Don't Mention the O Word

By Terry Morgan

If you ask what are the most obvious planetary health issues of 2021/22 you will, generally speaking, get a list of seven overlapping problems.
Poverty, wealth disparity and health disparity
Third world debt and globalisation
Degradation of the natural environment and biodiversity loss
Climate change and global warming
Food and water shortages and resource depletion
Unemployment and economic migration
Conflict, ethnic tension and refugees

And how many organisations exist to address the problems listed above?
The answer is probably thousands: big and small and mostly publicly funded organisations and charities.
This easy-to-read book discusses what the author considers to be the single, basic cause of each of the seven problems and to identify inherent and long-standing weaknesses in political leadership and key organisations like the UN and the WHO which make solving world health problems an almost impossible task.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Terry Morgan
• Release date: Jan 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005977771

Terry Morgan

Terry Morgan has been writing stories and poetry for over twenty five years, mostly while he “lived out of a suitcase”, travelling with his own exporting business. With over seventy countries under his belt (some of them so many times he lost count) he now lives with his Thai wife, Yung, in Petchabun, Thailand with occasional visits back to friends and family in the Forest of Dean and the Cotswold valleys around Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK.He writes novels with a strong international, business and political flavour, commentary on biology and environmental matters and, when he finds time, less serious humour and political satire.Check out his website www.tjmbooks.com.

Book preview

Don’t Mention the O word

(An ethical dilemma)

Terry Morgan

Copyright © 2022 Terry Morgan

http://www.tjmbooks.com

The right of Terry Morgan to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

BACKGROUND & INTRODUCTION

The background to this book was a request to the author to write a chapter for a book on bioethics and planetary health.

The decision to use this opportunity to ask why world leaders and those organisations charged with addressing global health problems have failed by their refusal to address the single, basic and most obvious cause was my own.

I would like to thank my fellow Thailand-based biologist, Alex Waller, PhD, FRSB of St Peter’s International School, Khao Yai for the invitation to write on this subject.

What are the most obvious planetary health issues of 2021/22?

When asked you will, generally speaking, get a list of seven overlapping problems.

Poverty, wealth disparity and health disparity

Third world debt and globalisation

Degradation of the natural environment and biodiversity loss

Climate change and global warming

Food and water shortages and resource depletion

Unemployment and economic migration

Conflict, ethnic tension and refugees

And how many organisations exist to address the problems listed above?

The answer is probably thousands: big, small and mostly publicly funded organisations or charities.

THE O WORD

I’m a biologist who started and ran his own international business, represented small businesses in meetings with government and the public sector and then became a writer of what I like to call ‘feasible fiction’.

I say this at the outset in case, from what follows, you draw the conclusion that I’m inclined to be highly critical of others especially those in the public sector. Rest assured that criticism of others still comes second to criticism of myself. Running a successful business requires constant self-assessment and self-criticism,

That said, I’ll start with some criticism of ‘bioethics’ that will, I hope, lead to a better understanding of my views on the wider and more specific matter of planetary health.

Bioethics is the study of ethical issues emerging from biology and medicine and covers aspects of politics, law, theology and philosophy.

Such issues are important and I have contributed my own thoughts in the past – most notably on the ethics of gain of function research on viruses.

My problem with bioethics is deliverability. Without effective delivery businesses crumble so any subject that merely provides food for thought without converting the thought into an action plan is, for me, problematic.

Whilst it’s interesting to sit and listen to experts expounding on their favourite topic, often, at the end of the day, it seems to me that little or nothing is actually done about it. Instead, the participants leave their ponderings in, perhaps, a typed report for others to read it and, if they feel inclined, to act. There is no urgency, no follow up and no-one it seems is ever given a list of things to actually do before the next meeting.

In business, ethical dilemmas have to be resolved and that requires decision-making, strong leadership and an action plan. Unlike a business meeting, a pure bioethics discussion (and, indeed, many public sector meetings I’ve attended) can, if it chooses, completely circuit the issue at stake to avoid drawing unwelcome conclusions. At the extreme, raising sensitive matters or proposing radical solutions might well be ignored, passed over or never even presented in the records in case a reputation is tarnished.

I have sat in public sector meetings where the sense of discomfort amongst the public servants sitting