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Wealth versus Happiness
Economists have long used Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita as a proxy measure for the average level of wellbeing within a country. GDP is a measure of the goods and services produced in a country and is a fairly good proxy for material wealth. However, it fails to capture many other factors that are
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Anaesthe-steak™: pain-free meat and the welfare paradox
A recent article in the New Scientist raises the prospect that alongside ‘gluten-free’, ‘GM free’, ‘sugar free’, and ‘dairy free’ our supermarket shelves may soon contain ‘pain-free’ meat. American philosopher Adam Shriver, writing in Neuroethics, argues that everyone concerned with animal welfare should support the replacement of animals used in factory farming with livestock genetically
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Academic freedom isn’t free
Should scientists be allowed to publish anything, even when it is wrong? And should there be journals willing to accept everything, as long as it seems interesting enough? That is the core of a debate that has blossomed since the journal Medical Hypotheses published two aids-denialist papers. Medical Hypotheses is a deliberately non-peer reviewed journal:
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Should Bankers Repent?
The Times (as well as a slew of other newspapers) reports that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams is complaining that financiers have, in general, failed to feel repentance for the ‘excesses of the boom that led to financial meltdown’ (See http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6836496.ece ). The Archbishop does not present evidence to back up the claim
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Longer life, more trouble?
An article in the Times argues that life extension will bring us problems: long-lived people will bankrupt the NHS, pensions would become expensive, the pension age would need to be changed, there would be a pressure for resources and life would become meaningless. It is a surprisingly common criticism that would never be levelled at
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The ideal man is a rich housewife
During the summer, much research about the nature of attraction between opposite sexes has been published in various newspapers. I have tried to make some sense of them. Here I hope to show you the conclusion I have reached after wading through this stream of information. Since this is a blog on practical ethics,
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Efficiency versus capacity in intensive care
Conservative politicians claimed yesterday that there are not enough intensive care beds in the UK to cope with the surge in demand that may occur over winter if the flu pandemic re-emerges. They have called on the government to increase intensive care capacity.
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Premature death or wrongful death?
A headline in the Daily Mail from yesterday highlights the cost of over treatment for extremely premature and marginally viable infants. “Parents cause infant to suffer by forcing doctors to give futile treatment”. Despite doctors counselling a set of parents that their 22 week gestation premature infant (born 4 ½ months early) had virtually
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Curbs on Alcohol Ads?
The British Medical Association has called for a complete ban on alcohol advertising. Wait for the knees to jerk: calls deriding the ‘nanny state’ and its paternalism will soon follow. One common theme, I predict, will be that the recommendations are infantilizing. We should trust responsible adults to be capable of making their own decisions.