-
How to Win the War on Drugs in Sport
Drug scandals again tarnish the Tour de France. Last week three riders, Spaniards Manuel Beltrain and Moises Duenas and Italian climber Riccardo Ricco, winner of two mountain stages, failed tests for the banned performance enhancer EPO. This year has seen fewer spectacular expulsions, but of course the game is not over. Does this mean the…
-
Should Karadzic be Punished?
Yesterday the world celebrated the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, the ex-Bosnian Serb leader who has twice been indicted by the UN War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, and is charged with – among other atrocities — ordering his forces to kill at least 7,500 Muslim men and boys in Srebenica in July 1995 as part…
-
The world’s failure to fulfill its goals
The Guardian reports that the world is not on track for meeting the UN Millennium Development Goal to halt and reverse the increase in Malaria by 2015. While the funding for malaria prevention has increased up to $1 bn per annum, this is not enough to meet the declared goal. Indeed, while the figure sounds…
-
Reproductive science: is there something we’re missing?
Thirty years after the first test-tube baby, Nature asks various experts for their views on what the next thirty years of reproductive medicine will bring. Some of the more startling predictions are: No more infertility, with both children and 100-year-olds able to have children Embryos created from stem cells, increasing the ease of embryo research…
-
Testing alternative therapies
The journal Science is today reporting on a controversial plan by the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to test an alternative treatment for autism on children. The treatment, known as chelation therapy, involves the use of drugs that remove heavy metals from the blood. It’s based on a the theory – unsupported by…
-
Art or child porn?
Much of the discussion has focussed on the question of whether such photographs are ‘art’, on the intent of the artist, and on the question of whether the children photographed are capable of consent. Defenders of the photographs have pointed out that the photograph on Art Monthly’s cover was taken by the girl’s mother, and…
-
What’s wrong with the hermaphrodite world?
Making headlines last week, Melbourne bioethicist Rob Sparrow argued that in order to create the best future for their children, parents should select only girl children or hermaphrodites. He imagined a “post-sex” world in which males are no longer conceived, and women use frozen sperm, or artificial gametes to reproduce.
-
Care for the Dying and Cost-effectiveness
Yesterday’s news reports the launch of the Government’s End of Life Care Strategy for England. This strategy will dedicate in excess of £250 million allowing patients who are dying to decide, as the Times puts it, “where and how to die.” This is part of a programme to provide better care for the dying. According…
-
Unpopular policy and public rationality
The BBC reports that the Japanese town of Kamikatsu has become the first ‘zero waste’ town. Residents compost all of their food waste, and must sort the rest of their rubbish into 34 different categories—all of which they must take to public waste centres, since there are no rubbish collections from people’s homes. It seems…
-
Paying to top up NHS treatment
The BBC has this week published a story on co-payment in the UK’s National Health Service. Sue Matthews, a Buckinghamshire woman with terminal bowel cancer, would like to top up her NHS care by paying for a £30,000 course of cetuximab – a drug which could extend her life, but which is not funded by…