on the doctor-patient relationship by understanding the role of the doctor and sometimes the different needs of patients compared to their previous experience in Romania. Finally it is concluded that patients in source countries can benefit from better health services following the development of professional skills of healthcare human resources and therefore temporary migration may be regarded as a positive factor, stimulating the development of such ethical principles as equity, dignity and mutual respect for the doctor-patient relationship.
Moral Enhancement, Cambridge University Press, 2018
If moral enhancement is possible, the caring capacity of human beings should be considered one of... more If moral enhancement is possible, the caring capacity of human beings should be considered one of the first and most important traits for augmentation. To assess the plausibility of enhancing care, I will explore how the concept and its associated human dispositions are socially constructed, and identify some of the critical points and complexities. Scientific advances regarding neuro-enhancing substances that allegedly make humans more caring will be considered and assessed against the main principles that govern the ethics of care approach. I argue that given the rela-tional and contextual nature of care, its enhancement, if targeted at the individual level, can be more disadvantageous than helpful, by overlooking the "webs of care" people are situated in, and the role of social institutions in shaping behaviours, duties, attitudes, and principles.
Revista Romaneasca Pentru Educatie Multidimensionala Journal For Multidimensional Education, 2012
The experience of intercultural migration is one of the oldest forms of population movements.
Philobiblon
Abstract: Biotechnologies have introduced at least two new perspectives on body-perception. The f... more Abstract: Biotechnologies have introduced at least two new perspectives on body-perception. The first is determined by the new methods of analyzing, investigating and interpreting the body. We know more and more about our body and we can predict some of the diseases that we or our children are going to develop. We tend to believe we can find our destiny in our genes. The second perspective concerns the new “products” of biotechnology, which can justly be called biofacts. A biofact is a living artefact, a new kind of being that is no longer autonomous and which is designed and engineered in a laboratory. These new perspectives on body-perception urge a reconsideration of the ontology of body. In my opinion, this ontology is dualistic. My thesis is that the materialization of the body, its reduction to a material substratum, and its separation from rationality and emotions, has turned the body into an artefact. I will describe in the first sections of this paper some aspects and key s...