The Guardian has a feature in its “Ethical Living” feature called “You Ask, They Answer”. This provides a forum in which readers can put questions to firms, people and so on. This week, the subject was Neal’s Yard Remedies, purveyor of… um… “remedies” to the kind of people who go in for aromatherapy and homeopathy […]
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Engelhardt Lecture, Cambridge: Can Someone do me a Favour?
Tristram Engelhardt is giving a lecture entitled “Moral Pluralism and the Crisis of Secular Bioethics: Why Orthodox Christian Bioethics has the Solution” at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies at Wesley House in Cambridge on the 3rd June. It’s a provoking title – and my guess is that I’d probably disagree with just about every word after “Good evening”. Notwithstanding this – […]
Morgellons and Noble Lies
Here’s a poser: imagine that your patient comes to you reporting the canonical symptoms of a condition that is untreatable. You agree that this patient is suffering from something, and that the reported symptoms tally with those that are reported by other sufferers. However, the reason that the disease is untreatable is that – frankly […]
That’s it. Western Civilisation is Over.
You can now buy low calorie water. What? You think that there’s more to say? […]
Portugal’s Experiment with Drug Decriminalisation
In 2001, drug use was decriminalised in Portugal, meaning that the country had, in effect, the most lenient drug laws in the world. What has been the effect of this move? Martin Robbins considers the evidence. His conclusion is that the policy hasn’t been the unmitigated success that he – and the Cato institute (warning: bigger-than-the-moon 4Mb […]
DNA Retention: Stupid or Scary?
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 […]
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 […]
Book Review: “Distributive Justice and the New Medicine” by George P Smith II
Edward Elgar Publishing, UK and USA, 187 + 7 pp. Price: £55 (hb) Reviewed by Loane Skene, Melbourne Law School […]
Musical Swine Flu!
This does exactly what it says on the tin. Stephan Zielinski has set swine flu to music: The algorithm I used is a bit complicated, but just in case you’re curious: since the gene is expressed as a surface protein antibodies can sense, it’s considered as a string of amino acids. Each beat corresponds to […]
Obligatory Topical Swine Flu Post
The appearance of Swine Flu over the past couple of days is the sort of thing that provides ample food for thought among ethicists, particularly public health ethicists. One perennial question, for example, concerns exactly what governments ought to do to protect their populations from infection – is spending on flu vaccines a good way […]