It’s Thanksgiving and I’m feeling ‘Ich habe genug’ (I have enough). I’d like to share some poetry, music, and a film while continuing the ‘death’ theme of my last blog post. First the film, Wit, starring Emma Thompson and directed by Mike Nichols. It’s the story of Vivian, a woman with ovarian cancer who spends…
“Death is the real inspiring genius or muse of philosophy and for this reason Socrates defined philosophy as thanatoi meletos (rehearsal for death). Indeed without death, there would hardly have been any philosophizing.” Arthur Schopenhauer
The first ‘clinical’ trial may have been 2600 years ago. According to the Book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar held Israelites in captivity in Babylon after the siege of Jerusalem in 597 BC. The king selected an elite group of prisoners to serve him in the future. They were to receive the same “choice” food and…
“Here’s some friendly advice to the pharmaceutical industry: don’t make the mistake of attacking the policies of our new President. Such a move is likely to backfire.”
Health is more than drugs and disease. It’s the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. We need to be able to trust them all.
“Ultimately, the only way of combating disease mongering is to value the manner of our living above the timing of our dying.”
“Drugmakers, device makers, and insurers decide which products to develop based not on what patients need, but on what their marketers tell them will sell – and produce the highest profit.”
There’s been plenty of coverage of the Obama and McCain health plans during the presidential election campaign. I debated whether to contribute my opinion and decided against it. I think everyone is exhausted with media coverage. There’s a nice Time Magazine article this week on “The 24-Minute News Cycle.” It was reassuring to read that…
