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The Great Botox Experiment in Mood Enhancement
Suppose that the people around repeatedly smile or shake their heads. Although you may not notice it, it is very likely that soon you too will begin to smile or shake your heard. And it is likely that this will affect how you feel and what you think. Or at least this is what social
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Top hats and top-ups: better health for the better off
The health secretary announced today that patients in the UK who choose to buy medicines not funded by the national health service, will no longer be excluded from receiving public health care. This announcement follows controversy about expensive cancer drugs that are available in other countries, but may not be available under the NHS. Given
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Re-creating mammoths and the family dog: two different cases
The idea of reproductive cloning can easily be perceived as offensive, as a practice that constitutes the dark side of cloning and should be prohibited under all circumstances, by contrast with therapeutic cloning, the benefits of which are increasingly acknowledged. However, such reactions typically assume that it is human cloning we are talking about. Regardless
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Election ex machina: should voting machines be trusted?
When election of public officials through public voting was instituted in the US,the framers of the constitution had no inkling about how large the voting public would one day become. Beside logistical problems that accidentally enfranchise goldfish and the many issues surrounding voter registration a growing concern is the reliability of electronic voting machines. As
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Should We Be Erasing Memories?
Scientists from the Medical College of Georgia in the US recently claimed to be able selectively to wipe out traumatic memories (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/7685541.stm). These scientists experimented with mice and found that a particular protein plays a crucial role in the formation of memories. When they made the mice produce an excess of this protein, memories of…
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The Morality of Suicide Bombing
Since the 1980s, the popularity of suicide attacks – primarily bombing – has grown rapidly. There are now hundreds every year. As I write, the BBC is reporting a suicide bombing which appears to have killed eight people in Pakistan: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7701435.stm The motivation of suicide bombers has been widely discussed by sociologists, historians, psychologists, and
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Euthanasia and Perverse Incentives
Debbie Purdy is a British woman suffering from multiple sclerosis. Worried about her degenerating condition, she has planned to end her life at the Swiss clinic, Dignitas, which practices euthanasia for people with crippling medical conditions. The story entered the media when she challenged the British High Court to specify whether or not they would
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Travelling for Treatment
A BBC report today suggests that “many” UK couples are going overseas to choose the sex of their children. What seems most odd about this is that in some cases they go to places where sex selection is illegal. What is interesting here is the fascination with what people do when they go overseas or
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Compulsory chemical castration for sex offenders
A month ago, the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, called for the introduction of forced chemical castration for sex offenders. The call followed a particularly nasty case of incest and paedophilia in the country: a 45 year old man was found to have sexually abused his 21-year-old daughter over a period of six years, and