In October 2012 the Taliban stopped her school bus and shot 15 year old Malala Yousafzai in the head for promoting education for girls in Pakistan.  The Taliban continue their violent campaign against schools for girls, destroying buildings and supplies, … Continue reading →

In an article in the Globe and Mail, Anna Reid (President of the Canadian Medical Association) and Rocco Gerace (President of the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada) have argued against the recently released “Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations.”  The Regulations are designed to treat marijuana “as much as possible like other narcotics used for medical purposes.” Reid and Gerace emphasize that marijuana is not like other narcotics, or any other prescription drugs available in Canada, because it has never been subjected to clinical research that “provides physicians with critical information for the use of a medication including when to prescribe the drug and in what dosages, and what its benefits, risks and possible side effects are.”  This research is generally required by Health Canada before a drug can be made available; marijuana is an exception in this regard.

The reader comments on this article are (unsurprisingly) varied in their insightfulness, but many people have pointed out that marijuana has been “tested” by many more people than pretty much any prescription drug.  Of course, this does not establish that marijuana is effective for the treatment of pain or other medical conditions, but the commentary does echo some serious questions about the adequacy of pharmaceutical testing.

In 1924, Adolph Hitler wrote the following words: I have studied with great interest the laws of several American states concerning prevention of reproduction by people whose progeny would in all probability be of no value or injurious to the racial stock. … Continue reading →

Source: Best Psychology Degrees … Continue reading →

There’s an interesting discussion at the Impact Ethics blog.  In response to concerns raised by Carol Collier and Rachel Haliburton about the extent to which Canadian bioethics is shaped by the American model, Kirstin Borgerson argues that Canadian bioethics is … Continue reading →

UNICEF’s 2013 comparative report on child well-being in rich nations, AKA the Innocenti Report Card 11 (see page two of the report for a handy visual summary of findings) deserves our consideration. The news is Not Good for children in some of the richest nations amongst the group:  the U.S., for instance, ranks with a number of rather worse-off—by GDP—Baltic nations.  Geography also is no clear indicator: whereas the U.S. comes in 26th overall out of 29, fellow North American nation Canada comes in middle-of-the-pack at 17th.  The top five in order are Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, Finland, and Sweden.