A curious letter was sent out by the Department of Health the other day to GPs and the Chief Executives of various health authorities, trusts, and so on. The full text is available online, but here’s the nub of it: ACCESS TO HEALTH SERVICES FOR MILITARY VETERANS – PRIORITY TREATMENT The purpose of this letter […]
Category: Politics
On the Lack of Socialised Healthcare
It’s very easy for a European to feel very smug about socialised medicine. Maybe the American system isn’t as bad as all that. Maybe we should be a bit more open about its merits. And maybe we should, in the process, ignore cases like that of JoAnn Knutson. Knutson was 72, and had a fall […]
The Freethinker: Circumcision “should be abhorred”
Someone once told me that, if you want a paper to be heard by a large, fractious audience, make sure it’s about circumcision. Peter Breibart considers it over at The Freethinker, and he’s not a happy bunny. You may have heard that there are medical advantages for circumcision – and it is true that the […]
Welfare, Principles, and an Unexpected Attack
First up, this may seem like a bit of a diversion from JME core concerns, but – as I hope will become clear – it has to do with moral philosophy, so that’s enough of a link. Obviously, news for the last week or so has been dominated by the earthquake in Haiti and its […]
Protecting Innocent Lives?
Last spring, George Tiller was killed. (I was going to say murdered, or assassinated, but both of those are morally and legally weighted…) Tiller was one of a very small community of doctors in the US willing to give late-term abortions, and it was for this that he was shot. Scott Roeder is currently on […]
A Very Small Post about Homeopathy
I know I keep stressing the distinction between ethics and activist – and how it’s usually just before I witter on about something vaguely activistic. However, I do think it’s worth popping over to look at the 10:23 Campaign, which takes a robust and sceptical attitude to homeopathy. If you’re not sure about why it’s […]
Public Spending – and the NHS in Perspective.
I have a vague memory of John Lydon telling the crowd at the first Sex Pistols reunion gig in 1996 (Woo-hoo! I was there!) that he’d had a message of support from the owner of Creation records. “Don’t trust Alan McGee,” he snarled. “He’s a very clever man.” […]
Knowing the Enemy in the “War on Drugs”
If you’re going to fight a war, you need to know whom you’re fighting. You also could do with knowing when to stop fighting. Johann Hari is eloquent in this piece on the so-called “war on drugs”: the time to stop is now. Yes, it is shocking that he was ditched for pointing out the […]
David Nutt and Unpopular Science
I’ve noted David Nutt’s unhappy relationship with the government that employed him before now – it was he who was told by erstwhile Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to apologise for having the temerity to point out that Ecstasy is probably safer than equestrianism; apparently facts play, and ought to play, no significant role in discussion […]
DPP’s Interim Policy on Assisted Suicide Published
The Director of Public Prosecutions has today published interim guidelines on prosecutions for assisted suicide in England and Wales – they’re available here (and Northern Ireland will get its own consultation process). I’ve not had time to consider them in full, but there’s a number of things that stand out to me as worthy of comment. […]