Rodney Syme, retired medical doctor, urologist and advocate for medically assisted dying for 20 years, has helped scores of people die peacefully - people whose suffering has become unbearable to them. He takes on governments, the law and the medical profession. Most recently he won his challenge of an order by the Medical Board of Australia to prohibit him from doing anything that has the primary purpose of ending a person's life. The case in question was a 71-year-old man dying (...) of tongue and lung cancer whose life, the man said, was as miserable as hell. The Medical Board argued that the assistance in dying was a departure from accepted standards and presented a significant risk to that person. (shrink)

Alm, Margit Review of: Growing for broke: How the government has sold out to private interests, by Peter North, Published in 2016 by Tomorrow Press, PO Box 238, Berwick, Vic. 3806 ISBN 978-168418977-9.

Anders, Rudi They dance in view, they dance in secret. And yet they dance together...

Bender, Robert Review of: Run, spot, run: The ethics of keeping pets, by Jessica Pierce, Uni of Chicago Press, 2016, 264 pages.

Brown, Pauline I recently came across an article by Meg Keneally in The Guardian. I can think of no better description of our policies and practices on immigration detention than the following extract: It's a well-worn solution to an intractable human problem involving a large group of inconvenient people - ship them off somewhere, put a wall around them, and try to forget about the whole thing. You could argue that our country was founded as a result of this approach. (...) You could also argue that we learned our lesson too well, because it's an approach we are still using when it comes to vulnerable people who have undertaken hazardous ocean journeys - and the outcomes are no more humane than they were in the 18th and 19th centuries. (shrink)

Bryce, Ian The following are my personal observations based on several visits to public hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. I've also included media reports, and what I've learnt from contacts with interest groups. I recommend others sit in a public hearing for a day, to see the system in action.

Groves, Colin The year was 1825. The 16-year-old Charles Darwin, regarded as a wastrel, interested only in beetle collecting and shooting, was sent by his father to Edinburgh to study medicine. As might have been expected, Charles had many other interests well beyond his course of study. He wrote excitedly to his sisters, 'I am to be taught stuffing by a blackamoor!'.

Singer, Peter As someone who has been involved in contemporary ethics and political philosophy, what public ethics suggests to me is a concept that was put forward by the late twentieth-century American philosopher John Rawls. He wrote a famous book, A Theory of Justice, in which he talked about what he called 'public reason'. His idea is that in a pluralist society that does not have any established religion, when citizens argue about ethical issues they should do so in a (...) manner that can be accepted by other people in society, and doesn't presuppose beliefs that only a segment of that society is going to be able to endorse. (shrink)

Syme, Rodney Palliative care, founded by Cicely Saunders, a devout Christian, has grown from a single London hospice to a world-wide specialty with strong government support. It is one of the most important developments in modern medicine. It aims to provide compassionate and holistic care for the terminally ill. Nevertheless opposition on religious grounds to assisted-dying or hastening of death has been a core principle of palliative care from its origin, and persists today.

Wallace, Meg A Northern Ireland Court recently held that a baker's refusal to provide a cake with same-sex decoration is discrimination. Here are the reasons why the judgment is right.

Bender, Robert Review of: Bad science, by Ben Goldacre, 2008, Harper/Collins 370 pages.

Ellerton, Peter So what is the scientific method, and why do so many people, sometimes including those trained in science, get it so wrong? The first thing to understand is that there is no one method in science, no one way of doing things. This is intimately connected with how we reason in general.

Lowe, Ian The late Donald Horne was a truly important Australian intellectual. His 1964 book The Lucky Country caused a sensation and was a runaway bestseller. As the cover of the sixth edition published in 2008 says, 'the book was a wake-up call to an unimaginative nation, an indictment of a country mired in mediocrity and manacled to its past'. The title came from the introduction to the book's final chapter. It described Australia as 'a lucky country run mainly by (...) second-rate people who share its luck'. The phrase 'the lucky country' quickly became part of the language, though its message was often misrepresented by people who had not even read the book, or had not grasped its ironic meaning. While he acknowledged that 1964 Australia was possibly 'the most evenly prosperous society in the world', Horne argued that we were living on other people's ideas and held back by leaders he called 'empty-minded public wafflers'. (shrink)

Mall, Sangeeta The most popular Indian street food is the pani puri. The snack is a combination of solid and liquid, a watery bomb of sweet, sour and tangy flavours, a complete sensory delight, much like Indian society, though 'delight' might not be the right descriptor at times. Freedom of expression, individual rights, civil liberties, equality before law, all the cornerstones of a democracy, have been given to the Indian people by the founding fathers in the form of a robust (...) Constitution. And yet, most disconcertingly, more often than not, these principles are threatened by the same entity appointed to protect them, the Indian state. So how does one manage this paradox? How does one survive in a context where one is free but also bound, where one's freedoms are guaranteed by the Constitution yet threatened on a daily basis, where the Constitution is secular but the attitude distinctly parochial? (shrink)

Reagan, Lawson This article will argue that a Humanist future is a technoprogressive one. It will first give an overview of the emerging third dimension of 21st century politics, that of biopolitics. It will define the broad differences between the transhumanist and bioconservative movements. Then it will turn to the two main ideologically competing strands of the transhumanist movement: that of right wing 'Libertarian Transhumanism' and left wing 'Technoprogressivism'.

Storey, Lyndon Humanism is an approach to life in its own right: it is not simply the rejection of religion. Nor is it just the continuing on of religiously inspired values without an accompanying belief in God. Humanism relies on exploring human potential, including our potential for such things as compassion, love, and to find a path to a fulfilling and meaningful life. Humanism is an essentially social set of beliefs with its emphasis on common humanity and it can inspire (...) people to positive social action and compassion for others. (shrink)

Stuart, Jennie Review of: My year without meat, by Richard Cornish, Melbourne University Press 2016, 185 pp.

Wallace, Max It is an often-heard claim, expressed in newspaper articles, academia, and on-line public forums, that religion is being banished from the public square.

Wright, Ken Review of: Matter and what matters: Some science for the religious and some religion for scientists, Lionel Sharman, Steele Roberts, Wellington, 2013, 116 pp., NZD 24.99.