Not so long ago, Søren posted an item on this blog welcoming the ECHR’s verdict that the UK policy of storing DNA samples from all people who’d been arrested, regardless of guilt, was in contravention of Human Rights laws. A couple of days ago, the UK government published its response. It’s either remarkably sinister or remarkably […]
Category: Thinking Aloud
Contraception, Duties and Rights
Ema is not happy: The Missouri House on Tuesday [that is, 28.iv.09 – IB] voted 115-43 to approve HB 226, an amendment that [s]pecifies that no pharmacy can be required to perform, assist, recommend, refer to, or participate in any act or service resulting in an abortion and it will be immune from liability for […]
Does it Matter when Life Begins?
PZ Meyers recently blogged about his response to one of the perennial claims of pro-life advocates: that life begins at conception. Predictably, he accuses pro-lifers of misunderstanding the question, and he does this by denying that life begins at conception because life began billions of years ago: everything else is just a part of a […]
Is the World’s Smartest Man an Act Utilitarian?
Okay – since everyone else on teh t’interwebz seems to be blogging about Watchmen, I thought I might join in. Especially because, if I don’t, David will: I think he’s more of a geek than I. (Most people are.) So, yeah. Long, violent, extraordinarily faithful to the book except for the improved dénouement, I’d’ve shot […]
Quick and pointless
This has been bugging me for months, if not years. Sorry to spam it here, but maybe someone could provide me with an answer: if and when an effective treatment is discovered for c. difficile, will it have to be renamed – perhaps as c. facile? Have I missed something? Like I said – sorry. […]
Homeopathy: Healing the World (in very very very small doses)
PZ Meyers has picked up a strange story: apparently, there’s an organisation called Homeopaths Without Borders – clearly picking up on MSF’s name – that intends to send crack teams of homeopaths to disaster areas. Their site’s mainly in German at the moment – they promise updates – but here’s a taste of what they […]
MP Not at all Dyslexic
Graham Stringer, the Labour MP for Blackley, has dismissed dyslexia as a myth invented to cover up for poor teaching. His claim brings to mind a claim reported a few years ago along the same lines made by Durham’s Julian Elliott. I’m not sure if it’s just a matter of the way in which the […]
A Bad Day to Detox… and a Diversion to Mill
Sense about Science are truly wonderful people, but, I fear, are engaged in a somewhat futile attempt to rid the world of gobbledygook. Nevertheless, with Stakhanovite determination, they’re putting the boot into the detox industry. Again. On a similar theme, Ben Goldacre showed his mettle on Today and elsewhere. I wish them luck, but I […]
Ethics Publishing Ethics
I’ve been thinking recently about what’s going on when one’s engaged in a piece of ethical writing, and what counts as a proper parameter for it. Particularly, I’ve been wondering whether there’s any obligation to be consistent between papers – is there any need for the papers that one publishes to be compatible at all? […]
Health care as a testing ground for theories of distributive justice
By David Hunter Political philosophy has historically been a surprisingly unreal subject and distributive justice as a sub-field has fared no better, indeed some of the primary discussions have focused on the distribution of plover eggs and claret and taken place on desert islands. There is some sense to this, abstracting away from society and […]