Friday, March 05, 2004
Edmund Burke - a man for our times
I was asked by a colleague to compile a list of quotable quotes this week, and in the hunt came across the work of Edmund Burke. If you are not a student of political science, you most likely would ask, "Edmund who???" It's a sad commentary on our times that his writings are not studied more widely.
Edmund Burke was an 18th Century statesman, orator and parliamentarian, whose words still reverbrate today. His understanding of democracy and the nature of true freedom is sublime. In fact, if I can mix metaphors, his wisdom cuts through today's postmodern muddle like a fine wine on a dull palate. Like so many of our best orators, he was born in Ireland. He moved to England, and after he entered parliament in the late 1700s, he had a profound influence on the development of constitutional thinking. Two of his outstanding works were Observations on the Present State of the Nation, and Reflections on the Revolution in France, a series of letters to a young French correspondent.
Burke's most famous quote is: "All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing."
Here are some sample quotes (more can be found here):
~ Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look to anything but power for their relief.
~ I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.
~ It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.
~ Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
~ Manners are of more importance than laws... Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in.
People crushed by laws, have no hope but to evade power. If the laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the law; and those who have must to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous.
~ The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
~ The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.
~ When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.
~ Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.
I was asked by a colleague to compile a list of quotable quotes this week, and in the hunt came across the work of Edmund Burke. If you are not a student of political science, you most likely would ask, "Edmund who???" It's a sad commentary on our times that his writings are not studied more widely.
Edmund Burke was an 18th Century statesman, orator and parliamentarian, whose words still reverbrate today. His understanding of democracy and the nature of true freedom is sublime. In fact, if I can mix metaphors, his wisdom cuts through today's postmodern muddle like a fine wine on a dull palate. Like so many of our best orators, he was born in Ireland. He moved to England, and after he entered parliament in the late 1700s, he had a profound influence on the development of constitutional thinking. Two of his outstanding works were Observations on the Present State of the Nation, and Reflections on the Revolution in France, a series of letters to a young French correspondent.
Burke's most famous quote is: "All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing."
Here are some sample quotes (more can be found here):
~ Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look to anything but power for their relief.
~ I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.
~ It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.
~ Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
~ Manners are of more importance than laws... Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in.
People crushed by laws, have no hope but to evade power. If the laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the law; and those who have must to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous.
~ The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
~ The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.
~ When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.
~ Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.
On death, taxes and energy
They say there are only two certainties in this life: death and taxes. Perhaps we need to add, increasing energy costs.
Although prices for such essentials for modern living as electricity and petrol (gas, to my American friends) fluctuate greatly in any given short term period, over the long term there has been a steady rise in price. Some US states are currently experiencing all-time highs. Much of the time, the increases have political causes. For example, the New Zealand government recently added a 4cent per litre levy on petrol to pay for roading projects to relieve traffic congestion around Auckland. And a high proportion of the petrol price in the UK is government tax.
Nonetheless, as real estate agents say of land, "they're not making any more of it". That was underlined dramatically this week when Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Europe's second-largest oil company, asked Chairman Philip Watts to resign after an investigation into the company's announcement that it overstated oil and gas reserves. Watts, 58, yesterday became the first Shell chairman to leave before the end of his term in at least three decades. Investors had called for management changes after Shell cut its reserves estimate by 20 percent on January 9.
The same sort of issues are emerging in New Zealand over electricity. The country depends largely on hydro generation through a series of dams on major rivers, but when the country suffered a severe drought over many of the principle storage lakes last winter, demand outstripped supply and some spot prices shot up to more than $2 per kilowatt. NZ needs new sources of electricity, but cannot agree on how to provide it. A major proposal for a new hydro station on the Waitaki River in the South Island is stalled because of huge community concern over the environmental effects. No other significant sources are in the pipeline (so to speak).
The same sort of issues are being faced the world over. Non-renewable supplies are slowly being used up, and few technological breakthroughs are on the horizon. Most proposals have downsides equal to their upsides. The brownouts common in the Philippines may be a fact of life for many industrial nations in the near future unless we can put aside our partisan ways (and the oligopolies of most major energy corporations).
They say there are only two certainties in this life: death and taxes. Perhaps we need to add, increasing energy costs.
Although prices for such essentials for modern living as electricity and petrol (gas, to my American friends) fluctuate greatly in any given short term period, over the long term there has been a steady rise in price. Some US states are currently experiencing all-time highs. Much of the time, the increases have political causes. For example, the New Zealand government recently added a 4cent per litre levy on petrol to pay for roading projects to relieve traffic congestion around Auckland. And a high proportion of the petrol price in the UK is government tax.
Nonetheless, as real estate agents say of land, "they're not making any more of it". That was underlined dramatically this week when Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Europe's second-largest oil company, asked Chairman Philip Watts to resign after an investigation into the company's announcement that it overstated oil and gas reserves. Watts, 58, yesterday became the first Shell chairman to leave before the end of his term in at least three decades. Investors had called for management changes after Shell cut its reserves estimate by 20 percent on January 9.
The same sort of issues are emerging in New Zealand over electricity. The country depends largely on hydro generation through a series of dams on major rivers, but when the country suffered a severe drought over many of the principle storage lakes last winter, demand outstripped supply and some spot prices shot up to more than $2 per kilowatt. NZ needs new sources of electricity, but cannot agree on how to provide it. A major proposal for a new hydro station on the Waitaki River in the South Island is stalled because of huge community concern over the environmental effects. No other significant sources are in the pipeline (so to speak).
The same sort of issues are being faced the world over. Non-renewable supplies are slowly being used up, and few technological breakthroughs are on the horizon. Most proposals have downsides equal to their upsides. The brownouts common in the Philippines may be a fact of life for many industrial nations in the near future unless we can put aside our partisan ways (and the oligopolies of most major energy corporations).
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Euthanasia's slippery slope illustrated
Those who support the law being changed to allow euthanasia are usually quick to cry "foul" when the slippery slope argument is raised. A news story on today's wires nonetheless shows how real the threat is.
A German woman doctor who is facing manslaughter charges for killing eight of her patients is suspected of systematically inducing the deaths of up to 1500 hundred others in her care, on a scale outstripping the British mass murderer, Dr Harold Shipman.
Dr Mechthild Bach, a 54 year-old physician at the city's Parcelus cancer clinic, was arrested and charged with manslaughter last month for killing eight of her patients with massive doses of morphine.
Dr Bach was suspended from duty at the Parcelus clinic last year after a routine audit of medicines and cases at the hospital revealed above average orders for morphine and an unusually high death rate among her patients. German health insurance officials, who looked into medical files from Dr Bach's clinic said they were shocked by the high number of deaths and demanded action be taken.
Dr Bach rejects the charges and insists that she was merely relieving the pain of patients who were dying anyway. However, state prosecutors are now concerned that during her 20-year career at the Parcelus clinic, Dr Bach may have killed literally hundreds more patients with massive doses of morphium and the tranquilliser, valium.
One case, drawn to the attention of the investigators, involved 63-year-old Mrs Christa Dudel, who was referred to Dr Bach's clinic in May 2001 suffering from shingles. As she was fit enough to walk, her adult children were confident that their mother was merely going in for a check-up and that she would probably be sent to a convalescent home afterwards to recuperate. However 14 days later Mrs Dudel was dead.
Dr Bach had diagnosed her complaint as water on the lung and had injected her with lethal doses of morphine, allegedly to alleviate her suffering without even consulting her relatives.
Another case involved a 52-year-old man suffering from throat cancer who died 16 days after being admitted to Dr Bach's clinic. After the patient complained of chest pains, Dr Bach administered four 20 milligram morphine injections daily and took him off all other cancer combating drugs. Investigators later described the morphine dosage as "terminal sedation" and noted that the patient could have lived for "months, perhaps longer - even without chemo or radio therapy."
Dr Bach claimed that her patient had complained repeatedly of breathing difficulties and that as his condition had continued to deteriorate acutely, she had decided to offer him the chance of "dying in dignity."
Those who support the law being changed to allow euthanasia are usually quick to cry "foul" when the slippery slope argument is raised. A news story on today's wires nonetheless shows how real the threat is.
A German woman doctor who is facing manslaughter charges for killing eight of her patients is suspected of systematically inducing the deaths of up to 1500 hundred others in her care, on a scale outstripping the British mass murderer, Dr Harold Shipman.
Dr Mechthild Bach, a 54 year-old physician at the city's Parcelus cancer clinic, was arrested and charged with manslaughter last month for killing eight of her patients with massive doses of morphine.
Dr Bach was suspended from duty at the Parcelus clinic last year after a routine audit of medicines and cases at the hospital revealed above average orders for morphine and an unusually high death rate among her patients. German health insurance officials, who looked into medical files from Dr Bach's clinic said they were shocked by the high number of deaths and demanded action be taken.
Dr Bach rejects the charges and insists that she was merely relieving the pain of patients who were dying anyway. However, state prosecutors are now concerned that during her 20-year career at the Parcelus clinic, Dr Bach may have killed literally hundreds more patients with massive doses of morphium and the tranquilliser, valium.
One case, drawn to the attention of the investigators, involved 63-year-old Mrs Christa Dudel, who was referred to Dr Bach's clinic in May 2001 suffering from shingles. As she was fit enough to walk, her adult children were confident that their mother was merely going in for a check-up and that she would probably be sent to a convalescent home afterwards to recuperate. However 14 days later Mrs Dudel was dead.
Dr Bach had diagnosed her complaint as water on the lung and had injected her with lethal doses of morphine, allegedly to alleviate her suffering without even consulting her relatives.
Another case involved a 52-year-old man suffering from throat cancer who died 16 days after being admitted to Dr Bach's clinic. After the patient complained of chest pains, Dr Bach administered four 20 milligram morphine injections daily and took him off all other cancer combating drugs. Investigators later described the morphine dosage as "terminal sedation" and noted that the patient could have lived for "months, perhaps longer - even without chemo or radio therapy."
Dr Bach claimed that her patient had complained repeatedly of breathing difficulties and that as his condition had continued to deteriorate acutely, she had decided to offer him the chance of "dying in dignity."
Monday, March 01, 2004
New publicity strategy for therapeutic cloning campaign
Scientists lobbying for therapeutic cloning are using a new argument to persuade politicians and the public to endorse the controversial procedure. Until recently they had been stressing the possibility of "miracle cures" for ailments like Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and juvenile diabetes if they could use laboratory-created embryos to create stem cells. But it has become apparent that clinical applications for embryonic stem cells are still many years away -- 10 years at the earliest. More importantly, intense lobbying has still failed to secure essential funding from the US government for programs which create and destroy embryos.
Although embryonic stem cell researchers still believe that cures will come, the Washington Post reports that "in moments of candour... many scientists concede that therapeutic cloning is far down the list of reasons they want to clone human embryos". They have now begun to highlight the embryo's potential for research, their focus shifting from making sick adults healthy to making healthy embyros sick. "Instead of making cloned embryos as a source of healthy stem cells for transplantation into patients, scientists are proposing to make cloned embryos that explicitly bear the genetic glitch or glitches at the root of a patient's disease," the Post says.
The disease highlighted by leading stem cell researchers like Ian Wilmut, the Scottish scientist who created Dolly the sheep, and Irving Weissman, of Stanford University, who is researching motor neurone disease (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease). They envisage taking a normal human egg and creating a clone with a diseased cell from a patient. The cloned embryo would then produce nerve stem cells. Researchers could watch the disease develop and use the embryos to test drugs which might slow or prevent the gradual degeneration.
"This use of clones has been totally missed by the public but is of extreme importance to really understand the molecular basis of disease," says Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, an American company which is developing uses for cloning.
(Reported in the Australasian Bioethics Newsletter, 27 February, 2004)
Scientists lobbying for therapeutic cloning are using a new argument to persuade politicians and the public to endorse the controversial procedure. Until recently they had been stressing the possibility of "miracle cures" for ailments like Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and juvenile diabetes if they could use laboratory-created embryos to create stem cells. But it has become apparent that clinical applications for embryonic stem cells are still many years away -- 10 years at the earliest. More importantly, intense lobbying has still failed to secure essential funding from the US government for programs which create and destroy embryos.
Although embryonic stem cell researchers still believe that cures will come, the Washington Post reports that "in moments of candour... many scientists concede that therapeutic cloning is far down the list of reasons they want to clone human embryos". They have now begun to highlight the embryo's potential for research, their focus shifting from making sick adults healthy to making healthy embyros sick. "Instead of making cloned embryos as a source of healthy stem cells for transplantation into patients, scientists are proposing to make cloned embryos that explicitly bear the genetic glitch or glitches at the root of a patient's disease," the Post says.
The disease highlighted by leading stem cell researchers like Ian Wilmut, the Scottish scientist who created Dolly the sheep, and Irving Weissman, of Stanford University, who is researching motor neurone disease (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease). They envisage taking a normal human egg and creating a clone with a diseased cell from a patient. The cloned embryo would then produce nerve stem cells. Researchers could watch the disease develop and use the embryos to test drugs which might slow or prevent the gradual degeneration.
"This use of clones has been totally missed by the public but is of extreme importance to really understand the molecular basis of disease," says Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, an American company which is developing uses for cloning.
(Reported in the Australasian Bioethics Newsletter, 27 February, 2004)
