
blogs


COVID-19 is exposing UK health inequalities
Recent figures from theDepartment of Health and Social Care (DHSC) show the UK death toll from COVID-19…

God, ethics and COVID-19
‘Oh – and by the way, I’ve recommended you for chairing the Covid Ethics Committee. Hope that’s…

From the mouths of children…
In the old fairy tale of The Emperor's New Clothes, a tailor tells a king that he has invented a wonderful…

COVID-19: an opportunity for sharing Christ with a world searching for answers
Christians are called to be representatives of Christ, not just in their homes but also within their…

The Nightingale Legacy
With the news just over a week ago that the London Nightingale Hospital was to be 'mothballed' as no…

Social care and COVID-19: crisis or opportunity?
If a week is a long time in politics in normal times, then at the moment two years can feel like a geological…

Coping with loneliness in lockdown
Over the past few weeks, the world has changed drastically. What was once considered normal, such as…

Palliative care and COVID-19
I didn’t pay much attention to them at first. The news stories about Wuhan and the Facebook posts from…

Coping with loss of control
We are used to a sense of control over our lives and our day to day decisions. I can choose when to…

Some biblical answers to suffering during the COVID-19 pandemic
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, people and physicians around the world are facing trials of many…

Uncertainty: our new normality
We’ve heard a lot about how Covid-19 affects the lungs, often catastrophically. But what about the…
A Christian framework for medical ethical decision-making
How should Christians make ethical decisions? Should we use secular decision-making systems that are deontological (rule-based) or consequentialist (outcome based)? Or can we derive an ethical framework from the Bible? Christians are called to imitate God (Ephesians 5:2), imitate Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1) and to walk as Christ walked (1 John 2:6). We are to […]
Reshuffling health and social care – finding models that work
Monday’s cabinet reshuffle has opened up some interesting possibilities. With Jeremy Hunt not only staying on as Secretary of State for Health, he has now widened his official remit / title to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with the current Department of Health being accordingly renamed the Department of Health and Social Care […]
Supreme Court to rule on whether doctors can remove food and fluids from brain-damaged patients without going to court
Should doctors be able to withdraw food and fluids from severely brain-damaged patients who are not imminently dying? And if so, in what circumstances? The answer to these questions has changed dramatically as a result of recent decisions by the Court of Protection which are due to be appealed in the Supreme Court on 29 […]
Abortion pills: a safer, easier and more convenient option? The evidence says ‘no’
The President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) Professor Lesley Regan, has joined in calls for women to be able to take abortion pills ‘in the comfort of their own homes’, rather than an abortion clinic or hospital under medical supervision. Scotland has already revealed plans to change the law and Regan […]
An integrated view of mission?
Many of us with a ‘good evangelical’ upbringing firmly believe that to be a Christian at all brings us into a relationship with God but also instils into us a responsibility to obey the great commission to ‘go into all the world and preach the gospel’ Matthew 28:19. In our evangelical heritage there has often […]
The Reformation and Medicine
This is the text of the talk I gave at the Guildhall, Guildford on Wednesday 1 November 2017 as part of an eight-lecture series to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. The main sources are listed at the end. Christian doctors motivated by Christ’s teaching and example have been profoundly influential in shaping healthcare’s […]
Commemoration or Celebration? 50 years of Abortion in numbers and pictures
The Abortion Act reaches its 50th Anniversary on Friday 27 October 2017. In these last fifty years nearly 9 million unborn babies have been aborted in England, Scotland and Wales. That figure has, of course, also impacted the lives of 9 million women, some of whom are celebrating this anniversary of the Act but many […]
Why should families have a say in organ retrieval?
It may come as a bit of a surprise to some people that even if a member of your immediate family carries an organ donor card, or is registered to donate his/her organs on death, you and your family could still refuse to let any organs be removed for donation if he/she were to suddenly […]
Presumed Consent for Organ Transplantation – What does the Bible say?
Geoffrey Robinson MP wants to bring in an opt-out system for organ donation in England. His Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Bill is due its second reading (debate stage) on 23 February 2018. It seems he has a lot of support. Yet evidence for the claim that an opt-out system will increase transplants is still lacking […]
Marie Stopes International: carrying out unsafe abortions in the UK and across the globe, using taxpayer millions
For the past five years, the charity Marie Stopes International (MSI) has been given £163 million in UK taxpayer money to spend on abortions in developing countries. This money also went on helping to liberalise laws on abortion. No other country gives as much money to MSI than our own Department for International Development (DFID). […]
Seeing the Person behind the disability
Late in June, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) abolished the role of Disability Commissioner. This happened 36 hours before Lord Shinkwin, newly appointed to the role, was due to hold his first board meeting. Shinkwin explains that EHRC’s chair, David Isaac, had declared the role to be ‘redundant’. The rights of disabled people […]
Why the rush to change blood donation deferral policies for commercial sex workers & men who have sex with men?
Commercial sex workers and men who have sex with men (MSM) in Britain and Scotland are to be allowed to donate blood three months after they last had sex (see also here, hereand here). The rule changes will come into force at blood donation centres in Scotland in November and in England in early 2018. The Government accepted the recommendations […]