Oxford Debates Cont’d – Proposer’s Opening Statement
Part of the debate "The NHS should not treat self-inflicted illness" Proposer: Dr Mark Sheehan (Oxford BRC Ethics Fellow at the Ethox Centre and James Martin Research Fellow in the Program on the Ethics of the New Biosciences)Open…
Read MoreOxford Debates – The NHS should not treat self-inflicted illness (Moderator’s Introduction)
Moderator: Dr Paula Boddington Should the NHS treat self-inflicted illness? This question raises a plethora of different issues, about science, society, social policy, as well as philosophical questions about human nature and individual fre…
Read MoreHappiness is love, full stop?
Recently the Atlantic (see here) published results of a 72-year longitudinal study, known as the Grant Study. The study, led by psychiatrist George Vaillant, followed the lives of 268 men who entered Harvard University in the late 30…
Read MoreSometimes justice wears a mask: blogging, anonymity and the open society
After the Times exposed the identity of the police blogger "Night Jack" he has been disciplined by the police force. The blog (now deleted) had won the Orwell Price for political writing and often expressed critical views related …
Read MoreMore on drugs…
In a recent entry on this weblog, Roger Crisp discusses the recent and controversial “Release” advertising campaign on drugs (and its slogan “Nice People Take Drugs”), and rightly highlights the need for serious and widespread debate on dru…
Read MorePrenatal sex selection – When prenatal testing can threaten social harmony
China has an imbalance in the sex ratio resulting from selective abortion of female fetuses. Predictions that it may result in social disharmony are eventuating sooner than expected – but the problem is different to the one that was a…
Read MoreNice People Take Drugs (Too)
The drug and human rights charity *Release* recently launched an advertising campaign in which the slogan ‘Nice People Take Drugs’ was displayed on the sides of London buses. Their aim was to encourage society to face up to the reality that…
Read MoreNot better than the alternative: an informal experimentation tragedy
Police are reinvestigating the 2007 death of Yolanda Cox, a woman who collapsed in anaphylactic shock after being injected with an experimental drug by her sister, a GP. The drug was developed by their mother, originally intended to treat d…
Read MorePandemic Pandemonium
Victoria, Australia – where I write these words – is apparently right now in the grip of an epidemic of swine flu – an epidemic significant enough to play an important role in the World Health Organisation’s decision to declare a pandemic. …
Read MoreIs it simply “Killing a Mass Murderer”? Why anti-abortion zealots need to reconsider their arguments.
Recently, Dr. George Tiller was shot dead. Three hours after his assassination in Kansas, a pro-life activist was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
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