RISULTATI RICERCA

As a result of the development of new communication technologies, at the beginning of the twentieth century even the Red Cross started using Public Relations strategies and new communication channels, such as affiche, posters, postcards and postage stamps, in order to spread a volunteering spirit to assist the soldiers engaged in war. At the same time, in the years of the Great War a new social phenomenon began: the ex-traordinary spread of letters and postcards as effective contact between soldiers and their families. These became a communication channel parallel to the printed paper, which, despite the military censorship, contributed to spread news regarding the real condition of soldiers in war, outside and beyond newspapers’ propaganda.

Heterologous fertilization and surrogacy. Human reproduction and ethical challenges for society. New techniques in human reproduction are a challenge for bioethics, since, in order to overcome infertility, some techniques produce the breaking of natural human ties once they are not necessary anymore. In particular, it is here considered the case of surrogacy and heterologous fertilization. But what are the peculiar and essential links that are threatened? It is urgent to investigate the aspects that science and psychology tell us about the bond and promote their value, to make well-informed choices.

These days, as a consequence of the increase in life expectancy, the pathologies with which we live are also on the rise. This development is the result of what Omran (1971) has defined as epidemiological transition, i.e. the widespread transition from acute to chronic-degenerative diseases. This article takes into consideration one of the most feared pathologies by those over sixty-five: Alzheimer’s. Globally, one case of Alzheimer’s is diagnosed every 3 seconds (WHO, 2018) and it is considered a fatal disease in the US and UK. In order to account for the complexity of Alzheimer’s, a disease with significant social repercussions, the DIS (disease-illness-sickness) triad developed by Twaddle (1968), and taken up by several authors (Hoffman 2002; Maturo, 2007), has been employed. Examining Alzheimer’s from these different perspectives (social-medical-individual) allows us to differentiate it from other diseases. People with Alzheimer’s are able to develop their own illness (subjective experience of a pathology) only at an early stage of its progression, because the disease involves irreversible cognitive impairment and the loss of numerous functions related to memory. This is why Alzheimer’s can be understood to be a disease without illness.

While legalizing voluntary interruption of pregnancy (VIP) in Italy, law n.194/1978 intro-duced the clause of conscientious objection and, since then, many gynaecologists have in-voked this right. While the literature on this issue is extensive, there is a lack of contributions that, adopting the perspective of the sociology of the professions, focus on the consequences of this choice on professional group. After all, the debate on medical professionalism is overly crystallizing on some aspects by neglecting some others which still appear crucial. Some hypotheses were then formulated: the first is that conscientious objection represents a rift within the gynaecology; the second is that pro-choice gynaecologists experience marginality; finally, the third is that they better identify themselves in a constructed community, including professionals who share the same values rather than the same knowledge, undermining the unity of the professional group.

The diagnosis of breast cancer, the subsequent treatment and the surgery often cause a deep wound and a change in women self-image. In our survey we intended to analyze the rela-tionship with their own body in breast cancer women, examining their participation in an arts, dance and movement project. The perception of the body in the women was detected with the focus group methodology and through the analysis of documents (letters to their bodies). The collected data confirmed the problematic relationship of the women with their bodies. A significant contribution in constructively tackling the difficulties was provided by the planned activities, which were found capable of generating help to write the new body text.

The wider use of medically assisted procreation techniques has led to the spread of a new social imaginary of procreation, filiation and parenthood that involves the identities of men, women and couples. In this new social imaginary, filiation is split into its different genetic, biological and social components, while reproduction is separated from sexuality and indeed the sexual act, bringing into play new figures of men, women and couples who overcome all the biological, genetic and in some cases natural issues related to reproduction. These individuals are willing to accept that there is room for more subjects and social actors (more fathers, mothers and parents) in the field of procreation. This article aims to highlight how both sexes are preparing for this new transition, presenting the results of an empirical study conducted with a quota sample of 360 Italian men and women.