Australian of the year Taryn Brumfitt has called for doctors to avoid raising the issue of weight in consultations about other matters. We asked the experts if they should – or not.
Where do memories come from? And why do they provoke such strong emotions even though the moment may be long passed?
Infowars founder Alex Jones in court during his Sandy Hook defamation damages trial in Waterbury, Conn., Sept. 22, 2022.
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Shame and guilt seem equally foreign to many politicians and public figures these days. Rather than cover their bad behavior with a veneer of hypocrisy, they revel in it, a classics scholar says.
Some of the sexual moralising we saw with HIV is still with us. That makes it harder for men who have sex with men to come forward for vaccines and testing.
We have moved beyond burning witches and lynching wrong-doers. So we should also stop shaming unvaccinated people. There are better ways to change behaviour.
In the 20th century Magdalene laundries were punitive institutions where young “fallen” women – pregnant and unmarried – endured a daily regime of silence, prayer and hard labour. The last Magdalene laundry closed in 1996.
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The conservative Catholic moral code that underpinned adoption in Ireland penalised vulnerable women and their children. Now a proposed new law seeks to redress the impact of this legacy of shame.
When people who test positive to COVID-19 become subject to ridicule for their activities, it could make others feel reluctant to get tested, or reveal their movements to contact tracers.
Nigerian women use nudity to turn traditional ideas of protest on their heads.
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The U.S. suicide rate has been increasing for decades. According to a sociologist who studies suicide, depression is just one factor among many implicated social conditions.
Knowing the truth about one’s origins is crucial to identity formation, according to adoption experts.
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Experts recommend adopted children be told about their origins, no matter how difficult the circumstances, but doing so is tricky for adoptive parents.
In scary and uncertain times, having a stockpile can feel soothing.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Faced with uncertain and anxious times, brains send out instructions to start stockpiling supplies – whether you’re a person facing a pandemic, or a rodent prepping for a long winter.
Irish immigrants, 1874 in Harper’s Weekly.
Library of Congress
Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics, Murdoch Children's Research Institute; Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law, University of Melbourne; Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford