A sovereign nation may use its laws for whatever purposes its constitutional processes and doctrine allows, regardless of your, or my wishes.

The French do seem to make ‘statements’ through legislation don’t they?

I am not sure that the ‘Anorexia Law’ is a good example though? A better one would be the laws that make it illegal to consider the forced migration of Armenians from their homeland in Ottoman Turkey into Syria during World War 1 as anything less than an act of genocide in France. In today’s post-Ottoman Turkey it is illegal to consider it AS an act of genocide.

Historians in both countries, argue understandably, that history is a matter for academics rather than politicians!

But are historians in the same category of professionals as doctors? The ‘Anorexia Law’, it seems to me, is far more like those laws which restrict smoking, than ones that limit historical, or political statement?

BRAY

If you’ve ever met anyone who suffers from an eating disorder you will know just what a frustrating and punishing illness it can be. It’s not just that the individual is constantly under-performing through lack of nourishment, it also places a huge drain on other family members, as well as professional care-givers.

Clinicians and medical researchers have known since the 1960s that the trend toward thinness in fashion is dangerous.

Speaking at The (British) Association For Family Therapy Congress at Your University in 1982, Dr. Chris Dare from London’s Institute of Psychiatry drew attention to the trend and provided statistics about treatment.

Dare spent much of his professional life combating anorexia nervosa and together with Professor Ivan Eisler is largely responsible for creating The Maudsley Method, and Internationally acclaimed family-based treatment for the disease.

I first was recruited to treat someone suffering with anorexia when I was 18 years of age. My job was to get her to eat liquefied food. The woman concerned was 28 and looked about 50 years of age. Conversation with her was impossible. She had lost her teeth due to shrinkage of the gums.

I lost contact with her for many years, and then learned that she had died as a result of complications arising from her illness at the age of 36.

The French sometimes make eccentric laws, this one however is incredibly sensible. I hope other nations will follow the French example.

Stephen BRAY
http://thefamilybusinessschool.com