Not so long ago, I heard a research scientist talking about the work he was doing and its context in the discipline. He was looking at a particular set of genes that were implicated in cancer, and was interested in manipulating those genes as a means of controlling tumor formation. He wanted to work on […]
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Protecting Innocent Lives?
Last spring, George Tiller was killed. (I was going to say murdered, or assassinated, but both of those are morally and legally weighted…) Tiller was one of a very small community of doctors in the US willing to give late-term abortions, and it was for this that he was shot. Scott Roeder is currently on […]
Sic transit gloria DECODE
You may remember an Icelandic company called DECODE that, way back in the last decade wanted to collect DNA samples from the complete Icelandic population, link them with health data and perform amazing gene-epidemiological studies that would revolutionise medicine. Many investors will certainly remember DECODE which, at its peak had a market value in the […]
Chuck Norris on why Obamacare is Bad
You know Chuck Norris: martial-arts-film-star-bloke-turned-right-wing-commentator-and-walking-internet-meme. Yep. Him. Well, he’s identified exactly what’s wrong with Obamacare. It might mean publicly funded terminations of pregnancy. And imagine what state the world’d be in if the Virgin Mary had had an abortion. Go on. Imagine it. [A]s we near the eve of another Christmas, I wonder: What would have […]
The Good of Small Things
A few nights ago, I went out for a curry with a doctor friend who’s just returned from a year working in Africa. She was telling me all about the experience and about its difficulties. Some of these difficulties are straightforwardly down to poverty; others are down to mismanagement or – if not exactly mismanagement […]
Conference report: Conscientious Objection Workshop
On the 23rd of October I attended a workshop at Keele University (where I am based) focused on the topic of Conscientious Objection. This is a topic which I have some interest in (in 2001 I wrote a short dissertation on the topic within the context of euthanasia) however this workshop interestingly picked up on […]
David Hockney, up in Smoke
David Hockney has been talking to the BBC about the UK’s smoking ban: he’s not a fan, and suggests that there ought to be “smoking rooms” available. It’s not the first time that he’s gone public in his opposition to the ban – a few years ago he was interviewed on the Today programme and […]
Mental Illness – even if it’s Gordon Brown’s – is not Interesting.
Dependably right-wing blogger Paul “Guido Fawkes” Staines has been circulating the idea that Gordon Brown may be taking anti-depressants – specifically, Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors – under the touching and understanding heading “Is Brown Bonkers?” and making some sniggering schoolboy allusions to Malcolm Tucker-like tantrums. This allegation – and quite why it’s an allegation is beyond me […]
In Memory of Kerry Anne Stapleton Hunter
This year marks the tenth anniversary of my first wife’s death. Kerry Anne (KAS to her friends) had cystic fibrosis and passed away after a good hard fight on the 12th of September , 1999 a year and a half after we married. Kerry taught me many things and was really my main impetus for […]
Knowing You, Knowing Us
It’s all very well to vanish off to a conference and put faces to names… but that can’t help with the important questions, like What does the internet think of you?. Fortunately, this little app can tell you. Type in your name, and it’ll do the Google version of a genetic fingerprint. In the interests […]