In my last post, the fate of a cold-blooded killer depended on nine U.S. Supreme Court Justices who could not agree whether his death would deter potential criminals. It is easy to understand why Supreme Court Justices, forced to make difficult judgments about highly subjective issues, so often disagree with each other. No one knows,…
On November 23, 1973, Dennis Weaver read a disturbing article in his Atlanta newspaper. Two men were found dead in a ditch along the very same highway where he had been hitchhiking the day before. Even more disturbingly, Weaver recognized that these were the very same men who had picked him up. Weaver called the…
I gave a talk Wednesday as part of an ethics series here at Duke. Here is one take on my presentation. See if you can spot the Far Side reference!
In a recent post, I asked for your thoughts on how you would feel if your doctor posted an anti-health reform letter in his waiting room. Link The letter was a direct quote from one posted in Dr. Hal Scherz’s urology clinic in Atlanta. Scherz is president of Docs4PatientCare. For all I know, Scherz is…
I need to know what you think of the following situation. You walk into your doctor’s office, turn your insurance information into the clerk, take a seat in the waiting room and discover the following letter sitting on the couch-side table, authored by your very own doctor: “Dear Patient: Section 1311 of the new health…
Suppose you are at the car dealer and have narrowed your choice down to two automobiles. One is a little nicer looking, and the other has a more comfortable interior. One gets twenty miles per gallon and the other gets twenty five. You typically drive about twelve thousand miles in a year, which means (queue…
Sarcopenia: a mysterious disorder that causes people’s muscles to shrink away. 25%, 30%, even greater loss of strength… until the victim is struggling to make it up to the second floor bedroom. Would you undergo a treatment for this disorder if it was safe and effective? And do you think your insurance company should pay…
George Loewenstein and I have an Op-Ed in the New York Times today. Check it out, and feel free to add your comments.
Taxes are inevitable, or so they say. How much we should tax our citizenry, however, is debatable. Tea party members think we tax too much, and many liberals think we don’t tax quite enough. I’m not going to take a position on the overall tax burden right now. Instead, I’ll point out two things I…
It was a confession, one that was perhaps more revealing than the confessor realized. Mark Leibovich, writing about Politico in The New York Times Magazine in April, felt the need to disclose that he had known Mike Allen, the subject of his essay, for a dozen or so years, and that he was a fan…