Most requests for euthanasia in the Netherlands come from people suffering from cancer. But the number of patients who have dementia, psychiatric disorders, or multiple geriatric syndromes (MGS) is growing steadily. An article by Dutch physicians in JAMA Internal Medicine examines the kind of geriatric syndromes which motivate a person to ask for euthanasia. They found that […]
According to leaked documents revealed in the Washington Post, Huawei, China’s giant telecom, has helped to develop an AI system to identify Uyghurs, its oppressed Turkic minority in the province of Xinjiang. Allegedly the facial recognition system is programmed to send “Uyghur alarms” to the police when Uyghurs are spotted by security cameras. The documents say […]
An Austrian film called The Trouble with Being Born is winning high praise from critics at film festivals. It received a special jury award at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year. On Rotten Tomatoes, it scores 100% amongst critics. It’s a “hidden gem”, according to Hollywood Reporter. “A powerful and revelatory achievement,” wrote a critic for Screen […]
Clive James, who died a year ago aged 80 after a long illness, was many things: a media celebrity, a TV pundit, an interviewer and roaming traveller; an essayist, literary critic and author of five volumes of autobiography; lastly, a poet. Indeed, putting aside the other hats he put on and off in rapid succession, I suspect that poetry, that fascination for using words in a compressed space for memorable effect, was his first and last love. Much of television fame is, […]
ON THIS DAY: 12 DECEMBER 2001: Nuala O’Loan, Police Ombudsman for the North of Ireland presents report to relatives of the Omagh bombing victims As the Police Ombudsman for the North of Ireland, Nuala O’Loan met with and presented the relatives of the victims of the Omagh bombing with a report into her findings into […]
Saint Finnian of Clonard was a member of Clanna Rudhraighe from the Ulaid in the vicinity of New Ross. According to some sources, Finnian studied for a time at the monastic centre of Martin of Tours in Gaul. Tours was noted for its austerity. He later went to Wales and continued his studies at the […]
The Tyranny of Merit is not the sort of book that you expect to emerge from a lecture theatre at that den of wokeness, Harvard University. But the author, Michael Sandel, is one of its best-known professors, a rock star intellectual who fills auditoriums around the world with engaging and challenging lectures on justice. What makes […]
“You matter because of who you are. You matter to the last moment of your life, and we will do all we can, not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die.” Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the first modern hospice Inay (Maxima) My name is Dona Marie. I […]
Jobpath is described by government as an approach to “employment activation” which caters mainly for people who are long-term unemployed (12 months or more) to assist them to secure and sustain full-time paid employment. Depending on where you live in the country it is delivered by one of two private companies – Seetec Limited […]
Dolores and Michael Harrison have been married for 62 years. Their daughter Fiona says they have never been apart, but now a series of health complications and Covid restrictions mean that they are being kept apart from their families and from each other. Their daughter Fiona says the continued restrictions are “soul-destroying” and, with the […]
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The National Disability Authority (NDA) was established twenty years ago to provide relevant, evidenced based information to key stakeholders so that national policy could be developed and implemented to ensure people with disabilities lived the lives of their choosing. However, a report published by the NDA in the past week raises serious questions about the […]