
blogs


The health risks of obesity – a challenge to Christians
Having just returned from a Christian medical conference where large (especially male) abdomens were…

Russia leads the way in dealing with demographic time-bomb
I warned recently that unless something is done to reverse current demographic trends, economic necessity,…

More fiction and hype about embryonic stem cells as scientists fear withdrawal of funding in patent scrap
Stem cell scientists are kicking up an enormous fuss over a ruling expected very soon from the European…

Why is an offshoot of a euthanasia pressure group launching a ‘how-to-die’ helpline?
I see that staff of Dignity in Dying, formerly the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, are planning to set…

‘Doing God’ is good for your health
Practising Christian faith is good for your health. That’s the verdict of a new report which shows…

Government fails in bid to keep statistics on late abortions secret
The Government has failed in a High Court bid to keep secret information on late abortions which it…

Pro-euthanasia campaigners use of celebrities to boost support may well fuel more suicides
Columnist Melanie Philips this week, in an article titled ‘Why are the Left (and the BBC) so keen to…

Why I told the Daily Mail that the BBC was acting as the ‘cheerleader’ for assisted suicide
Last Friday I was quoted on the front page of the Daily Mail as saying that the BBC was acting as ‘cheerleader’…

Unless we reverse demographic trends the generation that killed its children may well be killed by its children
Low fertility rates and an ageing population will present Europe with a big economic challenge. This…

New genetic screening plans raise serious questions about our attitudes to disability
The Human Genetics Commission (HGC), a government advisory committee, has given the green light to preconception…

The Royal College of Psychiatrists consultation on abortion and mental health – let’s put this into perspective
Some people have expressed concern about an article published in the Daily Telegraph yesterday which…
Altruistic kidney donation – the opportunities and challenges
Giving a kidney can be one of the greatest gifts one can offer to another person. The first successful human kidney allograft was carried out between the identical Herrick twins in Boston in 1954, Ronald giving a kidney to Richard and in so doing becoming the world’s first living organ donor. Richard lived another eight […]
How Christians can end the waiting list for a kidney
When I gave my kidney in 2019, it felt like a simple decision: someone might die without a kidney whilst I had a spare. Far from seeing it as the epitome of saintly generosity, I was convicted that it was an effective way of doing good and glorifying God. By giving a kidney, I enabled […]
Jany Haddad – surgeon, pastor, leader, mentor and family man
Jany Haddad (born Teheran, Iran, 13 March 1954, died Aleppo, Syria, 14 August 2020) ‘Doctor, we plead with you, please do not leave Aleppo, you are the salt of this land. You are the light of this city.’ So spoke Dr Jany Haddad’s Muslim patients during the dark days in Syria when hundreds of thousands […]
Three ways COVID-19 has changed me as a doctor
COVID-19 has changed the world, the medical profession, and the NHS in ways we are only beginning to understand. In my A&E department, we have seen patients with oxygen saturations lower than we previously thought were possible, treated our own hospital colleagues – some of whom went to ITU, broke more bad news down the […]
Priceless but penniless: The ‘heroes’ denied a pay rise
On 21 July, the Treasury announced a pay rise for almost 900,000 public sector workers. Months into a pandemic, this was surely a perceptive move by the government to cultivate a positive relationship with its valuable ‘frontliners’. However, not everybody embraced the pay rise, because the pay rise did not embrace everybody. In the NHS, […]
COVID-19: God in the gaps
One of my favourite things to do is walk in the mountains of Snowdonia. I spent many a day off in its breath-taking hills during my time working in Bangor a few years ago. One memorable day out was when a friend took me scrambling up the side of Tryfan, notorious not just for its […]
Bad news for the unborn
The latest figures from the ONS reveal that by the beginning of June, 47,820 people in England and Wales had died as a result of contracting COVID-19. Half a million had died worldwide. Yet there is a greater killer at large, one whose death toll, worldwide, was forty times that. In England and Wales, last […]
COVID-19 exposing global health inequalities
Last week, I looked at how COVID-19 was disproportionately affecting people of colour in the UK, and how existing social and health inequalities were being brought into the light once again by the pandemic. But while the rich world grapples with its legacy of social division, racism and systemic injustice, the other two-thirds of the […]
The NHS quietly changes its transgender guidance
Last week in The Spectator, James Kirkup revealed that the NHS had amended its transgender guidance for children. It is unclear whether or not this is directly related to the legal challenges currently being mounted by children, parents and young adults who say that transitioning has adversely affected them, but it is certainly interesting timing. […]
COVID-19 is exposing UK health inequalities
Recent figures from theDepartment of Health and Social Care (DHSC) show the UK death toll from COVID-19 was nearly 40,000 by the start of June. This makes the UK’s death toll among the worst in the global pandemic. Black and minority ethnic (BAME) communities make up a disproportionally large part of that figure. For the last couple […]
God, ethics and COVID-19
‘Oh – and by the way, I’ve recommended you for chairing the Covid Ethics Committee. Hope that’s OK.’ Really? Me? Why? God – Help! I had known, of course, that there was a plan to put together an Ethics Committee. It was necessary. With COVID-19 gathering pace and some immediate decisions to be made – […]
From the mouths of children…
In the old fairy tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes, a tailor tells a king that he has invented a wonderful new kind of cloth, that can only be seen by the wisest people. He makes a beautifully-tailored outfit for the Emperor, who proudly goes out into the streets, showing off his garments and, as […]