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Broken hearts and obsession, why giving up on your ex mate is so hard as overcoming drug addiction
A study recently published on the Journal of Neurophysiology investigated a group of 15 people recently abandoned by their partners to understand the process of unreciprocated love and romantic rejection. The researchers “used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study 10 women and 5 men who had recently been rejected by a partner but reported they
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Should doctors come clean? Religion makes a difference to end-of-life decisions
In a paper released today in the Journal of Medical Ethics, a large survey of UK doctors found that doctors’ religion influenced their views and practice of end-of-life care. Why does this matter? A number of headlines highlighted that atheist or agnostic doctors were more likely to report having participated in “ethically contentious end-of life
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Ethics and Economics
The failing of economics have been widely discussed in the last few years, and now Professors Kim and Yoon have suggested in the Financial Times that ‘an eminent philosopher…should be appointed to take charge of economics’ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/32c10a50-a8c3-11df-86dd-00144feabdc0.html. Don’t all rush at once. I doubt they really mean it. And even if they do, we mustn’t
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Cosmetic Surgery – What is the Matter with Dr Salesman?
Written by Roman Gaehwiler Reconstructive plastic surgery to correct ravages of disease and injuries as well as gross physical abnormalities constitutes a core medical practice. Reconstructive procedures, however, lie along a continuum, without any clear boundary between therapeutic reconstructive surgery for diagnosable problem and purely cosmetic surgery.[1]
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The NHS Should Make and Sell its own Homeopathic Remedies and Homeopaths Should be Paid the Minimum Wage
In March this year I blogged on the topic of NHS funding for homeopathic remedies. Even though I agreed with the critics of homeopathy, that there is no credible evidence for the efficacy of homeopathic remedies and that it is irrational to use these in preference to medical treatments that have actually been proven to
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Numeracy vs feel-good
Most people would agree that increasing energy efficiency is a sensible thing to do, both as a cost-saving measure, to conserve limited fossil fuels and to lower climate impacts. But being willing to save energy does not mean one is efficient in doing so: a new study shows that people are bad at estimating how
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Is it criminal not to breastfeed?
by Rebecca Roache The Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen recently—and controversially—claimed that mothers should be required by law to breastfeed their babies for the first six months of their lives. A few days later, she partially retracted the claim on her blog, insisting that her talk of a breastfeeding law should not be taken literally. It was
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Why We Should Criminalise Dangerous Sexual Behaviour
Recent post from my blog: Imagine that Herman has toxic radioactive waste from his laboratory. He decides to bury it in the ground next to his laboratory, knowing that it will expose the surrounding houses to dangerous radiation. As a result, Gertrude develops cancer some years later and dies at the age of 37. Herman
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Demedicalising and decriminalising drugs
Is drug addiction a disease? Substance Dependence appears as a diagnosis in the influential Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders (DSM-IV). There are medical specialists in the field who use a range of different drug and non-drug treatments for patients who are addicted. There are hospitals and clinics where those who are addicted can
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Off- and on-line, an outdated distinction
Almost a month ago the websites of several newspapers and magazines (http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpps/news/who-is-cyber-pranking-victim-jessi-slaughter-dpgoha-20100720-fc_8747638) reported the case of a young girl (11 years old) from Florida, known as Jessi Slaughter, who had been posting videos online (http://gawker.com/5589103/how-the-internet-beat-up-an-11+year+old-girl?skyline=true&s=i), which had been picked up by Stickydrama, a social networking tabloid website. One of the videos was a rather childish