
blogs


Presumed consent, abortion and Falconer Commission on menu at BMA annual meeting
The British Medical Association’s Annual Representative Meeting (ARM) takes place at the end of this…

Using organs from euthanasia victims now an established procedure in ‘brave new Belgium’
Recently I blogged about Jack Kevorkian, the American pathologist known by many as ‘Dr Death’ for…

Papageno and Werther effects – public policy lessons for the prevention of suicide
I recently blogged about the new German film ‘Goethe’, a study of the early life of the celebrated…

Kevorkian’s life and death is sober warning of the dangers of legalising assisted suicide
Jack Kevorkian, the American pathologist known by many as ‘Dr Death’ for his role in helping over…

Paying less for vaccines – marketing strategy or an answer to prayer?
The giant pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced it will be making its Rotarix…

BBC to show Dignitas death – further bias and will fuel more suicides
The BBC’s decision to screen a man's dying moments at the Dignitas suicide facility in a documentary…

Telegraph highlights our comments on End of Life Charter not addressing religious beliefs
On returning from a trip to Canada, for the Third International Symposium on preventing assisted suicide…

The Problem with Care – more questions raised by BBC Panorama
Another week, and another story about poor care standards – this time an exposé on the BBC’s…

Altering the Body: the rise and rise of cosmetic surgery
This week the 90 second daily 4thought.tv programme on ethical topics tackles cosmetic surgery, under…

New End of Life Patient Charter is a good start but does not go far enough
More than 8,000 GP surgeries in England will be asked to display a new patient charter on end of life…

Times newspaper unwisely joins campaign to legalise assisted suicide
The Times newspaper has today (Monday, 30 May) devoted two whole pages and an editorial to the pro-assisted…
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. […]