The voluntary termination of pregnancy: a snapshot of the Italian situation
The Italian law governing the voluntary termination of pregnancy is very often brought into question. This law, proclaimed in May 1978 (Italian Law 194/1978), doesn’t admit a right to abortion, but allows the termination of pregnancy in som…
Read MoreBailing out banks
Last week the US congress agreed to a US$7 billion bail-out for the banking sector. This Tuesday, the UK government followed suit with its own bail-out – though with some fairly serious strings attached. In the US case in particular, …
Read MoreIf evolution grinds to a halt, we move on
According to professor Steve Jones human evolution is grinding to a halt. The reason is, at least in the developed world, we have so good living standards and hence low mortality that we are not suffering any selection. He also argues that …
Read MoreIdentifying Sperm Donors, Genetic Privacy and Public Benefit: How to Have Your Cake and Eat It Too
A story in today’s Daily Mail reveals some of the harms experienced by children born to sperm donors. Since 2005, children born to sperm donors have had access to the identity of the man who donated sperm that created them. But prior to tha…
Read MoreTime to get virtuously enhanced?
In the media coverage of the global finance crisis over the last weeks there has been a massive call for a revival of the virtues. Everyone from the Archbishop of Canterbury to tabloid journalists has condemned the behaviour of finance indu…
Read MoreFishing outside the reef: the illusion of control and finance
Humans regularly see patterns where there are none, but stress makes this tendency worse. Some new studies suggest this may be making the current market troubles worse. Jennifer Whitson and Adam Galinsky (Lacking Control Increases Illusory …
Read MoreRefusing to refer: thus conscience doth make cowards of us all
In Victoria next week a proposal to make abortion legal in certain circumstances is due to be voted on by the upper house. Some doctors, as well as the Catholic church, have attacked one clause in that legislation, as it is said to deny doc…
Read MoreKnowledge may be power, but is it healing?
The explosion of medical information on the internet is a good thing, right? Patients worried that their condition is not being taken seriously, those who want a second opinion but are worried about upsetting their GP by asking for it…
Read MoreThe price of ignorance: the Durham study and research ethics
Ben Goldacre (who seems to be one of this blog’s favorite sources) tears into the Durham fish oil trial. A while ago Durham County together with the company Equazen decided to test whether giving omega-3 supplements would improve the …
Read MoreWhy object to improving prenatal tests?
The Daily Mail reports this week on a new blood test to detect conditions such as Down syndrome or cystic fibrosis in fetuses. The article raises concerns about ‘designer babies’. Yet given the recent concern about the risk of miscarrying n…
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