Ragnhild Ørstavik

06.03.2020: The health authorities should provide information on the new corona virus without causing unnecessary anxiety. But is it possible? In early January 2015, the Coming Attractions Bridal & Formal shop in Ohio closed down after 30 years in business (1). A few months earlier, the nurse Amber Vinson had...

02.01.2020: Genetic self-tests can provide information about kinship, genetic traits and the risk of future illness. The Norwegian Government is not protecting the rights of children to decline such knowledge. January has a magical quality to it: a new beginning. Then the spring will come, and flag-hoisting...

23.09.2019: After New Year, men will no longer need to talk to their regular GP about impotence problems. Is this a good idea? From 2020 onwards, men over the age of 18 will be able to buy Sildenafil, marketed as non-prescription Viagra, at pharmacies (1). The drug will be the first to be sold under the scheme...

24.06.2019: A revised Plan S is now available. The objective of open access remains, but more time for preparation has been provided, and clearer requirements are made for the journals. Paywalls are not the only barriers to be torn down. The transition to open research was moving too slowly, according to a...

28.01.2019: The possibility to calculate the likelihood of illness is only a few keystrokes away. Life is fraught with uncertainty, and uncertainty can be hard to live with. For this reason, humans have always attempted to see into the future, generally using the alignment of the stars, or coffee grounds, or...

12.11.2018: This year, for the first time, more than 1000 people in Norway have passed the age of 100 years . Our life expectancy is constantly increasing. For the time being, however, we will all die – from something. In the latter half of the 19th century, life expectancy in Norway was approximately 50 years...

17.09.2018: Even social constructions such as educational attainment are influenced by an unjust genetic lottery. In May 1927, a ruling authorising sterilisation was made in the case of Buck v Bell in the U.S. Supreme Court: 'Carrie Buck is a feebleminded white woman. She is the daughter of a feebleminded...

21.12.2017: Time Magazine named the #MeeToo movement 'Person of the Year 2017' ahead of Trump – the incarnation of a man with power and a patronising view of women. Now, the movement to stop sexual harassment and abuse of power must entail consequences in the health services and academia as well. It was on a...