
blogs


Cloning Neanderthal babies: what we really need to be concerned about
Could it really be possible to create a cloned Neanderthal baby? A Harvard Professor of Genetics, who…

Self-help books for depression – brilliant new tools for doctors, pastors and patients
A top health story on the BBC this last week has highlighted a new study showing that prescribing self-help…

Catholic midwives appeal court ruling forcing them to supervise abortions
Two Roman Catholic midwives who lost a legal battle to avoid taking part in abortion procedures have…

HPV vaccine – mothers influence daughters choices but deep questions remain
A mother's attitude towards cervical cancer screening influences decisions to vaccinate daughters against…

Faith matters post-2015
With 2015 looming ever closer, the process to find a set of mutually agreed global goals for development is…

The Department of Health is grossly under-reporting the true number of abortions for Down’s syndrome
Some of the most common congenital abnormalities accounting for abortions in England and Wales are ‘trisomies’,…

Liverpool Care Pathway – nine points for the government to consider in its review
Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, yesterday hailed the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway…

Health professionals and organisations misusing LCP should be reported to regulators, says CQC
The Liverpool Care Pathway was developed at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the city's…

Amour – an award winning film with a sting in the tail
Amour (literally, ‘Love’) is a 2012 French-language film written and directed by Michael Haneke…

The global burden of disease – let’s not forget the spiritual dimension
Yesterday saw the publication of a landmark, multicentre collaborative study on the global burden of…

Ireland and abortion – an update on recent events and the current legislative predicament
The international spotlight is now on Ireland in the wake of the case of Savita Halappanavar who, it…
Coronavirus – responding like Jesus
It is hard to have missed the news that coronavirus is a big thing. Government guidance and press conferences every few days; headlines screaming about the risks; editorials debating about the effectiveness of the Government’s measures; all bombard us daily. We see the news from China, Italy and South Korea, with whole cities on lockdown, […]
Transgender on trial
In March this year judges gave permission for Keira Bell, Susan Evans and a woman known as ‘Mrs A’ to bring a case against the Gender identity development services (GIDS) clinic at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust. Bell is a former patient of the clinic. Born female, she felt a growing urge through childhood […]
Scottish Government muddles sex and gender – and plans to legalise the confusion
The Scottish Government is consulting on a plan to make the existing process to obtain legal recognition under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 a better service for those trans and non-binary people in Scotland who wish to use it. Under the law, as it stands, to legally change gender a person needs to be over […]
RCGP remains opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) announced last Friday [21 February] that it ‘will continue to oppose a change in the law on assisted dying, following a consultation of its members’. (Assisted dying is a blanket term that covers assisted suicide, physician-assisted suicide, voluntary euthanasia and non-voluntary euthanasia.) CMF welcomed this announcement, as it […]
2020: The Year of the Nurse and Midwife
It’s not often that such wide-ranging and global a body as the World Health Organization (WHO) deems it appropriate to give a whole year over to two health professions. However, in 2020 it has decided to do just that, deeming this the Year of the Nurse and Midwife. There are good reasons for this. In […]
Transgender: two pivotal points for the UK
Should it be possible for any person to change their legal sex based on their gender identity? And if so, what should be the lower age limit for self-declaration? And should young people (below the age of 18) who self-declare be deemed competent to give informed consent to medical treatment for gender reassignment? These two […]
‘I don’t want a baby like that’
The Sunday Times this weekend reported that ‘the number of babies born with Down’s syndrome has fallen by 30% in NHS hospitals that have introduced a new form of screening.’ This new test, NIPT (non- invasive prenatal testing), is safer than amniocentesis, but Down syndrome campaigners, including the actress Sally Phillips, have serious concerns both […]
Human dignity – a perspective from disability
‘In a hyper-competitive culture in which even baking a cake is a fight almost to the death… what does it mean to live a fulfilled life; to be fully human?’ This question was posed by actress and comedienne Sally Phillips in the lecture she gave for the Christian think tank Theos last week, entitled ‘Human […]
Conflicted, but not neutral
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) moved its public stance on assisted suicide from opposition to neutrality in March 2019. Last weekend the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) launched a poll of its members, and over the coming months, the British Medical Association (BMA) will poll their members on doing the same. In little […]
Treatment of Gender Dysphoria in children – the Tavistock experiment
The clinical management of children experiencing Gender Dysphoria is a hot topic with often very polarised views on how they should be treated. There is huge concern about the mental health of our children and young people in general and how society and the medical profession should be best supporting and treating them. Children are […]
Abortion and breast cancer: the link that dares not speak its name
As this is the last blog that I will write for CMF, I thought I’d write it on a topic that I believe is hugely important and highly controversial but one where findings are hidden and suppressed. Patrick Carrol, in an article in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, claims that: ‘British medical journals […]
UK Government using ‘strategies of concealment’ to hide its imposition of abortion on developing countries
The UK Government assures us (taxpayers) that any public money given for abortion in developing countries is used in accordance with the receiving nation’s legislation. In a Parliamentary answer the Minister of State for International Development clearly stated that: ‘UK aid cannot be used to fund illegal services’. Considering that the UK spends millions in taxpayers’ money on […]