
blogs


New Study of Medical Students Reveals a Strong Support for Freedom of Conscience
A study in the Journal of Medical Ethics published yesterday showed that nearly 50% of medical students…

General Medical Council and Medical Defence Union endorse ‘tactful’ offers of prayer by GPs
The GP magazine Pulse reports in an exclusive this week on new guidance from the Medical Defence Union…

A life precious to God – how to cope when you find your unborn baby has special needs
There is a deeply heart-warming story in the Daily Mail today (July 18 2011) titled, ‘Doctors told…

Greater than Google – final reflections on the Developing Health Course
I'm back in the office after the Developing Health Course, analysing feedback forms, tying up loose ends…

Martin Pistorius: a story about faith, hope and love through ‘locked in syndrome’
The Sunday Times today tells the story of Martin Pistorius, a South African man who ended up paralysed…

Britain promotes media advertising for abortion whilst Russia attempts to curb it
The Daily Telegraph carried the story earlier this month that private clinics which carry out abortions…

Italy joins Bulgaria and France in blocking euthanasia legislation
Earlier this year I reported that France, Australia, Scotland, Israel and Canada had recently blocked…

Abortion and mental health: is there a link?
This is a question that has been the subject of many a debate in academia, in politics, in the public…

Is Treatment Becoming the New Prevention Fad for HIV & AIDS?
Two new studies (one in Kenya and Uganda, the other in Botswana) were published this week suggesting…

Emmerdale injects some reality into its depiction of the sequelae of assisted suicide
I am not an Emmerdale fan but I was interested to see the way the Soap is developing the story following…

Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis is too high a price for a perfect baby
Last week the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) held its annual meeting…
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 […]