Moates, Anne Philosophers and followers of various faiths have long debated the meaning of life and death. Death's one constant is that it is everyone's last act. What is variable is how one views death. Whatever one's belief there are considerable efforts made to delay death, so much so, that in Western Society, in particular, a death is often viewed as a type of failure. There is so much emphasis on the importance of life and living up to our potential (...) that we have deprived death of meaning and allowed this parting from life to be medicalised. (shrink)

Moates, Anne Organ donation, the ultimate gift a person can make to benefit humanity has its own share of risks and benefits along with some transplant ethics including issues such as coercion, solicitation, discrimination and exploitation. One of the most important dilemma emerging in transplant ethics is the issue of whether some sort of financial recompense be made in exchange for viable transplantable human organs is contentious.

Moates, Anne The European Group on Ethics in Science has made recommendations about the ethics of certain types of implanted medical devices, which include privacy, equity, informed consent, non-discrimination, precautionary principle, and non-instrumentalisation. Implant ethics, therefore would have to deal with issues of normality and disease with the admissibility of human enhancement.

Moates, Anne Australian's are proud of their sporting heroes and support all manner and types of sport either as participants or observers. Increasingly, the limits of what is humanly achievable in terms of speed, distance and endurance are stretched. There are risks to health and well-being inherent in participating in sport, yet physical activity is important for health and well being. The following article briefly discusses some of the moral challenges that may arise in sports medicine.

Moates, Anne The prospect of a virulent human influenza pandemic causing large scale mortality and morbidity is a cause for global concern. The most likely candidate is the avian or 'bird' flu which is a strain of influenza virus named because it is found in birds. There are three groups of flu viruses, influenza A, B and C. Type A viruses are able to infect a wide variety of warm-blooded animals. B and C types are mostly confined to humans. Avian (...) influenza is caused by a Type A virus and typically affects birds' respiratory, digestive and nervous systems.[1]. (shrink)

Moates, Anne Most of the Australian population is concentrated in urban areas and larger regional centres. There is a belief that living in rural areas is healthier than city living. However, the opposite is generally true. Contributing factors are lack of access to health care services, attitudes to health care, cost of basic amenities and the degree of remoteness.