Debbie Purdy goes to the House of Lords today to seek assurance that her husband won’t be prosecuted for assisting suicide should he accompany her to the Dignitas clinic. It’s hard not to sympathise with her request – but, speaking on the Today programme this morning, former DPP Sir Ken MacDonald said that he hoped her […]
Latest articles
New Directions in Bioethics: Bioethics Workshop at UCL 29-30 June
Thought this might be of interest to some of our readers – and not just because all of the editors of this bog are speaking at this workshop! […]
Ask a Homeopath a Question…
The Guardian has a feature in its “Ethical Living” feature called “You Ask, They Answer”. This provides a forum in which readers can put questions to firms, people and so on. This week, the subject was Neal’s Yard Remedies, purveyor of… um… “remedies” to the kind of people who go in for aromatherapy and homeopathy […]
Engelhardt Lecture, Cambridge: Can Someone do me a Favour?
Tristram Engelhardt is giving a lecture entitled “Moral Pluralism and the Crisis of Secular Bioethics: Why Orthodox Christian Bioethics has the Solution” at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies at Wesley House in Cambridge on the 3rd June. It’s a provoking title – and my guess is that I’d probably disagree with just about every word after “Good evening”. Notwithstanding this – […]
Morgellons and Noble Lies
Here’s a poser: imagine that your patient comes to you reporting the canonical symptoms of a condition that is untreatable. You agree that this patient is suffering from something, and that the reported symptoms tally with those that are reported by other sufferers. However, the reason that the disease is untreatable is that – frankly […]
That’s it. Western Civilisation is Over.
You can now buy low calorie water. What? You think that there’s more to say? […]
Portugal’s Experiment with Drug Decriminalisation
In 2001, drug use was decriminalised in Portugal, meaning that the country had, in effect, the most lenient drug laws in the world. What has been the effect of this move? Martin Robbins considers the evidence. His conclusion is that the policy hasn’t been the unmitigated success that he – and the Cato institute (warning: bigger-than-the-moon 4Mb […]
DNA Retention: Stupid or Scary?
Not so long ago, Søren posted an item on this blog welcoming the ECHR’s verdict that the UK policy of storing DNA samples from all people who’d been arrested, regardless of guilt, was in contravention of Human Rights laws. A couple of days ago, the UK government published its response. It’s either remarkably sinister or remarkably […]
Contraception, Duties and Rights
Ema is not happy: The Missouri House on Tuesday [that is, 28.iv.09 – IB] voted 115-43 to approve HB 226, an amendment that [s]pecifies that no pharmacy can be required to perform, assist, recommend, refer to, or participate in any act or service resulting in an abortion and it will be immune from liability for […]
Book Review: “Distributive Justice and the New Medicine” by George P Smith II
Edward Elgar Publishing, UK and USA, 187 + 7 pp. Price: £55 (hb) Reviewed by Loane Skene, Melbourne Law School […]