Printed from: https://www.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=issue&id=139
'What are the editors of a once fine journal of medical knowledge doing, to let such an opinion piece be published?'asks one reader.[1] Another despairs that,'After 30 years of reading the BMJ, Savulescu's article was the first to make me feel physically sick'.[2] The cause of the avalanche of protest...
A recent report suggests that worldwide, some 5% of all spending on healthcare (£850 million a year) is being lost through corruption.[1] This includes: Public health budgets being subverted by unethical officials for private use Hospitals functioning as self-service stores for illicit enrichment, with unclear procurement of equipment and...
You sit at work all day, listening to never ending medical problems, and trying to find solutions. Then you go home and different family situations compete for your attention. And then, on top of this, seemingly endless good causes suck up your precious spare time! Stop and think. Not everything...
Community based health care (CBHC) is now a dominant theme in cutting edge literature on global health. Started by the earliest communities on earth, it was modelled by Jesus Christ and formulated in the Alma Ata Charter of 1978.Without CBHC, there will be no effective health services in the poorest...
Recently I turned on the television to see a baby dying under a surgeon's knife. It wasn't a horror film, nor a medical soap like Holby City. It was a reality TV docudrama following the separation of conjoined twins. A live death In 2004, Egyptian baby Manar Maged was born...
Unless a pregnant woman's circumstances fulfil one of seven grounds set out by the Abortion Act 1967, induced abortion remains an illegal act in this country. 95% of abortions are performed on Ground C,[1] which exempts a doctor from prosecution for performing an abortion (before the 24th week) if: '…continuance...
Mary is 72, has stopped eating and drinking, is profoundly depressed and believes she deserves to die.You consider giving her antidepressants but you know they may take a few weeks to work. She might die unless you intervene within a few days. A colleague suggests ECT (electro-convulsive therapy). What should...
Many subfertile couples have reservations about IVF. Some have concerns about the creation, manipulation, selection and disposal of early human life. Others worry about the strain that IVF could produce in their relationship, and dislike the idea of separating the unitive and procreative aspects of sex. Still others are concerned...
One of the best things about working in the same practice for many years is the fact that some of your patients become your friends. Conversely, people you originally knew as fellow neighbours and churchgoers eventually turn up in your consulting room. This presents interesting challenges to the traditional doctor-patient...
This is a courageous and overdue book written by doctors with mental illness. All look back over their illnesses and describe their experiences with remarkable honesty and clarity. Following diagnosis and treatment, most of them continue to practice, some with knowledge of the cyclical nature of the illness with which...
This book offers unusual insights into what it means to have a child whose life-threatening illness has abated but has not necessarily gone for good. In this it is an unexpected addition to the many other books available that deal with terminal illness in childhood, or the long term care...
The Soul of the Embryo begins by considering the account of creation in the Hebrew Scriptures. It then considers the largely mistaken but nevertheless influential foundations of Western thinking about embryology as laid down by Hippocrates and Aristotle. The widespread and approved practices of abortion and infanticide in ancient Greek...
A culture of gross drunkenness and violence, a civic life with rising crime and corruption, a society marred by social dislocation and sexual immorality, a church confused, divided and ineffectual – this is 21st century Britain – but also a picture of late 18th century Georgian England, where a small...
As Christian doctors we oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide because we believe in the sanctity of human life made in the image of God. Also we recognise that far from being helpful, assisted dying may be the greatest disservice we can offer, by propelling people forward to a judgement for...
Legal challenge on Christ's existence An Italian court has decided, after a long drawn out legal battle, that Catholic priest Enrico Righi will not have to prove in court Christ's historical existence. The priest was taken to court in September 2002 after he criticised Luido Cascioli's atheist book The...
It doesn't take much to transform some situations. A simple slip on the wet grass - my leg broke and immediately life took on a new perspective, as even the simplest of tasks became a major exercise. Now, as I sit recovering at my bedroom window, I see another scene...
About to breach Verona Beckles advocates prayer, planning, prioritising and, if necessary, politics 'It's just that she's about to breach!'How many times have you heard that line down the phone? Recently, during a week of days on call, I planned to count the number of times this familiar phrase came...
Lord Joffe's revised Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill[1] has its second reading the House of Lords (debate but no vote) on Friday 12 May. The Bill has taken on only four of the Lords'Select Committee's ten recommendations[2] and seeks to enable 'an adult who has capacity and who...
The last twelve months have seen moves to further promote the designer abortion drug RU486 around the world. Otherwise known as the antiprogesterone mifepristone, it was specifically developed as an abortifacient by French pharmaceutical firm Roussel-Uclaf (hence the letters RU) in the 1980s; in Britain it has been licensed for...
