The patient’s access to information is viewed today as a fundamental principle in the ethics of health care. However, this essay shows that in the case of presymptomatic diagnosis, exercising one’s right to know can in fact be working against the patient’s liberty.
The failure of the vaccination campaign against the H1N1 virus has sometimes been blamed on the ‘wild rumours’ circulating on the Internet. According to Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, this interpretation misses the point. He offers a stimulating historical parallel between the inoculation against smallpox in the 18th century and the H1N1 outbreak of 2009. His analysis highlights the limitations of risk as a method of persuasion and body management.
How can people and computers be connected so that—collectively—they act more intelligently than any individuals, groups, or computers? Gloria Origgi claims that Internet is a giant network of ranking and rating systems in which information is valued as long as it has been already filtered by other people. The Information Age is being replaced by a Reputation Age.
