Letters to the Editor
Rowyna
Published Letters: 105 Editor's Choice: 36
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genetics and society
[Read the article: Is a need for skinny jeans in the genes?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's entirely plausible that a complicated mental illness like anorexia might have multiple causes and risk factors, both genetic and societal.
Many mental disorders are like this. For example, schizophrenia has a strong genetic component, but often requires certain stress triggers to manifest. The same is doubly true for more conventional addictive illnesses, such as alcoholism, where there is both a genetic component and social risk factors (e.g. growing up with an alcoholic relative).
It would be interesting to find out how many persons with anorexia (or persons simply at the dangerous end of the body-dysmorphia scale) have relatives that are similarly affected.
Alcoholism was long regarded as a social disease brought on by a lack of willpower, and only in the past few decades have scientists recognized that there is also a genetic predisposition at play as well. The same could very well be true of anorexia, another disease that we like to regard as a "social ill" rather than a potentially genetically-influenced mental illness.
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genetics and treatment
[Read the article: Is a need for skinny jeans in the genes?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I dont see why anorexia having a genetic basis means you can't treat it.
Depression has a genetic basis, and we treat that. Many mental illnesses are rooted in a combination of predisposed traits and environmental factors, and they are all 'treatable'. If something is environment caused, it is best to approach it through therapy, whereas physologically rooted illnesses are best treated through chemical means (drugs).
Like I said, since many mental illnesses are both physological and environment based, they involve a combo of therapy and drugs (where there are drugs available to treat it).
Just because some people are predisposed to anorexia doesn't mean we should throw up our hands and say there's nothing that can be done for them. The first step is to create an environment where their predisposition is less likely to manifest itself, the second step is recognising that certain people may need extra attention to stop them falling into a destructive pattern.
Anorexia is treatable, if the person who suffers from it WANTS treatment. If they do not, or cannot see that they have a problem, the chances that treatment will work are a lot slimmer.
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youtube vs wikipedia
[Read the article: Who do you trust, on YouTube?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No offence to the many youtube lovers out there, but I hardly think that it is the first internet resource an intelligent person would go to in order to get information about a medical condition.
The sort of people who are looking up autism and vaccinations on youtube are the sort of people who were probably already believed in a link, and are using youtube to confirm the beliefs they already held.
A sane person who was genuinely searching for information on the topic would almost certainly venture onto google or wikipedia before diving into the shifting quicksands of facts presented on youtube.
The truth is that youtube isn't making people dumb, its just reinforcing dumb people's already dumb beliefs. Much like the museum devoted to intelligent design. If you're getting swayed by the quacks on youtube, you're probably a bit gullible to begin with, in which case, the rot presented as 'facts' on youtube is no different from the rotting 'facts' the MSM tries to cram down our throats. Lets not pretend outlets like fox news or current affairs programmes like 60 minutes are any more factual and balanced than the interwebz.
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melt rate
[Read the article: China powers up while Greenland melts]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sounds like a whole lot of ice melting. Just out of curiosity, what percentage of the entire amount of ice in greenland (you know, that if all melted would cause the seas to rise by 6m) actually melted? Its one thing to think about it in terms of being the size of the alps, but just how much of Greenland's total ice is that?
Also curious about where China is getting all that coal -- does this mean that our coal prices are likely to jump, and following on, energy prices getting pushed up in the West? I'd guess that it would, but don't really know.
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not just the judge, but he prosecution at fault as well
[Read the article: Judge: 10-year-old "probably agreed" to sex]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Perhaps the most damning aspect of this case is not so much that it is a case of a misinformed and quite bizzare judge, but rather the prosecution didn't try and make a real case.
Australian law does no recognise that a person UNDER THE AGE OF 12 can legally give consent. Thus, even if the 10 year old gave some sort of verbal consent, it is legally impossible in Australia for her to have actually consented. Why didn't the prosecution raise this? Why didn't they appeal the case? Why, when this happened in 2006, is it only now coming to light in the Australian media (at the tail end of 2007)?
Some media outlets are painting this as a picture of a rogue judge making a serious error of judgement. It is much more than that. It is a state prosecutor who couldn't have given a rat's ass. It is a society where Aboriginal children are victims of child abuse (sexual and violent) at staggering rates. It is a state government with no interest in following things up until they have to because of a media firestorm.
The judge's ruling sickens me, but the complicentcy of the prosecution sickens me more. This girl was failed at multiple levels of the justice system, even to the extent that they may not be able to retry the youths since the state was so late in acting (there is a 2 year statue of limitations of sorts I believe).