Here's the song:
and here's a bit of the drama...
HT: Mike Wheeler
Friday, March 30, 2012
30 Rock "Kidney Now" song
Live kidney donation, set to music on the small screen, from 30 Rock:
HT: Mike Wheeler
HT: Mike Wheeler
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Competition among kidney exchanges
I'll be spending today and tomorrow at a "consensus conference" to assess just how much consensus there may be among the different networks presently enabling kidney exchange. Here's a NY Times article on the conference...
Lack of Unified System Hampers Kidney Transplant Efforts
"Many of the most prominent names in the field of kidney transplantation agree that the way to maximize the number of transplants through paired exchanges is to create a single, nationwide registry. That, they note, would vastly expand the pool of potential matches among transplant candidates who have willing but incompatible donors.
"And yet, more than a decade after the first organ swap in the United States, the transplant world remains disjointed, with competing private registries operating with little government oversight or regulation. The federal government started a paired exchange pilot project in late 2010, but it lags far behind nonprofits like the National Kidney Registry in making successful matches."
...
"In late March, a consortium of medical societies plans to hold a “consensus conference” near Washington to begin the search for common principles, and perhaps a common structure.
“Organs should be seen as a national resource,” said the meeting’s organizer, Dr. Sandy Feng, a transplant surgeon at the University of California, San Francisco, medical center. “And so we should look for agreed-upon principles to guide practice.”
************
Update: post conference, some political spin run through a well meaning NY Times reporter: Experts Recommend Single Registry to Oversee Kidney Transplant Donations
Lack of Unified System Hampers Kidney Transplant Efforts
"Many of the most prominent names in the field of kidney transplantation agree that the way to maximize the number of transplants through paired exchanges is to create a single, nationwide registry. That, they note, would vastly expand the pool of potential matches among transplant candidates who have willing but incompatible donors.
"And yet, more than a decade after the first organ swap in the United States, the transplant world remains disjointed, with competing private registries operating with little government oversight or regulation. The federal government started a paired exchange pilot project in late 2010, but it lags far behind nonprofits like the National Kidney Registry in making successful matches."
...
"In late March, a consortium of medical societies plans to hold a “consensus conference” near Washington to begin the search for common principles, and perhaps a common structure.
“Organs should be seen as a national resource,” said the meeting’s organizer, Dr. Sandy Feng, a transplant surgeon at the University of California, San Francisco, medical center. “And so we should look for agreed-upon principles to guide practice.”
************
Update: post conference, some political spin run through a well meaning NY Times reporter: Experts Recommend Single Registry to Oversee Kidney Transplant Donations
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
New challenges in multi-hospital kidney exchange
Ashlagi, Itai and Alvin E. Roth, "New challenges in multi-hospital kidney exchange," American Economic Review papers and proceedings, May 2012, forthcoming.
Abstract: The growth of kidney exchange presents new challenges for the design of kidney exchange clearinghouses. The players now include directors of transplant centers, who see sets of patient-donor pairs, and can choose to reveal only difficult to match pairs to the clearinghouse, while withholding easy to match pairs to transplant locally. This reduces the number of transplants. We discuss how the incentives for hospitals to enroll all pairs in kidney exchange can be achieved, and how the concentration of hard to match pairs increases the importance of long, non-simultaneous nondirected donor chains
Abstract: The growth of kidney exchange presents new challenges for the design of kidney exchange clearinghouses. The players now include directors of transplant centers, who see sets of patient-donor pairs, and can choose to reveal only difficult to match pairs to the clearinghouse, while withholding easy to match pairs to transplant locally. This reduces the number of transplants. We discuss how the incentives for hospitals to enroll all pairs in kidney exchange can be achieved, and how the concentration of hard to match pairs increases the importance of long, non-simultaneous nondirected donor chains
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Kidney exchange in Britain
David Manlove, who wrote in 2010 about Britain's first 3-way kidney exchange, writes today about work with his former student Gregg O'Malley:
" I thought you might be interested to see a paper that my colleague Dr Gregg O’Malley and I have recently written on our experience of collaborating with NHS Blood and Transplant on their paired and altruistic kidney donation matching scheme. The paper is available in technical report form here: http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/publications/paperdetails.cfm?id=9383, and is to appear at SEA 2012 (http://sea2012.labri.fr).
Best regards,
David"
" I thought you might be interested to see a paper that my colleague Dr Gregg O’Malley and I have recently written on our experience of collaborating with NHS Blood and Transplant on their paired and altruistic kidney donation matching scheme. The paper is available in technical report form here: http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/publications/paperdetails.cfm?id=9383, and is to appear at SEA 2012 (http://sea2012.labri.fr).
As part of this research, Gregg has created two web
applications for producing optimal solutions to kidney exchange problems.
The first, at http://kidney.optimalmatching.com,
finds a solution that is optimal with respect to the precise criteria involved
in the UK scheme. The second, at http://toolkit.optimalmatching.com,
is capable of accepting alternative optimality criteria (and comparing and
contrasting simultaneously the effect of using different optimality criteria).
Although the web applications were built primarily
with the UK application in mind, we hope that they may be interesting and
useful for those involved in similar matching schemes elsewhere.
Best regards,
David"
Compensation for donors, organ trafficking, and the Declaration of Istanbul
The American Journal of Transplantation publishes an article suggesting that organ trafficking can only be effectively ended by ending the shortage of organs, which will involve careful trials of incentives for donors. It also publishes an editorial disagreeing with this proposal, and saying that enforcement of laws against trafficking depend on a ban on compensation to donors.
The
March 2012 issue of
American Journal
of Transplantation
American Journal
of Transplantation
F. Ambagtsheer and W. Weimar
This personal viewpoint expresses the opinion of the authors on how prohibition of organ trade can be improved. See editorial by Glazier and Delmonico on page 515.
This personal viewpoint expresses the opinion of the authors on how prohibition of organ trade can be improved. See editorial by Glazier and Delmonico on page 515.
A. K. Glazier and F. L. Delmonico
The authors provide a critical response to the viewpoint by Ambagtsheer and Weimar (page 571) regarding the Declaration of Istanbul and its stance toward transplant commercialism, organ trafficking and donation.
The authors provide a critical response to the viewpoint by Ambagtsheer and Weimar (page 571) regarding the Declaration of Istanbul and its stance toward transplant commercialism, organ trafficking and donation.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Uriel G. Rothblum, 1947-2012
 |
| Uri Rothblum in his office at the Technion in 2003 |
Update: there's a website at the Technion where friends can post comments in memoriam.
Joel Klein on school choice
Joel Klein, who was Chancellor of NYC schools when school choice was introduced in New York City high schools, writes in the Daily News: Harness the power of school choice: Competition works in education, too
Of course, details matter: see yesterday's post on an effort that didn't quite work out as planned, in San Francisco. Yesterday's post also has links to some school choice efforts that seem quite promising, however.
Of course, details matter: see yesterday's post on an effort that didn't quite work out as planned, in San Francisco. Yesterday's post also has links to some school choice efforts that seem quite promising, however.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
School choice in San Francisco, reports on first year
I've written before about school choice in San Francisco, and about how Muriel Niederle and Clayton Featherstone led the effort by a group of our colleagues to design a strategy-proof choice algorithm (explained here at a Board meeting in 2010), based on transfer cycles ("top trading cycles" to game theorists...). The school board adopted the plan, but then the staff of the school district decided to implement it themselves, without making the details public. Fast forward to 2012, when the first children have been assigned by the new plan.
Rachel Norton's blog has a post about it here: They're out! School Assignment Letter 2012, and an earlier one here, with a link to a March 5, 2012 SFUSD report on Student Assignment. As in the previous SFUSD reports, this does not describe the choice algorithm, it only describes the "tie breakers" that are used whenever the algorithm would otherwise try to assign more students to a school than it has room for.
This outraged Stan Goldberg (who reports about SF schools as "Senior Dad"), and he posted a video about the lack of transparency called Assignment System Fraud?
He must be an influential guy, because this prompted SFUSD to post some new information, including this "fact sheet" dated March 23, called How does the student assignment computer program work? It still doesn't come close to explaining the actual algorithm they use, but it does include a diagram of "transfer cycles."
Which raises a question. If they in fact implemented the plan we proposed and the Board adopted, you would think they would want to make this clear. The benefits of a strategy-proof assignment procedure can only be realized if parents know that they can safely list their true preferences.
On the other hand, if the algorithm isn't correctly implemented, or if some other assignment algorithm is implemented (whether or not it includes some use of transfer cycles) then it would most likely not be strategy-proof, that is, it might not be safe for parents to reveal their true preferences, and it might be in the interest of some to "game the system" in some way. That might account for a desire to keep the algorithm secret. (So might a desire to avoid revealing any inadvertent mistakes in implementation...)
I should say that SFUSD's brief description of their algorithm doesn't look to me like it describes one that is strategy-proof...:(On the contrary, it looks like it might be patched together from something like Boston's old immediate acceptance algorithm followed by some trading...but then again, it isn't a complete enough description to make me confident that it is a description of whatever they are in fact doing...)
Anyway, one point of this post is to say that, unlike the case of the systems in New York and Boston and the work that IIPSC is doing around the country, my colleagues and I don't know what algorithm SFUSD is using, even though we know what we proposed and the Board adopted. So...this post is a bit like the ads that sometimes appeared in the financial sections of newspapers when I was young, which, following a divorce, would announce that Mr John Doe was henceforth no longer responsible for any debts incurred by the former Mrs John Doe...
Rachel Norton's blog has a post about it here: They're out! School Assignment Letter 2012, and an earlier one here, with a link to a March 5, 2012 SFUSD report on Student Assignment. As in the previous SFUSD reports, this does not describe the choice algorithm, it only describes the "tie breakers" that are used whenever the algorithm would otherwise try to assign more students to a school than it has room for.
This outraged Stan Goldberg (who reports about SF schools as "Senior Dad"), and he posted a video about the lack of transparency called Assignment System Fraud?
He must be an influential guy, because this prompted SFUSD to post some new information, including this "fact sheet" dated March 23, called How does the student assignment computer program work? It still doesn't come close to explaining the actual algorithm they use, but it does include a diagram of "transfer cycles."
Which raises a question. If they in fact implemented the plan we proposed and the Board adopted, you would think they would want to make this clear. The benefits of a strategy-proof assignment procedure can only be realized if parents know that they can safely list their true preferences.
On the other hand, if the algorithm isn't correctly implemented, or if some other assignment algorithm is implemented (whether or not it includes some use of transfer cycles) then it would most likely not be strategy-proof, that is, it might not be safe for parents to reveal their true preferences, and it might be in the interest of some to "game the system" in some way. That might account for a desire to keep the algorithm secret. (So might a desire to avoid revealing any inadvertent mistakes in implementation...)
I should say that SFUSD's brief description of their algorithm doesn't look to me like it describes one that is strategy-proof...:(On the contrary, it looks like it might be patched together from something like Boston's old immediate acceptance algorithm followed by some trading...but then again, it isn't a complete enough description to make me confident that it is a description of whatever they are in fact doing...)
Anyway, one point of this post is to say that, unlike the case of the systems in New York and Boston and the work that IIPSC is doing around the country, my colleagues and I don't know what algorithm SFUSD is using, even though we know what we proposed and the Board adopted. So...this post is a bit like the ads that sometimes appeared in the financial sections of newspapers when I was young, which, following a divorce, would announce that Mr John Doe was henceforth no longer responsible for any debts incurred by the former Mrs John Doe...
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Greyhound racing: a repugnant transaction with shifting coalitions
Lots of animal lovers find dog races a repugnant transaction, and it has faced ballot measures and bans.
As you would expect, firms that ran dog races opposed such bans. But that is changing, as dog races become less profitable. However, what keeps them in business is that laws were passed allowing dog racing venues to offer other kinds of gambling, and these are profitable. But, as the NY Times recently reported, to keep the licences for the other, profitable kinds of gambling, "even though the races are losing millions of dollars each year, the owners are required to keep the greyhounds running six days a week."
Read the full story (and weep) here: Greyhound Races Face Extinction at the Hands of Casinos They Fostered
As you would expect, firms that ran dog races opposed such bans. But that is changing, as dog races become less profitable. However, what keeps them in business is that laws were passed allowing dog racing venues to offer other kinds of gambling, and these are profitable. But, as the NY Times recently reported, to keep the licences for the other, profitable kinds of gambling, "even though the races are losing millions of dollars each year, the owners are required to keep the greyhounds running six days a week."
Read the full story (and weep) here: Greyhound Races Face Extinction at the Hands of Casinos They Fostered
Friday, March 23, 2012
Bid for a liquor store in Washington State, or for all of them
The State of Washington is auctioning off all 167 state owned liquor stores, in an auction running through March and April. It is what used to be called an "entirety auction," a simple kind of combinatorial or package bidding auction that allows both bids on individual stores, and bids on the package of all 167.
Here's the auction page of the Washington State Liquor Control Board, here's the online auction site itself, and here's an information page.
"Bids may be placed on one or multiple stores. There will also be an option for a bidder to make a single offer on the entire store network. This would secure the exclusive rights associated with all 167 state store locations. This simultaneous auction approach accomplishes multiple objectives. It lends itself to small entrepreneurs as well as larger entities that may have interest in this unique business opportunity. Additionally, it optimizes the opportunity to obtain maximum reasonable value for the assets being sold. Finally, the simultaneous approach allows for this to be completed within the tight timelines that were required by law."
Bid responsibly.
Here's the auction page of the Washington State Liquor Control Board, here's the online auction site itself, and here's an information page.
"Bids may be placed on one or multiple stores. There will also be an option for a bidder to make a single offer on the entire store network. This would secure the exclusive rights associated with all 167 state store locations. This simultaneous auction approach accomplishes multiple objectives. It lends itself to small entrepreneurs as well as larger entities that may have interest in this unique business opportunity. Additionally, it optimizes the opportunity to obtain maximum reasonable value for the assets being sold. Finally, the simultaneous approach allows for this to be completed within the tight timelines that were required by law."
Bid responsibly.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
School Choice as a national goal
Both the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal report on a report from the Council on Foreign Relations that emphasize the importance of school choice.
The NY Times: Panel Says Schools’ Failings Could Threaten Economy and National Security
"The panel made three main recommendations:
The NY Times: Panel Says Schools’ Failings Could Threaten Economy and National Security
"The panel made three main recommendations:
¶ Common Core standards should be adopted and expanded
to include science, technology and foreign languages.
¶ Students, especially those in poor schools, should
have more choices in where they go to school.
¶ Governors, working with the federal government,
should develop a national security readiness audit, to judge whether schools are
meeting targets."
********
The WSJ: School Reform's Establishment Turn: The Council on Foreign Relations endorses choice and competition.
"But the real story is how much progress the reform movement has made when pillars of the establishment are willing to endorse a choice movement that would have been too controversial even a few years ago."
************
From the vantage point of the work we're doing with school districts around the country at the Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice (IIPSC), I would have to say that the cutting edge is combining charter and regular district-administered schools in one system, as in Denver (and underway in Chicago)
********
The WSJ: School Reform's Establishment Turn: The Council on Foreign Relations endorses choice and competition.
"But the real story is how much progress the reform movement has made when pillars of the establishment are willing to endorse a choice movement that would have been too controversial even a few years ago."
************
From the vantage point of the work we're doing with school districts around the country at the Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice (IIPSC), I would have to say that the cutting edge is combining charter and regular district-administered schools in one system, as in Denver (and underway in Chicago)
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Dual career job search in Southern California
Some institutions are developing to reflect the increased number of two-career couples on the job market. Here's one source of articles, links to university career services with connections to couples, and some job announcements:
HERC: Higher Education Recruitment Consortium
"HERC member institutions understand that employment decisions often involve two careers.
Get help with your dual career search by registering for job alerts and linking your profile with your spouse/partner."
HT: Alan Benson
HERC: Higher Education Recruitment Consortium
"HERC member institutions understand that employment decisions often involve two careers.
Get help with your dual career search by registering for job alerts and linking your profile with your spouse/partner."
HT: Alan Benson
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Kidney exchange, satirical Onion video and an HBS case study
Recently my HBS colleagues taught a case study on kidney exchange called Kidney Matchmakers (featuring Mike Rees at the Alliance for Paired Donation).
They debated whether to also show this satirical video from The Onion (but good taste prevailed and they decided not to): Anonymous Philanthropist Donates 200 Human Kidneys To Hospital
They debated whether to also show this satirical video from The Onion (but good taste prevailed and they decided not to): Anonymous Philanthropist Donates 200 Human Kidneys To Hospital
Monday, March 19, 2012
Economics job market scramble opens March 21, 2012
Here's the announcement:
The 2012 Job Economics Job Market Scramble registration will open on March 21, 2012.
March 21-28: Registration Period.
March 30-April 10: Scramble Website will open for viewing by registered participants only.
April 11: Scramble Viewing will close.
See the Scramble Guide for more detailed information.
Verified registrants received an email on April 1st with instructions for viewing the prospective Employer and Candidate lists.
Occasionally prospective employers of new Ph.D. economists exhaust their candidates before hiring someone during the winter/spring "job market" period. Similarly, new economics Ph.D.s seeking a job sometimes find that all of the prospective employers with whom they have interviewed have hired someone else before they have secured an appointment.
To address these problems, the AEA has established a "Job Market Scramble" web site to facilitate communication between employers and job seekers in late spring. In March, employers that continue to have an open position previously listed in Job Openings for Economists (JOE) may post a short notice of its availability (with a link to the JOE listing). Similarly, new or recent economics Ph.D. job seekers still looking for a position may post a short announcement of their continued availability, with a link to their application materials (C.V., papers, references). The web site will open for viewing to those who have listed a position or availability soon after listings close. There is no charge for the "Job Market Scramble."
See the Scramble Guide for more detailed information.
Economics Job Market "Scramble" for new Ph.D.s
The 2012 Job Economics Job Market Scramble registration will open on March 21, 2012.
March 21-28: Registration Period.
March 30-April 10: Scramble Website will open for viewing by registered participants only.
April 11: Scramble Viewing will close.
See the Scramble Guide for more detailed information.
Verified registrants received an email on April 1st with instructions for viewing the prospective Employer and Candidate lists.
Brief Description:
Occasionally prospective employers of new Ph.D. economists exhaust their candidates before hiring someone during the winter/spring "job market" period. Similarly, new economics Ph.D.s seeking a job sometimes find that all of the prospective employers with whom they have interviewed have hired someone else before they have secured an appointment.
To address these problems, the AEA has established a "Job Market Scramble" web site to facilitate communication between employers and job seekers in late spring. In March, employers that continue to have an open position previously listed in Job Openings for Economists (JOE) may post a short notice of its availability (with a link to the JOE listing). Similarly, new or recent economics Ph.D. job seekers still looking for a position may post a short announcement of their continued availability, with a link to their application materials (C.V., papers, references). The web site will open for viewing to those who have listed a position or availability soon after listings close. There is no charge for the "Job Market Scramble."
See the Scramble Guide for more detailed information.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
The market for hitmen
If two men who have just met discuss a contract killing in a bar, there's an excellent chance that at least one of them is employed in some branch of law enforcement. So you would think that a website offering to match buyers and sellers in this market wouldn't have a lot of customers, but it appears from some recent court cases that you are overestimating the sophistication of internet shoppers. Here's a recent story from the LA Times. Apparently the proprietor of the site wasn't content to act as a matchmaker, he tried to play both sides of the market by selling hits and then contacting the intended victims and offering to be bought off. But it appears that the demand side was real, and some of them are serving time too...
Website matches targets and hit man
"The case began with a website called HitmanForHire.net. The designer thought it was a joke, but the FBI and Irish police soon learned that Essam Ahmed Eid, a Las Vegas poker dealer, was in business."
************
In another twist, the domain name http://hitmanforhire.net/ has been acquired by someone who apparently hopes to make a movie about the case, and from the look of it thinks it might be a comedy:.
HT: Scott Cunningham, who keeps an economist's eye on the dark side
Website matches targets and hit man
"The case began with a website called HitmanForHire.net. The designer thought it was a joke, but the FBI and Irish police soon learned that Essam Ahmed Eid, a Las Vegas poker dealer, was in business."
************
In another twist, the domain name http://hitmanforhire.net/ has been acquired by someone who apparently hopes to make a movie about the case, and from the look of it thinks it might be a comedy:.
HT: Scott Cunningham, who keeps an economist's eye on the dark side
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Arguments in the press against deceased organ donation
Dick Teresi, the author of a new book called The Undead, has been in the recent press. His argument is related to how we determine if a patient is dead enough to be a deceased organ donor,while still having organs that are alive enough to be donated.
In the WSJ: What You Lose When You Sign That Donor Card: Giving away your organs sounds noble, but have doctors blurred the line between life and death?
And in McCleans: Dick Teresi: On the debate over when life really ends, and the possibility cadavers can feel pain
***********
Even if you think this author is alarmist, if we want to make transplantation more available, we have to understand and address the barriers--informational, psychological, esthetic--to becoming a donor. That being said, the comments I've heard on this subject from people at organ procurement organizations suggests that Teresi is indeed alarmist, and that people declared brain dead are adequately tested to make sure they are very dead indeed.
Here are my previous posts on deceased donation.
Update: today's WSJ published a letter in reply, which I reproduce in full below (Thanks for the pointer to Zeeshan Butt at Northwestern):
Dick Teresi's "What You Lose When You Sign That Donor Card" (Review, March 10) grossly misinforms the public about both the medical determination of brain death and the organ donation process in the U.S.
First, there has never been a documented case of patient recovery after a properly performed determination of death by neurological criteria. Ever.
Second, the diagnosis of brain death requires extensive neurological examination, irrespective of a patient's organ donor status or the family's support for donation. Electroencephalography is generally no longer used because it's outmoded, not because physicians have something to hide. When donation is an option, the organ recovery agency must verify that all clinical testing has been done and all legal documentation is in the patient's chart.
Organ donation saves lives. Eighteen Americans will die today waiting for a life-saving organ. We hope that Mr. Teresi's misinformed comments do not add to that number.
Tia Powell, M.D.
Director, Montefiore-Einstein Center for Bioethics
Bronx, N.Y
James Zisfein, M.D.
Chief, Division of Neurology
Lincoln Medical Center
Bronx, N.Y.
Helen Irving
President and CEO
New York Organ Donor Network
In the WSJ: What You Lose When You Sign That Donor Card: Giving away your organs sounds noble, but have doctors blurred the line between life and death?
And in McCleans: Dick Teresi: On the debate over when life really ends, and the possibility cadavers can feel pain
***********
Even if you think this author is alarmist, if we want to make transplantation more available, we have to understand and address the barriers--informational, psychological, esthetic--to becoming a donor. That being said, the comments I've heard on this subject from people at organ procurement organizations suggests that Teresi is indeed alarmist, and that people declared brain dead are adequately tested to make sure they are very dead indeed.
Here are my previous posts on deceased donation.
Update: today's WSJ published a letter in reply, which I reproduce in full below (Thanks for the pointer to Zeeshan Butt at Northwestern):
Dick Teresi's "What You Lose When You Sign That Donor Card" (Review, March 10) grossly misinforms the public about both the medical determination of brain death and the organ donation process in the U.S.
First, there has never been a documented case of patient recovery after a properly performed determination of death by neurological criteria. Ever.
Second, the diagnosis of brain death requires extensive neurological examination, irrespective of a patient's organ donor status or the family's support for donation. Electroencephalography is generally no longer used because it's outmoded, not because physicians have something to hide. When donation is an option, the organ recovery agency must verify that all clinical testing has been done and all legal documentation is in the patient's chart.
Organ donation saves lives. Eighteen Americans will die today waiting for a life-saving organ. We hope that Mr. Teresi's misinformed comments do not add to that number.
Tia Powell, M.D.
Director, Montefiore-Einstein Center for Bioethics
Bronx, N.Y
James Zisfein, M.D.
Chief, Division of Neurology
Lincoln Medical Center
Bronx, N.Y.
Helen Irving
President and CEO
New York Organ Donor Network
Friday, March 16, 2012
SF parking meters
SFPark.org in the NY Times: A Meter So Expensive, It Creates Parking Spots.
Previous posts on congestion pricing and parking generally.
Doubt on college admissions reform in Britain
In an earlier post I wrote about plans for change in Britain's college admissions system.
Apparently that is far from a sure thing: Admissions Debate in Britain
"Several universities have threatened to withdraw from Britain's centralized admissions system if "post-qualifications applications" are introduced, casting doubt on the future of the proposed reforms.
"Without support from universities, which fund UCAS through subscriptions, the plans are “highly unlikely to be picked up,” said Matthew Andrews, chair of the Admissions Practitioners’ Group of the Academic Registrars Council."
Apparently that is far from a sure thing: Admissions Debate in Britain
"Several universities have threatened to withdraw from Britain's centralized admissions system if "post-qualifications applications" are introduced, casting doubt on the future of the proposed reforms.
"The threat to “opt out” of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service was made by members of the 1994 Group, which represents 19 smaller research-intensive institutions, in its response to plans for students to apply to higher education after receiving their A-level results. Other groups have also voiced their opposition to the radical shake-up of admissions put forward for consultation by UCAS in October, placing the overall project in jeopardy.
"Under the proposals – earmarked for introduction in 2016 – students would sit their A-level exams six weeks or a month earlier and receive their results in July rather than August. They would then apply to just two universities and start the academic term in early October.
..."Without support from universities, which fund UCAS through subscriptions, the plans are “highly unlikely to be picked up,” said Matthew Andrews, chair of the Admissions Practitioners’ Group of the Academic Registrars Council."
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Assisted suicide in the U.S.
Assisted suicide is a prototypically repugnant transaction, in the sense that there are people who want to engage in it, and others who object. Here's an article from yesterday's WSJ, about a doctor who benefited from his own efforts to legalize assisted suicide in Oregon: Right-to-Die Advocate Ends His Life
"Peter Goodwin, a family physician who wrote and campaigned for Oregon's right-to-die law in the 1990s, died Sunday after taking a cocktail of lethal drugs prescribed by his doctor, as allowed under the legislation he championed.
"Dr. Goodwin, 83 years old, had been diagnosed with a degenerative brain disorder similar to Parkinson's disease and had been given less than six months to live.
"The Oregon law was the first in the nation to authorize patients to end their lives with the assistance of physicians. It doesn't allow for doctors to administer euthanasia by injection, though it authorizes them to prescribe lethal drugs that the patient can choose to take.
"The law has withstood legal challenges including a case brought by the Bush administration. In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Oregon, saying that the federal government couldn't forbid doctors from prescribing drugs to help a patient die.
...
"Oregon voters approved the Death With Dignity Act at the polls in 1994, and voted down legislation that would have repealed it in 1997. A total of 597 people have died under its provisions, including 71 in 2011, according to Oregon state statistics.
...
"The act has had an impact beyond Oregon, serving as a model for a Washington State law that took effect in 2009. Massachusetts is scheduled to vote on a similar law in November, while Montana allows physician-assisted suicide as a result of a court case.
"John Kelly, director of Second Thoughts, a Massachusetts-based organization of disability activists who oppose the assisted-suicide ballot petition, said assisted suicide brings up big problems. "Dr. Goodwin "created a monster," Mr. Kelly said. "Assisted suicide is a deadly mix with the profit-driven health-care system. There are so many problems with assisted suicide. These bills sound good in some kind of a perfect-knowledge fantasy universe, but when we get down to real life they become a disaster."
...
"The Death With Dignity Act had a wide effect on end-of-life decisions, said Barbara Coombs Lee, executive director of Compassion & Choices, a national right-to-die organization that is a successor to the Hemlock Society. "Palliative care and hospice care got a big boost in Oregon," Ms. Lee said. "It levels the playing field between patients and physicians who are invested in giving more treatment."
"Peter Goodwin, a family physician who wrote and campaigned for Oregon's right-to-die law in the 1990s, died Sunday after taking a cocktail of lethal drugs prescribed by his doctor, as allowed under the legislation he championed.
"Dr. Goodwin, 83 years old, had been diagnosed with a degenerative brain disorder similar to Parkinson's disease and had been given less than six months to live.
"The Oregon law was the first in the nation to authorize patients to end their lives with the assistance of physicians. It doesn't allow for doctors to administer euthanasia by injection, though it authorizes them to prescribe lethal drugs that the patient can choose to take.
"The law has withstood legal challenges including a case brought by the Bush administration. In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Oregon, saying that the federal government couldn't forbid doctors from prescribing drugs to help a patient die.
...
"Oregon voters approved the Death With Dignity Act at the polls in 1994, and voted down legislation that would have repealed it in 1997. A total of 597 people have died under its provisions, including 71 in 2011, according to Oregon state statistics.
...
"The act has had an impact beyond Oregon, serving as a model for a Washington State law that took effect in 2009. Massachusetts is scheduled to vote on a similar law in November, while Montana allows physician-assisted suicide as a result of a court case.
"John Kelly, director of Second Thoughts, a Massachusetts-based organization of disability activists who oppose the assisted-suicide ballot petition, said assisted suicide brings up big problems. "Dr. Goodwin "created a monster," Mr. Kelly said. "Assisted suicide is a deadly mix with the profit-driven health-care system. There are so many problems with assisted suicide. These bills sound good in some kind of a perfect-knowledge fantasy universe, but when we get down to real life they become a disaster."
...
"The Death With Dignity Act had a wide effect on end-of-life decisions, said Barbara Coombs Lee, executive director of Compassion & Choices, a national right-to-die organization that is a successor to the Hemlock Society. "Palliative care and hospice care got a big boost in Oregon," Ms. Lee said. "It levels the playing field between patients and physicians who are invested in giving more treatment."
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Brides "for sale:" marriage patterns in East Asia
Soohyung Lee and Daiji Kawaguchi have a paper on marriage and matching that looks at who marries whom in East Asia. As I understand it, they argue that there's a powerful norm there for men to "marry down," (related to having "traditional" expectations of marriage) with the result that highly educated women and poorly educated men have difficulty finding suitable local spouses, and that the lower educated men marry foreign brides from poorer countries.
Brides for Sale: Cross-Border Marriages and Female Immigration
Abstract: Every year, a large number of women migrate as brides from developing countries to developed countries in East Asia. This phenomenon virtually did not exist in the early 1990s, but foreign brides currently comprise 4 to 35 percent of newlyweds in these developed Asian countries. This paper argues that two factors account for this rapid increase in “bride importation”: the rapid growth of women's educational attainment and a cultural norm that leads to low net surplus of marriage for educated women. We provide empirical evidence supporting our theoretical model and its implications, using datasets from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore.
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And here's a NY Times story from the point of view of Vietnamese brides married to Korean men: For Some in Vietnam, Prosperity Is a South Korean Son-in-Law
Brides for Sale: Cross-Border Marriages and Female Immigration
Abstract: Every year, a large number of women migrate as brides from developing countries to developed countries in East Asia. This phenomenon virtually did not exist in the early 1990s, but foreign brides currently comprise 4 to 35 percent of newlyweds in these developed Asian countries. This paper argues that two factors account for this rapid increase in “bride importation”: the rapid growth of women's educational attainment and a cultural norm that leads to low net surplus of marriage for educated women. We provide empirical evidence supporting our theoretical model and its implications, using datasets from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore.
***************
And here's a NY Times story from the point of view of Vietnamese brides married to Korean men: For Some in Vietnam, Prosperity Is a South Korean Son-in-Law
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