Printed from: https://www.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=issue&id=18
Today's generation of fertile adults takes safe and effective contraception largely for granted. The thought that there might be ethical objections to its use within marriage may come as a surprise to many contemporary Christian couples. Yet for almost all of its history, the Christian church has viewed contraception with...
'Google Baby' The global business: A Channel 4 documentary in 2011, 'Google Baby', followed an Israeli entrepreneur's new fertility service. His customers select their preferred sperm and eggs online. He then ships the frozen embryos to India to be implanted in the wombs of local surrogates. After nine months, the...
Over the past fifty years there has been an explosion of ethical challenges facing doctors and other healthcare professionals. Ranging from abortion to euthanasia, via human enhancement technologies, many of the arguments Christians put forward in debate revolve around the principle of the sanctity of life – the intrinsic value...
In many developed nations, pregnancy and childbirth are no longer widely considered hazardous for mother or infant in the way they were just a few generations ago. However, for the majority of the world's population this is not the case. Poverty, social attitudes and family structures, and a lack of...
Is there a link between faith and health? Evidence from over 1,200 studies and 400 reviews has shown an association between faith and a number of positive health benefits, including protection from illness, coping with illness, and faster recovery from it. Of the studies reviewed in the definitive analysis, (3)...
Research is central to the safe and effective practice of medicine. Developments in molecular biology over the past 50 years have affected our understanding of normal human biology and pathophysiology, and new drug development is now often targeted against specific molecular receptors and mechanisms. This in turn requires new, more...
By John Wyatt Worldviews are the understandings each one of us has about the way the universe is. All our thoughts, beliefs and actions are based on these fundamental presuppositions abou treality, and they are therefore critical in medical ethics. Different worldviews will sometimes lead to radically different decisions.But worldviews are...
The right of conscientious objection is enshrined in medical law. For example the 1967 Abortion Act states that, "…no person shall be under any duty, whether by contract or by any statutory or other legal requirement, to participate in any treatment authorised by this Act to which he has a...
The philosopher Brenda Almond opens her book The Fragmenting Family with: 'What is the family? There are many ways of answering this question, but I take as my starting point here G K Chesterton's striking metaphor of family as “this frail cord, flung from the forgotten hills of yesterday to...
Sex is one of the most important aspects of teenage life. Though sexuality is about far more than physical expressions of sex, there is no doubt that first intercourse is an important milestone in most people's lives. As Professor Peter Borriello of the UK Health Protection Agency remarks: 'It's increasingly...
Organ transplantation has developed from a highly innovative procedure to routine clinical practice. Successful kidney transplantation started in the 1950s followed by heart, liver and pancreas transplants in the 1960s, and lung and small bowel transplants in the 1980s. Outcomes have steadily improved due to better surgical techniques and more...
In 2003 we considered abortion in CMF File 23, but we concentrate here on the consequences of abortion. It is timely to review these. First, the total number of abortions in the UK continues to rise, reaching the highest level ever in 2006 at 201,173 in England and Wales...
Each year the human population increases by 79 million people - around 58 million people die, but 137 million babies are born. If we plan to house, feed and provide infrastructure for these people, we currently need to build the equivalent of a new city the size of Birmingham or...
A woman lies in a hospital bed. The cancer that started in her breast has spread. Her vertebrae and bones are now riddled with disease and she requires high doses of pain killing drugs to numb her senses. Her threeyear- old daughter stands silently, gently holding Mummy's hand – confused...
All human enhancement technologies, start from the premise that we can overcome present limitations. A consistent desire is to develop anti-ageing technologies. Transhumanists take the idea a step further with the aim of engineering a 'better' human being. This could be via genetic enhancement or the development of human-machine cyborgs,...
The idea that physicians should be responsible for assessing or measuring a patient's quality of life (QoL) has obvious attractions. It seems right that doctors should not just strive to prolong life (quantity of life), but should ensure that the life that is prolonged meets certain criteria (its quality). The...
For many people the right to do what they wish with their bodies, for whatever reason, is paramount. Autonomy is central to arguments used in favour of physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Such bids for self-determination are also found in debates around abortion and reproductive ethics, and are the driving force behind...
In 1990, Winston and Handyside reported the first successful preg-nancies where the genetic status of the embryo had been ascertained before it was transferred to the mother's uterus.[1] The family had an X-linked mental disorder and 50% of male children would be affected. Doctors therefore placed only female embryos in...
Thirty years ago less than 20% of babies born before 28 weeks of gestation survived. But over the last 30 years advances in medical care at the beginning of life have transformed the prospects of survival for babies born extremely prematurely. Currently in major centres in the UK more than...
Until recently there has been very little debate about the relative status of humans and animals. This has largely been because both Christians and humanists believe that human beings hold a special position in the natural world. Christians see humans as special because we are created by God in his...
Globalisation is based on the idea of free trade between nations. It has crept into our language just as rapidly as it has affected our lives. Just look at what we wear, eat and use. Fashion clothing comes from countries like Mauritius or Pakistan; tea from Kenya or Sri Lanka;...
Western society is full of contradictions as can be seen in attitudes towards early human life. First, the healthcare system has departments of fetal medicine, while also providing facilities and staff to perform abortions. Secondly, the law allows abortion for abnormalities right up to term, but many babies born after...
The past decade has seen a growing acceptance of homosexuality and same-sex relationships as part of a range of patterns of behaviour within our society. Psychologists talk about a spectrum of sexual orientation. At one extreme there are people who have never had a homosexual thought in their lives, while...
Stories of out of body experiences, beliefs in life after death, or diseases affecting the brain all raise questions about whether our minds and our bodies are separate entities that have the ability to exist independently. Out of body experiences can occur under the influence of drugs, as part of...
Four molecules (bases), adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), and cytosine (C) 'spell out' the genes on which all living things are built. While viruses only have around 200,000 bases, human beings have three thousand million. Surprisingly about 90 per cent of this seems to be inactive. The rest forms...
Who am I? It is one of life's basic questions and it has troubled philosophers through the centuries. One aspect of the answer lies in working out what it is to be a person. This is not just of academic interest. Your conclusion will affect the way you think about...
It's easy to buy drugs from illegal suppliers. However some drugs not only cause serious harm, but also make the user crave future doses. The need for repeated doses of a drug can occur with drugs pre-scribed by a doctor, as well as those bought illegally. Such dependence can be...
'If caring were enough, anyone could be a nurse' read a 1990's American nurse recruitment advertisement. It promoted nursing as an intellectual, science-based profession rather than a caring-based profession. The implication is that caring is no longer valued within our society. But if that really is the case, why...
Discovering God's will When Christians make decisions about what is right and wrong their underlying rule is that what God wants and says is best. This does not necessarily lead to their conclusions being wildly different from those who leave God out of the equation. The Christian explanation is that...
Animal experimentation is a huge industry. Each year in the UK scientists use almost 3 million animals. While the majority are rats and mice, one per cent are rabbits and 0.1 per cent are monkeys. Most animals are used to help develop and test drug for treating human diseases,...
Why are ethics important? Today's healthcare professionals are capable of remarkable feats, many of which would have amazed their predecessors. But such advances in technology carry with them a hidden danger. It is all very well being able to say 'yes' to the question 'Can we do this?' But we also...
what are we talking about when we talk about personhood? Personhood is a concept in philosophy, which proposes that to be fully worthy of all the benefits of society, mere membership of the human race is insufficient.[1] One must be a person as well as a human. In fact, for many...
The Psalmist reflects that, 'Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them'. (Psalm 127: 3-5)He goes on to speak of the blessing...
Gloucestershire doctor Edward Jenner is widely known for his work in the 1790s on smallpox vaccination. His faith is less well known though clearly attested to in his correspondence. [1] In the modern era, COVID vaccine researcher Francis Collins has spoken openly about his faith. [2] Vaccines are now available for...
In addition to global warming, wildlife populations have decreased by 60 per cent since 1970, and one million of the eight million species on the planet is threatened with extinction. [4,5] Waste management and plastic pollution have made headlines, whilst the coronavirus pandemic exposed the fragile nature of our food...
Introduction There are many different types of dementia, each with its own problems and prognosis. It is predicted that one million people in the UK will have dementia by 2025 and that this will increase to two million by 2050. Globally, 5.2 per cent of people over the age of 60...
'Neutrality is a negative word. It is a word that does not express what America ought to feel... America has promised the world to stand apart and maintain certain principles of action which are grounded in law and in justice. We are not trying to keep out of trouble;...
Tony Bland loved soccer. He particularly loved Liverpool FC. On 15 April 1989, he was in Sheffield at the Hillsborough Stadium to watch his side play Nottingham Forest for a place in the FA Cup final. He got there early to secure a place close to the pitch, but as...
What is a human being? A typical response from our Western culture to this question is the famous line of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) co-founder Ingrid Newkirk, 'A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.' (1) Keep drawing the line back and a...
Introduction Over the past 100 years or so advances in medical sciences have allowed for the successful transplantation of several different organs and tissues. Despite historical controversy over organ transplantation there is now near-universal acceptance that organ donation and transplantation is a positive social good, enhancing and saving the lives of...
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness, in their report, 'Mindful Nation UK' write: 'it is hoped that mindfulness will become as popular for improving mental health as jogging (only popularised in the 1970s) has become for improving physical health.' (1) In 2015, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence included...
Non-invasive prenatal testing(NIPT) is a technique used toscreen fetuses for geneticconditions and variations. It is'non-invasive' because itinvolves taking a blood samplefrom a pregnant woman andanalysing the cell free fetal DNAthat is circulating in the mother'sblood. Direct 'invasion' of thefetus, and the consequent risk ofmiscarriage, are both avoided.NIPT is more accurate...
Death is a certainty (1) for all of us and yet in recent times there is an obsession with living longer, and discussing death and dying has become increasingly off-limits. Most patients wish to die at home with their families, but now more die in hospital under the care of...
Definition: Cynicism is 'believing that people are only interested in themselves and are not sincere'. (1) It's not the same as scepticism, which is 'doubting the truth or value of a belief'. (2) While scientists should question truth claims, cynics are pathologically mistrustful of people. The medical professional can be...
Most courses in medical ethics begin not with the contested battlefields of the beginning, end and moral status of human life, but rather with the far more mundane issues of capacity and consent. These related concepts are crucial to the whole practice of medicine – for a healthcare practitioner even...
Changing views of transsexuality are making waves in popular culture, politics and medicine. This File examines these developments from a Christian and scientific perspective and will be of interest to health professionals, pastors, churches, organisations and families relating to people with gender dysphoria (previously gender identity disorder). It updates a...
How it looks from the other side Belief in God, in particular God with whom one can have a relationship and to whom one can pray, makes no sense to a nonbeliever. It is a phenomenon that, for such people, has to be explained away somehow - yet none of the...
Many people fear that during a final illness they will suffer uncontrollable pain, or indignities, or be 'kept alive' by technology longer than they would wish. So the thought that they could 'call time' on their struggle before they lose control will appear understandably attractive. They see the prospect of...
Christians will look to the Bible for answers. However, the Bible was written into a pre-industrial Middle- Eastern culture, familiar with cows but not cars, vineyards but not ventilators. Presented with a medical dilemma, how might we get from Genesis to gene therapy? Not only is there cultural and historical...
Change and reorganisation are ever-present facts of life in many professions, and healthcare is no exception. This paper examines some of the challenges for Christians living and working in the changing context of healthcare in the UK. Many of the key principles will be equally applicable in other walks of...
At any one time, one in six people in the UK struggle with a mental health problem, and one in four will be unwell over the course of a year. (1) Overall, around one in three GP consultations involves mental health problems in some way. (2) Depression is the most...
Cosmetic surgery is big business The saying goes that no one ever lost money by over estimating women's vanity. The same could probably be said of men. In 2011, the UK cosmetics product industry was valued at £8.3 billion. (3) Cosmetic interventions are also a booming business, worth £2.3 billion...
New 'three-parent' IVF techniques have been developed which researchers claim could enable women to avoid passing mitochondrial diseases on to their children. Mitochondrial disease is unusual in that it is transmitted through DNA in the mitochondria (cell 'powerhouses') in the cell cytoplasm rather than through DNA in the cell nucleus....
The overwhelming professional, political and popular consensus is that compassion is an essential part of nursing and medical care (5) (6) and the general public and media are understandably outraged at perceived failures to care compassionately. But it is harder to define what we really mean by compassion, why it...
By John Wyatt and Philippa Taylor. John Wyatt is Emeritus Professor of Neonatal Paediatrics at University College, London. Philippa Taylor is CMF Head of Public Policy Oscar Pistorius made history at the London 2012 Olympic Games by becoming the first double amputee to compete against able-bodied athletes on the...
Brain death 'Death hath ten thousand several doors for men to take their exits' but there can be little argument about the importance of making sure the door is forever firmly shut behind them, before declaring any individual dead. (1) Only after confirmation of his or her death can a...
In 2002 CMF File 17 considered Resource allocation from a Christian philosophical and ethical perspective. The societal debate about rationing is now more intense,and a clinician who sits on a NICE technology appraisal committee revisits it. Demand for healthcare outstrips the resources available, and several possible solutions are considered. Managed...
Early in 2007 a parliamentary committee met to discuss the technological and ethical issues surrounding any possible mixing together of human and animal species. They sat as a response to proposed legislation which, if enacted, would have banned such work. After effective lobbying from scientists and other associated interest groups,...
Obesity represents one of the most pervasive health issues for society as well as for individuals. It undermines the health, self-respect and confidence of many individuals and imposes a significant burden on health services. It also has a potential environmental impact, often unrecognised, due to increased food consumption and increased...
