Nothing as It Seems

In light of the large public support and recent international trends, it seems more likely to be a matter of when, and not if, there will be legislation One topic that has received increasing public discussion in recent years is the issue of voluntary physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and euthanasia. PAS and euthanasia are not limited to contemporary societies: the Athenian poet of the 5th century BC Cratinus referred to euthanasia – roughly translated as ‘good death’ – as a fast, gentle, painless death; the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca thought it was preferable to choose death than to live with excruciating, incurable pain. Christianity, however, viewed voluntary death more negatively. The Catholic Church, for instance, regards suicide as intrinsically wrong. The Christian position on PAS has been the dominant viewpoint for several centuries, but it is no longer universally shared. The Ethics of PAS  The UK public healthcare system, the National Health Service (NHS), defines assi

Here are some interesting articles I've read over the past week I think are worth checking out. Tony O'Brien, “ We must get the mix right in a post-virus working world . ”  21 Mar ,  Business Post .  "Those who think that all will revert to the old status quo are likely to be in for a shock. These young (and not so young) professionals know well what can now be done. They will not easily be convinced of either the need or the desirability to give up the advantages they have now become used to; and in a post-pandemic world those advantages will significantly increase in value." Diarmuid Torney,  “ Revised climate Bill is a step forward but now comes the hard part . ”  25  Mar,  Irish Times .  "The most important thing now is for the Government -- and society -- to get on with the business of delivering decarbonisation. The 2015 climate act was eight years, and two governments, in the making. We are now nine months into the lifetime of the Government. There is an o

Here are some interesting articles I've read over the past week I think are worth checking out. David Spiegelhalter, “ There's no proof the Oxford vaccine causes blood clots. So why are people worried? ”  15 Mar ,  The Guardian .  "Some anxiety about a new vaccine is understandable, and any suspected reactions should be investigated. But in the current circumstances we need to think slow as well as fast, and resist drawing causal links between events where none may exist." Bryan Schonfeld and Sam Winter-Levy,  “ Faster vaccine trials could save lives without sacrificing ethics . ”  18  Mar,  Boston Globe .  "Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health experts have debated whether to allow challenge trials to go forward. The benefits could be substantial: Though vaccines developed through conventional trials have already been approved, challenge trials could accelerate the development of more effective treatments and second-generation vaccines, potenti

Here are some interesting articles I've read over the past week I think are worth checking out. Saloni Dattani, “ Where will the next pandemic come from and how can we prevent it? ”  12 Mar ,  New Statesman .  "We can implement measures that reduce the chances that entire classes of pathogens will lead to a pandemic. Perhaps we won't be able to prevent pandemics from ever happening again, but we certainly can make them less frequent and devastating." Peter Singer,  “ When Vaccination Is a 'Crime' ”  8  Mar,  Project Syndicate .  Did Hasan Gokal do anything wrong when he used an about-to-expire dose of the vaccine against Covid-19 to inject his wife?  Pau Bloom ,  “ When Intentions Don’t Matter . ”   11 Mar,  Wall Street Journal .     "There are all sorts of cases where we ignore intention, or at least don’t see good intention as fully exculpatory." Laith Al-Shawaf ,  “ Should You Trust the Myers-Briggs Personality Test? ”  9 Mar,  Areo.   "The M

Here are some interesting articles I've read over the past week I think are worth checking out. Zeynep Tufekci, “ 5 Pandemic Mistakes We Keep Repeating . ”  26 Feb ,  The Atlantic .  "Despite all these good intentions, much of the public-health messaging has been profoundly counterproductive." Yuval Noah Harari,  “ Lessons from a year . ”  26  Feb,  Financial Times .  "Information technology has made us more resilient in the face of organic viruses, but it has also made us far more vulnerable to malware and cyber warfare." Thomas Douglas ,  “ There is no fundamental ethical objection to vaccine passports . ”  27 Feb, Brussels Times .   "[T]he case for vaccine passports is clear: they could allow us to end some lockdown and distancing measures for vaccinated individuals sooner than it would be safe to end them for everyone." James Conca ,  “ Irrational Nuclear Fear Puts Sweden In Danger Of Succumbing To Stupidity . ”  28 Feb,  Forbes.   "An early p

© Aleksander Kalka/Zuma Press/Avalon | Officers face a picket at the Polish News TV building on Feb 10 Here are some interesting articles I've read over the past week I think are worth checking out. Joel de Ceulaer and Maarten Boudry , “ Why Easing Restrictions Will Lead to More, not Less, Collateral Damage . ”  26 Feb ,  Areo .  "[T]o claim that the cure is worse than the disease, as many lockdown sceptics have, is to make a grave mistake. To see why, we have to ask what would have happened without the lockdowns and other restrictions."  Ian Leslie,  “ How to have better arguments online . ”  16  Feb,  The Guardian .  "People skilled in the art of disagreement don’t just think about their own face; they’re highly attuned to the other’s face. One of the most powerful social skills is the ability to give face; to confirm the public image that the other person wishes to project. In any conversation, when the other person feels their desired face is being accepted and c