Denied a perfect pleasure
Lindesay Irvine: The smoking ban requires vocational smokers like myself to fall in line with the prejudices of the middle-class, proscriptive health advocates.
These medical moralisers might as well try banning sex
David Edgar: Denying surgery to drinkers and smokers goes against the ethos of the NHS: to provide care on the basis of need.
Nigeria sues Pfizer for $7bn over drug tests
The Nigerian government has launched a $7bn lawsuit against the world's largest drug manufacturer over claims that a medical experiment left children dead or with permanent disabilities.
The pursuit of happiness
The science of wellbeing must turn to philosophy in order to understand the true nature of friendship.
HIV transfusion victims unaware of virus for decades, inquiry told
· Government failed to follow up patients at risk· Danger of wider infection a 'serious problem'
Who else was poisoned by polonium?
When the news broke that a radioactive substance had been used to murder ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, a team of scientists rushed to find out how far the contamination had spread. It led them on a trail involving hundreds of people and dozens of locations. Steve Boggan reports.
Ministers accused of failing to act as TB cases grow
· UK defies European trend with 11% rise in London · Recent outbreaks in Luton and Swansea schools