Concordia University

Ethicist urges tax credits to spur organ donation

Montreal, Quebec — June 3 — A Université de Montréal philosopher and ethicist is proposing that governments implement an organ donation tax credit to help increase the number of organs available for transplant.

Jurgen De Wispelaere is a visiting fellow with the university’s Centre for Ethics Research, generally known by its French-language acronym, CRÉUM. In a paper presented at the 2010 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences taking place this week at Montreal’s Concordia University, he says public policy needs to address the serious shortage of organs available for transplant.

De Wispelaere says that on average, about 50 per cent of all potentially available organs are not used because families refuse to provide consent at time of death, or families can’t be contacted in time, or because medical personnel decline to remove the organs because consent is not clear. (Note: De Wispelaere’s figures are not specific to Canada and are obtained from surveying international literature on the issue. The research also does not differentiate between donor consent procedures in different jurisdictions)

For example, he says that even though a person may have signed an organ donor card or registry, families may argue that the consent was given years ago and the person about to die had changed his or her mind. Because of the emotional factors surrounding the death of a loved one, says De Wispelaere, medical authorities are generally reluctant to pressure families to consent to organ donation.

De Wispelaere says there’s a tremendous social benefit to organ transplants, since it increases the quality of life of people who are then able to return to active life. He says governments are right to want to encourage organ donation.

He says that up to now, governments have generally tried to encourage people to be donors, but that idea has gone as far as it can go. He says that the best way to increase the number of organs available for transplant is to work with the families. De Wispelaere proposes a two-pronged approach.

First of all, he proposes beefing up the organ donor registry system by creating what he calls a ‘second consenter.’ A person who wants to donate organs would, well in advance of death or illness, name a person to act as his or her ‘second consenter.’

De Wispelaere says naming a second consenter — a spouse, next-of-kin or even family friend — would allow families to openly discuss organ donation at a less emotional time. When death was imminent, the second consenter would be able to vouch for the donor’s wishes.

This, he says, would almost certainly increase the number of organs available. “The donor would have a living advocate who could say, ‘Yes, we had a discussion about this, and I can assure you that the person really wanted to go ahead’,” says De Wispelaere. “We think this reduces the stress on the family.”

He also says doctors will be more likely to proceed in cases when the family can’t be reached in time if they know a second consenter can vouch for the donor’s intentions.

The second — and more controversial — aspect of his approach involves creating an incentive for second consenters not to change their minds or back out of their commitment. De Wispelaere proposes that this be done by getting governments to create organ transplant tax credit programs. A person who agrees to be a second consenter would be entitled to a tax credit after the donor’s death.

De Wispelaere says he realizes this idea is “problematic,” but he is adamant that a tax credit does not amount to selling organs. Most countries use tax credits to encourage behaviour that’s socially beneficial, says De Wispelaere, citing child benefits as an example. He says an organ donation tax credit is merely an extension of the concept.

He says the second consenter would get the tax credit whether the organs are used for transplant or not. The purpose of the tax credit would be to provide incentive for people to become second consenters — and to not change their mind when the potential donor dies.

He does not put a dollar figure on his proposed organ donation tax credit, but expects it would be a relatively small — almost symbolic — amount.

De Wispelaere says governments would get best results by implementing both parts of his proposal. But he says they could, if they were concerned about the tax credit, increase the number of donors simply by creating ‘second consenters.’

Get more from the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences

Organised by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences brings together about 9,000 researchers, scholars, graduate students, practitioners, and policy makers to share groundbreaking research and examine the most important social and cultural issues of the day. Montréal’s Concordia University is the host of Congress 2010, May 28 to June 4.

The Congress program includes original research from across disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences, providing a great collection of expert sources and innovative story leads. Contact the Congress Media room for assistance connecting with researchers at Congress.

Ryan Saxby Hill

Media Relations

Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

[email protected]

613-894-7635 (mobile)

514-848-2424 ext. 5023 (media room)

Retirees in Mexico cut off, study says

Montreal, Quebec — June 2, 2010 — Baby boomers retiring in Mexico may find it’s cheaper to live there than in Canada or the U.S., however, a study suggests retirees are often isolated both from their families back home — and from the mainstream of Mexican life.

The study, by Jesse O’Brien of the University of Calgary, will be presented at the 2010 Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences taking place at Montreal’s Concordia University. O’Brien’s study looked at how Canadian and American retirees in a small, unnamed town in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula have adapted to life as expatriates.

“It’s an extremely important topic as baby boomers come of retirement age,” says O’Brien, adding that many people will want to retire somewhere warm and cheap. He adds that living abroad will become especially attractive if the value of people’s pension plans drops. “Moving to a cheaper place like Mexico is going to become a viable option for some people,” he says.

But moving to a new country — even if it’s an inexpensive tropical paradise — is never easy, and O’Brien says people go through several phases as they adapt to their new life. They start out, he says, by thinking they’re going to be living like kings in paradise; eventuality, reality sets in.

For most expatriates, reality is that they end up living in a pleasant but isolated enclave.

O’Brien says the expats in the community he studied had essentially recreated a North American lifestyle in one small corner of the Yucatan. “They are living exactly the same life they’d live at home, but in a different location,” he says. Most “absolutely love” the life, but his study showed some problems.

The first, he says, is that the expat community is negatively affecting the local population “even though they don’t notice it themselves.” For example, he said the expats often make no attempt to learn Spanish, and expect to be dealt with in English. And their relationships with the locals are based on service, not friendship. As a result, says O’Brien, the expats’ relationship to the locals is often condescending.

He also explains that expats have surprisingly little contact with their families back home. “It’s kind of shocking,” he says, adding that most people he talked to report that missing family members is the most difficult part of living abroad. Part of that may be due the fact that the community he studied was not on the tourist circuit, and therefore not as easy to get to as some of the cities or resorts.

On the plus side, O’Brien says the fact of living in an enclave and being cut off from family results in the creation of unusually strong community ties. People who wouldn’t normally meet back home are thrown together, and because of the circumstances, friendships develop.

O’Brien notes the case, for example, of a burly former biker who became best of friends with an elderly gay man who had moved to Mexico to start a bed and breakfast. The fact of being North Americans together in Mexico often trumps other differences, he says.

Get more from the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences

Organised by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences brings together about 9,000 researchers, scholars, graduate students, practitioners, and policy makers to share groundbreaking research and examine the most important social and cultural issues of the day. Montréal’s Concordia University is the host of Congress 2010, May 28 to June 4.

The Congress program includes original research from across disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences, providing a great collection of expert sources and innovative story leads. Contact the Congress Media room for assistance connecting with researchers at Congress.

Ryan Saxby Hill

Media Relations

Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

[email protected]

613-894-7635 (mobile)

514-848-2424 ext. 5023 (media room)

Survey highlights major Canada-US differences in people in middle age

Montreal, Quebec — June 1, 2010 — Middle-aged Canadians are much less worried about the future than their American counterparts, some of whom are close to panic, says an Alberta researcher who has just finished a survey in both countries. And she says the differing attitudes today may foreshadow growing differences between the two countries as that cohort move into old age.

Susan McDaniel, a sociology researcher and demographics expert, has been working on a comparative study of Canadians and Americans in late middle age, between the ages of 50 and 64. She presents some of the findings at the 2010 Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences taking place at Montreal’s Concordia University.

McDaniel says that by coincidence, researchers started doing interviews when the recession hit in 2008. Those interviews highlighted huge differences in the attitudes and expectations of Canadians and Americans in the same age group.

“The Americans were generally close to a panicked state,” says McDaniel, explaining that the bursting of the housing bubble and the decline of the stock market had the entire cohort worried that their plans for retirement were shot. Health care was another major concern, particularly for people who feared they might lose health insurance if they lost their job.

“Essentially, they were saying ‘I’m feeling I’ve lost control, I can’t plan’,” she says, adding that researchers were surprised because that attitude runs counter to the image of Americans as being independent people responsible for their lives and their future. Canadians, on the other hand, were worried — but not panicked. And overall, they continued to feel they had some control over their lives.

The 50-to-64-year-old age group is a sandwich generation, often caring for elderly parents on the one hand, and still responsible for their children on the other. In the meantime, they are trying to save for retirement, which for many is now on the horizon.

One thing the study found was that more middle-aged Americans than Canadians are living in multi-generational households. McDaniel says the study was not able to identify why; however she wondered whether it was an effect of the housing bubble, as children who have lost a house moved back in with their parents.

The study also showed how the recession disrupted expectations for old age — and how there’s a big difference in expectations between Canada and the U.S.

Americans, says McDaniel, often reported that their expectations for retirement had been shattered. Canadians, however, felt that while some things might be more difficult, socialized medicine would keep them from going bankrupt.

McDaniel says that as this cohort moves into old age, differences and expectations will play out.
If the differences in the 50-to-64-year-old age group continue as the cohort ages, she says the experience of old age could end up being very different in Canada than in the U.S.

Most people looking at old age today, she adds, base their views on the experiences of people who are old now — people who came of age when jobs were plentiful, housing cheap and diversity rare.

“To build our thinking on the basis of what’s going on with these people today is wrong,” she says.

Get more from the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences

Organised by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences brings together about 9,000 researchers, scholars, graduate students, practitioners, and policy makers to share groundbreaking research and examine the most important social and cultural issues of the day. Montréal’s Concordia University is the host of Congress 2010, May 28 to June 4.

The Congress program includes original research from across disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences, providing a great collection of expert sources and innovative story leads. Contact the Congress Media room for assistance connecting with researchers at Congress.

Ryan Saxby Hill

Media Relations

Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

[email protected]

613-894-7635 (mobile)

514-848-2424 ext. 5023 (media room)

Teens getting creative with Web 2.0 tools

Montreal, Quebec — June 1, 2010 — A pilot study of teens and their use of Web 2.0 technologies confirms what most parents probably already know: Teens are really good at it.

But what surprised the researcher doing the study is how the teens she talked to were able to use technological tools in new and innovative ways to connect with each other — ways that the creators of the tools had probably never thought of.

And she suggests that what’s evolving is a whole new multi-dimensional way of communicating.
Natalia Sinitskaya is a PhD candidate at York University’s Faculty of Education in Toronto. She is exploring digital literacy with the idea of examining the potential of using Web 2.0 environments in education.

To further her research, she did a pilot study involving interviews with a handful of adolescents to sound out their uses and views about Web 2.0 technologies. She presents the results of that research in a paper to be delivered at the 2010 Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences taking place at Montreal’s Concordia University.

Sinitskaya says the teens she interviewed were not only adept at using the technology to connect with each other socially, they were using it in innovative ways. For example, she said one teen took to watching video diaries posted on the Web in places like YouTube. She would then make friends (technologically) with people she liked based on their video logs.

Sinitskaya says teens are also quite sophisticated when it comes to assessing the Web tools: Her respondents, for example, were able to offer thoughtful evaluations of the different features, style and uses of Facebook versus MySpace, and as a result would carefully weigh whether they might choose one platform over another.

“That goes counter to the popular expectation that teenagers don’t know what they are doing,” she says. As well, she says her respondents had all investigated privacy settings on their platforms and selected ones they thought appropriate.

Sinitskaya says she believes the ability to use Web 2.0 tools is a new form of literacy, and as adolescents learn to manipulate them, their communication will move away from plain writing to a new form of multi-dimensional communication.

“My research is showing that adolescents are creating that new communication,” she says.

Get more from the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences

Organised by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences brings together about 9,000 researchers, scholars, graduate students, practitioners, and policy makers to share groundbreaking research and examine the most important social and cultural issues of the day. Montréal’s Concordia University is the host of Congress 2010, May 28 to June 4.

The Congress program includes original research from across disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences, providing a great collection of expert sources and innovative story leads. Contact the Congress Media room for assistance connecting with researchers at Congress.

Ryan Saxby Hill

Media Relations

Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

[email protected]

613-894-7635 (mobile)

514-848-2424 ext. 5023 (media room)

Global sunscreen won’t save corals

Palo Alto, CA — Emergency plans to counteract global warming by artificially shading the Earth from incoming sunlight might lower the planet’s temperature a few degrees, but such “geoengineering” solutions would do little to stop the acidification of the world oceans that threatens coral reefs and other marine life, report the authors of a new study in the journal Geophysical Research Lett

Timing of political messages influences voter preferences

In political campaigns, timing is almost everything. Candidates communicate with voters over a long period of time before voters actually vote. What candidates say to these voters is, of course, important, but it turns out that when they say it also influences voter preferences.