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Don’t make Oregon’s mistake and legalise assisted suicide – ten reasons why the UK should not follow suit
Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill, due for a second reading in the House of Lords on 18 July,…

Public support for Falconer’s ‘Assisted Dying’ Bill drops dramatically to just 43% when arguments against are heard
There is ample poll data showing that the majority of the British public support legalising assisted…

Falconer bill is a recipe for the abuse of elderly and disabled people, says Care Not Killing
On the eve of the House of Lords’ debate on Lord Falconer's Assisted Dying Bill, Care Not Killing,…

Why helping a few women will harm many more: the untold cost of creating three parent embryos
It seems ironic that while ten or so women may be helped each year to have embryos free from mitochondrial…

Why Lord Carey is so desperately wrong about legalising assisted suicide
Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, has surprisingly come out today in favour of Lord Falconer’s Assisted…

Restoring or Enhancing
If you love sport, then this weekend offered a surfeit of riches! We were spoiled for choice, with football…

Oregon – steady annual increase in assisted suicide cases sounds warning to UK
Lord Falconer wants to legalise assisted suicide for adults who are mentally competent and have less…

Twelve reasons to think twice about going the Oregon route on assisted suicide
Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill, due for a second reading in the House of Lords on 18 July, is…

Freedom of conscience in medicine is under sustained attack but is worth fighting for
I have previously highlighted the case of two Glasgow midwives who were disciplined by their NHS…

Might the large disparity in premature birth rates between black and white women be partly explained by abortion?
Prematurity is associated with a wide variety of health risks. In the UK, 7.8% of babies are born prematurely…

Three-parent embryos – an orange light doesn’t mean Go!
Any sub-heading to this blog post could ask a further question: ‘why should we be concerned…
The Prime Minister’s transgender proposals dangerously oversimplify a complex mental health issue
The Government’s public consultation on possible means to make it simpler and easier for people in England and Wales to change their legal gender concludes on 19 October. Prime Minister Theresa May has said that she wants ‘to see a process that is more streamlined and de-medicalised – because being trans should never be treated […]
The ‘unmet need’ for contraception and abortion in the developing world
This summer, Theresa May committed to spend £200 million on ‘family planning’ in Africa and Asia. More accurately, I should say ‘another’ £200 million, because the UK Government has already given vast sums of foreign development money to abortion giant Marie Stopes International (MSI): £163 million in UK taxpayer money. And it is not just […]
Christian doctors unite worldwide to challenge WMA on conscience rights
The International Christian Medical and Dental Association (ICMDA) has called on the World Medical Association (WMA) to protect doctors’ conscience rights on abortion and euthanasia. ICMDA, which unites national associations of doctors and dentists in over 80 countries, was responding to a move by Canadian and Dutch doctors to challenge the WMA’s longstanding commitment […]
Journey into darkness – Transplants, markets and trafficking
When in 2016, an editor from a leading academic publisher approached me about contributing a book chapter on the ethics of organ markets, I readily agreed thinking that this would entail little more than many other previous commissions. With most bioethical issues, the arguments pro and con are usually abstractions to be weighed and evaluated […]
Sex education and the myth of neutrality
The Department for Education is drafting guidance for schools who are now required to teach Relationships Education (RE) at primary school and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) at secondary school. It is seeking views from the public on these drafts before they are put before Parliament and the final guidance is published. This is an […]
Abortion pills: simple and safe or dangerous and damaging?
Many abortion activists will have been delighted at the news that women will be able to self- administer abortion pills in their own homes. The head of the RCOG is on record claiming that having an abortion is no different to having a bunion removed. Ironically, with this change that activists have been campaigning for, […]
New draft guidance from the BMA will enable doctors to dehydrate and sedate to death large numbers of non-dying patients with dementia, stroke or brain damage
This story was broken on 14 August 2018 by the Daily Mail. Is it justifiable to withdraw food and fluids from patients with dementia, stroke and brain injury who are not imminently dying? New ‘confidential’ draft guidance from the British Medical Association (BMA) – the doctors’ trade union – says ‘yes’ provided that a doctor believes […]
Severely brain-damaged patients are commonly misdiagnosed, often aware and may well recover, says authoritative new report
People with severe brain damage are difficult to diagnose reliably, not uncommonly recover and are often much more aware than we think. Specifically: Four in ten people who are thought to be unconscious are actually aware One in five people with severe brain injury from trauma will recover to the point that […]
Dignity in Dying’s response to last week’s Supreme Court ruling reveals its real agenda
The former Voluntary Euthanasia Society, re-branded ‘Dignity in Dying’ (DID) in 2006, in order to disguise its real objectives, has always been quick to emphasise that it only supports a change in the law to allow so-called ‘assisted dying’. By this it means allowing mentally competent adults with less than six months to live to […]
Supreme Court rules that doctors can remove food and fluids from patients with permanent vegetative state, without going to court
My Radio Four Today programme interview on this case is here, and my interview with BBC Radio Five Live is here. Should doctors be able to withdraw food and fluids from severely brain-damaged people who are not imminently dying? And if so, in what circumstances? The answer to these questions has changed significantly today because of […]
A 40th Birthday for IVF
On 25 July Louise Brown, the world’s first baby born via in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), celebrates her 40th birthday. 40 years after her birth it is estimated that more than seven million babies have been born as a result of IVF and other assisted reproduction treatments. Around 2.4 million assisted reproductive technologies (ART) cycles are estimated to take place each […]
Extending abortion into Northern Ireland – should or shouldn’t we?
At their annual meeting in June the BMA planned an emergency debate to consider the extension of the Abortion Act 967 to Northern Ireland. As it happened, the debate did not take place due to lack of time, however it reflects how much momentum and pressure there now is to change Northern Irish abortion law. […]