The paper compares discussions in 12 groups of university students (6 Slovak and 6 Scottish) equal in sex and age. The participants discussed the same problem - how to control the spread of HIV/AIDS and respect medical confidentiality (MC). Systematic comparisons revealed striking differences between the two national groups. The Scottish discussants were more cooperative than the Slovaks; they devoted more attention to analysing the problem and to creating a shared understanding of it. Although there was a temptation to contravene MC and the individual rights of those infected with HIV in both the Slovak and Scottish groups, only the Scottish discussants came to the conclusion, collaboratively and through argumentative exchange, that such proposals would be counterproductive in controlling the spread of HIV or in protecting public health. In the Slovak groups even participants who were opposed to discriminative proposals were not able to convince their fellow discussants that MC should not be contravened. Links are drawn between the findings and critical pedagogy and inclusion.
The paper compares discussions in 12 groups of university students (6 Slovak and 6 Scottish) equal in sex and age. The participants discussed the same problem - how to control the spread of HIV/AIDS and respect medical confidentiality (MC). Systematic comparisons revealed striking differences between the two national groups. The Scottish discussants were more cooperative than the Slovaks; they devoted more attention to analysing the problem and to creating a shared understanding of it. Although there was a temptation to contravene MC and the individual rights of those infected with HIV in both the Slovak and Scottish groups, only the Scottish discussants came to the conclusion, collaboratively and through argumentative exchange, that such proposals would be counterproductive in controlling the spread of HIV or in protecting public health. In the Slovak groups even participants who were opposed to discriminative proposals were not able to convince their fellow discussants that MC should not be contravened. Links are drawn between the findings and critical pedagogy and inclusion.
The paper presents a comparative analysis of the evolution of the legislative process concerning ART (especially PGD) in the specific cultural, societal and political contexts of two countries- Slovakia and Germany. Our analysis is based on 1. mapping the variety of discourses on ART in order to gain an understanding of the perspectives of the main actors and their arguments; and on 2. exploring the reasons for the differences in the current regulation of ART among European Union member states. In both Slovakia and Germany we found there was a deficit of democratic legitimacy, because the arguments and experiences of those primarily affected by the restrictive measures on the use of ART in medical care-infertile women and men-are not taken into consideration with any seriousness. On the contrary, government and legislators pay too much attention to the ethical opinions of the Catholic Church. Government intervention in Germany is highly problematic because there is no sufficient justification of the reasons behind restrictions on parental autonomy and the procreative freedom of women and men. Moreover, the restrictions are not consistent across an array of similar cases and are not applied equally to all (they differ depending on whether the embryo is in vivo or in vitro and healthy or unhealthy). Instead of an interventionist approach which protects the embryo against its own potential mother, it would be more sensible to adopt the “women-centered” approach already suggested by several authors (see for instance Freedman & Isaacs, 1993, Himmel & Michelmann, 2007). It holds that both the mother and embryo have to be at the centre of bioethical and legal considerations, instead of there being an exclusive reliance on ethical principles and expert opinions with regard to the embryo alone
The example of Slovakia is used to show how one of the post-socialist countries failed in fulfilling the demanding task of securing freedom of religious belief (including the right to conscientious objection) and, at the same time, securing all other human rights. An analysis of the methods used for changing the policies of pluralism and neutrality of the state into a policy of discrimination (e.g. concerning the registration duty for churches) was carried out, followed by an analysis of a mechanism used for guaranteeing freedom of conscience of the members of the Catholic Church (the so-called Vatican Treaty). The treaty violates the prohibition of discrimination against women, because it makes it more difficult for them to have access to some health care services. Our hypothesis states that the hurriedly introduced right to conscientious objection is misused in this context as a means of regulating the politics of reproduction. In general, the re-Catholisation of the Slovak Republic follows two aims-to help in the fight for votes in the elections (because 70 % of Slovaks declare their religion to be Catholic), and to improve demographic development in the Slovak Republic (declared to be catastrophic by the Catholic Church), through hindering free access to abortions.
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