I found myself yesterday at the Wellcome Collection, one of my favourite museums in London and somewhere I visit reasonably frequently (not being too big, and conveniently located on the Euston Road, it’s perfect to fill those odd hours between the end of the hangover and the train back to Manchester). The permanent exhibition has […]
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Assisted Suicide in the UK
By David Hunter Astute readers are no doubt already following the story of Debbie Purdy who is seeking to have the law of assisted suicide in the UK clarified, given that historically those who have traveled overseas and provided assistance have not been prosecuted in the past, despite it appearing that they are breaking the […]
Vaccinations against the Anti-Vaccers
Predictably enough, the anti-vaccination lobby has been turning its attention to H1N1 vaccinations of late in articles such as this one and the rather more hysterical “ZOMG! Genocide!” blather I mentioned before. With that in mind, I’d thoroughly recommend this article on the Lay Scientist blog: a mature, non-hysterical examination of the strongest plausible worry […]
Structures are prior to people when it comes to moral criticism
By David Hunter When I first came to the UK I was lucky enough to bump into Bob Brecher giving a talk at a conference and was duly impressed by his approach, so when I was organising a seminar series at the University of Ulster I invited him to be a speaker. One point that […]
If you only read one book this summer….
I would have liked to be able to say that if you only read one book this summer you should read “Handbook of Econonomics and Ethics” and if I was only writing about the contents I would surely say that. This is one of the most interesting books I have come across for years and […]
Dan Sulmasy’s Crystal Ball
Dan Sulmasy has a piece on Bioethics Forum at the moment in which he considers the next 40 years of bioethics. It’s a curious piece, making six main claims or predictions about the future, to which I’ll return in a minute: but before that, I think it’s worth looking at his scene-setting: I suggest that bioethics […]
What’s the point of quarantine?
I’ve reached an important milestone: the first case of Pig Aids swine flu among people I know. It’s quite exciting. She’s been told to stay in, avoiding contact with others, for five days by one person, for 10 by another. I’m wondering why this is. In the early days of the illness, there might have […]
Old-School Surgical Instruments
Fascinating, but perhaps not best viewed while eating… […]
Coroners Bill Amendement thrown out.
Lord Falconer’s amendment to the Coroners Bill, which would have made specific legal provision for those helping others to travel to places like Dignitas, was rejected by the House of Lords last night. Oh, well. As Falconer admits, it’s not obvious that it’ll make all that much difference on the ground, because few, if any, […]
Cosmetic Surgery and the Purpose of Medicine
For quite a while now, I’ve had the idea that I’d like to write something about the purpose of medicine – it’s something I’ve been adding on job applications for about 5 years, but I’ve not got around to doing all that much about it yet. The question as I saw it was whether medicine […]