
blogs


Welsh plans to introduce a system of presumed consent for organ donation are both unnecessary and unethical
I was recently interviewed by Emily Graves of Crossrhythms Radio about Welsh plans to introduce a system…

Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide – more worrying developments in Belgium and the Netherlands
I was recently interviewed by Emily Graves of Crossrhythms Radio about moves to legalise euthanasia…

The explosive growth of the South Korean church had its origins in profound missionary sacrifice
In Yanghwajin Foreigners’ Cemetery in Seoul are 145 graves belonging to Christian missionaries and…

Breastfeeding – a life-saving intervention
It’s World Breastfeeding Week, and guest blogger Adele Cowper shares why this is so important.
In…

Courageous MP thrown out of government for refusing to back legal abortion
Ireland's Europe minister quit last Thursday over plans to legalise abortion as Prime Minister Enda…

New Berlin memorial revives memories of doctors’ role in Nazi holocaust
Officials gathered in Berlin this week to lay the foundations for a monument to the people killed as…

Why the RCGP should stand firm on opposing a change in the law to allow assisted suicide
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is conducting a consultation about the College's…

Infertility treatments: new research and new warnings
A new study has found that a common form of infertility treatment increases the risk of children developing…

Leading parliamentary think tank says Lord Falconer’s ‘Assisted Dying’ Bill fails public safety test
Living and Dying Well (LDW) is a public policy research organisation established in 2010 to promote…

Leading parliamentary think tank says Lord Falconer’s ‘Assisted Dying’ Bill fails public safety test
Living and Dying Well (LDW) is a public policy research organisation established in 2010 to promote…

The moral status of the human embryo – when is a person?
The moral status of the embryo is one of the key pressure-points in ethical debates about post-coital…
Caring for your mind during lockdown
When Boris Johnson announced a UK-wide lockdown, my immediate response was fear and dread. Many people are currently living in fear of catching Covid-19, and understandably so. However, for some of us, this virus may present a greater risk to our mental health than it does to our physical well-being. I find myself in this […]
Sidelined? Or waiting for God’s time to serve?
How Life Changes Four and a half weeks ago, I left my desk at a busy teaching hospital to start a semi-enforced break of five weeks between technical retirement and return to work in early April. Fortunately, I didn’t plan a cruise or world tour! However, a visit to a Christian hospital with a CMF […]
Facing coronavirus (COVID-19): the practicalities of critical illness and the reality of our mortality
Introduction In a manner not seen in the United Kingdom since World War Two, the COVID-19 crisis has brought death and dying – society’s greatest taboo – to centre stage. Whether we would like to admit it or not, even as Christians, we find this a very hard topic to discuss, especially with our closest […]
Coronavirus emergency measures remove safeguards around ‘home abortions’
Under the guise of the coronavirus lockdown, abortion campaigners have taken the opportunity to lobby the UK Government to substantially change the rules around abortion pills, something they have wanted to do for years, as this blog explains. This week, they have been successful in their campaign. Now women will be able to take two powerful […]
The ethics of emergencies must not become policy for peacetime
One of the questions proponents of abortion like to pose to their opponents runs like this: If you were in a hospital that was burning down, would you save a tray full of frozen embryos or a single child? This is supposed to prove that we pro-lifers don’t really believe that an embryo is human, […]
Ten things to pray for Christian healthcare workers
This morning I read a news article entitled ‘What am I still allowed to do?’ It outlined the new measures which the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson announced to the nation on Monday evening, explaining what this new UK-wide lockdown means for each of us and when we can leave the house. However, whilst we are […]
Denying conscience – the Canadian experiment
Recent reports from Canada reveal a worrying trend of doctors being pressurised and bullied into participating in Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD, the Canadian euthanasia programme). This is not only a worrying development in itself but one that follows almost inevitably from the steady erosion of the freedom of conscience in Canadian law around euthanasia […]
Compassion and Coronavirus: Where is God?
You may have read about the consultant anaesthetist, who has moved into a caravan to allow him to keep treating COVID-19 patients whilst protecting his son, just three years old, who is undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma. The chemotherapy will result in his son’s immune system being suppressed and means COVID-19 is a significant threat to […]
Washing feet
John 13: 1-20 Jesus is approaching the climax of his life. All his acts of service were about to be culminated and summated in his willing sacrifice on the cross. And it is all motivated by agape love – the love that gives. ‘Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to […]
Leadership in pandemics – six principles to guide us
The COVID19 epidemic has thrown nations into complete chaos. Fear and panic have gripped the world. Many nations are struggling with the impact of large numbers of people falling ill and increasing numbers of new infections. Many nations are preparing for this eventuality, but struggling, not knowing what they should be doing since the current […]
Coronavirus and the call to risk
It’s the early hours of the morning, and I’m standing in a cholera camp looking at the scene around me. There are people everywhere – on beds, on benches, on the floor, even lying in wheelbarrows. Sunken eyes look up at me as I look at the line of IV drips and giving sets attached […]
Christianity in a time of plague
Epidemic infections were a source of terror in the ancient world. They would sweep into the cities of the Roman Empire, causing devastation. The Plague of Cyprian was a pandemic that afflicted the Roman Empire from about AD 249 to 262. From 250 to 262, at the height of the outbreak, 5,000 people a day […]