
blogs


Always Covid and never Christmas?
What kind of Christmas are you looking forward to? This is the second one impacted by Covid and its restrictions,…

Assisted dying – far better help is available than most realise
Far better help is available for patients in great suffering and distress than many people realise.…

Love in the time of Covid – gospel unity on an astonishingly divisive issue of our time
Are you aware that there is a silent spiritual battle going on within our church families?
I have come…

U.S. surgeons successfully test pig kidney transplant in human patient
So ran the headline of an article in Reuters’ ‘Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals’ category late last…

Who’s the boss? Vaccinating our children
‘You do it all then – you’re the boss’, said the dad to his ten-year-old daughter, as they…

Vaccine passports – a 21st-century ‘apartheid’?
Vaccine passports are proof of COVID-19 vaccination status as a condition of participation in certain…

Has the RCP’s reluctance to issue guidance on fMRI scans for coma patients become indefensible?
In March 2020, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in the UK published national guidelines on the management…

‘I’m Going to Convert You’
Conversion Therapy Ban
'I’m going to convert you.' It has a paternalistic – perhaps even narcissistic…

Downright Discrimination – the issues in the Heidi Crowter case
On July 6th and 7th 2021, Heidi Crowter made history. She is the first woman with Down syndrome to take…

Capturing the language of (assisted) death
Those promoting the agenda that, in plain speaking, wants the UK to legalise doctors to be able to provide…

‘Dying with Dignity’ Bill defeated in Ireland
The Joint Committee on Justice in Ireland has put a halt to the Dying with Dignity Bill proposed by…
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 […]