Should doctors be allowed to prescribe placebos?

Presenter: Laura Derksen
Date: 18/11/11

Placebos (sugar pills) have been shown to be effective in treating a range of diseases and symptoms, including pain, depression, anxiety, Parkinson's disease, gastric ulcers, and chronic fatigue syndrome. They seem to work not only by causing a patient to feel better psychologically but also by actually improving certain conditions. 

Given this strange effect, should doctors prescribe placebos, and under what circumstances? 

Should placebo treatments receive NHS funding?

What if the placebo in question is quite expensive?

What if the therapy is administered by someone who believes the treatment to be genuine? 

What if a more effective medicine exists but a patient continues to seek the placebo treatment?

Links:

wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo

Placebos can work even if a patient doesn't believe in them: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=placebo-effect-a-cure-in-the-mind

The NHS funds homeopathy: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jun/29/ban-homeopathy-from-nhs-doctors?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

Sanctions: hurting the citizens or destabilizing the government?

Presenter: Mohammad Vesal
Date: 11/11/11
The use of UN resolutions to impose sanction on countries not respecting the international rules has been an old age device. Countries ratifying sanctions argue they will impose a cost on the government and will convince the authorities (if harsh enough) to obey the international rules. They usually argue the sanctions are for the good of the citizens of the countries and it hold up authorities accountable to the international rules of human rights, ….

Despite these there is no sign about the effectiveness of sanctions in the past and it is not clear how we distinguish between the costs on the government and costs on normal citizens. If anything  the government under sanctions can blame the foreigners for economic failures and raise the sense of unity (and hence authority) in the populace.

In this week discussion let’s consider the example of UN backed and unilateral sanctions against Iran. In the past 4 years the West has imposed new rounds of sanctions to convince the Iranian government to stop its nuclear program. The sanctions prohibit any export of items related to nuclear or military purposes or those that might have dual usage.

The citizens are clearly feeling the pain of the sanctions along various dimensions. The financial transactions with the rest of the world are getting extremely difficult. The civil aviation, shipping industry, oil and gas industry and other industries are affected.

As an example in the past six year, more than 700 Iranians are killed in 13 aircraft crashes and accidents. This is claimed to be mainly because sanctions prevent Iran access to buy new aircrafts or spare parts directly from the suppliers. As another example, many major contractors in Iran oil and gas industry dropped out because of the recent rounds of sanctions and the sector is suffering from underinvestment.



Thinking about the suffering of the citizens and no sign of change in government policies one might wonder about the effectiveness of sanctions and whether this is the right way to go.

How could one possibly justify sanctions on moral grounds?

Is it possible that sanctions stabilize rather than destabilize the government?

What are the costs of the sanctions on those who impose them?!


References:
http://www.economist.com/node/17204603: good overview of the impact of sanctions on Iran
http://www.economist.com/node/18867440: on the recent structural reforms in Iran
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ebcf3060-c732-11e0-a9ef-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1d7Tw49e6: Aviation Industry and Sanctions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/11/iran-elections-mehdi-karroubi-interview: sanctions helping the regime (interview)

7 billion and counting: Do we have an overpopulation problem?

Presenter: Oliver Pardo

Date: 4/11/10

This year we reached the astonishing number of 7 billion people living in this planet (around 7% of the number of people who have ever lived). Whenever this type of threshold is reached, concerns about our sustainability usually arise.

Is the current population trend sustainable?
Has been Malthus undoubtedly been refuted?
Does having a child have a negative externality on others?
Should the state constrain individuals' fertility choices, like China does?
Is there actually any overpopulation problem?
Is there any bound on the number of people the planet can sustain?

Some background readings:
On China's one child policy: http://www.economist.com/node/16846390
On scepticism of overpopulation: http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/sanyal3/English
A voice from the other side: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kieran-suckling/7-billion-population_b_1068567.html

Tim Harford on Malthus: http://timharford.com/2011/10/malthuss-ghost-and-baby-number-7bn/