Baggas’ Blog

No blogging for the next couple of days, as we’ll be off on our little vacation up north of Perth. Hopefully I’ll have some good photos to put up when we return, but in the meantime if you’re desperate for some quality blog reading (and if you are I don’t know why you’d be here anyway!), have a browse through the blogroll over on the left.

I’ve got a week off from work this week which is very timely. Unfortunately it’s already virtually completely full up with various jobs to be done and appointments to go to. We shall hopefully have at least some time to relax - tomorrow we are heading off for a couple of days away on holiday as a family, north of Perth. This will be the first time we’ve attempted to go away since Luke was born so hopefully it will work out okay. While we’re up there, we’ll be taking the kids to see The Wiggles in concert, which should be fun, after having spent the last 3 years watching their videos.

Anyway I’ve got some workmen here so I’d better go. And then put Luke to bed and start tackling my list of jobs for the day.

Heard a fantastic new song on Triple J the other day - it’s William Shatner doing an emotive spoken word version of Pulp’s classic track “Common People” Apparently he’s put together a new album with a range of collaborating artists including Henry Rollins of all people, produced by Ben Folds. Don’t know about the rest of it but ‘Common People’ is well worth a listen - captures the theme of the original song perfectly. Have a listen to it here.

Bit too tired to post much tonight (still getting over that virus I had), but sometimes words are unnecessary. For example this picture speaks for itself…

Aren’t they just the cutest two boys ever?

As I type this I’m sitting here on my couch watching Foxtel Digital, which we had installed today. There’s now a big satelite dish up on our roof and a set-top box above our TV. The digital picture quality is perfect, and it offers 5.1 surround sound as well on some programmes. We have about 50 or so channels to choose from - movies, entertainment, news, weather, sports, music, kids, and documentaries including the History and Biography channels which should be worthwhile.

All this is great, but I still can’t escape this guilty feeling in the back of my mind about having pay TV when so many millions of people around the world don’t have TV at all, and struggle just to survive from day to day. Who am I to spend all this money on entertainment when this kind of poverty exists around the world? It’s a dissonant feeling that’s hard to reconcile, one which has been made a little more sharp for me by this new luxury, but one which I believe should be present to at least some degree at all times for us in affluent societies. It is when we lose that sense of guilt or dissonance that we are really in trouble. Without “selling all we have” (see Luke 18:18-27) and giving all our income to those less fortunate (beyond our basic food, clothing, and shelter needs) it is impossible to completely resolve this feeling. But we can at the least make two basic responses. One is simply to acknowledge how amazingly blessed and rich we are, and be thankful for this. The second response is to begin to take steps to use our wealth to help those less fortunate. This may take the form of giving of our time, gifts, or money to help others. For the cost of less than 3 months worth of Foxtel subscription we could vaccinate 2 African children, buy a family a goat, and another family a pack to start their own vegetable garden to help feed themselves. This kind of thing is only a start, and only partly eases that guilty feeling, but it’s a step in the right direction. Where those steps will take me ultimately I don’t know but I’d like one day to actually travel to the third world regularly and give of my time and abilities to help these people.

Today I attended a seminar on Travel medicine in Perth, and hearing all these stories of exotic places only served to give me an even more acute case of the travel bug. But for the time being I think I’ll have to be content with travelling vicariously from the comfort of my couch, with the aid of the Discovery Channel…

Just a quick update. I’ve been a bit sick the past few days - came down with a nasty stomach bug that’s been circulating around my family on Saturday night, was a bit better on Sunday and Monday but was feeling queasy again today so stayed home from work.

I always feel guilty about having a sick day, which is kinda ironic considering the number of sick days I bestow on other people. But whenever I’m off it inconveniences so many others from the receptionists at work through to all the patients who get their appointments rescheduled and even the other doctors who often end up picking up some of the load. But I guess it’s better being off than struggling through the day at work and sharing my sicknes with all those people.

Anyway now I’m off to band rehearsal at church - we have a big acoustic service ths weekend which should be fantastic.

Just watching the Australian Idol finale, which is all a bit of a let down after last year. I can’t say I particularly like either one of the finalists. Anthony is certainly the favourite and is the more polished performer but he’s a bit too cliched and ‘plastic’ for me. And Casey is still the same sullen grungy teenage girl, no matter how much they doll her up. I have a sneaking feeling she might come out on top for some reason (and in a weekend where Glen McGrath got a test 50 then I suppose anything is possible!). Either way I can’t see either of them having a very prolonged career - perhaps if Casey won she might last longer than Anthony, if she gets a good band around her. Anthony is just far too generic to have much longevity. The debut single they’ve picked is a shocker as well - feels like it was produced by a computer program on demand.

I think the idol format peaked a year ago, and on that topic there’s an interesting looking doco on ABC tonight about Guy Sebastian and his church, which should be worth watching. A few weeks back I got the Paradise Live album from the Paradise Church, featuring Guy as worship leader, which is really good. Another great worship album I just got a couple of days ago is a new collaboration from Hillsong + Delerious? which is really worth a listen. I like some of the Delerious? songs - in places they sound a bit like U2, makes me wish I could nail that sound of The Edge on guitar. There’s nothing like that 80s U2 stuff.

Anyway that’s a bit of a scattered entry but that’s what you get when I’m watching TV at the same time. Now to see who wins…

Two brief images from my trip to the city today….

…. stopped at the front of the traffic at the lights, I saw a twenty something Chinese guy strolling diagonally across the intersection with a big grin on his face. He walks across, opens the passenger door of the sporty little red car next to me and kisses the attractive young female driver, before closing the door and continuing his stroll down the terrace ….

…. on my way home around 4:30pm in one small corner of the vast empty esplanade, a man and a woman in their 60s or older are doing Tai Chi about 5 metres apart - together but separate ….

Once again it made me think about the stories behind these snapshots of life. What brought these two couples to the city this day? What chain of events led up to them being in these places at those times? Those were just two standout examples, but every person I saw today had their own unique story.

A city can be an amazing place, if we just open our eyes and look.

Today I’m off to a GP conference at the Hyatt in Perth, featuring Professor Murtagh, the king of GPs - so that should be interesting. It’s my second medical function of the week, after attending a training seminar on contraceptive implants at the local private hospital on Wednesday night, which was good. On a related issue, the front page of the paper today features a call for school nurses to be able to hand out the pill and the morning after pill, to try and cut down on teenage pregnancies. The former I disagree with - prescribing the oral contraceptive is a complex and involved matter which needs to be done by a doctor. However I can see a case for the ‘morning after’ pill being available through school nurses, since it can already be bought from pharmacies without a prescription. School nurses would be able to give much more involved and extended counselling than a pharmacist would do, and this would not only hopefully reduce teenage pregnancies but provide opportunity to educate to reduce risky behaviour. Let’s face it - youngsters are going to be doing it no matter what, so reducing the rate of pregnancy, abortion, and STDs needs to be a priority. I’m not saying that education encouraging abstinence is a bad idea, however I think people need to be realistic and pragmatic and do whatever needs to be done to reduce the above problems.

Well I can now report the final chapter in the adventure of my car crash a few weeks ago - the insurance company ended up deciding that the car was a total write-off and yesterday I received a cheque for the total sum insured, which was at least $2000 more than I would have got for the car if I tried to sell it. Considering I planned to get rid of the car next year anyway, it all worked out well. So for the cost of a little inconvenience and a sore neck for a few days I ended up with a brand new family car, an insurance payout, and a good story to tell. I wouldn’t advise driving into a tree in a remote spot on purpose, but it certainly worked out for the best for me

A middle aged man comes in with his 91 year old father to see me. The son rushes ahead as his father slowly hobbles in from the waiting room, “I wanted to talk to you before he comes in. He’s just not coping at home any more and I think he needs extra care. But he’s stubborn and would never consider going in a home or anything like that.” By this time the old man had made it in and we discussed his current illness, a nasty stomach upset and just generally feeling run down. I ordered a few blood tests and with the son filled out a form to get an aged care assessment organized.

The blood test results were not good. Liver enzymes were sky high, indicating a serious problem of the liver, maybe a blockage of some sort. The first thing that came to mind was cancer. But by the time I got the results, 3 days after seeing the patient, he had already been admitted to hospital for an acute deterioration, a CT scan arranged, and advanced cancer confirmed.

Yesterday I was called down to the hospital to certify his death - a sad event, though not unexpected. In the end perhaps a mercifully quick process after 91 years of pretty good health.

This story had an poignant epilogue for me today. As I sat by the river eating lunch, reading and listening to music, as I often do, I noticed a plaque on the big suspension walking bridge which is one of the main features of the town, from it’s opening in 1989 - the person who officially opened the bridge 15 years ago was this very man who had died the day before. It’s funny how easy it is to look at a person and just see what’s in front of you, without stopping to think about the history that this person carries behind them, the things they have done and the esteem with which they are held by others. Every person, whether they are 91 or 9, has a story that has many other chapters before the current one. Rather than seeing a person as just a name on a page, it’s better to see them as a book, of which their name is just the title, with an interesting narrative to explore.

Just walked out in the waiting room and the ‘Carol of the bells’ was playing on the patients’ TV. Is it just me or does November 16 seem a little too early for Christmas carols? It seems to get earlier and earlier every year. The shops are already full of Christmas decorations, holly and tinsel. I expect to see Santa there pretty soon.

Not that I’m complaining - I love Christmas. Even aside from the obvious spiritual meaning, it’s just nice to hear all that joyful music and be able to walk around the shops humming carols. I generally have a strong dislike for most antiquated hymns but for Christmas carols I’ll make an exception. Plus there’s all the great Christmas songs of the 40s and 50s as well - Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Sinatra et al. And then the classic pop songs by Bowie, Lennon, McCartney and many other (generally British) artists. I’ve got about 2 Gig worth of Christmas MP3s that I generally pump through the stereo throughout December each year - I’ll have to load them on my MP3 player so I can have non-stop Christmas cheer.

Don’t expect too much blogging from me over the next few days. I’m experiencing a bit of computer fatigue so am giving the PC a relatively wide berth (ie. only check my mail once an hour or so). In fact I’m a bit fatigued in general at the moment - kids have been awake and teething etc etc over the last week or two so a lot of interrupted sleep for both of us parents.

The rest of the week promises to be fairly busy as well unfortunately. Band practice tonight, then tomorrow evening I’m going to a training course on contraceptive implants at the local hospital, and then Friday I have a seminar with the guru of GP up at the Hyatt in Perth. Working on Saturday, and then a party to go to on Sunday. Coming into December I doubt the pace will lessen at all. There is relief in sight though… only a week and a half to go and I am on holidays for a week - nothing major planned at this stage except we have tickets to go see The Wiggles in concert!

Looks like summer has just about kicked in. It’s going to be well over 30 degrees today, definitely shorts weather. One of the nice things about being a GP now is that I can be even more relaxed in what I wear to work (although I was pretty casual compared to most male docs even when I worked in the hospital) - so today it’s 3/4 length pants, sandals, and a polo shirt. Plus I’m spending the whole day down in our satellite country town surgery today, which is pretty cruisy. The main downside to that is no interent access down there but I can cope for 1 day… I think.

Hey, guess what? We’re getting Foxtel installed next Thursday 25th November, after I managed to pass the rigorous qualification process…

I normally take much less interest in WA state politics than federal, but this story caught my attention this morning. After many lacklustre months in government, Geoff Gallop has now produced a very canny move which may help him get across the line in the upcoming state election - a referendum on the question of whether shopping hours should be extended. Now this is an issue that has been on my nerves for quite some time - why should Western Australians be denied the same access and flexibility to shop after hours that our counterparts in the East have, especially in these days when people are working longer and less conventional hours? The opposing argument is that allowing large shops to open later will lead to the demise of small independant retailers, but in fact this does not seem to have happened to any large degree in the east. Also even if it is the case, why should WA retailers be afforded a level of protection not given to those in the East. Hopefully this referendum will finally lay this issue to rest. It’s a shame they don’t tack on daylight saving as well while they’re at it.

Politically I think this is a shrewd move by Geoff Gallop for a number of reasons. Firstly the shopping debate is fairly neatly divided along party lines, with Liberal supporting the status quo and Labor supporting change, so Gallop will be hoping that if a majority vote ‘yes’ for shopping change, then a lot of those same people will vote for Labor also. Secondly the debate about retail hours, which is sure to be heated, may well take the heat off other issues in the campaign, and diminish the scrutiny given to political debate - and the less coverage the better for the incumbent. It will be interesting to see what happens. Personally I’m hoping for a big ‘yes’ vote for retail change, but as for the election result I don’t know which side I prefer. I don’t much like many of the members of Geoff Gallop’s team, but overall I think Labor have not done such a bad job in state government here, and I haven’t seen much from the opposition to convince me they can do any better as yet.

One of the consequences of my recent car dramas is that I now get to drive Jenni’s old Suzuki to work, which is a big improvement over my old bomb. But there is one major downside to it all - I tried to pull out the tape player from Jen’s car to put my old second hand CD player that I ripped out of my old car in it’s place - but in doing so all I managed to achieve was somehow breaking the old stereo so it didn’t work anymore, without moving it an inch! So now my trips to work are music free, which is incredibly frustrating - nothing to sing along to at the top of my voice. And acapella doesn’t cut it for very long. Hope to get a new CD player installed soon, and this time I’ll get an expert to do it.

The converse is true in our new car, which unfortunately I can’t take to work - it has a great 4 speaker system with CD, which I have given a good workout with a range of CDs from Nick Drake, Eric Clapton, Hillsong, Metallica, Ben Harper, and Norah Jones. So if you see a shiny silver 4WD darting around town pumping such great music at high volumes, it’s likely to be me.

I’ve just started reading Desolation Island, the fifth book in Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series of novels, and once again I am in awe of the talent of this author. While it took me a while at first to get used to his slightly old-fashioned style of prose, each time I pick up one of his novels now I find it easier to get into. What is amazing is not just the gripping way each of his self contained stories unfolds, and not the amazing historical detail and research, but also the way he deftly weaves the threads of longer storylines, relationships, and character development over the course of several books. I am so thankful for Jenni who bought me my first O’Brian novel last Christmas - it has opened a wonderful treasure trove of literary pleasure for me. I strongly recommend these books to anyone - make sure your start at the beginning though with Master & Commander.

Ok, just let me state that I am officially over the whole Australian Idol thing now. After being cheesed off the whole series by quality singers like Rikki-Lee and Chanel being voted out prematurely, I was fairly confident that at least the final would be between two of the more talented singers in the field, Anthony (who I predicted will win) and Courtney (who I liked more) - but yet again the Australian public have incomprehensibly voted through the surly teenager Casey, who should have been voted out weeks ago. I just can’t imagine who is voting for this girl - although I guess it’s the surly teenage girls who are the nation’s number 1 SMS users so I shouldn’t be too suprised. So all appeal has gone out of the final for me - I hope Anthony wins just to restore some of the show’s lost credibility - even though I don’t like him all that much, he is a greatly superior singer and performer.

Also the judges have been getting more and more partisan with their comments, especially Marcia. I don’t think she has had a single constructive thing to say the whole series and the way she gushed over Casey tonight was nauseating.

Anyway I just had to get that out of my system *takes a deep breath*
Now if only I could find something better to watch on TV… five channels is just not enough….

Interesting story here where Google have bought the first advert on top of the results page that comes up when you search for the word Jew. The advert links to a Google explanation page apologising for the list of anti-Semitic sites that come high up on the results. While this might seem admirable on the part of Google, does this strike anyone else as being unneccessary and possibly a disturbing precedent? I don’t think Google should have to apologize or disclaim the results produced by it’s search engine technology. It’s an automated process which works to rank sites according to popularity and links. Net users are intelligent enough to discern what they are viewing. Plus if Google are going to put such a disclaimer to warn against anti-semitic sites, this creates a precedent of editorializing which has always been a feature which Google has been relatively free of. If you do a search for Michael Moore for example, a fair proportion of the results are actually anti-Moore sites - is Google going to put up an ‘ad’ defending him? Of course not. I can see that there are immense historical sensitivities which perhaps make ‘Jew’ a special case, but I still think it may have been wiser to just leave the ‘raw’ results there for the net public to sift through.

Following on from last night’s post about Christian blogs, I’d like to introduce to you one of the newest young Christian bloggers in the ’sphere - Tim Muhl. Do yourself a favour and bookmark him over at Blogging Through Life, as it promises to be a very interesting read. Good luck Tim!

And since one good Tim deserves another, let me just mention another Tim, a fellow ‘wing-nut’ who often pays me the courtesy of visiting here on my blog. At least I’m not the only one hanging out for season 5 to come on TV here.

Good article from Christianity Today which scratches the surface of the phenomenon of Christian blogging. It makes the distinction between blogs which are specifically Christian blogs and blogs which are authored by Christian people that touch on a wide range of topics, often letting their spirituality wash through in a more subtle manner. I think the distinction is a bit of an oversimplication but like Rodney Olsen (who I lifted the article from) I’d place myself in the latter category. It’s encouraging to see that blogging is already starting to make an impact and get noticed in mainstream Christian outlets like Christianity Today.

Took my brother Scott for a spin in the new 4WD down some tracks near our house this afternoon, with Owen in the back, and it was a lot of fun. Sure it was a pretty tame track but enough for me to catch a bit of the four-wheel driving bug. The only problem now is overcoming my squeamishness about the new car and scratching the paint… but I can forsee many years of 4WD fun ahead

“While visiting the University of Notre Dame, where I had been a teacher for a few years, I met an older experienced professor who had spent most of his life there. And while we strolled over the beautiful campus, he said with a certain melancholy in his voice,”You know, . . . my whole life I have been com­plaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work.”

Don’t we often look at the many events of our lives as big or small interruptions, interrupting many of our plans, projects and life schemes? Don’t we feel an inner protest when a student interrupts our reading, bad weather our summer, illness our well-scheduled plans, death of a dear friend our peaceful state of mind, a cruel war our ideas about the goodness of man, and the many harsh realities of life our good dreams about it? And doesn’t this unending row of interruptions build in our hearts feelings of anger, frustration and even re­venge, so much so that at times we see the real possibility that growing old can become synonymous with growing bitter?
But what if our interruptions are in fact our opportunities, if they are challenges to an inner response by which growth takes place and through which we come to the fullness of being? What if the events of our history are molding us as a sculptor molds his clay, and if it is only in a careful obedience to these molding hands that we can discover our real vocation and become mature people? What if all the unexpected interruptions are in fact the invitations to give up old-fashioned and out­moded styles of living and are opening up new unexplored areas of experience? And finally : What if our history does not prove to be a blind impersonal sequence of events over which we have no control, but rather reveals to us a guiding hand pointing to a personal encounter in which all our hopes and aspirations will reach their fulfillment?

Then our life would indeed be a different life because then fate becomes opportunity, wounds a warning and paralysis an invitation to search for deeper sources of vitality. Then we can look for hope in the middle of crying cities, burning hospitals and desperate parents and children. Then we can cast off the temptation of despair and speak about the fertile tree while witnessing the dying of the seed. Then indeed we can break out of the Prison of an anonymous series of events and listen to the God of history who speaks to us in the center of our solitude and respond to his ever new call for conversion.”

~ Henri Nouwen - ‘Reaching Out‘
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Sitting here at work for a Saturday morning clinic and it’s strangely quiet. Just realised I never got around to posting and bragging about our new car, which I picked up on Wednesday. As I said before, it’s a Mazda Tribute V6, a medium sized 4WD in a champagne silver colour. It drives very well and has a very roomy interior, with a good range of fixin’s like cruise control, CD player, alloy wheels, roof rack, air bags and much more.

It truly is a pleasure to drive… when I’m allowed to ;P

And yes, we got the tow package….
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Following on from my last post, my brother just sent me this very telling graphic, which analyses the election results by the average IQ of each state : View image.
Very interesting indeed…
Plus you’ve gotta worry about Mississipi with an average IQ of 85!

Does anyone else find it interesting that the right-wing US Republican party is associated with the colour red and the left wing democrats are blue? I always thought red was associated with the socialist left and blue more with the conservative upper class, and the colours they use in Australia seem to reflect that. It’s funny that the Republicans use the same colour previously reserved for the ‘commies’ in ‘red’ China and the USSR. But then again perhaps the red for republicans is more symbolic of the necks of their voters?

Well the voting is over in America and George W Bush’s camp are claiming victory, despite the fact that the result in Ohio is too close to call. From the way they’re talking on SBS at the moment, and from the general look of the results (increased Republican vote in both houses, and Bush clearly leading the overall popular vote, unlike last time) I’d guess they’re right though, and barring a big surprise Bush will probably be safe, and with a bigger ‘mandate’ than before. I still think Kerry may not have been the best choice to run against Bush - he just doesn’t come across as being inspirational or strong enough to be a credible alternative. Surely John Edwards or even Howard Dean may have been better choices, from what I’ve seen of them. And the result of this? More of the same, or an even greater polarization of society? I don’t think this will be the ‘healing’ result that some commentators are suggesting.

I’ve got this page on permanent refresh on my browser today. It’s CNN’s US election scorecard. Not quite as nice as having CNN available at home on Pay TV but since I’m not at home and don’t have pay TV (yet…) it’ll have to do. Sure is nice to have internet access again at work after a month or so of computer problems.

Thus far it looks like Bush is out in front, but hopefully there’s still a chance for Kerry to claw it back. We’ll see how it enfolds…

Looks like I’m not the only one who think’s Osama bin Laden is seceretly hoping Bush wins the election. Following on from my comments the other day, I just read an excellent Slate news article which says that anyone who thinks that Osama expects his video to favour Kerry and oust Bush is underestimating the intelligence of him and al-Qaeda, especially when it’s so bleedingly obvious to most that the most likely electoral impact of this video is to favour Bush.

“The jihadists know that the United States is not going to capitulate in the war on terror, so the terrorists are better served by having a polarizing figure such as Bush in office. His actions, such as the invasion of Iraq, the argument runs, have aided the jihadist movement because they confirm its view that America is the ineluctable enemy of the Muslim world. The idea that by taunting Bush days before the election, Bin Laden would actually pump up his support appears widely accepted among foreign commentators, as a Google search of foreign stories on the videotape will show. Why is it inconceivable that the al-Qaida leadership couldn’t also see it this way? They do, after all, study us closely… The argument has the virtue of being consistent with other aspects of al-Qaida thinking. Fittingly for a group that seeks global revolution, al-Qaida has a Leninist streak: That is, they seek to maximize the tensions between the revolutionary force and the existing power structure.”

This US election is another one of those rare moments where I wish I had pay TV. I must admit I’m a bit of a sucker for 24 hour news coverage. I don’t watch a great deal of TV as a rule but get me stuck in front of continuous news, especially in the midst of a big event like an election, a war, a terrorist attack, or a royal death or something, and I can sit there for hours. You can tell how momentous an event is nowadays by how quickly the main networks here in Australia switch to a CNN feed, and how long they stay there. But I doubt the Presidential election will garner that sort of attention here, which is why I’m pining for Foxtel right now.

Of course I’ve long regarded pay TV as being very much in the luxury category, something I’d feel guilty about spending money on. I’ve long held to the principle that no one should subscribe to pay TV without at least sponsoring one poor child in a third world country. Now we’ve got two of them so I should be able to get guilt free Foxtel but I still can’t bring myself to do it. Maybe I need one more sponsor child to ease my conscience. I must admit I’m getting more and more tempted each time I walk past the Foxtel display in the shops.

So for me Foxtel would never qualify as being a necessity, but then again 10 years ago most of us would have considered a mobile phone to be very much in the luxury category - how many of us would count it as a necessity now? On the topic of luxuries vs necessities, I came across this fascinating table whilst reading Status Anxiety today :

Perecentage of North Americans Declaring the Following Items to be Necessities

Well it’s finally come upon us - the US Presidential election is tomorrow and promises to be one of the most interesting and close in history. My impression is that, with the strong level of ill-feeling towards Bush around the world and within America, that all the Democrats needed to do was to field a strong, credible alternative candidate and the White House was theirs. Unfortunately I don’t think Kerry quite has what it takes to inspire those in the middle to give their vote to him. After 2001, Bush is inspirational which ever way you look at him - he inspires either strong devotion or strong distaste or hatred. Kerry is simply insipid. And thus we have a close call, but my guess is Bush will be returned, ironically in part thanks to Osama bin Laden (but then as I said previously I wonder if that’s what Osama really wants anyway…) Interesting days ahead.

It’s amazing how quickly accents develop. As I write this Jenni is putting 3 year old Owen off to bed, and he was just singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He just has the thickest Australian accent - “up above the world so hoigh, loike a dimond in the skoiy” His accent often seems very exaggerated but it just comes naturally to him, except of course when he’s playing and puts on this weird American-Irish-Scottish-Australian cross accent. Kids!

Abortion has never been a huge political football in Australia like it often is in the US, yet it seems today it’s suddenly come up again. Health secretary Christopher Pyne and Minister Tony Abbott have made some sensible comments regarding late term abortions to which Mark Latham has responded saying that there’s no place for politicians to be interfering in such matters and it should be a decision solely between a woman and her doctor. Now as a doctor I value autonomy and the freedom to practice medicine in the way I see fit, free from legal or administrative interference, but I can’t agree with what Latham is saying. In many instances it is appropriate for politics/government to be involved in medical decisions. Should euthanasia be purely a decision to be discussed between a patient and their doctor? Should a doctor be allowed to prescribe as much narcotics as they want if they think it is appropriate? No - there should be limits on medical practice which are determined by professional and community standards of what is ethically appropriate, and it is legitimate that these should be enshrined in law. No matter where you stand on the abortion debate I think most would agree that regulation and control are important, and that it should not be entirely just between the woman and the doctor - what’s then to stop abortions being carried out at 30 weeks or even later, if that’s what the patient and doctor decide?

I think Abbott’s/Pyne’s comments about the incongruity of a hospital performing late term abortions whilst at the same time in the same building spending millions on saving the lives on premature babies born as early as 22-23 weeks are worth thinking about. As far as I can see it’s a difficult thing to reconcile the two.