
blogs


Palliative Medicine specialists to investigate Liverpool Care Pathway
The Association for Palliative Medicine, representing over 1,000 doctors working in hospices and specialist…

27% of all human deaths in England and Wales are due to abortion
A full listing of ‘all’ deaths in England and Wales in 2010 is available on the Guardian website…

‘Death Lists’ – how unbalanced reporting can damage a well-intentioned initiative to improve care
In the last two days the Daily Mail has run two articles with the following alarmist headlines:
Put…

The Liverpool Care Pathway – consensus statement from 22 organisations
Twenty two leading healthcare organisations last month published a statement about the Liverpool Care…

Teenage pregnancies – three responses to three false presuppositions
A couple of years ago Peter Saunders wrote that current government sexual health strategies for tackling…

The stories behind the Nobel Prize winners
This year's Nobel Prize winners for Medicine both come with interesting stories behind them, and very…

Huge opposition to assisted suicide in Massachusetts from doctors and disabled people in lead up to ballot
The US state of Massachusetts is to hold a referendum on the legalisation of assisted suicide next…

Most members of cabinet have previously voted for lowering the abortion limit to 20 weeks or below
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has come in for criticism today for saying that he believes the upper abortion…

Why Jeremy Hunt and 70 other MPs voted in 2008 to lower the upper abortion limit to 12 weeks
The front page of the Times this Saturday reports that Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, supports lowering…

Top 10 tips: applying for specialty training (part 2)
Part 2 of Dr Sarah Maidment's advice on applying for specialty training for junior doctors. Part 1 can…

Five reasons why Maria Miller’s proposal to lower abortion limit to 20 weeks makes good sense
Maria Miller, the new minister for women and equalities, would like to see the upper abortion limit come…
a palliative care doctor’s response to the Leadbeater Bill
November 29, 2024, is a day that could be pivotal in our nation’s history. No turning back. However, I believe it won’t be, not if we unite. A few weeks ago, the story of David and Goliath was preached in my church. Never has a sermon spoken to me more clearly. As my husband gripped […]
what is Kim Leadbeater proposing?
With less than three weeks until MPs will be asked to debate and vote on her Bill, Kim Leadbeater has finally published the text of her ‘Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill’. Amidst busy schedules, this hardly seems a reasonable time frame for MPs to consider what Ms Leadbeater herself said is ‘potentially one […]
Truth and trust in transplantation
Transplant medicine is one of the greatest medical advances of the last century, but public trust is essential for it to attract potential donors – both living and deceased. For deceased donations to progress in most countries, even if the donor has expressed a wish to be a donor, their family members generally have to […]
Dying with dignity? The problems with the latest move to legalise assisted suicide
Dying with dignity in a caring, compassionate environment, surrounded by those we love. I don’t think anyone would want their or any other person’s end of life to be anything other than like this. However, how we achieve such a good death has become an increasingly hot topic of controversy. The fundamental disagreement over the […]
We are a multitude of voices
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who […]
What can we say as Christians about the Lord Darzi Rapid Review on the state of the English NHS?
Ara Darzi’s independent review into the performance of National Health Service (NHS) England, commissioned soon after the Labour election victory in July, was published on 12 September. The report has been well received as an honest appraisal of the current state of the NHS. The fact that the NHS is in serious trouble will come […]
Legalising assisted suicide: why now?
The papers are reporting that Sir Keir Starmer supports fast-tracking a bill to make a seismic change in British law. He reportedly wants to legalise assisting the suicide of terminally ill adults with a vote in parliament before Christmas. But why is this apparently among his top priorities? Whilst some high-profile supporters of assisted suicide […]
The NMC Code in the light of Jesus – ‘Preserve Safety’
(Read The Code online – The Nursing and Midwifery Council (nmc.org.uk) I have recently been prompted to re-engage with our Nursing and Midwifery Code of Professional Conduct, and in this blog, I consider this in light of the biblical principles by which I seek to live my life. Perhaps one of the things that prompted […]
Speak kindly – your comatose patient may be listening
At least ‘one quarter of people with brain injuries who seem unresponsive can hear things going on around them and might even be able to use brain-computer interfaces to communicate‘, according to a recent article in Nature. We have little idea of how many patients there are in the UK with Prolonged (more than six […]
A prayer for the new government
As a Christian nurse, I am intrigued to see how God might use the recently elected Government to help heal the UK’s National Health Services (NHS). As Christian healthcare professionals, we need to avoid getting sucked into negative talk in our places of work, such as, ‘Oh, just another load of false promises’! In contrast, […]
Assisted suicide: am I my neighbour’s keeper?
This week the Isle of Man’s lower house voted through the third reading of their Assisted Dying Bill. The bill, at its core, says that ‘a person who is terminally ill may request and lawfully be provided with assistance to end their own life.’ And this week, Lord Falconer is also introducing a similar bill into The House […]
Anticipating the Cass Review? A personal historical reflection
In light of the recently published Cass Review, guest blogger, Don Horrocks (Retired Head of Public Affairs at the Evangelical Alliance), offers us a personal, historical reflection on the last 26 years of involvement in the legal landscape surrounding transgenderism. It seems only yesterday, but in fact it was in 1998 26 years ago […]