English law once included a principal that the thing that had caused accidental death or injury - the carving knife that had accidentally chopped off the finger, or the carriage that trampled the person's leg - should be surrendered to God in recognition of its part in causing harm or suffering.  This 'thing' was called a deodand and it existed in law from around 1200AD until it was abolished in 1846. The object would be surrendered to the crown and used or sold to compensate for the harm done.  William Pietz said that 'any culture must establish some procedure of compensation, expiation, or punishment to settle the debt created by unintended human deaths whose direct cause is not a … [Read more...] about Physiotherapy is part of the debt we pay when things go wrong