It runs like an uneasy theme in the ethics of health care provision. How do we respond to the genuine health needs of individuals who do not have legal rights […]
Guest writers
Simon Chapman and Becky Freeman: A light and mild settlement?
On July 31, two of Canada’s biggest tobacco companies, Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd and Rothmans Benson and Hedges Inc, agreed to pay $300 million in fines and an additional $815 […]
Nicholas Christakis: Email bankruptcy
Lightning struck my home recently and the power surge resulted in my computer crashing. I lost a small file that kept track of several dozen emails (out of the well […]
Julian Sheather: Worshipping the sun
I am forty-four. Even allowing for the decade or so that modern medicine has added to our Biblical three score years and ten, I am, statistically, over half way through […]
Richard Smith: Medpedia – inspired by the counterculture of the 60s
Medpedia, a medical version of Wikipedia, had to happen, and now it has. The full site will launch later in 2008, but a preview is already available. The founders—James Currier […]
Richard Smith: Are we all Thatcherites now?
A friend, possibly drunk, recently sent me a message on Facebook to ask if I was a Thatcherite. Thatcher was in the news because of the debate about her state […]
Harvey Marcovitch: Being an expert witness
I must have written more than 500 expert witness reports over the last 30 years; on a score of occasions I have given expert evidence in a family, civil, or […]
Richard Smith: What do you want your care home to be like?
At a conference I attended recently we were all asked to think about what kind of care home we would like. This was a truly shocking question. It was a […]
Julian Sheather on making mistakes
When I was a child I had three basic approaches to making a mistake. Firstly I would run away as far as possible and pretend it hadn’t happened. […]
Richard Smith: The end of disease and the beginning of health
I think I’m healthy, but am I right? I’m tubby. My hair is white and thin and gone altogether from some parts of my head. I’m short sighted and astigmatic. […]