On Tue, 3 Feb 2004 David Strike wrote:

<snip of the kiwi shears>
>In any event (and I'll ask them tomorrow) at a purely personal level,
>why should anyone who contemplates diving feel that a diving  medical
>is an "evil"?
>Strike

One of the dive party for the Peter Hughes liveaboard trip I was on out of
Walindi, PNG was required to provide a current medical.  He was though in
his early 70s and had answered Yes to a couple of the questions on the
Diving Release and Waiver.  He, being a doctor himself, has an annual
checkup anyhow so it was no hardship to bring along that piece of paper.
It was also highly recommended that all divers took up DAN insurance,
which the majority of us had anyhow.

We never use to be such a litigious society ;-)
Viv