DancingSamurai.ca » ethics

Dr Dawg on banning burkas…

DancingSamurai — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:06:41 +0000

Dr. Dawg weighs in on the recent push to ban burkas in Canada, and he is incredibly eloquent and right on the money:

Summing up Fatah’s arguments, then, if some women in Canada want to walk around in niqab, they are in fact oppressed by a mediaeval, non-religious, misogynist custom, and must be rescued from themselves.

Hard-line feminists have said much the same thing in the past about miniskirts, heels and fishnets, although I don’t recall their demanding government legislation to enforce an alternative norm. Once again, they had a point, but it wasn’t the whole story. Social interaction, indeed the very construction of the “self,” is complex, volatile, always in flux, with numerous contending forces at play.

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U of T and SickKids support anti-vaccinationists?

DancingSamurai — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:26:53 +0000

Well, the blogosphere is abuzz with criticism of the University of Toronto and SickKids for supporting the Autism One / Autism Canada conference – which appears to be loaded with people promoting dubious if not dangerous treatments like homeopathy, and who have a history of blaming autism on vaccines. Some relevant articles:

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Tell it like it is…

DancingSamurai — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:33:35 +0000

It’s usually someone at the extremes of age who tells it like it is. I came across this blog post by an 80-something grandmother (yes, she blogs! Amazing!) who nails the troubles south of us on the head:

Margaret is it just me or did combing your hair become optional when going out in public? I’ve been watching news clips of these town hall free-for-alls and we have definitely become a nation of tired, poor, and huddled masses clearly tempest-tossed, but without access to a good beauty salon. Universal Hygiene – now that is something I could get behind. And all of them are asking for their America back. I wonder which America that would be?

Would that be the America where the Supreme Court picks your president instead of counting all the votes? Would that be the America where rights to privacy are ignored? Would that be the America where the Vice President shoots his best friend in the face? Or would that be the America where an idiot from Alaska and a college drop-out with a radio show could become the torchbearers for the now illiterate Republican party?

I fear that would not be the America they want back. I fear that the America they want back is the one where black men don’t become President.

[...]

And what’s all this crap about killing your grandmother? Are you people honestly that stupid? This has become less an argument about healthcare reform and more a statement about our failed education system. [...] [I]f these morons are going to show up and scream at their elected officials, they need to educate themselves about the subject at hand. No one is planning on killing you or your grandmother with rationed healthcare or death squads. By the looks of the American citizenry turning out for these town hall meetings, we’re doing a fine job of killing ourselves with fast food, cigarettes and an overindulgence of ignorance.

(via #1 Dinosaur. I’m appalled at the comments there though.)

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Public Cord Blood Banking

DancingSamurai — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 03:59:24 +0000

An editorial in the CMAJ a few issues back raises the argument for a national cord blood bank. This is consistent with the detailed and well written SOGC guidelines on the subject.

The multitude of commercial companies offering autologous cord blood banking are promising things they can’t deliver… we need a national bank like the blood bank system we have now.

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Rapid-fire bullet update from my RSS feeds

DancingSamurai — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:48:48 +0000

Here are a couple of stories I’ve seen on my RSS feeds (I use Google Reader now), that I keep meaning to write lengthy posts about but I know I’ll never get around to it… so here’s the linkalicious list for any who are interested:

I remember reading about this last year… a family watched their young daughter waste away, losing weight, and all her energy over a period of weeks. The parents interpreted this as a “test of faith”, and instead of bringing her to a doctor as urged by their friends, they gathered their family together to surround this sick girl with prayer. Unfortunately, prayer’s not an effective treatment for diabetic ketoacidosis, so she died. Surprisingly (for the US), she was tried for second-degree homicide despite her protestations that it was her religious right to avoid medicine (of course it is – her right – but she cannot impose the same on her child). The verdict is in: guilty.

Prosecutors contend a reasonable parent would have known something was gravely wrong with Madeline and that her mother recklessly killed her by ignoring obvious symptoms, such as her inability to walk or talk.

(via Respectful Insolence)
Harriet Hall reviews Alcoholics Anonymous and the lack of evidence for its effectiveness – in fact, from what we know about addiction, it may even be harmful. Throw another ‘religious truth’ out the window…
What’s with the world today and governments/law enforcement trying to do stuff just because they can? The Spectator notes Canadian police are trying to pass legislation to fingerprint people before charges are laid (also covered here). In the UK, they’re putting CCTVs in classrooms and trying to expand a program that tracks movements of ‘terrorist suspects’ (aka anyone the govenrment doesn’t like) via the ubiquitous CCTV network (cannot find source ATM, but I know I read this somewhere…).
Interesting video (from TED) – 10 things you didn’t know about orgasm. (via BoingBoing)
This BoingBoing headline says it all: Canadian think-tank spends tax dollars to plagiarize and regurgitate talking points from US entertainment lobby group
For all the kids out there with no initiative, there are a few you have to give props to. (And no, they don’t just exist in Cory Doctorow’s fiction). So your school principal bans a whole bunch of books as being ‘inappropriate’. What do you do as a kid at the school? How about start a black market library of said books out of your locker for those interested? Brilliant! (via BoingBoing)
I’ve posted about Obama’s failing the high hopes we all had for him; see this video by Rachel Maddow that shatters it completely; she points out that Obama is proposing “preventive detention”, which would imprison people indefinitely if we REALLY REALLY think they MIGHT commit a crime in the future. (via BoingBoing: Obama promises to suspend Habeas Corpus, original article on Salon)

Local cache: maddow-on-obama
Finally, it’s moves like this that make me hate Apple and their App Store: BoingBoing: Apple says no Project Gutenberg for iPhone because some old books are dirty. Fine, have a censored app store, but then don’t petition the government to prevent me from installing any application I damn well please on hardware I paid for. Is RIM as bad with their blackberries?

*phew* OK, I have more, but this has taken long enough. I’m off to watch Terminator now!

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Obama endorses Nuremberg Defence

DancingSamurai — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:16:37 +0000

Yes, the Nuremberg Defence. Covered on CNN of all places:

Human rights organizations reacted angrily Thursday to the Obama administration’s announcement that CIA officials would not be prosecuted for past waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics.

[...]

The attorney general promised that officials who used the controversial interrogation tactics would be in the clear if their actions were consistent with the legal advice from the Justice Department under which they were operating at the time.

Another nail in the hope that Obama would make significant changes… (see previous comments)

(via Dawg’s Blog)

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Interesting patient conversation

DancingSamurai — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:05:07 +0000

Shadowfax had a brilliant approach to dealing with a patient who presented to the ER with an acute abdomen and refused surgery due to pretty clear denial of his illness: (more commentary by Orac)

“Okay sir, before you go up I’ve just got some paperwork to complete. Do you have a next of kin?”
“Um, yeah, my sister.”
“Great. What’s her phone number? We’ll be needing to call her later. Do you have a mortuary or funeral home selected, or should we just have your sister pick one?”
“Um, I don’t think -”
“No problem, we’ll just have her pick one. Now, in a few hours, you’re not going to be able to breathe any more, and if we’re going to keep you alive, we’ll have to put you on life support. Do you want us to do that, or should we let you suffocate?”
“That sounds bad — I don’t want to suffocate.”
“Right, then, the ventilator it is. But a few hours after that, your blood pressure is going to go really low and your heart will stop. Do you want us to pound on your chest and shock your heart to try to bring you back? It won’t work, of course, but I just need to let the ICU doctor plan how to handle it when the time comes. So should we do CPR or not?”
He gave me a long look. “You really mean it, don’t you?” I said nothing, but let the long silence linger. “You really think I need the surgery?” I nodded. He sighed, and slumped back, resigned,”Well, all right, if you really think I need it…”

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On psychics…

DancingSamurai — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:37:22 +0000

Here’s one that’s too astounding to believe.

On second thought, considering the sheer idiocy of the CYA attitude in administrations far and wide in this country, it’s really not that unbelievable.

As discussed widely on the web, some poor mother was scared out of her wits and subjected to a CAS investigation because a teaching aide working with her autistic daughter got a tip that she was being sexually abused. Where did this come from? A psychic she visited!

The school administration took this as ‘reasonable grounds’ to suspect child abuse and ran with it to CAS. Luckily, the child in question had a GPS device with audio recording capability to prove she’d never been assaulted.

But, a psychic?! Those charlatans? Come on now, they may be fun in a fair, but an allegation of child abuse is no laughing matter. Why hasn’t this psychic been hunted down? (Obviously the school administration is more to blame here, but still, ‘for entertainment purposes only’ disclaimers – whether explicit or tacit – shoudl only go so far).

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Latimer released on day parole

DancingSamurai — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:09:25 +0000

I wore about Robert Latimer’s bail hearing a few months ago. Recent news is that the December decision was overturned on appeal, and he has now been granted day parole. Good news! I actually send an e-mail to the parole board criticising their earlier decision; I don’t know if that letter (and I’m sure many similar ones) had any effect.

The globe and mail article points out an interesting fact I did not know about before – Latimer’s first trial was thrown out due to jury interference by the Crown. *shakes head*

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Latimer denied parole…

DancingSamurai — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 04:23:21 +0000

The Globe and Mail has an article on Robert Latimer, the man who in 1993 exposed his severely disabled daughter to toxic fumes in order to end her suffering. He has spent the last seven years in jail, and was just recently denied day parole. I remember studying this case in my undergrad bioethics course… a real ethical dillema (although clearly not a legal one – active euthanasia is illegal in Canada).

As many people point out, the parole board must have a big fat stick up their nether regions. Their job was to assess the risk of Latimer re-offending. While they have no problems letting gangsters and sex offenders back on the street, they deny this man parole when it is very clear he would be extremely unlikely to commit second-degree murder (or any similar offence) ever again. They seem to have punished Latimer not because he was a threat to re-offend, but because he was an offence to their view of the world. Had he lied to the board and faked remorse, he probably would have been let out — but because he stood by his principles and answered honestly, willing to pay the personal price, he is sent back to jail. (via Dawg’s Blog)

Along with the recent tazer death of Robert Dziekanski (which is not an isolated incident), I am beginning to lose my faith in the Canadian justice system.

Well, other than routinely flexing my rights, and being careful who I vote for, I’m out of ideas. Send them my way if you’ve got them (no, I don’t want to start a commune in the bush somewhere with you, go away!)

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