3 things:
1) Organ trading: Singapore just recently sued 2 Indonesians for selling their kidneys. However, before you start to question how on earth those two guys managed to get through the committee interviews, there is a more fundamental issue that ought to be given due consideration:Tang Wee Sung is not going to have another chance to survive if he can't find another kidney that matches him, and he is sure to be charged. Under current moral standards, he is more guilty than the two guys selling their kidneys.
But see, if you are the patient, would you rather die or would you rather break the law and take the risk? And more fundamentally, why is the commodification of human body parts considered morally deplorable? Is it actually necessarily morally wrong and must be banned by law?
GCS has written something on this, as an extension to a discussion we had last year:
Organ-trading: Revisited
I have written something on it too, it is published in 'The Triple Helix' in a few schools. Here's the link:
The Triple Helix: University of Chicago, 2(1) (2008)
Pages 40 - 42.
(I would like to draw your attention to Yaofeng's article on human evolution too! Pages 35 - 37.)
2) Cambridge: I am falling in love with this place. No wonder Grace kept saying that she wants to come back.
Saturday KH and Chen Li went for a tour to Stonehenge, Windsor and Oxford. So I was alone:
Thus, after doing groceries, I came back, packed a box of biscuits, a flask of tea and some stuff to read, took my bike and cycled down to Grantchester, found a tree by the river, and sat there until the wind got too strong.
Today the sun was shining and it was all warm and nice - so our whole lab took our lunches and went outside to sit on the grass and picnicked. Haha this isn't the first time: sometimes a couple of people will also just go out and sit in the sun to have tea after lunch or during teatime.
It is never hot - today it was 28deg and I asked Marianne whether this is considered hot. She said, 'YES it is almost 30!' It is never cold - Kelvin told me that night after formal that at 5 deg he would have needed to wear some I-don't-know-what-but-I-know-it-must-have-been-something-really-warm coat. And snow doesn't even accumulate - when it snows.
There is no need for a car at all - a big backpack + a bike are all you need for groceries. Nowhere within city limits is more than 40 minutes bike ride from where you started... That would be roughly the time required to get from Milton to Trumpington. Yet you get almost everything you need, including decent Chinese food and groceries, great concerts, cinemas, bowling alley, pubs, and of course places for picnic. If you have a railcard, London is 50 minutes and can be as cheap as £9.50 away.
Europeans are in general a lot more environmentally conscious too. I have seen people literally digging out a huge bunch of reusable bags at Sainsbury's, a sight that I have yet to see in America. It might not be very obvious in Cambridge but if you travel outwards, especially in Germany, you can really feel it.
In my lab PhD students seem to be very well mentored! I am not too sure of the full picture but I feel that the working environment here is indeed good. Like I told Joseph, where in America can you find a place where breaking 3 times a day is official (Anna: is ENCOURAGED) and work still gets done :P He doesn't find my other reasons very good but this one is the ultimate.
Another thing: clinical researchers here are very conscious about applicability of their work within the NHS. Which means, they have to find cheaper ways to do things. It is a problem: it limits the kind of work that can and will be done, and I can definitely sense that Cambridge still can't match Hopkins in terms of resources. But considering Singapore's situation - where resources WILL BE an issue - to learn how to work effectively within generally limited capabilities can be crucially important. And I certainly do not doubt the brains here, and because of the Cambridge tradition, student support will definitely be there.
(Research is important, but extending quality patient care to everyone regardless of economic and social status is even more important! At least this has to be true in Singapore!)
3) Hogfather revisited: Small lies, big lies, the sun and the flaming ball of gas. Believe.
The book is a lot better than the show. Got the DVD for £6 - and the show, well, completely removed the suspense and destroyed the jokes. Some parts even seem abrupt. But if you have not read the book or have no time to, it is still a show worth watching...
Europeans are in general a lot more environmentally conscious too. I have seen people literally digging out a huge bunch of reusable bags at Sainsbury's, a sight that I have yet to see in America. It might not be very obvious in Cambridge but if you travel outwards, especially in Germany, you can really feel it.
In my lab PhD students seem to be very well mentored! I am not too sure of the full picture but I feel that the working environment here is indeed good. Like I told Joseph, where in America can you find a place where breaking 3 times a day is official (Anna: is ENCOURAGED) and work still gets done :P He doesn't find my other reasons very good but this one is the ultimate.
Another thing: clinical researchers here are very conscious about applicability of their work within the NHS. Which means, they have to find cheaper ways to do things. It is a problem: it limits the kind of work that can and will be done, and I can definitely sense that Cambridge still can't match Hopkins in terms of resources. But considering Singapore's situation - where resources WILL BE an issue - to learn how to work effectively within generally limited capabilities can be crucially important. And I certainly do not doubt the brains here, and because of the Cambridge tradition, student support will definitely be there.
(Research is important, but extending quality patient care to everyone regardless of economic and social status is even more important! At least this has to be true in Singapore!)
3) Hogfather revisited: Small lies, big lies, the sun and the flaming ball of gas. Believe.
The book is a lot better than the show. Got the DVD for £6 - and the show, well, completely removed the suspense and destroyed the jokes. Some parts even seem abrupt. But if you have not read the book or have no time to, it is still a show worth watching...
Labels: Life, Policy and Politics, Studies and Career
