8/4/04 - Margo J. Anderson



8/30/2006

DEMOGRAPHY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND ETHICS

SOGA 6553, Fall 2006, Wednesday – 5:30 to 7:20 pm, Room – Dealy 305

Instructor: William Seltzer

Senior Research Scholar,

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Office: Dealy 407A

Office hours: Tuesday, 4 to 6 pm, and by appointment

Email: seltzer@fordham.edu Phone: (718) 817-3868

SYLLABUS

Course Objective and Structure

The course is intended to provide an increased understanding of how human rights and ethical issues present themselves in discussions of population policies and programs as well as how the science of demography is affected by human rights and related ethical considerations. The course will begin with a brief review of demographic processes and methods, the human rights field, and basic modes of ethical thought. After this introduction, the course will give approximately equal attention to four more or less distinct areas:

(1) the human rights consequences and the ethical foundations and implications of various substantive demographic policies and programs and, related to this, the impact of human rights, or their restriction, on demographic behaviors;

(2) the human rights consequences of demographic research and methods and related issues of research ethics;

(3) the use of demographic research and methods in support of human rights; and

(4) the impact of human rights, or their restriction, on demographic research, and issues of publication ethics.

Complicating the consideration of many issues arising under each heading is that causes, impacts and interactions may be intended or unintended, anticipated or unanticipated, or direct or indirect. Frequently, moreover, different sorts of policy and ethical trade-offs may be involved. The goal of the course is not to resolve the various issues examined, but to help us all think with greater clarity about these and other issues related to demography, human rights, and ethics.

Course Requirements

Course requirements include a commitment to read the assigned reading, and as much additional material as possible, class participation, a final examination, and a term paper. Your final grade will depend on the final exam (35%), the term paper (40%), and class participation (25%). The term paper is due on November 29, with a one or two page outline due by October 25. Careful reading of the assigned material will be critical to success in the final examination.

Course Outline

Introduction

1. Course overview and review of demography, human rights, and ethics August 30

Part I. Human rights consequences and the ethical foundations and implications of various substantive demographic policies and programs

2. Immigration issues, refugees, and political asylum September 13

3. Fertility issues, population growth, optimum population, and abortion September 20

4. Mortality issues, eugenics, and euthanasia September 27

Part II. The human rights consequences of demographic research and methods and related issues of research ethics

5. Statistical and administrative concepts, classifications, and definitions October 4

6. Use of population data systems to target potential victims for genocide and

other human rights abuses October 11

7. Research ethics and demographic research October 18

Part III. The use of demographic research and methods in support of human rights

8. Measuring genocide and crimes against humanity: Conceptual issues October 25

9. Measuring genocide and crimes against humanity: Issues of quantification November 1

10. Measuring equity and the attainment of rights November 8

Part IV. The impact of human rights, or their restriction, on demographic research and issues of publication ethics

11. Restricting data collection and analysis related to specific topics or

population subgroups and issues of publication ethics November 15

Part V. Issues from National Case Studies (based largely on term papers)

12. Case studies: Europe November 29

13. Case studies: the United States December 6

14. Case studies: Other countries December 13

15. Final exam December 20

Assigned and Recommended Reading

Key to availability of readings: (1) = On line – Walsh Library Electronic Reserve; (2) = On line – JSTOR; (3) = On line – Other; (4) = Book on reserve at Walsh Library; (5) = Book in reference room of Walsh Library or elsewhere in Walsh; (6) = Handout material; (7) Additional material provided in class; * = required reading.

1.Course overview and review of demography, human rights, and ethics (8/30/06)

Caldwell, John C. 2003. “Demography, History of.” In Paul Demeny and Geoffrey McNicoll (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Population. New York: Macmillan Reference USA. Reading (1)*; Book (5).

Glendon, Mary Ann. 2001. A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. New York: Random House, chapters 8-10. Reading (6)*; Book (4)

Kultgen, John. 1988. Ethics and Professionalism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, chapter 2, “Ethical Premises” (pp. 19-37). Reading (1) *; Book (4)

Roosevelt, Franklin D., Mrs. 1947. “The Promise of Human Rights.” Foreign Affairs; 26: 470-477. (3) * Available at

Stote, Michael A. 2004. “Ethics: I. Task of Ethics.” In Stephen G. Post (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Bioethics. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, vol. 2, pp. 795-802. Reading (1) *; Book (5)

United Nations. 1948. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948. (3) * Available at

______ . 1948. Universal Declaration of Human Rights Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948. (3) * Available at

2. Immigration issues, refugees, and political asylum (9/13/06)

Editors. 1996. “Special Issue: Ethics, Migration, and Global Stewardship.” International Migration Review, 30 (1, Sping). (2)

Freeman, Gary P. 2003. “Immigration Policies.” In Paul Demeny and Geoffrey McNicoll (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Population. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, vol. II, pp. 515-519. Reading (1) *; Book (5)

Keely, Charles B. 1996. “How Nation-States Create and Respond to Refugee Flows.” International Migration Review, 30, (4, Winter): 1046-1066. (2)*

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 2006. “2005 Global Refugee Trends: Statistical overview of populations of refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons, stateless persons, and other persons of concern to UNHCR,” “Table 1. Refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees (refugees and IDPs), stateless persons, and others of concern to UNHCR by country/region of asylum, end-2005” (3) * Available at . Table 1 at pp. 11-14.

United Nations Statistics Division. 1998. Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration, Revision 1. (Statistical Papers, Series M, No.58, Rev.1) New York: United Nations, Box 1 (page 18), Table 1 (pages 19-20), and Box 2 (21-23). (3) * Available at

van Selm, Joanne. 2003. “Asylum, Right of.” In Paul Demeny and Geoffrey McNicoll (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Population. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, vol. I, pp. 71-72. Reading (1) *; Book (5)

3. Fertility issues, population growth, optimum population, and abortion (9/20/06)

Finkle, Jason L. and C. Alison McIntosh (Eds.). 1994. “The New Politics of Population: Conflict and Consensus in Family Planning.” Population and Development Review, Vol. 20, Supplement. (2)

Haub, Carl. 2003. “Fertility Measurement.” In Paul Demeny and Geoffrey McNicoll (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Population. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, vol. I, pp. 420-425. (6)

Hodgson, Dennis. 2003. “Population Thought, Contemporary.” In Paul Demeny and Geoffrey McNicoll (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Population. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, vol. II, pp. 765-772. Reading (1) *; Book (5)

McNicoll, Geoffry. 2003. “Optimum Population.” In Paul Demeny and Geoffrey McNicoll (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Population. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, vol. II, pp. 710-712. Reading (1) *; Book (5)

Van de Walle, Etienne. 2003. “Induced Abortion: History.” In Paul Demeny and Geoffrey McNicoll (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Population. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, vol. II, pp. 527-531. Reading (1) *; Book (5)

Veatch, Robert M. 1977. “Governmental Population Incentives: Ethical Issues at Stake.” Studies in Family Planning, 8 (4, Apr.): 100-108. (2) *

4. Mortality issues, eugenics, and euthanasia (9/27/06)

Frey, R. G. 2003. “Euthanasia.” In Paul Demeny and Geoffrey McNicoll (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Population. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, vol. I, pp. 323-325. Reading (1) *; Book (5)

Friedlander, Henry. 1995. “The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution.” Chapel Hill (N.C.): University of North Carolina Press, Chapters 1-6. Reading * and Book (3) – Walsh E-book at

Mazumdar, Pauline M. H. 2003. “Eugenics.” In Paul Demeny and Geoffrey McNicoll (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Population. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, vol. I, pp. 319-322. Reading (1) *; Book (5)

5. Statistical and administrative concepts, classifications, and definitions (10/4/06)

Hirsch, Francine. 1997. “The Soviet Union as a Work-in-Progress: Ethnographers and the Category Nationality in the 1926, 1937, and 1939 Censuses.@ Slavic Review, 56 (2, Summer): 251-278. (2) *

Kertzer, David I. and Dominique Arel. 2002. “Censuses, Identity Formation, and the Struggle for Political Power.” In David I. Kertzer and Dominique Arel (Eds.) Census and Identity: The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Language in National Censuses. Cambridge (UK): University of Cambridge Press, pp. 1-42. Reading (1) *; Book (4)

Rodriguez, Clara E. 2000. Changing Race: Latinos, the Census, and the History of Ethnicity in the United States. New York: New York University Press, chapters 1, 2, and 6. Reading (1) *; Book (4)

Seltzer, William. 1996. “Statistical Standards and National, Regional, and Global Requirements and Capabilities” Paper prepared for presentation at the annual Joint Statistical Meetings, August 1996. Shortened version in 1996 Proceedings Government Statistics Section, Alexandria: American Statistical Association (pp 12-21). (6) *

6. Use of population data systems to target potential victims for genocide or other human rights abuses (10/11/06)

Seltzer, William. 1998. “Population Statistics, the Holocaust, and the Nuremberg Trials.” Population and Development Review, 24 (3): 511-552. (2) *

Seltzer, William. 2005. “On the Use of Population Data Systems to Target Vulnerable Population Subgroups for Human Rights Abuses.” Coyuntura Social, No.32 (June), pp. 31-44. (3) * Available at

Seltzer, William, and Margo Anderson. 2000. “After Pearl Harbor: The Proper Role of Population Data Systems in Time of War.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, March 23-25, 2000, Los Angeles, CA. (3) Available at

7. Research ethics and demographic research (10/18/06)

Annas, George J.and Michael A. Grodin (Eds.). 1992. The Nazi Doctors and The Nuremberg Code: Human Rights in Human Experimentation. New York : Oxford University Press. (4)

Greenwald, Howard P. 2000. "Ethics in Social Research." In Edgar F. Borgatta and Rhonda J.V. Montgomery (Eds.). Encyclopedia of Sociology. 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, Vol. 2, pp. 835-840. (3) * Available at Gale Virtual Reference Library (Fordham) at

Hèran, François. 2006. “Ethics and Demography or Macrodemus and Microdemus in the Country of Ethicists.” In Graziella Caselli, Jacques Vallin, and Guilaume Wunsch (Eds.). Demography: Analysis and Synthesis, Amsterdam and Boston: Elsevier, Volume IV, Chapter 99, pp. 39-69. (1) *

Kultgen, John. 1988. Ethics and Professionalism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, chapter 1, “Introduction: Professionalism and Morality” (pp. 3-15) and chapter 10, “Professional Codes” (pp. 209-251). Reading (1) *; Book (4)

Scarce, Rik. 1995. “Scholarly Ethics and Courtroom Antics: Where Researchers Stand in the Eyes of the Law.” American Sociologist 26 (1, Spring): 87-113. (3) * Available via EBSCO Academic Search Premier through Fordham Library at

“Selected References to US Ethical Norms Related to Demography.” Listing of URLs of ethics statements of six US professional associations of relevance. (6)*

Warwick, Donald P. 1994. “The Politics of Research on Fertility Control.” Population and Development Review, “Supplement: The New Politics of Population: Conflict and Consensus in Family Planning,” vol. 20: 179-193. (2)

8. Measuring genocide and crimes against humanity: Conceptual issues (10/25/06)

Fein, Helen. 1990. “Genocide: A Sociological Perspective.” Current Sociology: The Journal of the International Sociological Association, 38 (1, Spring): 1-104. (1)

Institute for the Study of Genocide. No date. “Social Scientists' Definitions of Genocide” (3) * Available at .

Power, Samantha. 2002. A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. New York : Basic Books, chapters 1-5, 7, and 14. Readings (1) * and Book (4)

Sallach, David L.. 1999. “Modeling Genocide: Complexity and Criticality.” Paper presented at Association of Genocide Scholars, June 1999. (3) * Available at

Sjoberg, Giden and Elizabeth Gill. 1995. “Ethics, Human Rights and Sociological Inquiry: Genocide, Politicide and Other Issues of Organizational Power.” American Sociologist 26 (1, Spring): 8-19. (3) * Available via EBSCO Academic Search Premier (Fordham) at

9. Measuring genocide and crimes against humanity: Issues of quantification (11/1/06)

Ball, Patrick, Wendy Betts, Fritz Scheuren, Jana Dudukovich, and Jana Asher. 2002. “Killings and Refugee Flow, March - June 1999: A Report to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.” Washington, DC: American Association for Advancement of Science and American Bar Association. (3) * Available at

Challen, Stephen. 1993. Richard Korherr and His Reports: A Translation and Commentary. London: Cromwell Press. (4) *

Kiernan, Ben. 2003. “The Demography of Genocide in Southeast Asia: The Death Tolls in Cambodia, 1975-79, and East Timor, 1975-80.” Critical Asian Studies 35 (4, Dec): 585-597. (1) *

Power, Samantha. 2002. A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. New York : Basic Books, chapters 6 (on Cambodia), 10 (on Rwanda), 12 (on Kosovo), and 13. (1) * and Book (4)

Verwimp, Philip. 2003. “Testing the Double-Genocide Thesis for Central and Southern Rwanda.” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 47 (4, Aug): 423-443. (1) *

10. Measuring equity and the attainment of rights (11/8/06)

Cingranelli, David L. and David L. Richards. 1999. “Respect for Human Rights after the End of the Cold War.” Journal of Peace Research 36 (5, Sep.): 511-534. (2) *

Holzer,Harry and David Neumark. 2000. “Assessing Affirmative Action.” Journal of Economic Literature 38 (3, Sep.): 483-568. (2)

United Nations Development Program. 2000. Human Development Report 2000: Human rights and human development. New York: Oxford University Press, chapter 5, “Using indicators for human rights accountability.” Reading (3) * available at ; Full report (3) available at

11. Restricting data collection and analysis related to specific topics or

population subgroups and issues of publication ethics (11/15/06)

American Anthropological Association. 1997. “American Anthropological Association Response to OMB Directive 15: Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistic and Administrative Reporting.” Adopted September 1997. (3) * available at

American Sociological Association. 2002. “Statement of the American Sociological Association on the Importance of Collecting Data and Doing Social Scientific Research on Race.” Adopted by adopted by the Council of the American Sociological Association August 9, 2002. (3) * available at

Bailar, John C. III et al. (Eds.) 1990. Ethics and Policy in Scientific Publication. Bethesda (Md.): Council of Biology Editors, Preface (pp. vii-xii), Scenario A (pp. 6-11), Scenario D (pp. 26-32), Scenario K (pp. 58-62), Scenario S (pp. 97-100), “Cross-Cutting Issues” (pp. 101-108), and “Other Issues of Ethics and Policy” (pp. 108-111). Readings (1) *; Book (4)

Blum, Alain. 2002. Resistance to Identity Categorization in France.” In David I. Kertzer and Dominique Arel (Eds.) Census and Identity: The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Language in National Censuses. Cambridge (UK): University of Cambridge Press, pp. 121-147. Reading (1) *; Book (4)

12. Case studies: Europe (11/29/06)

Aly, Götz and Karl Heinz Roth. 2004. The Nazi Census: Identification and Control in the Third Reich. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. [Originally published as Die restlose Erfassung: Volkszählen, Identifizieren, Aussondern im Nationalsozialismus in 1984.] (4)

Guerin-Pace, France and Alain Blum. 2000. “The Comparative Illusion: The International Adult Literacy Survey.” Population: An English Selection, 12: 215-246. (2) *

Bartholomew, David, Peter Moore; Fred Smith; and Paul Allin. 1995. “The Measurement of Unemployment in the UK.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (Statistics in Society), 158 (3): 363-417. (2) *

13. Case studies: the United States (12/6/06)

El-Badry, Samia and David A. Swanson. 2005. “Controversy over providing special census tabulations to government security agencies in the United States: the case of Arab-Americans.” University of Mississippi Population studies Center Working paper, based on a paper originally prepared for presentation at International Union for the Scientific Study of Population XXVth General Conference, Tours, France, July 2005 (3) * Available at

Lauderdale, Diane S. 2006. “Birth Outcomes for Arabic-Named Women in California Before and After 9/11.” Demography, 43 (1, February): 185-201. (1) *

Seltzer, William and Margo Anderson. 2002. “NCES and the Patriot Act: An Early Appraisal of Facts and Issues.” Paper prepared for presentation at the annual Joint Statistical Meetings, New York, August 10-15. (3) * Available at

14. Case studies: Other countries (12/13/06)

De Cock, Kevin M., Dorothy Mbori-Ngacha, Elizabeth Marum. 2002. “Shadow on the continent: public health and HIV/AIDS in Africa in the 21st century.” Lancet 360 (July 6): 67–72. (6) *

Telles, Edward E., and Nelson Lim. 1998. Racial Classification Does it Matter Who Answers the Race Question? Racial Classification and Income Inequality in Brazil. Demography, 35 (4, Nov.): 465-474. (2) *

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